I completely forgot to do a blog update yesterday.
To be fair I've been really busy at work, so I do have an excuse.
I've been debating whether to turn comments on for this blog. I originally turned them off because it's kinda depressing having a blog where no-one comments. By turning them off that's not a problem.
See if, as I'm pretty sure, no-one is reading this blog then having comments disabled kinda means I'll never find that out. Also, if some random people do happen to stumble across it and read it, but can't be arsed to comment (it's is a pretty dull blog, after all) then I'll never get the false impression no-one reads it.
Ignorance is bliss, in other words.
I guess I've been debating turning it on because it makes me feel a bit... I dunno, a bit like I'm one of those people at speakers corner who get on their box and shout at the trees and no-one pays them any attention.
Of course the flipside is that I may well be one of those people. Admittedly I'm not ranting and raving about any old random stuff... oh, no, wait... yes I am.
Hmm. I think I'll leave it off for the mo.
I'm getting swamped by telly programs at the moment - the hard-drive on my PVR is bursting with stuff. More than I can probably watch across the entire weekend. Certainly more than I can cope with without TV watching fatigue setting in.
Admittedly I've not got a whole lot else I need to do this weekend so I will probably watch plenty, but the problem seems to be there's a lot on at the moment. Especially in terms of documentaries - there's quite a few wildlife things on that I'm watching and also more random documentary stuff.
I've a feeling I may prune some stuff out.
Well the day away didn't make this any more interesting a blog, huh?
Friday, 5 February 2010
Wednesday, 3 February 2010
transporter 2
This week's DVD was Transporter 2.
I did one of these mini-reviews on the first Transporter and my basic opinion was summed up by my last line - "So yeah, silly, but an enjoyable kinda silly.".
So what about the sequel?
Well, the most important headline I guess is that I also enjoyed this one too. It's wasn't quite as silly as the first one, though it had a few silly bits, but still basically worked.
It also feels 'bigger'. It feels like they had a bit more money and that they wanted to expand the scope and scale a bit. It also feels a little less Besson-esque, although he is still credited as a Producer. In particular, the car chases don't have quite as much of that witty Besson touch, but they are more spectacular.
It's also set in Florida, rather than France, so the whole film has less of a fish a little out of his water feel that was noticeable in the first film.
There are quite a few interesting touches though. For example, this time it's a kid in peril, rather than a girl. Which isn't to say the film is without a female contingent, but being is it's the child's mother, this aspect plays out in an interesting way. I won't spoiler it, but lets' just say it plays out in a way that maintains Statham's hero status, but therefore doesn't conform to the usual action movie tropes.
Which isn't to say there aren't some problems with the film. Some of these are forgivable (the French police detective able to access a computer that surely would have had a password at the very least), but others are more glaring.
A good example is when the kid is found there's a bit where they literally just say "we've found the boy". How the hell they find him is totally unclear - there's no clue from the kidnappers or anything that would really give away his location.
Other examples would probably spoiler the story too much, but something I will mention is that in the film there's basically a virus and an antidote. The virus is bright green and the antidote is bright purple. It really gets on my nerves when they do stuff like that - bright green and purple. Yes, of course all medicines are brightly coloured....
Oh, and there's a chase involving the police that gets a bit Blues Brothers, in that hundreds of police cars seem to get trashed - many in slightly odd ways - just like in the Blues Brothers. You end up wondering if there are any police cars left in the entire state of Florida :/.
As with the first film, this one is suitably short and punchy, and you're never that far from a fight or a car chase. And despite reigning it in a bit there are also some good gags in there too.
So again, I would say a little silly, but an entertaining silly.
I did one of these mini-reviews on the first Transporter and my basic opinion was summed up by my last line - "So yeah, silly, but an enjoyable kinda silly.".
So what about the sequel?
Well, the most important headline I guess is that I also enjoyed this one too. It's wasn't quite as silly as the first one, though it had a few silly bits, but still basically worked.
It also feels 'bigger'. It feels like they had a bit more money and that they wanted to expand the scope and scale a bit. It also feels a little less Besson-esque, although he is still credited as a Producer. In particular, the car chases don't have quite as much of that witty Besson touch, but they are more spectacular.
It's also set in Florida, rather than France, so the whole film has less of a fish a little out of his water feel that was noticeable in the first film.
There are quite a few interesting touches though. For example, this time it's a kid in peril, rather than a girl. Which isn't to say the film is without a female contingent, but being is it's the child's mother, this aspect plays out in an interesting way. I won't spoiler it, but lets' just say it plays out in a way that maintains Statham's hero status, but therefore doesn't conform to the usual action movie tropes.
Which isn't to say there aren't some problems with the film. Some of these are forgivable (the French police detective able to access a computer that surely would have had a password at the very least), but others are more glaring.
A good example is when the kid is found there's a bit where they literally just say "we've found the boy". How the hell they find him is totally unclear - there's no clue from the kidnappers or anything that would really give away his location.
Other examples would probably spoiler the story too much, but something I will mention is that in the film there's basically a virus and an antidote. The virus is bright green and the antidote is bright purple. It really gets on my nerves when they do stuff like that - bright green and purple. Yes, of course all medicines are brightly coloured....
