silverstone 2011 f1 gp part 2

After first practice, we met up with my sister and her friends.

They were camping, where me and my dad were staying in a hotel. I know that sounds 'unfair' but there's a bunch of things that are a bit private that explain why that was the case.

Anyway, having met up with them we set out to get our fanvision. These used to be known as Kangaroo TV (the devices themselves still had Kangaroo on them) and are basically like little TV sets, but also allow you access to all sorts of other goodies too, including statistics, news and various commentaries. The advantage with these sets is that you get to have your own system that you can carry around with you and plug your earphones into. That means that you can hear stuff (F1 cars are amazingly loud - to the degree that you really have to experience it before you'll believe just how loud they really are) and watch stuff no matter where you are.

The only problem with them is that they seem to have scaled back since they became Fanvision - they used to have loads of places to pick up a set, but they only had 3 at Silverstone, so there was a huge queue. Also, even though we pre-ordered, we still had to queue up.

Thankfully the queue did move quite quickly, so we weren't too long. I think we actually made a bit of an error here, as we got two units between five of us. They're actually quite small things, so I think 3 between five would have been better. Also, despite having used them before, the others failed to bring headphone splitter. Both me and my dad had them, but that still meant only 4 people could listen.

This was partly solved because we had a separate radio unit, but that person was listening to the on-track announcer commentary, rather than 5 live, which we listened to during the F1 bits. To be fair, this was something of a double edged sword, as it meant that person could here commentary during the whole thing, whereas fanvision only showed pictures and commentary during the actual cars-on-track stuff - the rest of the time it repeated highlights.

Anyway, we'd wandered up to the Village area to get our fan vision, which meant we were about a quarter of the way around the track. We kept going and eventually completed a full circuit of the track. It stayed rainy and cold throughout the day, but we managed to time it such that we were mostly sat in a stand when it happened.

Village itself is where they've made the most radical changes to the layout of the circuit. We actually walked along the bit of the circuit they've cut off, which included walking under the famous Bridge section. This area is also now a focus for the entertainment and concession stands.

The next stand we sat in was up at Luffield. This was another good place to sit, especially as it had the camera on a wire. This gave some great shots and was interesting to see it buzzing along its cable, which is apparently 400 meters (a quarter of a mile!) long.

Our second port of call was Luffield, up at the top end of the circuit. This is a compilation shot showing the Luffield area, which as you can see has a whole bunch of bends in it.


This is the old BRDC building.


If you were of a non-sane persuasion, available entertainment included bungee jumping. This is actually over in Village, where there's loads of the concessions and stands and stuff.


You can see the track was mildly moist for second practice too.


You can't see it in any of these shots, but this is where the cracking camera was that swooped around showing you the cars. It gave some really cool shots.

The next stand we went in was at Copse. This was a less good position, I'd say, but we watched some stuff there while it rained. So here's those photos:

Our third stop on Friday was Copse, where you can look over at the old Paddocks. It's when you see the old ones that you realise how much of a step change the new area is.


These are actually GP3 cars, if memory serves. It's good that they now have a clear progression of formulas.


It rained quite a nit while we were sat in Copse.


As you can see, plenty of spray being kicked up. I'm fairly sure this was actually the GP3 qualifying, so they were kind of forced to go out, despite the damp.

The last section was us walking down past Maggets and Beckets and on down to Stowe. I wanted to watch some on track stuff, but I think the others were feeling a little too fatigued, damp and miserable. I can understand this, as it had been a long, wet and rather cold day.

Our final mission was to drive to the hotel. I have to confess that if I'd been on my own I'd have probably tried to load up with some caffeine before attempting this. As it was, I felt really tired, but the presence of my dad in the car navigating kept me awake.

For dinner we just got some hotel bar grub and then went straight to bed.

silverstone 2011 f1 gp part 1

My week off started on the Thursday, when I drove down to my Dad's in Devon. This was essentially going the opposite way to the Silverstone circuit to some degree, but the idea was that me and my Dad would go up in the one car and share the driving. The easiest thing to do was therefore for me to drive to him and then we could go up from there.

I obviously packed in the morning. Naturally I over packed - this is a function of the fact my suitcase is quite big (I was actually using the smaller of the two suitcases I own) and the fact that the weather forecasts were for changeable weather. I therefore had something to cover every possibility bar snow. I figured snow was fairly unlikely, even for a British July weekend.

The drive up to Silverstone was hell.

We basically had to set off at 4AM, which meant getting up at 3AM. Due to the added combination of excitement and an unfamiliar bed, I got very little sleep that night. It rained, mostly heavily, all the way up. This wasn't helped by the chronic squeak of my wipers - they're relatively new, expense Bosch wipers, but for some reason they squeak like a bastard.

Now, for those that don't know, a GP weekend actually covers three days. There are two practice sessions on the Friday - one in the morning and one in the afternoon, a final practice on Saturday morning and qualifying on Saturday afternoon, with the actual Grand Prix on Sunday afternoon.

My memory from previous times I've been was that 1st practice starts at 10AM, but this year it started at 9AM (they made similar noises about it being earlier on the commentary). We unfortunately didn't arrive until 9AM, meaning the first practice session was just getting under way when we were trying to get in.

To my mind this was a serious error on the planner's part. by making it 9AM you make it more likely people are all going to arrive close to the start time. It also means it overlaps more with normal rush hour. If it had been 10AM, people would have drifted in a bit more.

Instead, when we got to the nearest gate we discovered a huge queue that didn't appear to be moving. Initially we panicked and made some half-hearted attempts to go to other gates, but then we finally just waited in the queue. It was moving, but very slowly and I initially thought it might be because they were checking bags.

However, when I got to the front, I discovered that the real issues was a combined problem of there not being enough people on the gates, processing tickets, and the way they'd designed the tickets. Basically, there was a tear off bit for each of the three days on the one ticket.

The tear off for Friday was next to the one for Saturday, meaning that, if he wasn't careful at making sure the perforation was clean he could take off or damage Saturday by accident too. This meant it was necessary for him to fold the perforation over several times. And, as mentioned, there were only a couple of people on the gate, meaning the whole thing was horribly slow.

Anyway, when we eventually got in, we went straight in to the nearest stand, which happened to be at Club corner. This had a really great view of the new paddock complex and you also therefore got a really good view of the pits and the start/finish straight, as well as Club corner and down to Stowe. Were I picking spots to sit, money no object, that would be a top contender.

So here are some photos for what we saw at club:

This is the new Paddocks complex. I'm sure it's all very swish and everything, but to us regular fans it doesn't mean a great deal. Still, it keeps Bernie happy and that helps to ensure the future of the British GP.

This shows you the new pits that are obviously an integral part of the new paddocks. What you can also clearly see here is the big bit of grass that separates the pit lane from the wall where the engineers sit. To be honest, the new paddocks is a bit of a compromise, as they'd have had to alter the track to really fit it in well - more on that later.

This is the new podium. It's a bit in the middle of nowhere, and the plan is to redo all the stands so that you get better views of it. This year they opened up the circuit so the fans could get on the track in front of it.

One of the Lotus's coming down to Vale Corner, just before Club.

This gives you quite a good feel for the weather - big black cloud, but the track's got sun on it for a bit. You can also see there's a healthy crowd and it's only Friday morning practice. This is what they mean when they talk about atmosphere - we love a bit of motor racing in Britain.

A Red Bull.

Lewis entering the pits. It was actually quicker going in the pits, owing to the fact you cut off vale, club and abbey corners.

Young mister Kobayashi got off onto the Astroturf, which was soaking wet and was a tad unlucky. It could have been a lot nastier as his car almost flipped over when it hit the grass.

This is the martial's recovering Kamui's car. It's remarkable the crashes they can come out of completely fine nowadays.

Bit of an arty farty one, I'm afraid. It's a Mercedes and I'm pretty sure it's Schumacher.

deutsch uber ales

So, the German Grand Prix this last weekend and it was another cracker.

It saw Red Bull clearly not as dominant as they have been previously, with both the Ferraris and McLaren's really taking the race to them. Of course it's going to be a real struggle for anyone to catch and overtake Sebastian Vettel in the standings. And somewhat ironically the fact both McLaren and Ferrari seem resurgent could actually make it more difficult for them to catch Vettel, as they may effectively end up taking points off each other

Vettel's so far in front that it would probably need Vettel's car to expire for several races in a row and that's a pretty slim chance as the cars are way too reliable for that nowadays. I have to say he did seem a bit down throughout the weekend.

I'm not sure if it was the added pressure of it being his home race or the general increase in competition from the other guys, but I half expected him to admit to having a stomach bug or something. He really did seem out of sorts and his performance wasn't that great.

If the comments that he's just not that good a 'racer' as the like of Lewis and Alonso (meaning he's not that good at overtaking) have been getting to him then he did nothing to dispel these, as he seemed to get stuck behind several people - Massa in particular - and was unable to overtake having sailed up to the back of them, when you get the feeling the like of Lewis would have gotten past.

It was a good race, though, and that without the forecasts for rain not coming to anything. And it's a quick turnaround for the next race in Hungary this coming weekend, then we get the summer break before the race at Spa in Belgium, which is always a highlight.