Oh, and there's a chase involving the police that gets a bit Blues Brothers, in that hundreds of police cars seem to get trashed - many in slightly odd ways - just like in the Blues Brothers. You end up wondering if there are any police cars left in the entire state of Florida :/.
As with the first film, this one is suitably short and punchy, and you're never that far from a fight or a car chase. And despite reigning it in a bit there are also some good gags in there too.
So again, I would say a little silly, but an entertaining silly.
Tuesday, 2 February 2010
go, go gadget show
A new series of the gadget show started last night. That meant my gradual return to my usual routine reached a bit of a zenith. I pretty much did the same routine last night what I do most every Monday and you know what? It felt kinda good.
I've mentioned before I'm a creature of habit and routine and with all the disruption that's been going on over the last few weeks (if not months) it was just plain nice to do the usual stuff.
The gadget show itself featured a bit on e-readers. E-readers are basically electronic books and for a while now they've been looming about, threatening to do to books the same thing MP3 did to music.
The idea is we ditch all our physical copies of things and we go electronic. You buy e-books via download and then they're stored on the e-book instead.
In a way, it's odd that books are lagging behind in this way. I mean, the vast majority of stuff you do on the internet involves reading, so why weren't books and magazines the first things to make that leap to being e-media?
I think a big part of it is that the other things were taken there by piracy. Music especially involves fairly small files that you can move about easily and there are loads of programs available for ripping CDs, etc. Books, how much of a pain in the arse would it be scanning in all the pages? I mean, I can't be arsed to scan a few magazines, imagine doing all the pages in all the books I own.
Another problem is that staring at small LED screens is tiring on the eyes. They're also very power hungry with their backlights. There's this e-ink stuff of course, but then I don't know how much that costs as a technology. Certainly e-readers all seem to be very expensive.
Yes, you're getting the capacity to store thousands of books, but those books also still need to be paid for. And imagine breaking it and loosing all of your books? I mean, you could back them up and stuff, I guess, but you couldn't re-sell them as second hand books.
And e-ink doesn't do colour, so that sort of goes against this idea that magazines and newspapers are part of the available content. And what about non-fiction books? And text books? And reference books?
Then you've got to factor in the tactical tactile joy that is reading a book.
I dunno, I'm guessing the day when it all goes digital is inevitable, but I won't be happy when it does.
And to cap it all off, in terms of the gadget show, the e-readers didn't fair very well in the reviews. Even the much-vaunted Amazon Kindle didn't do very well.
Of course the review couldn't look at this new iPad thing from Apple. I think they've kinda shot themselves in the foot with that myself. They've basically produced a tablet PC and given it something called iBooks, which is like iTunes for books.
But the problem is it's big and heavy and uses an LCD screen and so it's a hybrid beast where I think they should have focused more on doing a proper e-Reader and revolutionising that market.
Not that I mind, as I say, because I don't exactly want it to happen any time soon.
I've mentioned before I'm a creature of habit and routine and with all the disruption that's been going on over the last few weeks (if not months) it was just plain nice to do the usual stuff.
The gadget show itself featured a bit on e-readers. E-readers are basically electronic books and for a while now they've been looming about, threatening to do to books the same thing MP3 did to music.
The idea is we ditch all our physical copies of things and we go electronic. You buy e-books via download and then they're stored on the e-book instead.
In a way, it's odd that books are lagging behind in this way. I mean, the vast majority of stuff you do on the internet involves reading, so why weren't books and magazines the first things to make that leap to being e-media?
I think a big part of it is that the other things were taken there by piracy. Music especially involves fairly small files that you can move about easily and there are loads of programs available for ripping CDs, etc. Books, how much of a pain in the arse would it be scanning in all the pages? I mean, I can't be arsed to scan a few magazines, imagine doing all the pages in all the books I own.
Another problem is that staring at small LED screens is tiring on the eyes. They're also very power hungry with their backlights. There's this e-ink stuff of course, but then I don't know how much that costs as a technology. Certainly e-readers all seem to be very expensive.
Yes, you're getting the capacity to store thousands of books, but those books also still need to be paid for. And imagine breaking it and loosing all of your books? I mean, you could back them up and stuff, I guess, but you couldn't re-sell them as second hand books.
And e-ink doesn't do colour, so that sort of goes against this idea that magazines and newspapers are part of the available content. And what about non-fiction books? And text books? And reference books?
Then you've got to factor in the tactical tactile joy that is reading a book.
I dunno, I'm guessing the day when it all goes digital is inevitable, but I won't be happy when it does.
And to cap it all off, in terms of the gadget show, the e-readers didn't fair very well in the reviews. Even the much-vaunted Amazon Kindle didn't do very well.
Of course the review couldn't look at this new iPad thing from Apple. I think they've kinda shot themselves in the foot with that myself. They've basically produced a tablet PC and given it something called iBooks, which is like iTunes for books.
But the problem is it's big and heavy and uses an LCD screen and so it's a hybrid beast where I think they should have focused more on doing a proper e-Reader and revolutionising that market.
Not that I mind, as I say, because I don't exactly want it to happen any time soon.
Monday, 1 February 2010
busyness
I was incredibly busy this weekend, and yet I didn't get everything done that I needed to.
I did a lot of stuff, though. I got my hair cut, did some food shopping, did a massive pile of ironing, cleaned my bedsit, burnt a bunch of watched anime shows to DVD, watched my rental DVD and watched loads of telly. And on top of that I even baked a bread pudding and made my super-bolognaise sauce.
And yet I've come out of the weekend with four unwatched TV shows and a bunch of things like updating my website, getting some stuff on e-bay and reading all of the pile of unread comics (I read about half a dozen, leaving a dozen) either not even attempted or hardly dented.
Plus I've still not got my life sorted out in terms of stuff like scanning or watching the huge pile of unwatched DVDs that still seems to be growing, even though I've tried to reign myself in a bit. I mean I've even somehow managed to enlarge my unread manga pile, even though I read loads of stuff over Christmas.
Plus I didn't get around to looking at buying some new clothes or booking someone to fix my windscreen (I got a chip before Christmas when I was going down to Devon to see my Dad) or the other stuff that I've been putting off because it'll cost me money.
I dunno - it was like there just weren't enough hours in the weekend, and I didn't bother going out or anything.
I really need to come up with a proper plan for some of this stuff.
I did a lot of stuff, though. I got my hair cut, did some food shopping, did a massive pile of ironing, cleaned my bedsit, burnt a bunch of watched anime shows to DVD, watched my rental DVD and watched loads of telly. And on top of that I even baked a bread pudding and made my super-bolognaise sauce.
And yet I've come out of the weekend with four unwatched TV shows and a bunch of things like updating my website, getting some stuff on e-bay and reading all of the pile of unread comics (I read about half a dozen, leaving a dozen) either not even attempted or hardly dented.
Plus I've still not got my life sorted out in terms of stuff like scanning or watching the huge pile of unwatched DVDs that still seems to be growing, even though I've tried to reign myself in a bit. I mean I've even somehow managed to enlarge my unread manga pile, even though I read loads of stuff over Christmas.
Plus I didn't get around to looking at buying some new clothes or booking someone to fix my windscreen (I got a chip before Christmas when I was going down to Devon to see my Dad) or the other stuff that I've been putting off because it'll cost me money.
I dunno - it was like there just weren't enough hours in the weekend, and I didn't bother going out or anything.
I really need to come up with a proper plan for some of this stuff.
Friday, 29 January 2010
a half-arsed anime catch up
I've found the time to sample a few series over this last week or so.
Normally I would aim to watch 3 episodes as a sample, but I'm so far behind that I only watched 2 episodes of these to help me make some inroads. Not that I've watched a lot of stuff, just that I've been having a go.
Seitokai no Ichizon
I wasn't really sure what to make of this. It seemed... I dunno - insubstantial?
The basic idea seems to be sort of a bit like Haruhi. In Haruhi, you've got quite a clever idea whereby Haruhi is interested in aliens and time travel and anime tropes like that, and she's surrounded by characters who are those things, yet she never realises.
In Seitokai no Ichizon I think it's supposed to be playing with the idea of Harem and Moe tropes, but to be frank, it just doesn't work as well. It kept falling into its own clichés and while I think this was deliberate, it's just not as well done as Haruhi. Plus it doesn't really help itself by skimming on the edge of being a "whacky" comedy and so not being very funny.
I guess it's the sort of show I could watch if there weren't a million other (better) things and I wouldn't really remember it after it was over.
Hanasakeru Seishounen
This is essentially what I believe is called a reverse harem show, which essentially means that instead of a male protagonist surrounded by gorgeous women, there's a female protagonist surrounded by gorgeous men.
As far as that sort of thing goes, this seemed like a perfectly okay show, but to be frank, it's not really my cup of tea. I mean, although the focus is on romance, rather than boobs as it would be in a harem show, they're not generally a particularly realistic genre. Not that normal harem is, but at least there it's feeding me fantasies that I can appreciate.
Sasameki Koto
Sasameki Koto seemed quite good. It's one you need to be in the right frame of mind for, though, I think.
The story is one of unrequited love, I guess you would say. The main character is clearly in love with her best friend and her best fried is an 'out' lesbian, but the problem is her friend likes cute girls and she's not very cute. Weirdly, the main character actually fits more into the mould of those strong women you get in girls animes that all the other girls fall in love with. She's very tall and athletic and clever.
The reason it's one you need to be in the right move for is because it's very melancholic. The friend keeps falling for all sorts of other girls and the main character never tells her how she really feels - that sort of stuff. So it's sad, but well done.
Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood
I guess this show highlights just how far behind I am with watching anime - Brotherhood started airing in April of 2009, so in a few weeks it'll be a year old and I'm only now sampling it.
I'm also pretty new to FMA full stop. I've never seen any of the previous version of the anime and although I've bought all the manga, I've only read the 1st volume, with the other 20-odd sat in a big pile awaiting my attention.
I believe Brotherhood is a re-telling of the original anime that's closer to the manga, but as I say, I've not seen that, so I can't really comment. What I would say is I really enjoyed these first few episodes I sampled and I can definitely see why it is/was so popular.