In other weekend news my e-bay auctions I had on went well, with nearly everything going. A few things didn't sell and I relisted them at cheaper start prices. That happens occasionally and I always puzzle over quite why some things sell and others don't.

Actually, sometimes I find it really rather dispiriting, as some of the stuff I'm selling I've held on to because they represent the core of my nerdom. They're kinda the defining elements that define me as a fan of certain things and when I can only sell them at what it would cost to post them (or even at a loss or not at all), it almost feels like a slight against me.

Obviously I know it isn't, but it can be depressing. Heck, it's depressing full stop - I'm not a hoarding pack-rat because I like getting rid of stuff!

The thing that does annoy me, though is when I reduce something (say it started out at £20, it doesn't sell, and then I reduce it to £15 and it does) and it ends up going for what I originally had or more (so people bid it up to £20+). I especially don't get that when there's lots of watchers - if no-one was interested at all, you'd expect it to get no watchers, but if 10 people are watching it and that happens I find it a bit mystifying.

And I still don't have a shower.

There were some bullshit excuses about pipes and stuff, that were basically "we're too cheap to get the plumber in like we promised".

To be frank I'm now resigned to having to use my landlord's shower for the foreseeable future. And I've decided to turn the negatives - can't do scanning, can't dl fansubs - into positives and use that time to watch stuff on DVD so I can start to clear backlog and have more stuff to get on e-bay.

cleanse me

So I'm still shower-less.

And it's really starting to get a bit boring.

Basically, as mentioned earlier this week, it stop working last Friday, so it's now a week since it's been out of action and I've been using my landlord's shower. Now this isn't exactly convenient from a showering point of view - I have a 'slot' from 7AM to 7:30AM, which means I don't really have any flexibility - but also it really highlights how interconnected things can be.

So it's my shower that's out of action, but this is stopping me from doing things on my computer like scanning magazines and downloading fansubs. But why?

Well, the stop cock for the shower are in the roof. In order to get up into the roof, you have to go up through the hatch. And my computers sits underneath that hatch. So, to get up, he has to move my PCs out of the way so that the ladder will fit and he can go up.

I download fansubs by leaving my computer on while I'm at work and it gets on with it. It's hardly safe or practical to leave the computer running if he's going to be moving it. Also, the other day it was clear he'd loosened the power lines (either accidentally or deliberately), as I had to push them in properly for my main machine to boot up.

Which also explains why I can't do any scanning. Basically, when I'm in scanning mode, I leave the scanner on the desk and the magazines in various states of disassembly. Unless it's the weekend, it's basically impossible to do an entire magazine in one sitting, so this is a necessity. But I can hardly leave them lying around if he's going to move them about to get up into the loft.

Of course there's the attendant problem that, being anime mags, most contain plenty of pics of scantily clad women, which would hardly be a good thing to leave lying around for him to see. I'm sure to his eyes it would look like a bunch of porn mags - especially the megamis and nyan types, which, let's be frank, are basically soft core porn mags.

The most annoying thing is that it doesn't seem like it's going to be fixed any time soon. Basically, if I get back tonight and it's not done, he's said he'll get the plumber in. Trouble there, of course, is plumbers are often rather heavily in demand, so God knows how long it will then take.

This weekend it's the German Grand Prix. I think they rotate the race in Germany between two different tracks. I think I'm right in saying it's Nurburgring this year, but it's not the full Nurburgring, it's a shorter loop circuit they have there.

Anyway, I'll be watching that this weekend, as well as hopefully polishing off this summary of my holiday so I can post it all next week.

I'll also be hoping to make lots of money via e-bay of course, if I'm going to afford all this dental work I need doing!

holiday bump up

Considering what I ate on the holiday and the surrounding days, I'm rather surprised that when I weighed myself on Sunday I'd only put on 1 pound.

Well, actually, that's going by my rounding up way of doing things. I think it was probably more like 2 pounds if you take the decimal points way of doing it. But still, 2 pounds isn't a huge amount.

Or rather, 2 pounds isn't as much as I was expecting. It's a lot of weight, representing around 7,000 additional calories consumed, over and above what I needed for my base metabolism and the exercise I did. And I did a lot of exercise - the GP weekend involved walking some 15 miles, I reckon, and that's just the walking. There was all the lugging of stuff around and the calories I would have needed to keep me going without enough sleep and all that.

But the point is I'm not even going to pretend I ate anything like sensibly, but I still only put on a couple of pounds, which probably suggests I did do a hell of a lot to burn those calories off. If I had dieted or even been moderately sensible I bet I'd have lost half a stone.

You also always have to bear in mind that, when you're big, your metabolism is higher because you're burning extra calories just to kept yourself warm and when you're moving to shunt all the extra weight around. So, in other words, sensible (i.e. balancing my metabolism) is somewhere in the region of 3,250 calories, even now.

I think I've managed to confuse myself, as I'm now not sure if I'm arguing my two pound gain was good, bad or better or worse than expected. In many ways I'm actually just trying to fill a blog post where I would normally have an entry about my diet and exercise, only I've been off the diet and the exercise wasn't properly monitored.

What it all does mean is I won't be making my original target, set back when I started this stretch of the diet. Indeed, overall, I'm unlikely to have lost very much weight at all across this period. That's not great, obviously, but at least I've not had a net gain - it will definitely be a few pounds lower than at the start, it's just not going to be as much as I'd hoped/planned.

kick ass

So I mentioned this week's rental was The Thin Red Line, but a couple of weeks back I actually watched Kick-Ass, so I figured I'd review that first.

I'm not the biggest fan of Mark Millar's comics. I've read a few and he seems quite good at big ideas, but the actual stories tend to lack finesse and always feel a bit artificial, somehow. Take something like Wanted - great idea of the bad guys win and a great power-trip fantasy of loser turns super-assassin, but the actual comics when you read them are a bit thin - things happen too fast, there's too many info dumps and lumps of exposition, the main character never really struggles.

The Wanted film is almost totally different to the comic, as it kinda flips the central concept on its head. In Kick-Ass they've not done that, but they have significantly rewritten it. They've hacked out some of the dodgy bits and given it a more traditional narrative structure, but kept the central concept.

That central concept being why aren't there any real heroes?

Of course, actually there have been a few people who've dressed up in tights and done a bit of vigilantism, but it's a fair enough question.

The answer is actually fairly easy to work out. The vast majority of heroes have superpowers or use magic or have access to impossible technology - that sort of thing. No real world human has that sort of thing.

But then superheroes generally fight supervillains, and those don't exist either, so why would you need the powers if you're going to fight ordinary criminals?

Well the film gives a pretty solid answer to that question as well - because of things like guns and knives and gangs. You'd stand a pretty good chance of getting killed or at least badly maimed. The Punisher probably comes closest to how a real life superhero might work, but he's more like an anti-hero.

I think you can tell that I thought the film worked quite well, as it takes that basic big idea and goes at it in a fairly realistic way. To be fair, the comic also made similar points, but the comic had some rather unpalatable stuff in it too, which this removes or changes.

Where it did loose me a bit was towards the end, where it kinda tried to realise a comic book fantasy, but by doing so got a bit too far away from that realistic tinge. But apart from that, I really enjoyed it - it looked great and sounded fantastic (but then there were 4 composers!) and had plenty of blackly comic stuff in it.

Something I did quite like was that you could probably enjoy this if you had only a cursory knowledge of comic books, but if you really know comics, there was a lot of extra stuff to enjoy. This also worked at multiple levels, with some more obvious nods, but also a structure that reflects some classic themes of comic books characters.

As this was a Blu-Ray, I guess I should also note that there were plenty of extras - a full commentary and then a documentary that was roughly as long as the film itself, and a few other bits too.

crappy start of the week too

Sunday evening/night didn't exactly go according to plan either.

I had an important meeting Monday morning which it turns out I was really nervous over. I didn't actually think I was - I didn't feel nervous, but the almost total lack of sleep I got would tend to suggest otherwise. I guess it didn't help that I started watching Top Gear quite late and it was quite an entertaining episode.

Of course, my nervousness could have been because of my dental appointment. The dentist always seems to cost a fortune and bring me bad news.

The bad news on Monday was particularly bad - I need two fillings, one rather urgently. I really can't understand how come one of the cavities has gotten as big as it appeared on the X-ray since my last appointment. It seemed huge, but he didn't mention it last time.

Including the cost of the hygienist (now there's money for old rope) it's going to set me back more than £200. And looking at it on the X-ray it's not something I can really put off.

The meeting for work actually went pretty well, I think. It was not really in my technical area, and I was obviously more than a little tired from the lack of sleep, so I didn't really contribute much, but the people we're working with seemed to be talking the same language as the customer.

The real difficulty to it is going to be the timescales - there's very little time available.

I have to confess, though, there's another piece of work I'd much rather being doing, but it's been a while since we've heard anything, so I don't think we've won that.

And yesterday I returned to find my shower was not actually fixed. He's bought a new one and had started fitting it, but has discovered that the fittings are in different places to the old one, so it looks like a much more serious job.

I'm sure it won't be long, but I hat being tied in to things like having a set slot to go and use his shower. Part of the reason I am uninterested in flat/house shares (which would save me a lot of money) is that I don't like being in a situation where I'm either dependent on or could be frustrated by other people (obviously I'm speaking domestically here, but I think it's probably true generally - I'm a bit of a control freak).

crappy weekend

What a crappy weekend.