One thing I have been doing is continuing to read manga. I find it a lot easier to keep manga reading going, as I can easily stop half way through chapters, or only read for 10 minutes. And I can read it at breakfast and lunch, of course. I can't really do that with anime - episodes don't work well if you only watch a bit of them and I have to sit and watch them on telly.
Also, I tend to always feel I need to watch a full disks worth when I watch it, which is part of the problem. Doing that means it's going to be an hour and a half of my time (4 episodes on a disk, on average) and when I start thinking like that I start thinking stuff like "I don't have the time, I'll do X instead".
Anyway, one of the manga was a new series:
Sunshine (Hidamari) Sketch
I picked up Sunshine Sketch because I enjoyed the anime adaptation. It turns out the manga is one of those 4 vertical panel jobs. Really I should have guessed from the anime, which is staged like a series of short vignettes, which is a common approach when adapting these types of manga.
The manga is pretty good. It's very Japanese, though. There's one of those translators notes sections at the back and it's written in tiny font with loads of stuff crammed in. I also get the feeling they've deliberately tried to keep it to one page and there's plenty of stuff that could also be explained.
However, unlike with something like Sayonara Zetsubo Sensei, this doesn't really matter. There's the odd strip that you need the notes to understand, but overall you should be okay, especially if you have some general knowledge about Japan from other anime and manga.
Otherwise it's pretty good. It's quite light in tone and is a slice of life type show. The main character Yuno is attending an Arts based high school and once she's there it actually becomes something of an ensemble piece, focusing on all the girls who live at the Hidamari Apartments with Yuno.
The big box I need to tick this weekend is getting my hair cut. With the weather and holiday I've not had it done in ages, so it looks bloody awful.
Normally I would aim to watch 3 episodes as a sample, but I'm so far behind that I only watched 2 episodes of these to help me make some inroads. Not that I've watched a lot of stuff, just that I've been having a go.
Seitokai no Ichizon
I wasn't really sure what to make of this. It seemed... I dunno - insubstantial?
The basic idea seems to be sort of a bit like Haruhi. In Haruhi, you've got quite a clever idea whereby Haruhi is interested in aliens and time travel and anime tropes like that, and she's surrounded by characters who are those things, yet she never realises.
In Seitokai no Ichizon I think it's supposed to be playing with the idea of Harem and Moe tropes, but to be frank, it just doesn't work as well. It kept falling into its own clichés and while I think this was deliberate, it's just not as well done as Haruhi. Plus it doesn't really help itself by skimming on the edge of being a "whacky" comedy and so not being very funny.
I guess it's the sort of show I could watch if there weren't a million other (better) things and I wouldn't really remember it after it was over.
Hanasakeru Seishounen
This is essentially what I believe is called a reverse harem show, which essentially means that instead of a male protagonist surrounded by gorgeous women, there's a female protagonist surrounded by gorgeous men.
As far as that sort of thing goes, this seemed like a perfectly okay show, but to be frank, it's not really my cup of tea. I mean, although the focus is on romance, rather than boobs as it would be in a harem show, they're not generally a particularly realistic genre. Not that normal harem is, but at least there it's feeding me fantasies that I can appreciate.
Sasameki Koto
Sasameki Koto seemed quite good. It's one you need to be in the right frame of mind for, though, I think.
The story is one of unrequited love, I guess you would say. The main character is clearly in love with her best friend and her best fried is an 'out' lesbian, but the problem is her friend likes cute girls and she's not very cute. Weirdly, the main character actually fits more into the mould of those strong women you get in girls animes that all the other girls fall in love with. She's very tall and athletic and clever.
The reason it's one you need to be in the right move for is because it's very melancholic. The friend keeps falling for all sorts of other girls and the main character never tells her how she really feels - that sort of stuff. So it's sad, but well done.
Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood
I guess this show highlights just how far behind I am with watching anime - Brotherhood started airing in April of 2009, so in a few weeks it'll be a year old and I'm only now sampling it.
I'm also pretty new to FMA full stop. I've never seen any of the previous version of the anime and although I've bought all the manga, I've only read the 1st volume, with the other 20-odd sat in a big pile awaiting my attention.
I believe Brotherhood is a re-telling of the original anime that's closer to the manga, but as I say, I've not seen that, so I can't really comment. What I would say is I really enjoyed these first few episodes I sampled and I can definitely see why it is/was so popular.
One thing I have been doing is continuing to read manga. I find it a lot easier to keep manga reading going, as I can easily stop half way through chapters, or only read for 10 minutes. And I can read it at breakfast and lunch, of course. I can't really do that with anime - episodes don't work well if you only watch a bit of them and I have to sit and watch them on telly.
Also, I tend to always feel I need to watch a full disks worth when I watch it, which is part of the problem. Doing that means it's going to be an hour and a half of my time (4 episodes on a disk, on average) and when I start thinking like that I start thinking stuff like "I don't have the time, I'll do X instead".
Anyway, one of the manga was a new series:
Sunshine (Hidamari) Sketch
I picked up Sunshine Sketch because I enjoyed the anime adaptation. It turns out the manga is one of those 4 vertical panel jobs. Really I should have guessed from the anime, which is staged like a series of short vignettes, which is a common approach when adapting these types of manga.