It started out being rubbish on the Friday, when I made the stupid decision to bake a cake. I think I mentioned before last week was holiday from the diet and stuff, so I thought I'd go out on a blow-out. That was fine, except baking a cake was definitely the wrong decision. A far better decision would have been to make some fairy cakes or something like that, as it would have put far, far less of a burden on me to have to eat such a lot of bad stuff.

Actually, technically it started with the shower buggering up. This was inconvenient, but I think it's clear from what I posted last week that I was expecting it to be a relatively simple fix - some pipe was blocked or something.

When I got back my landlord told me that the shower was completely knackered, he'd taken it off the wall and couldn't get a new one until Monday at the earliest. That meant I'd have to use his, which means I've been wandering into his house at 7AM every morning to use his shower.

But Saturday's rubbishness really got going when I went to the recycling centre. Now exactly where and how it happened I don't know, but as I was driving away I realised I had a load of wet pain on me. Whether this was from some area of wet paint they'd painted or because of something someone had spilt or what I don't know, but it's ruined my coat.

It's white emulsion paint by the looks of things and I had a half-hearted attempt to hand wash my coat and it had no impact on it whatsoever. I mean, I'm not fundamentally bothered about the coat - it's very old, the zip is knackered and it's now too big for me, but the point is it was another area where I was trying to hold on and not spend any money. Now I've got to as the summer is providing to have lots of spells of shit weather and I can't really go to work in a coat spattered with white paint.

And that was another shit thing - the weather was rubbish this weekend. Every time I thought I had a bit of slot to go for a walk it was raining or just about to. It's nearly August, it shouldn't be like this, surely.

Saturday evening I watched the Thin Red Line, which was shit. I've seen good reviews, but I thought it was awful - like an attempt at an art house war movie and way too long with it. I'll review it properly, but there's three hours of my life I won't get back.

Because my PVR recording went tits up I was also forced to watch a bunch of stuff on Saturday. Not that I minded the stuff itself, it was more that because stuff often expires after a week on the iPlayer (which is otherwise marvellous) I had to watch it all on Saturday, just in case.

Sunday the rubbishness was initially focused around the photos and posts about the Grand Prix. I'd thought I'd be able to rattle them off in an hour or two, but it took well over four hours and I'm still only about half way through. I guess that four hours actually includes the time I spent on putting some e-bay auctions together, but I'm pretty smooth with that now, so I don't think that took much time.

Of course e-baying is always a bit depressing, so I didn't really enjoy that either. Especially as I realised now I've somehow missed a couple of things I was keen to get on.

I'll continue tomorrow.

water, water... nowhere?

So this morning, as is my usual routine, I took a shower.

Only I got about half way through when suddenly water stopped coming out of the shower. It's a power shower and the motor was still running, but no actual water was coming out of it. It was all a bit odd, actually, as it was more like the pipe had become blocked somewhere than something bursting, but it's quite a big pipe.

Anyway, as I say, I was only about half way through, which is always a tricky thing to negotiate. I decided to go and grab a half bucket of hot water and, not wanting to get too graphic with details, wipe myself down with a flannel.

It worked okay, but I'm not at all keen on the idea of continuing it as a general practice. I've let my landlord know it wasn't working (I stuck a note through his letterbox - he doesn't tend to get up until several hours after I've gone to work!) and hopefully it'll be a quick fix. If not I could be shower-less for the next few days.

I guess timing wise it's not too bad and I can wallow in my own funk over the weekend, but Monday I've got an important meeting, so I want to clean myself up before then. I guess in theory I could use my landlord's, but as mentioned he's a late riser and I've never found shower before bed to be particularly successful. Partly because my hair always seems to end up badly mussed up, but also because I sweat a lot at night (I sweat a lot in general).

I've been lending some serious thought to moving, actually. I'm a bit bored of where I am at the moment and with the ever rising cost of fuel, living closer to work looks increasingly attractive. Also, in terms of work, our customers tend to be across the other side of Alton to where I am, so it would tend to simplify any meetings and trips.

Ideally I'd be looking to rent somewhere in Alton. That would mean I could generally walk to work, saving a lot of fuel. Also, if I get somewhere with better facilities I'd save on some of my other expenses. In theory these two saving might cover the additional expense of a place in Alton (property is not cheap, especially as it's a commutable train journey to London), though I'm currently getting away with not paying certain bills - water and council tax in particular.

The other barrier of course is you generally need to put down a deposit and pay the first month or two in advance and at the moment I just couldn't afford to do that. Well, also, there's the issue of the vast quantities of stuff I've still got (DVDs, books, comics, CDs, games, magazines). The ironic thing of course being that if I was to watch and then sell or throw away as appropriate it would likely solve both problems - the stuff would be gone and the stuff would be converted in a wedge of cash I could use to pay the deposit, etc.

Sorry, this turned into a bit of a random moaning session. Plans for the weekend are pretty boring - clean the flat and then do the sorting out that's left post GP, which will hopefully include some slightly more interesting posts about the GP for next week.

return to work

So I'm back at work after my week away for the British Grand Prix at Silverstone.

I'm anticipating writing a bunch of posts next week about how it was and also uploading some photos to various places. Hopefully I'll get it all done this weekend.

Today I'm back at work and it's a bit of an odd experience - a bit of a culture shock, in a way. Usually when I take holiday I try to do it so that I don't return to a full week. It can be a bit of strain going from holiday to a full week of work. However, I wouldn't usually come back on a Thursday - Tuesday or Wednesday, yes, but Thursday, no. I mean, the week is virtually over and I'm coming back to work - it feels very odd.

Especially when it turns out we've won a piece of work I bid on and the start up meeting has already been arranged for Monday and we've received the contracts and stuff. Not that I mind those going ahead in my absence, because it's a part of the job that I've been lined up to do, but that I don't really have any particular interest in.

There have been moves afoot to take me down a project management type role, and I've resisted it as much as I was able. It's something hat I have to confess doesn't really interest me, but it also scares me a bit. I'm not sure I really want that sort of responsibility. I don't fundamentally mind responsibility, but when it relates to contracts and the paying of money I get a bit worried because I just don't know what I'm doing.

yet more holiday?!

So I'm off to the British Grand Prix from tomorrow.

As in all other cases, the Grand Prix itself will be on the Sunday afternoon, but I'm going for the whole thing, which also includes two practice sessions on Friday and practice and qualifying on Saturday.

When I've been in previous years there's also been lots of 'support' races too. I'm pretty sure GP2 will be there and I'm guessing there will be others as well, but I've not checked. Occasionally they would have some other event in place of the support races, but I tend to prefer other races.

When I used to go as a kid with my dad we would camp. We used to own a motor home and we'd take the awning and camp out.

Now that my Dad's getting on he prefers to use a travel company. You basically stay in a Travelodge type motel and they coach you in every day. I'll also be doing this, but my sister and a couple of her friends will be camping.

I could camp, but given the option, I'd prefer to stay in a hotel. Especially as I've been to a few British Grand Prix where it's pissed it down - that can be a miserable experience as you're totally exposed to the elements at Silverstone. Even though there's stands, if there's a bit of wind it can push the rain in if you're not deep under the cover. And they're always open, so if it's chilly (or hot) you're exposed to that.

I'm hoping the weather is similar to what it's been recently. The prospect of rain showers always adds spice to the race, but as noted, prolonged rain can be unpleasant. Silverstone started life as an airport (it sill is) and so as you'd imagine there's not much in the way of trees or cover in general.

One year I remember it drizzling constantly and we got drenched, because you're just in it constantly. And because you're camping you don't really ever get out of it, and your clothes never really dry out. Pretty miserable, but the racing was great.

We'll have to see how the race is as a spectator at the track, with the new tyres and DRS and KERS and stuff. Also, the track itself is relatively new and this year they'll be using the brand new pit 7 paddock complex.

I'm slightly worried that it will be so complex I won't be able to follow it. I'll be leaving my PVR to record it, so I'll watch it when I get back too, but I'm thinking on the day there may just be too much to keep up with. It's always much more difficult to follow the races at the track.

Not that I'm complaining, as you get everything else to compensate - the noise of the cars, the atmosphere, the crowd, seeing the overtakes and the action as it happens. It's a brilliant experience going to the race live.

I'll actually be going down to my Dad's on the Thursday, which is the first day I'm taking off, then Friday we drive to Silverstone. Monday we drive back to my Dads and then Tuesday I'll drive back home. I've then got Wednesday as a 'bonus' day to sort stuff out or just chill or whatever, then back to work on the Thursday.

If I was in a situation where I had fewer demands on my holiday time this year I'd have just taken two weeks off, but I've been struggling to get a sensible balance of holidays. The whole Royal Wedding Easter thing didn't really help on that front, and plans later in the year meant I could only really take 5 days for this. Hope I'm not useless when I get back.

one out of two isn't bad

So this weekend's weigh in showed I'd lost a pound.

If I'm honest I was secretly hoping I'd loose both the pounds I put on, but there you go.

It's going to be a little while before I weigh myself properly again, as I'll be away this weekend. I'll also not really be following my diet, though I am expecting to do a fair bit of walking. The track is about 3 and a half miles, I think, but obviously you walk around the service roads, rather than close to the track itself, so I guess I'll be doing a fair bit of walking.

And speaking of which, I tried to do a bit of prep this weekend by going on some very long walks.

In fact, I actually walked until my arse hurt.

Well, actually, on Saturday I did a massive walk and then Sunday I woke up with soar bum muscles. I guess it could have been the other stuff I did - shopping, cleaning the flat, but I do those all the time with no bum effects.

Sunday's walk was actually slightly longer that Saturday's and was definitely tougher as I went up the really steep hill to upper hale. I actually did the hill last week as well and was shocked to find once I'd come back down (it's a sort of triangular walk I go on) that it was only about 2 miles. It felt way more tiring than that.

This time I went for a fairly long walk and then went up the hill.

My fitness has improved massively. I mean, I'm still tired when I come back after the long walks, but when I first started this walking business I used to do the circuit around the block, which is about 2 miles total and I'd be huffing and puffing and it would take me ages to recover.

In fact, if I went the way that goes up the hill, rather than down, I'd have to take a short breather about half way up. Nowadays I'll go on a three or four mile walk and then do that circuit as the ending and not stop at any point (crossing roads excepted).

It is quite a turn around and it's something I'm pleased about, but it inevitably makes me think that if I'd just stuck properly to my diet I would have lost a lot more weight.

I mean, obviously the exercise is, on the whole, burning off the naughty stuff I've been eating, but then that's the point - if I wasn't eating that naughty stuff I'd be burning off body fat.

Anyway, such thoughts are for post Grand Prix, as I'm now on holiday.

Not that my boss would agree, yet!

more fansubs

The new anime season is upon us, but as per usual I'm still on last season.

To be honest, this is partly a deliberate move as well as a consequence of getting behind. When I start shows I usually like to watch a few episodes on the trot so that I can get a proper feel for what they're about.

Sometimes they put an awful lot of effort into the first episode and they can be kinda misrepresentative of the show as a whole. They'll often launch in with lots of action and the budget and schedule allows them to spend a bit more time, money and effort on making it well animated. Then after that things can tail off.

I therefore try to watch a bunch to really get a handle on it and a proper feel for what the story is (if there is one). Also, having now tried it with a few crunchyroll shows I'm not such a big fan of watching individual episodes on a weekly basis. I find they work better for me if I can watch them in chunks, especially if they have a proper plot, as I can then get my teeth properly sunk into them.

Anyway, as mentioned, I've been sampling some of the shows only available via fansub from the last season, so I thought I'd do a round-up of some of them:

Aria the Scarlet Ammo (hidan aria)

Derivative, uninteresting, poorly executed drivel. What makes this worse is that the light novel it's based on appears to be by the guy who did Toradora and Shakugan Shana.


Dog Days

To be frank this was just the kind of fantasy stuff I don't like.


A Channel

I guess if you'd never seen one of these moe highschool shows before you may enjoy this. I mean, it's nicely animated and the girls are cute and the humour is pitched at a fairly generic level, but for me, having seen quite a few now, it didn't really seem to add anything that really made it worth watching. At least something like K-ON is based around a music club.


Denpa Onna Seishun Otoko

I have to confess I'm not entirely sure what I think of Denpa after my prescribed two episodes. I found it well animated and it's adapted from one of those Light Novels that at least try to be a bit more intelligent than just cramming in loads of anime clichés. Not that it hasn't got plenty of those, but it's at least trying. Trouble is I found it a bit slow and the weird girl in the futon had far too many ticks in the annoying column for me to really like it. I think, were it on crunchyroll I'd keep watching, but I doubt I'd want to buy it on DVD.


Yondemasuyo, Azazel-san

What an odd show. It's a comedy, but it involves a detective agency and demons that more like cute mascots than actual demons. It's rather difficult to explain, but I enjoyed it. It actually probably helps that the episodes are half length (about 13 minutes). I think if they were longer it might start to run thin on gags, but as it is, it works well.


Fireball Charming

This actually appears to have been made by Disney Japan. It's also computer animated, so not really traditional anime. It's clearly very high budget, though this is somewhat compensated for by the fact that each episode is shy of 2 minutes long. They're basically little double-act comedy skits and I have to confess it's a type of Japanese comedy I'm not a fan of. It actually reminds me of the Tachikoma shorts they did as part of GitS: SAC, only I enjoyed those much more.


Honto ni Atta! Reibai-Sensei

Another one where the episodes are really short (5 minutes in this case). This also is a flash animation job, which is a style I'm not a huge fan of. It's a comedy where a class's homeroom teacher is a psychic/mystic type and hilarity ensues. I think you can tell it didn't do a great deal for me.


Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae o Boku-tachi wa Mada Shiranai

This looked like it would be really quite good. The story seemed a bit more complex and involved than a lot of stuff that seemed to come out in this season. Kinda like a slice of life meets tragedy show. It also looked surprisingly nicely animated.


Softenni

Perhaps if I'd never seen a cute girls doing cute things series before I'd have enjoyed this one a bit more, but as it is, it doesn't really seem to rise above the baseline for where you'd expect this sort of thing to be. I guess the girls are somewhat sex-obsessed and it did have more fan-service than is usual for this sort of show - girls playing tennis show their knickers - but it had weird censorship. What was weird about it was that it seemed to let you see plenty of knicker (and bra) shots, but then every so often one of them would be censored, even though you could see they were still clearly wearing knickers.

emperor's new clothes

In light of my trip to the British GP next week, this coming weekend represents the last chance for me to pick up whatever bits and pieces I need. I've pretty much got everything bar a few odds and sods of toiletries and things.

I bought some new clothes, partly so I'd have some stuff that wasn't worn out, like most of my clothes, but also because I figured it was about time I took the plunge and bought some clothes that are a better fit now I'm a bit smaller.

Buying these are the clothes I've been dreading, for a couple of reasons. For one, I'm not actually sure what size I am now, and I wasn't sure whether to go a bit tight with the expectation that they'll then last longer as I continue to slim down.

Another problem is just that - as I slim down I could be in a situation of having spent a lot on clothes than I can only wear for a few months before needing to replace again.

But I decided to take the plunge, with a variety of results.

The shorts, T-shirts and casual shirts all appear to fit great (I now roughly appear to be a 3XL, rather than the 5XL I was at my peak). The boxers I bought are way to tight (this, I think, is more to do with the style of them than an incorrect size selection - I like loose boxers), the trousers are just slightly too tight (Despite stating the same waste measurement as the shorts, holding them up next to each other shows them to be slightly smaller. This is one of the problems of big sizes - you get manufacturing differences in all clothes, but with big sizes you're often buying in the dark from online places.) and the belt I bought is a bit rubbish. It's a good fit,. but it has this weird design that I'm not hugely comfortable with.

It's been an expensive week generally, actually. I had my car into the garage as my lock was making the appalling grinding noise. According to the guy it was due to an actuator and is quite common. He reckoned they can go for ages and never fail, but I thought it safer to get it replaced. The part wasn't too bad, but (from experience) car doors are horrible things to work on, so the labour was pretty heavy.

I also got them to recharge the aircon, following this last weekend's horrendous heat wave. I switched on my air con and found it to be a bit wimpy. It is four years since I got the car, so I guess that's not a bad length of time for it, and we did have some pretty hot summers so I got quite a lot out of it.

My aircon unit at home was also a life (or, at least, sleep) saver, cooling my room down so I could get some shut-eye. The heat wave was exactly the sort of weather that inspired me to get it in the first place. And despite it having cost a fortune it's nights like those where I think of it as the best thing I've ever bought.

So yeah, I've put some fairly big holes in my finances over the last couple of weeks and the next couple are likely to be pretty expensive too.

Hopefully, some e-baying will take the sting out a bit.

and then back up

I don't really know why I said last week that I was going to try to stick to my diet.

It was a pretty daft thing to say given I had planned to take the Thursday and Friday off and had lots of physical stuff planned. Basically, the diet went to rats and I ate loads.

Now I did do a lot of physical stuff - my pedometer said I did about 12,500 steps on Thursday and I forgot to put it on until about 10:30 and didn't go for a single 'proper' walk. But what I ate was way more than the extra calories needed for this.

In fact, it was like a reckless splurge of eating crap.

It actually reminded me of the type of eating I do when I'm hung over - I concentrate on filling myself up with the worst possible junk food, presumably because it makes me feel better (I've always been a comfort eater).

I wasn't hung over, of course, but I was shattered across Friday, Saturday and Sunday, which was when most of the really bad eating happened.

However, the Sunday weigh in was a bit of a surprise. Well, I say that. I'd basically gained two pounds, undoing all of the work of the previous two weeks, but given what I ate, I think I've gotten off lightly.

This does also make it very difficult for me to hit my target of 19 stone by the British Grand Prix. I'm going to increase the amount of walking I do across the next week and a bit, so that may help get me there, although I'm doing it mainly as I expect the GP weekend to involve a hell of a lot of walking and I want to be a bit more 'in shape' as it were.

Some time soon I'll pull my finger out and really crack on with the last push I need to do to get down to being overweight, rather than obese. Really this is my minimum target. It would be nice to get to a 'normal' weight, but I don't regard this as essential, I mainly just want not be obese. I want the walks I do to be easier and not to feel like I'm constantly carrying around a small child on my midriff.