The manga is pretty good. It's very Japanese, though. There's one of those translators notes sections at the back and it's written in tiny font with loads of stuff crammed in. I also get the feeling they've deliberately tried to keep it to one page and there's plenty of stuff that could also be explained.
However, unlike with something like Sayonara Zetsubo Sensei, this doesn't really matter. There's the odd strip that you need the notes to understand, but overall you should be okay, especially if you have some general knowledge about Japan from other anime and manga.
Otherwise it's pretty good. It's quite light in tone and is a slice of life type show. The main character Yuno is attending an Arts based high school and once she's there it actually becomes something of an ensemble piece, focusing on all the girls who live at the Hidamari Apartments with Yuno.
The big box I need to tick this weekend is getting my hair cut. With the weather and holiday I've not had it done in ages, so it looks bloody awful.
Thursday, 28 January 2010
a mosque of sultanas
Normally when it gets to the middle of the week I play anno in the evenings. I've reigned in the anno playing so that it's not all pervasive, but I still play it a lot. I've also been quite good this time at sticking with the same map, rather than starting a completely new one and therefore effectively wasting all the dozens of hours I'd invested in the old one.
Anyway, the point of this post is that I'm on the verge of hitting two of the big milestones. Last night I completed the Sultan's Mosque building on one of my islands. The sultan's mosque is a great big building that takes a heck of a lot of resources to complete. On the good side it does allow you to build a lot of houses in its influence area and not have to worry about the extra stuff that your citizens (in this case, the nomads and envoys) need.
I've also very nearly finished my first Imperial Cathedral. It's basically the equivalent of the Mosque for the Occident (west) and does a similar job, ticking all the building requirements for your western citizens (peasant, citizens, patricians and nobles). It's resource requirements are even more onerous than the mosque, which is why I completed the Mosque first.
If I play tonight (I may wait until the weekend) I should finish the Cathedral as well - I'm that close. It's then my plan to build more of both, though I'll have to build up the resources required again. The ones that are the most difficult are glass and mosaics, as they have the most complicated (and space consuming) production chains and seem to be slower too.
One thing that did surprise me when I finished the Mosque was the introduction of the Sultan as a new NPC. Normally you have the Corsairs and then a representative NPC each for the Occident and the Orient. Those Corsairs you have to befriend, but the other two are always your friend. Their respective bosses are the Sultan and the Emperor, and it seems you unlock them as direct NPCs by building the Mosque and Cathedral.
Unfortunately (or should that be fortunately?) t appears the expansion for anno is due sometime in February, which is basically in a few weeks. I'd kinda hoped I was going to finish this map before the expansion hit, giving me some time to not play Anno and catch up on other stuff. My fear now is that it'll hit and I'll be tempted away and not finish this map.
Anyway, the point of this post is that I'm on the verge of hitting two of the big milestones. Last night I completed the Sultan's Mosque building on one of my islands. The sultan's mosque is a great big building that takes a heck of a lot of resources to complete. On the good side it does allow you to build a lot of houses in its influence area and not have to worry about the extra stuff that your citizens (in this case, the nomads and envoys) need.
I've also very nearly finished my first Imperial Cathedral. It's basically the equivalent of the Mosque for the Occident (west) and does a similar job, ticking all the building requirements for your western citizens (peasant, citizens, patricians and nobles). It's resource requirements are even more onerous than the mosque, which is why I completed the Mosque first.
If I play tonight (I may wait until the weekend) I should finish the Cathedral as well - I'm that close. It's then my plan to build more of both, though I'll have to build up the resources required again. The ones that are the most difficult are glass and mosaics, as they have the most complicated (and space consuming) production chains and seem to be slower too.
One thing that did surprise me when I finished the Mosque was the introduction of the Sultan as a new NPC. Normally you have the Corsairs and then a representative NPC each for the Occident and the Orient. Those Corsairs you have to befriend, but the other two are always your friend. Their respective bosses are the Sultan and the Emperor, and it seems you unlock them as direct NPCs by building the Mosque and Cathedral.
Unfortunately (or should that be fortunately?) t appears the expansion for anno is due sometime in February, which is basically in a few weeks. I'd kinda hoped I was going to finish this map before the expansion hit, giving me some time to not play Anno and catch up on other stuff. My fear now is that it'll hit and I'll be tempted away and not finish this map.
Wednesday, 27 January 2010
there will be blood
The first rental after the whole snow problems was There Will Be Blood.
I knew very little about Blood, other than it was about oil and it has received a lot of critical praise. Well, it turns out it's only sort-of about oil, but pretty much deserves he critical praise.
I say it's only sort of about oil, because my feeling about it was the film was more of a character study. The character in question - Daniel Plainview - just happens to be an oil man.
Or he becomes an oil man - initially he's a silver prospector who happens to strike oil. He's also working alone and manages to break his leg by falling down his mineshaft. Daniel then drags himself to some sort of claims office, where he gets exploitation rights. Well, I think this is what happens - the details are actually important in a way, because what we're experiencing is more to do with Daniel's character than his finding silver or oil.
And this is where the film plays its first clever trick. His dragging himself miles to the claims office with a badly broken leg shows us his determination, but it also makes us feel like he's a decent guy. You can't help but feel happy for him that his hard work and horrible accident was worth it as he finds riches.