What I need is another moment like I had when I started the whole thing back last autumn where I say to myself "Stop pissing around and just fucking do it then." I mean, I'm still managing to keep my weight broadly drifting down, but I keep failing to really capitalise on my efforts and slipping with the diet.

watchmen

I have to confess, going into watching watchmen I wasn't entirely expecting to enjoy it.

Being a comic book fan you might expect this to be because I was worried they were going to butcher what is regarded by many as a pinnacle of the comic book form. Well, actually it was because of the opposite.

Call it my annoying habit of contrary-ness, but I'm not that big a fan of Watchmen. I do think it's got some great stuff in there, and certainly it's more realistic and thoughtful approach to super heroes is something I like, but I found the actual comic to be very heavy going and a bit lacking in all the things that I think really make comic books comics.

The style of it, with a rigid fixed-panel page structure was a massive visual turn-off and one of the primary things I like about comics is the dynamism of the visuals. I've got a perfectly good imagination and enjoy exercising it with the written word via books, but comics need to really sell themselves visually to be a success for me.

My problem with the film then was that I'd heard it was an extremely faithful adaptation, sticking so closely to the comic as to almost use the panels as a storyboard. So, not being the biggest fan of the comic, I was afraid I was in for a rather dull 2 and half hours.

In fact I really enjoyed the film. My big concern - the overly tight and flattened visuals of the comic, had been very much 'cured' by the film. It's a real visual treat, thanks I'm sure to the advances in CG - if it had been made, say, 10 years ago, it wouldn't look as nice as it did here.

Also, the action works a lot better on film than it did in the strictured panel layout of the original comic. As mentioned, the whole visual flair of comics with odd shaped panels works best when it's helping to tell the story, just in the same way that things like slow motion and the aforementioned CG help to tell the story in the film.

There have been some significant changes, of course. Most notable is the excising of the Tales of the Black Freighter comic-within-the-comic, which was made into a cartoon and released separately (I'm sure there's probably a version on Blu-Ray or something with it stuck in). I'm not sure I really miss the black freighter parts, as such. They added quite a lot of depth to the original, but this film is already two and a half hours and the freighter stuff didn't really tell any of the actual story.

One thing that I don't think works is how they've changed the ending. I'm going to spoiler both in the next two paragraphs, so you may want to skip ahead.

In the comic, Veidt's grand plan is the manufacturing of the sudden, catastrophic appearance of a somewhat Lovecraftian horror simultaneously in many the major cities around the globe. These creatures kill millions and it's made clear via a psychic broadcast that they hate humans and want to kill us all. This sudden new enemy gives us all something to unite against.

In the film, for reasons I can't quite work out, the Lovecraftian horror is replaced by Doctor Manhattan. So, instead of tentacle monsters, Manhattan destroys the cities because... well, that's what I cant' quite work out. I think the idea is because in the film the US is about to launch a pre-emptive strike against Russia after they invade Afghanistan. So, to teach the world a lesson, he destroys the cities... I dunno, it didn't suite gel for me. The Lovecraftian thing just makes more sense and is also independent of the Afghanistan thing, which seems to make Veidt's plan overly prescient.

Anyway, spoilers over. Another thing that becomes more apparent in the film is the issue of super powers. Obviously, Manhattan has super powers, but in the comic it's fairly clear that he's the only one. Veidt potentially might have had some, possibly via manipulating his own genes, but the others rely on simply being physically fit or advanced technology.

In the film it's less clear - the heroes do stuff that clearly only those with advanced strength or speed could do and in particular, the Comedian doesn't seem to age. Yet there's no mention of them actually having powers or how they may have gotten these.

However, I think really this is something that's actually not that clear in the comic.

I seem to have prattled on quite a bit. Basically I did enjoy the film a lot more than I thought I would, though I don't think it's without its flaws.

valencia grand prix

It was the Valencia Grand Prix this last week.

Traditionally, Valencia is up there as one of the worst races of the season. It's a street circuit and is normally even more processional than Monaco. Indeed, if you think of all the worst bits of Monaco, then Valencia amplifies those to the degree of tedium.

It's quite a common problem with street circuit - Singapore is another road-racing snooze fest, although that at least has the added interest of being held at night. Although it's not a universal effect. Canada is a street circuit and produces some cracking races, and so's Australia and that's usually okay too.

And of course the reverse isn't automatically true. Being a purpose built circuit doesn't guarantee a good race. Especially from the newer circuits, which are often a bit lacklustre.

Anyway, the point is that Valencia is usually dull (Mark Webber described it as being a Tesco's Car Park), but this year we have the superb Pirelli tyres, KERS and DRS. We even had two DRS zones, which they did in Canada, but more as a test for Valencia than because Canada did it.

Anticipation was therefore high it would finally produce an interesting race. And the result was not spectacular.

I guess it's worth noting that I thought Monaco wasn't the greatest race this season, but it was far better than in previous years. I felt the same thing about Valencia - it was a bit more interesting than it usually is, but I wouldn't put it high up the list of greatest ever races.

Part of the problem was that the DRS, which is meant to give overtaking, didn't really seem to add that much. It seemed that when they had the chance to use it, unfortunately the cars just ended up bouncing off the rev limiter, unable to really develop extra speed.

Perhaps if DRS was also associated with a temporary lifting of the limiter, it would have allowed them a better chance to overtake. But then it really would have looked very artificial, with one car sailing past the other on the straight and that wasn't really the idea of it. It's meant to put the trailing car in a position to try to overtake, rather than being a push-to-pass button.

It did seem to help some situations, but didn't quite do what it was meant to.

But it wasn't a terrible race - there were a few interesting things going on. And if we'd had this race last year, I think I'd have been very pleased. The trouble is the rest of the season has lifted the bar very high, so it made Valencia seem like a bit of a damp squib.

Next up is Silverstone of course, and I'll have the somewhat unique viewpoint of actually being there, which will be nice.

well that was tiring

So last week I took Thursday and Friday off.

The big plan was to attack the stuff in the shed and identify things I could get onto e-bay and also stuff I should really throw away. It was a big success.

Basically I've now got about 5 stacking crates in the kitchen with stuff in them to get on e-bay over the coming months (the British GP holiday happens soon, so it'll be a steady process). I got loads of stuff up this last Sunday and I'm pretty sure a good chunk of it will sell, hopefully generating some cash in the process.

Also, out in the shed I've also got about three or four stacking crates with stuff that I am poised to sell, but am awaiting the last few volumes of or that I just couldn't quite bring myself to take the plunge on. If there'd been less in the sell immediately pile I think I'd have bitten the bullet, but since I've so much to sell straight away I left them be for now.

I've actually done a sneaky manoeuvre in the shed of using empty stacking crates to fill up space. My landlord tends to encroach on the pile, so by filling up that space it ensures I can maintain access.

It does, however, mean I'm reaching a point where there's not going to be that much left out there to sell or throw away. This is good in that it means my life is a bit more streamlined, but bad in the sense that it means I've now freed up the cash "trapped" out in the shed.

Therefore, in order to free up any more cash my only real choice is to dive into the piles of unwatched stuff. Thankfully, it looked increasingly likely that watching and reading some of this stuff will now be a viable option over the summer.

See, the shed stuff went so well on Thursday that I actually finished it all. In fact, so efficient was it that I actually also gave my car a full clean (inside and out, including polishing it) in the afternoon/evening. This, I guess is the upside to long daylight hours that I was bemoaning as cramping my sleep last week.

It did mean I was totally knackered and, to be frank, am still a bit tired.

Friday became a day of recovery. I did very little, although I did manage to tick a few other boxes I hadn't thought about, one of these being watching a load of stuff I'd recorded. I basically went into Sunday with no programs left to watch on my PVR.

I'm therefore hoping this helps me out big time by meaning that when the summer schedule really hits and there's nothing worth watching on I can concentrate on watching some DVDs which I can then start ebaying across autumn and winter.

anvil: the true story of anvil

It would be very easy to compare Anvil with Spinal Tap.

Indeed, I think in the way it's been put together and with the events it portrays there's more than a small nod to Spinal Tap. A lot of bands claim to have been the inspiration for that film, but the reality was it was likely a combination of stories put together to form a band that represented them all. I'm not sure if Anvil was one of those bands, though they'd be in the right time period - part of what's called NWOBHM.

NWOBHM stands for the New Wave of British Heavy Metal and encompassed bands like Iron Maiden, Motorhead and Saxon. I was too young for NWOBHM when it happened, but the American scene it went on to inspire - Trash/Speed metal - that featured bands such as Metallica, Megadeth and Slayer probably represents the high-water mark of my interest in music.

Anyway, the point about the Anvil film is that they were a Canadian band that were actually part of that NWOBHM thing but that never really seemed to break into the big time. The documentary opens with some interviews with big musical stars - Lars Ulrich, Lemmy, Slash, etc - who all site them as a great, talented band that they couldn't understand why they'd never really hit it big.

The band themselves are shown working dead-end jobs, still chasing success some 30 years after forming. The film follows them on what can only really be described as a disastrous European tour, through the making of a new album with a classic break-up and reform for the band, rejection of the album by major labels, and a degree of success in Japan.