Shortly afterwards, Daniel also adopts the son of one of his men who was killed in accident down his oil well. The son's mother died during childbirth, so he's an orphan and Daniel adopts him - he can't be a bad person, right?
But here's the thing - the rest of the film charts either his steady decline in character, or steadily reveals his true nature to us. Which it is is never definitively expressed, but then that's the point - is he a bastard all along, or does he become a bastard?
Certainly the people he encounters are mostly just as unpleasant. A preacher, Eli, plays a particularly important role. Eli is just as unpleasant in Daniel, with one of the only real difference between them being that Eli hides behind the facade of being a preacher - a man of the lord - where Daniel is a plain capitalist.
The central performance by Daniel Day Lewis is captivating - it's quite a remarkable portrayal. The score is also remarkable - it's just not what I was expecting at all. The score is orchestral, but it's really dark and sinister. If you've ever seen 2001 then the music that's used during the bit where they discover the monolith on the moon is how the whole film is scored. But it really works - informing you of the underlying nastiness.
However, there were a few things I didn't like. The main one was that we never get enough detail on the other characters. As a simple example, where Daniel sends H.W. away there's no detail at all - we certainly never see where H.W. ends up.
The other thing was I didn't really like the ending. I could see how it worked and how it paralleled other parts of the film, but I dunno, it had that un-nerving quality of just sort of stopping.
I know that sort of thing is more 'realistic', but that doesn't make it satisfying.
I knew very little about Blood, other than it was about oil and it has received a lot of critical praise. Well, it turns out it's only sort-of about oil, but pretty much deserves he critical praise.
I say it's only sort of about oil, because my feeling about it was the film was more of a character study. The character in question - Daniel Plainview - just happens to be an oil man.
Or he becomes an oil man - initially he's a silver prospector who happens to strike oil. He's also working alone and manages to break his leg by falling down his mineshaft. Daniel then drags himself to some sort of claims office, where he gets exploitation rights. Well, I think this is what happens - the details are actually important in a way, because what we're experiencing is more to do with Daniel's character than his finding silver or oil.
And this is where the film plays its first clever trick. His dragging himself miles to the claims office with a badly broken leg shows us his determination, but it also makes us feel like he's a decent guy. You can't help but feel happy for him that his hard work and horrible accident was worth it as he finds riches.
Shortly afterwards, Daniel also adopts the son of one of his men who was killed in accident down his oil well. The son's mother died during childbirth, so he's an orphan and Daniel adopts him - he can't be a bad person, right?
But here's the thing - the rest of the film charts either his steady decline in character, or steadily reveals his true nature to us. Which it is is never definitively expressed, but then that's the point - is he a bastard all along, or does he become a bastard?
Certainly the people he encounters are mostly just as unpleasant. A preacher, Eli, plays a particularly important role. Eli is just as unpleasant in Daniel, with one of the only real difference between them being that Eli hides behind the facade of being a preacher - a man of the lord - where Daniel is a plain capitalist.
The central performance by Daniel Day Lewis is captivating - it's quite a remarkable portrayal. The score is also remarkable - it's just not what I was expecting at all. The score is orchestral, but it's really dark and sinister. If you've ever seen 2001 then the music that's used during the bit where they discover the monolith on the moon is how the whole film is scored. But it really works - informing you of the underlying nastiness.
However, there were a few things I didn't like. The main one was that we never get enough detail on the other characters. As a simple example, where Daniel sends H.W. away there's no detail at all - we certainly never see where H.W. ends up.
The other thing was I didn't really like the ending. I could see how it worked and how it paralleled other parts of the film, but I dunno, it had that un-nerving quality of just sort of stopping.
I know that sort of thing is more 'realistic', but that doesn't make it satisfying.
Tuesday, 26 January 2010
almost normal
Last night was about the closest to a normal night I've had in ages. By normal I mean it followed the expected routine.
Obviously, over Christmas I was on holiday, so that was very not normal. Then after Christmas was when it snowed. I was initially trapped in, so that wasn't normal, and then I was struggling into work, again far from normal, because it took ages and I had to get up really early and stuff.
And just recently I've been struggling with the whole bent wheel and driving on the space-saver. During that time I was again getting up early, to try to avoid the traffic (it didn't really work) and setting off later for the same reason (that worked better). But again - up very early and getting back late, which sucks up my time.
So yesterday was normal - I got up at my usual time, did the usual stuff, work was nothing unusual and then back home at the usual sort of time. I had my dinner and there was some spare time to watch a bit of telly, rather than me having to go straight to bed.
It was kinda nice, in a boring sort of way.
The telly I watched was the most recent couple of episodes of Being Human. I like Being Human - it shares a lot of similarities with Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but at the same time it's very different.
The thing I like most is the blend of drama and comedy. I have to admit that for the first few episodes of this new series I think it wasn't quite right. It felt too heavy, emotionally. No, that's not right - Being Human often has heavy stuff in it, but it's the way they blend that with funny stuff that makes the show work, and it's the funny stuff that's been a bit lacking.
Well, the latest episodes, which was shown on Sunday had a much better balance. There was still a lot of heavy emotional stuff, but the funny was also ramped up - I genuinely laughed out loud a couple of times.