As I say, it's all very Spinal Tapish. And it's pretty entertaining.

However, what I would have been more interested in would have been more of the background and more of the history. How come they never managed to break through? What actually happened? No clear reasons emerge.

I've no real clue as to why they never got that initial break, but I get the feeling it's clear why after reaching a plateau and declining they've never really gotten back up there. Basically, musically, they seemed very good - you could imagine what I heard of most of their songs working if they were put out by plenty of bands. And they were extremely tight and clearly very talented musicians.

Lyrically things were a bit lacking, though. Where the lyrics of the songs they played from on the first few albums fitted in with the times (you can clearly hear the same sort of stuff on early Metallica and Megadeth albums), they don't ever appear to have really progressed from that. The lyrics for the new songs we heard seemed very cheesy and, to be frank, didn't scan well.

Also, the singer, Lips's voice seemed to have seen better days. Or at least, where the high pitch yelling vocal style is something he was capable of doing in his youth, now that he's a fifty year old man it just sounds cracked and broken.

In other words, there seemed to be a lack of any real progression in what they were doing. So, with that having failed to hit the first time, it kept on missing as they stayed in the same place. One of the A&R men even said it - things have moved on a lot.

i hate this time of year

Today, Tuesday the 21st of June, is the summer solstice.

The summer solstice is the longest day of the year (well, it's 24 hours long, just like every other day - I mean it has the most daylight) and it therefore marks one of my worst days of the year. Well, in terms of sleep, that is.

I believe it also marks the point when summer starts to get properly hot - the period when I'm traditionally the least comfortable, though this year I obviously weigh about a fifth less than I have done in previous years, so hopefully it will be a bit more bearable Certainly I've found spring to be quite chilly, but I also think it has generally been quite cool compared to seasonal averages.

But the point is that with it being the longest day, that means the sun doesn't set until very late at night. And of course, because it doesn't get instantly dark when the sun sets, it's still quite light until getting on for midnight. This lateness of setting is also further exaggerated by us being on British Summer Time.

Now I appreciate that this has many advantages and certainly, as an early riser, it's nice to get up and it be light to a degree, though to be frank, how early it becomes light is also a problem, because my body seems to react to the light by waking me up. So it becomes an attack from both ends - when I go to bed it's still light out and it gets light at about 4, so I sometimes wake up.

I mean surely it can't be right that I go to bed at 10 and when I switch my bedside lamp off, sufficient light streams in around the curtain edges to make it feel like I've gone to bed in the middle of the afternoon? That's got to be wrong.

Still, at least from here on the nights start getting longer.

Tomorrow I'll be posting up my usual DVD rental review, but after that I'm actually off on holiday for a couple of days. My landlord is on holiday and I'm going to use the opportunity to do some shed sorting out stuff.

Hopefully I'll then be able to get a load of stuff on e-bay - the pile in the shed seems to have grown again and I could do with generate some cash. Well, really I need to actually do something about the cash I've got locked up n unwatched DVDs and unplayed games, but then that's a continuing issue - the shed is the priority for the weekend.

Well, I say all that. I'm prewriting this and the weather forecast isn't great and my landlord traditionally doesn't have much tolerance for poor weather, so he may already have come back by the time I'm posting this!

a weighty issue

I did my very best to stick to the diet last week.

Well, I mean I tried really hard. I failed, but I really did try.

Walking wise, both Sunday afternoon and Thursday were foiled by the weather. Who knew we were going to end up getting our April showers in June? Especially with April having been so dry and having that warm spell. I seem to recall this has happened for the last few years as well. Perhaps it's the first big signs of global warming?

This last weekend I did quite well. Saturday was a scheduled flat cleaning day and I've been trying to do the cleaning in a way that race's the old heart rate. I mean, I wouldn't say I rush it, but I try to do it in a continuous burst of activity and keep moving.

Also I did all my normal walking, despite the weather constantly threatening to rain on me. I did catch a few spots on both my long walks, but it didn't actually rain on me. This was quite fortunate as it did piss it down a couple of times at the weekend.

I guess it must be getting in some practice for Wimbledon, which starts next week, I believe.

Diet wise I ended up with a double whammy. On Wednesday's excursion to Sainsbury's were I tell myself I will absolutely only buy some strawberries and some rolls for lunch on Thursday and Friday I ended up buying some calorie heavy treats. However, I wasn't too disappointed by this as I managed to avoid my previous trip of buying way too much fruit (they have lots of special offers on strawbs and raspberries) and hence I didn't overeat and get gut ache again.

Also, the treats I bought were a box of those small cornflakes and chocolate things, which were ideal for spreading out across multiple days. So I had a handful on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, which I don't think is too bad. I mean, obviously it's not ideal, but it's much better than I've been doing over previous weeks.

The second whammy was that it turned out to be someone at work's birthday, so we went down the pub for Friday lunch. This took me somewhat by surprise and obviously meant I consumed a lot of calories on Friday, though I did try to compensate for this at the weekend a bit.

Anyway, the net result was I lost 1 pound. I was more pleased with this than I was last week for some reason, despite it being the same amount. I think it might be because I'm now really close to going below 19 stone. This will be quite some achievement as I think it will mean I'll be lighter than I have been in the last 15 years.

My dream target was to reach 18 and a half stone by the British Grand Prix, as that would have meant I'd lost 6 stone, which would mean I'd be about half way there. Now that its' closer and with my recent 1 pound a week thing, I'm pretty much going for 19 stone instead.

Over the next couple of week I'm going to see if I can't go back to eating what I did before Christmas when I was loosing lots of weight. I think this restoration of the old diet combined with the increased exercise I do nowadays might mean I'll achieve the 19 stone by then, which would be really pleasing.

rollycrunch round up

After yesterday, I thought I'd do a round up for everything on crunchyroll that I've watched from this season. As mentioned a couple of weeks ago, I was getting a bit off-course with the scanning, so last week (and the weekend especially) I decided to concentrate on it. I ended up doing all 4 of the animages that mean I've now finished scanning everything from 2010 (yes!) and even did a couple of nyan types from 2011.

I watched crunchyroll stuff while I scanned, so I've done some round ups of my opinions so far. I've not really been watching stuff on AOD due to the size issues I mentioned before, and of course there's a bunch of stuff only available to me on fansub (I grow increasingly miffed with the anime companies for not embracing streaming for the west).


Gosick

Did I cover this last season? Think I did, but my opinion hasn't really changed - it could do with stronger mysteries for Victorique to solve. She is daawww cute, though.

Battle Girls - Time Paradox

Basically, this is inoffensive, time diverting pap, which is both its strength and its weakness. It's odd - I hated Rio Rainbow Gate, which was also from the same background (adaptation of a Pachinko game!) but this I've found watchable. I mean, I wouldn't buy it, but it's okay to watch on crunchyroll. It's really difficult to pin down why I like this, but nor Rio, though.

Hoshizora e Kakaru Hashi (A Bridge to the Starry Skies)

This was total rubbish. It seemed to be trying to do "Harem, but realistic" and fails. It reminded me in that way of Winter Sonata. I mean, it's nothing like it story wise, but that pretty much failed too.

Hanasaku Iroha

This is a series that's clearly trying hard, but has left me a little unengaged so far, if I'm honest. I've let it slip a bit, so maybe I'll like it more when I get back to it.

Nichijou (My Ordinary Life)

Essentially this is a more surreal version of Azumanga Daioh. Mileage always varies with comedy, obviously, but I've been enjoying it on the whole. I find it works best in small doses, though. It's also a very nice production.

SKET Dance

Really this is a been there, done it series. Also, two of its main characters are of the shouty, hyperactive variety that usually turns me off. However, I actually quite like the show. I think it's mainly because it has an oddly subversive and self-deprecating element to it that sneaks in every so often.

Ore-tachi ni Tsubasa wa Nai (We, Without Wings)

Without wings tried way too hard to be interesting and ended up being confusing dribble.

Deadman Wonderland

A new manglobe series, which is always worth watching, and this is no exception. I'm not entirely sure what it's about yet, which I'm not sure if that's intentional. There seems to have been a few info dumps, but not really explaining what's really happening, just giving you enough to be going on with.

Astarotte's Toy

Really not sure about this one. The premise has paedo-bait stamped over it, but the episodes themselves have quite a few nice, touching bits in them, and the story isn't actually all that bad. In a way it's a similar struggle I had with Chu-Bra, except because this is in paedo territory, I'm much less comfortable with it.

World God Only Knows 2

More of the same, really, which isn't any sort of a complain - I enjoyed the first season. It's probably best to actually think of this as one of those shows that's actually a full 20-odd episodes long, they're just making it in two halves.

Sekaiichi Hatsukoi

I was a bit surprised by this - it's clearly a shoujo romance job, but nobody got raped! Well, somebody got kissed against their will, but I found it difficult to dismiss this out of hand as I was expecting to be able to. I mean, it's not high on my to watch list, but I couldn't just dismiss it as not worth keeping going with.

fansub mayhem

I thought I'd post some mini reviews for the fansubs I've watched. There's a big long list, because I was kinda forced to watch them over Easter when the broadband failed.


MM

I actually think I would quite enjoy this, but ... how to put this? It's playing up to particular fetishes I find interest? So I would assume that if those fetishes were of no interest to you on any level, you wouldn't like this at all.

Oniichan no Koto Nanka Zenzen Suki Janain Dakara ne—!!

I found this horribly cringe worthy. It's a show about a sister who has an extreme brother complex, which is something I have very little time for, but it was also very loud and shouty and it just didn't work for me at all.

Tamayura

I found this sweet, but it was very heavy on the moe. I understand they're going to do a full TV series of it, which may work, but it could drown in its own moe. The good thing about an OAV like this it's a relatively short burst.

Puella Magi Madoka Magica

This was okay to start with - magical girl stuff. How they'd done the bad guys / monsters was really cool. I'd heard it was really popular, though, so I went on past my usual 2 episodes and there was a really nice twist into darker elements in the third episode, so the praise may well be deserved.

Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru

A SHAFT show, but I didn't initially realise that - it's not quite as whackily done as their usual stuff. I mean, it has definitely SHAFT stylistic bits, but the dial's not turned up to eleven, shall we say? I did enjoy it actually - it felt like fairly standard romantic comedy stuff, but with an interesting perspective and approach. It was quite funny too.

Shinrei Tantei Yakumo

This was one of those shows where if I did a bit of research I'd probably realise not to even bother trying it. It wasn't fundamentally bad, but it was clearly aimed at a female audience. The male character is a broody bugger with some psychic powers and it just has that feel of being aimed at a particular demographic, which I'm not a part of.

Starry Sky

And this one was even worse that Yakumo. Here it was aimed at a similar audience, this time using a reverse harem theme, but it was also shot through with a load of bunkum about astrology and mysticism that was just horrible and annoying and tedious and stupid.

ponyo

I have to confess going into ponyo I wasn't actually expecting to like it as much as I should.

I think a kind of universal thing that binds all anime fans is that we all like Ghibli. Unlike something like Akira, which has also achieved mainstream recognition, Ghibli and Miyazaki is universally loved by anime fans as well as achieving mainstream recognition.

Oh, I'm sure there are anime fans who don't like Miyazaki's stuff, but I'm sure they're much rarer than anime fans who don't like Akira.

However, the last Miyazaki film I saw was Spirited Away and I have to confess I didn't really like it as much as the critical acclaim it received would suggest I should. I did a review at the time, so I won't go on about it here, but because it had fallen short of the hype, I was a bit worried the same would be true with Ponyo.

It may have been because of this lower of expectations, but when I actually sat down to watch it I actually found it really rather enjoyable.

The first thing to note, though, is that of the Miyazaki films I've seen I'd say this is the most squarely aimed at a young audience. I'd say most of his other films have been aimed at a more general family audience, but the themes and content of this are more... basic is the wrong word - gentler maybe? Easier to grapple with is probably the best way to put it.

As a story it has universal appeal, but what lifts it is the clarity of the story telling craft and the flights of fantastic imagination and the gorgeousness of the imagination. In particular there's a real sense in which they manage to capture the living, breathing feel of the sea.

Something else that also really appealed were the two main characters - a young boy called Sosuke and the titular fish-girl, Ponyo. Sosuke really does feel like a small Japanese boy - gregarious and inquisitive, but with that respect for your elders thing that's such a part of Japanese life. Ponyo is a delightfully inquisitive 'genki' character and they make quite deliberate play of her being a 'fish out of water'.

If I was to make one criticism of the film it's quite how accepting some of the characters are as to what happens. The nature of Ponyo and what happens because of her and her parents methods of fixing it barely seems to raise an eyebrow from any of the characters.

This is perhaps a reflection of the Japanese view on life, but I think a bit more convincing would have been needed for them to truly go with things. The one character that does seem to have a harder time believing things is a somewhat sour, curmudgeonly character.

But overall I really enjoyed it.

one more for the road

Lost another pound this week.

I'm not entirely sure how I feel about that.

A big part of me is pleased - loosing one pound is better than the opposite. But the pleasure is really more to do with the fact that last week didn't go well, diet or exercise wise.

Exercise was a problem for two reasons. At the beginning of the week I was suffering from soar feet, because the weekend walk had been a bit harsh on them. I'm finding it's taking quite a while to really break in these new shoes.

Later on in the week, I was suffering from extreme tiredness, because of a severe lack of sleep. Partly this was due to work as I was getting up extra early in order to cram in all the stuff I needed to do. But then also, on Wednesday night I was woken up with some severe gut pain. My guess is that this was due to overeating.

Which was the other problem - I've eaten loads this week. I'm guessing that because a lot of this was fruit, is part of the reason why my weight didn't go up. The other reason is I think when you lack sleep, your body tends to use up energy. Well, obviously, being awake burns more energy than being asleep, but also when you're tired I think I'm right in saying you need more calories to keep yourself going.

Of course there's a bit of a feedback loop going on there - when I'm tired I feel down and tend to eat worse food. And I've noticed that once I start eating badly I seem to get an attitude of "well, I've already blown this, so I might as well not bother." That's something I really need to be careful of.

So yeah, big part of me is pleased and surprised at loosing a pound, another part of me is a little disappointed that I managed to eat too much.

I dunno - I'm having a tough time of it, mentally, at the moment. I mean, I keep seeing the weight go in the right way, but I always end up thinking to myself about how much extra I could have lost if I'd just stuck to the diet/walking properly.

And yes, all reduction is good, but the slower I loose it, the longer it's going to take and the longer it will be before I can go back to eating normally and not being stressed over it all.

canadian grand prix

Well here's a novel thing.

I'm writing this at home on Sunday night. I often pre-write the later entries in the week, but this is the first time I've ever written one at home on a Sunday. Part of the reason for that is because I know I'm going to be mega busy on Monday, but the other part is that, in the background, the Canadian Grand Prix is on and nothing is happening.

That's not because it's been a boring race so far, it's because it's been red flagged, due to the weather. Now in the past a red flag used to mean the race was stopped, but nowadays it means it's paused, with the possibility of it being stopped later.

In this case, the heavens have opened in Canada and it's been chucking it down for the best part of an hour. They reckon it's going to get going again, but it's going to be very later. Indeed, as I type this the rain appears to be stopped, but there's usually a warning period before it actually kicks off.

Of course, rain always makes things more interesting, but sometimes it can be so heavy as to make it very unsafe. I mean, it's never safe in the rain, but not safe enough to race.

There was an added curiosity this year because of the change in tyre supplier to Pirelli so no-one had ever raced on their wet tyres. But they seem to have coped pretty well.

Canada doesn't normally need rain to make it interesting and it's certainly been an interesting race so far.

Lewis was in the thick of things, as per usual. He seemed to be a bit out of position from qualifying and there's a good chance that this was because McLaren pre-empted the rain and put on a higher down force rear wing than they would usually use at Canada. Canada is a high speed circuit with some very sharp bends. That means lower down force is needed so you can get good high speed on the straights.

Unfortunately, Lewis ended up crashing into Jenson

And that will probably do for my pre-writing - I'll just leave a bit of room to say how the race ended...

It ended very late - the broadcast started at 5pm, and they only crossed the line at 10pm - but it was well worth the wait, as it was a cracking race.

Most amazingly was Jenson Button, who suffered a drive through and, including that, went into the pits 6 times and ended up in last place behind a later safety car... and went on to win the race!

It was a remarkable performance with some excellent driving. It also again begs the question how did is happen? Was the McLaren that set up for the wet conditions? If so, an incredibly risky thing to do. Maybe the car is just that much better on this type of circuit? But then if it is, why the poor performance in qualifying?

of course we go there

Note that I pre-wrote this at the beginning of the week, so it doesn't reflect the later news about the Bahrain GP.

Towards the end of last week it was announced that the Bahrain Grand Prix, which was postponed from the start of the season due to the political unrest in the country, is to be slotted into where the Indian GP is currently sat. The Indian GP will be bumped to the end of the year.

It should be noted that this isn't due to any need to move the Indian GP - as I understand it, they're just dotting the t's and crossing the i's. Indeed, quite why they've gone for this approach is a bit of a mystery - plopping it on the end if we're going to have it at all would seem more sensible.

And that isn't to say I think having the Bahrain GP at all this year is in any way sensible.

Bahrain is unfortunately one of the countries where the remarkable "Arab Spring" seems to have come up against the rather less savoury powers of the jackbooted powers that be. The phrase "brutal crushing of decent" springs instantly to mind.

Now there is of course an argument that sport should be above such things as politics, but this, quite frankly is a ridiculous position. Sport - the pitting of individuals and teams against each other within a framework of agreed rules and conduct - should be exactly the sort of thing we use to express disapproval at such behaviour.

If you're not decent enough to treat people decently, you shouldn't get to play ball with the grown up kids.

It's frankly ridiculous that they're even considering it going ahead. But then I've talked before about how it's frankly ridiculous that F1 is a sport that's as cosy with the dodgy dictatorships of the world as it is.

Anyway, this weekend it's the Canadian GP, where I'm pretty sure they don't go around oppressing their population, so I'll be watching that.

Quite a lot of telly I've been watching has either come to an end this week or stops next week. I'm therefore hoping that we're about to start the quiet summer telly period (for me). I'm also hoping that I'll be watching lots of DVDs so I can then get them on e-bay.