Obviously, over Christmas I was on holiday, so that was very not normal. Then after Christmas was when it snowed. I was initially trapped in, so that wasn't normal, and then I was struggling into work, again far from normal, because it took ages and I had to get up really early and stuff.
And just recently I've been struggling with the whole bent wheel and driving on the space-saver. During that time I was again getting up early, to try to avoid the traffic (it didn't really work) and setting off later for the same reason (that worked better). But again - up very early and getting back late, which sucks up my time.
So yesterday was normal - I got up at my usual time, did the usual stuff, work was nothing unusual and then back home at the usual sort of time. I had my dinner and there was some spare time to watch a bit of telly, rather than me having to go straight to bed.
It was kinda nice, in a boring sort of way.
The telly I watched was the most recent couple of episodes of Being Human. I like Being Human - it shares a lot of similarities with Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but at the same time it's very different.
The thing I like most is the blend of drama and comedy. I have to admit that for the first few episodes of this new series I think it wasn't quite right. It felt too heavy, emotionally. No, that's not right - Being Human often has heavy stuff in it, but it's the way they blend that with funny stuff that makes the show work, and it's the funny stuff that's been a bit lacking.
Well, the latest episodes, which was shown on Sunday had a much better balance. There was still a lot of heavy emotional stuff, but the funny was also ramped up - I genuinely laughed out loud a couple of times.
Monday, 25 January 2010
a hole in the pocket
So this weekend cost me about £320.
I ended up ordering the tyre from Nissan and it cam in on Saturday morning. Not that the guy called me. I'm not really sure why I keep using the Aldershot Westway Nissan dealership, as the customer service is shit.
I've always maintained that in terms of the back room - the mechanics, for example - they do a really good job, but the problem is the front end. Whenever I call them up and they say "do you want to leave a message and he'll call you back" I've learnt not to bother, because they never, ever do call me back. It's far better to simply call back.
I mean, the guy said he'd phone me when I ordered it on Friday, but he didn't. I had to call in and check. Of course, being Saturday, he was pretty busy, so I had to keep calling - on one of the occasions I did leave a message, but he didn't call back.
Anyway, the wheel had come in, so I limped to the dealership. It cost about £185 (ouch!).
I then limped all the way over to Alton Qwik Fit where the tyre I ordered was. That was a fairly painless process, because I'd ordered the tyre and I had lucked out with the timing and got straight in and served. Painless apart front he price that is - £135 (double ouch!).
Not heard a peep from this guy who was supposed to fix my bent wheel. It's like he's dropped off the face of the earth :/.
Saturday was about the first time I've driven around with it being light out. I thought I'd have a drive around with the new tyre and see where all the potholes were, plus I needed some petrol. The A31 is like a dirt track in places. There's one place coming off of the roundabout after Farnham where the hole is like a crevasse, it's so big and deep. The one I hit was like that, but they've patched that one up.
Anyway, when I got back on Saturday, I thought I'd give the old girl a bit of a treat after having to limp around with a lame leg all week and gave her a good clean. Unfortunately, the light faded before I'd finished, so I had to finish off on Sunday morning.
Weirdly, normally when I clean the car I get a lot of pain in my hamstring down the back of my legs from bending over so much. However, Sunday morning I was fine, but this morning I'm in agony. That suggests the little bit of bending down I did when finishing off on the Sunday had more impact than everything on Saturday, which is a bit weird.
I also couldn't be arsed to go the whole hog and polish the car. There was also another reason for that - I seem to have a lot of... well, they're not really scratches, as such - the paint isn't gone, but the finish seems to have come off. I dunno, it's a little difficult to explain, especially as I haven't a clue what has caused it.
I do have this stuff that claims to restore the finish, but I've never tried it, and I couldn't be bothered to start experimenting on the Sunday.
Anyway, it looks pretty good, so I'm fairly happy.
I ended up ordering the tyre from Nissan and it cam in on Saturday morning. Not that the guy called me. I'm not really sure why I keep using the Aldershot Westway Nissan dealership, as the customer service is shit.
I've always maintained that in terms of the back room - the mechanics, for example - they do a really good job, but the problem is the front end. Whenever I call them up and they say "do you want to leave a message and he'll call you back" I've learnt not to bother, because they never, ever do call me back. It's far better to simply call back.
I mean, the guy said he'd phone me when I ordered it on Friday, but he didn't. I had to call in and check. Of course, being Saturday, he was pretty busy, so I had to keep calling - on one of the occasions I did leave a message, but he didn't call back.
Anyway, the wheel had come in, so I limped to the dealership. It cost about £185 (ouch!).
I then limped all the way over to Alton Qwik Fit where the tyre I ordered was. That was a fairly painless process, because I'd ordered the tyre and I had lucked out with the timing and got straight in and served. Painless apart front he price that is - £135 (double ouch!).
Not heard a peep from this guy who was supposed to fix my bent wheel. It's like he's dropped off the face of the earth :/.
Saturday was about the first time I've driven around with it being light out. I thought I'd have a drive around with the new tyre and see where all the potholes were, plus I needed some petrol. The A31 is like a dirt track in places. There's one place coming off of the roundabout after Farnham where the hole is like a crevasse, it's so big and deep. The one I hit was like that, but they've patched that one up.