I had a resort the other week, transferring DVDs and books around between my various shelves.

The reason I gave myself for doing this was because how I had them before was rather inefficient. And this was true - there were lots of big gaps, especially now that I've cleared a big chunk of my scanning backlog.

But another reason underneath that was that I needed to utilise that space, because I was running out of room with how I used to have them. In other words, the unwatched DVD pile has gown even bigger.

An unexpected benefit to the new layout is that said pile basically sits there in my eye line, nagging at me when I'm watching telly. And I think in part due to this pressure I've actually watched a few bits.

new iron

Here's a random one for you - I bought a new iron recently.

I've been rather impressed by it, actually. I had to get a new one because the old one started leaking. Well, I dropped it, so that's hardly surprising, but it was one of those leaks where it was a small dribble, so I kept using it for a while, but in the end I picked one up at Tesco for about £25.

The cost of bog standard electrical equipment is staggering nowadays. It really has become cheaper to buy new things than to get old stuff repaired, which can't be a good thing for the environment.

Especially when (and I don't know for sure with my iron, but I'm assuming) everything is made in China. The quantities of raw materials and then finished products transported around the globe is mind-blowing. All of it done using fossil fuels.

It's one of those extra 'bonus' problems of unrestrained global capitalism. The main one of course being the fact that the workers who put this stuff together in China probably can't actually afford to buy the stuff they make. Especially when it comes to high-end electrical goods.

And of course the fact that part of the way these manufacturers make money is because environmental regulations for pollutants are so lax in China, so they don't have to spend money cleaning up.

Wow - that was a tangent and a half.

All I was really going to talk about is that I've actually found the new iron to be really good. It seems to get hotter and stay hotter than my old one, and it glides over the clothes much more smoothly.

I've no idea if that's because iron technology has advanced, or this is a better model (or, more likely, the features that were on the better models are now routinely available on the cheap ones) or simply that it's newer and therefore not worn out in any way.

the a team

doo-do-doo do do do doo

I loved the a-team as a kid.

Really it was daft show. A group of American special forces who were convicted of "a crime they didn't commit" go around the US as hired guns, only not hired in the sense of being mercenaries. It was more along the lines of them saving the weak from criminals and thugs.

The episodes were extremely formulaic, picking on particularly bits and pieces and using them in most every episode. Some of the more famous things were BA's fear of flying and them drugging him to get him on planes and the fact that despite all the shooting of guns and explosions no one would ever be killed.

Then of course there was the fact that at some point the bad guys would capture and imprison the A Team, but they'd put them in a warehouse or garage with access to loads of stuff that they would use to create some sort of cool vehicle with improvised weapons that help them escape and/or bring victory.

I fully expected to hate this film.

My problem is that I didn't, but I also didn't really like it either.

Firstly, it's obviously updated. For example, in the original it was the Vietnam war, in this it's the recent war in Iraq. I didn't mind this too much.

But some of the same basic ideas are there.

In the original I remember it being very much an ensemble piece, with individual episodes focusing more on one or other of the characters. Here, most of the characters have sufficient time in the spotlight to give that feel.

Also, the basic character traits are there. Murdoch is a loony, but a genius pilot. Hannibal is the implacable tough-nut leader. Face is a babe magnet. B.A. is super strong.

But other things have been tweaked in ways that I wasn't entirely keen on.

As mentioned, the main idea of the original was that it involved saving the weak from the strong and the improvising of cool machines from spare parts after having been captured.

Well, the first part isn't there, because this actually focuses on the origin story - the imprisoned for "a crime they didn't commit bit", which I'm pretty sure they never showed in the original series. I think this was a mistake. What was cool about the A-Team was that they were already fugitives going round saving other people (thus proving they were actually good guys) where this is just about proving they were acting on orders.

Also the improvising of cool machines to escape has become putting together cool machines or weird ideas to achieve an objective. This was okay, but less good.

Which pretty much sums up my feeling on the entire thing - okay, but less good.

Oh, except for the sound - the sound mix was horrible. I actually had to put on the subtitles as I could barely make out what people were saying half he time.

And while it looked good there was an awful lot of CGI. While I've no issue with this fundamentally, it kinda feels against the basic spirit of the original show to be using CGI to achieve stunts.

fat bodies

There was a programme on last night called embarrassing fat bodies.

It's part of a series that basically gets people on who have medical problems. I remember watching the first series, which was more general.

I didn't watch anything after that first series for a couple of reasons. First off it was clearly bordering on exploitative telly. It fell just the wrong side of the line where shows are basically the equivalent of gawping at carnival freaks.

I mean, it was also trying to act in a public information way, giving medical advice and highlighting conditions and stuff, but the actual people featured on the show tended to have extreme versions, which was the other reason I stopped watching.

So, for example, there would be someone on who had athlete's foot. Only the person featured didn't just have it, they'd had it for years and instead of visiting their GP or even going down boots/superdrug/tescos and getting some over-the-counter creams or whatever, they'd left it. And of course it had gotten to the stage where their nails had become a deformed mess and it looked like their feet were being eaten away.

Then the doctor would prescribe them some simple treatment like a pill or a cream and that would clean it up in a couple of weeks I'd just end up wondering why the hell they'd let it get so bad.

Of course the ironic element to this is that I essentially did the same thing in regards to my weight. I just kept 'leaving it' for my entire life until I got to the stage of being 24 and a half stone.

Anyway, the version I came across last night was all about being overweight, so I thought I'd watch and see what was going on. Quite a lot of the stuff I talked about I already knew, but one thing they did have on there was a woman who'd lost more than half her entire bodyweight, having dropped some 14 stone and been fat her entire life. Which, broadly speaking, is what I'm doing.

Her problem was what I think I'm actually most worried about now, which was that she had huge amounts of loose skin. She was only about 40, but her skin drooped down like that of someone more than twice her age. She looked okay clothed, but it meant she had to be fully clothed all the time.

She ended up having several rounds of plastic surgery to trim all the spare skin away. Obviously what I worry about now is ending up with similar piles of loose skin.

My hope is that the big difference was that she lost all that weight very quickly, where my plan is to shed it quite slowly and steadily. In reality I think it's inevitable that I'll end up with excess skin. In the programme they basically said that if you're really big for a long time, when you loose that weight the skin basically doesn't go away and surgery is the only option.

I could use the above as an excuse for this month's weigh in - that I'm taking it gradually - but that wasn't the reason I didn't loose any weight this last week. The reason was because I had the bad boozy weekend before and I ate too much bad stuff.

I have to say that, knowing what I did eat, I'm actually a little bit relieved the weigh in was no change, but still, I need to make sure I get back on track.

I'm more worried about putting the weight back on than I am having a lot of loose skin.

feck me

Horribly busy at work today.

With the exception of very first thing, I think this is the first time I've even fired up firefox today. I usually at least get the chance to glance at the forums I frequent and check my e-mail and stuff.

Not today.

how does that work?

So as mentioned I didn't do much exercise last weekend and I drank beer on Saturday and we ate takeaway pizza.

And yet I'd still lost 1 pound when I weighed myself on Sunday. It hadn't even been a particularly good week to compensate. I guess there's the possibility I was horribly dehydrated when I weighed myself, but I didn't feel that way - more tired than dehydrated.

Still, happy to take a 1 pound loss and won't be too harsh on myself if the "bad living" shows up next weekend instead.

It feels like I've gotten way behind with the scanning. I seem to have lost a bit of momentum with it.

I mean, I have done quite a lot of catching up - I'm no longer 15 months behind, I'm now only about 6 months behind - but I've been feeling like I'm never going to catch up, so why even bother trying?

I mean, it's not that bad, but you get what I mean. I think to myself that I've so much of it to do, doing x instead of some scanning is hardly going to hurt. trouble is all that adds up and I'll soon be a stupid amount behind again.

Part of the problem I think was the all problems I had with the cable internet connection. That coincided with me being off around Easter and meant I couldn't watch crunchyroll stuff. At the time the new UK one - Anime On Demand - was just getting going too and those were what I really wanted to watch while I scanned.

Instead I watched (older) fansubs I'd downloaded, and while that was good and needed doing, it meant I've gotten some way behind with new season stuff where I'd hoped I was going to be fully up to date.

As mentioned there's also this AOD thing and while I have subscribed to it, I'm not hugely impressed. It only seems to work in either a small window or full-screen, even if you adjust the resolution setting. This really doesn't work for me with watching it while I'm scanning, because the window is too small to easily watch and read the subtitles and of course full screen means you can't practically do anything else at the same time.

It's also all over the place in terms of episode numbers. To be fair they launched it just when the earthquake hit Japan and it's a brand new thing, so it's understandable, but it's a bit confusing with the episode numbers they're on and how big a delay they have from Japanese screening.

Also I'm unsure about the whole "season pass" model.

I hope what they're getting at is a quarterly subscription model that's basically a similar idea to crunchyroll. What I'm slightly worried about is that once the season is over, the videos will basically expire. That's a pain for me because I watch anime quite randomly, so it might be several weeks before I get around to watching some things.

The advantage with crunchyroll's model is that they try to keep things on for as long as possible. So if you come along several seasons later you can still watch stuff. A "season pass" implies that previous season's content will not be available to you.