Anyway, when I got back on Saturday, I thought I'd give the old girl a bit of a treat after having to limp around with a lame leg all week and gave her a good clean. Unfortunately, the light faded before I'd finished, so I had to finish off on Sunday morning.
Weirdly, normally when I clean the car I get a lot of pain in my hamstring down the back of my legs from bending over so much. However, Sunday morning I was fine, but this morning I'm in agony. That suggests the little bit of bending down I did when finishing off on the Sunday had more impact than everything on Saturday, which is a bit weird.
I also couldn't be arsed to go the whole hog and polish the car. There was also another reason for that - I seem to have a lot of... well, they're not really scratches, as such - the paint isn't gone, but the finish seems to have come off. I dunno, it's a little difficult to explain, especially as I haven't a clue what has caused it.
I do have this stuff that claims to restore the finish, but I've never tried it, and I couldn't be bothered to start experimenting on the Sunday.
Anyway, it looks pretty good, so I'm fairly happy.
Friday, 22 January 2010
tyre-d out
Right then, so this tyre/pothole situation.
To summarise what I've posted - Monday on the way home from work I hit a pothole REALLY hard. Continued home, but failed to check the tyre that evening, because I'm stupid. Tuesday I drove in, I now realise with the tyre deflating. By the time I got to work the tyre was totally dead.
My plan was to hope for the best - assume it was just a knackered tyre, get it off at lunchtime, go down kwik-fit and start the ball rolling on getting new one.
The first problem was that I could not get the tyre off. There are four nuts that you need to unscrew and I could do three of them, but the fourth was one of these locking wheel nuts. The idea seems to be that there's a kind of "key" that fits onto the nut and clips into your wrench, but for the life of me I just could not get any purchase to turn it.
Luckily, I'm a member of the RAC, so I called them up. I called them at about 1:30pm and they said it would probably not be until 4pm that someone would get to me. Fine - I was at work, I wasn't going anywhere any way.
However, because I knew my tyres are rather rare, I thought I'd call kwik fit and try to get the ball rolling. So I did that, explain the tyre size and stuff and that all 4 of my current tyres are continentals. The guy said they'd need to check the stocks and get back to me.
So, 4pm rolled around and no sign of the RAC. I phoned them up, chasing, and they said it was going to be 6pm before someone could get to me! I appreciate I'm not pregnant and stuck by the side of the motorway, but come on - that's just taking the piss. 4 and a half hours to get to me!
Next thing, I hadn't heard anything from kwik fit, so I called them up. Well, it turns out that there are no Continental tyres in my size in the entire country! Not even Continental themselves have got any in stock!
Well, I know that you're not supposed to mix tread patterns on your driving wheels, which are the ones with power going to them. In my case that's the fronts and it was the front left that was knackered. However, the guy said we could order another brand - Pirelli in this case - and swap one from the back to the front.
The RAC guy eventually turned up at 5:45pm and of course he had the tyre off and changed in less than 5 minutes!
Unfortunately, I've got one of these shitty space saver tyres. That means I can't go above 50, and in reality I've been driving everywhere at 40, because it's far too easy to go above and if I was at 50 and did that, Christ knows what would happen.
Anyway, got home and decided I'd tidy up so that my tyre was in easy reach for the next day and I'd put all the bits and pieces for changing the tyre away too.
Well, while I was doing that, I noticed that the inside of the wheel - the inner rim - looked a bit funny. Using a tape measure, I was able to determine that the wheel is actually bent! There's a part of it that isn't as round as it should be! I'm guessing that's actually why the tyre deflated - I certainly couldn't see any holes in it.
But that also means I can't just put a new tyre on it - it needs properly fixing. I therefore investigated this on the internet that night and a guy I e-mailed called me right back.
He said it was going to be about £75 to repair, which isn't cheap, but is a lot cheaper than a new wheel. He also said it was going to take a couple of days (there are loads and loads of people hitting potholes and bending alloys because the roads have been fucked up by the recent bad weather)and he'd pick it up on Thursday.
So I've been driving on this crappy space saver in the meant time and it's not fun I can tell you.
And guess what? Thursday rolls around and there's not a peep from this guy at all. I phoned him up towards the end of the day and it just went straight to voicemail. So I e-mailed him late last night and I've not had a reply yet - to be honest, that's kind of fair enough, because it was late, but it also means he's still not answered my phone message.
It's getting silly - he also said it would take about 48 hours to repair, because of the backlog, so that means it'll be ages before it's done. I therefore phoned the Nissan garage this morning and asked how much a new alloy would be. It's more expensive - £180 - but he said I could have it tomorrow if I ordered by 11am (not sure this would actually be the case, but even if it was Monday, that'd be quicker).
The way I'm currently feeling about the situation I'll probably actually do both. That way I might be able to have an actual proper spare tyre, rather than this space saver shit.
To summarise what I've posted - Monday on the way home from work I hit a pothole REALLY hard. Continued home, but failed to check the tyre that evening, because I'm stupid. Tuesday I drove in, I now realise with the tyre deflating. By the time I got to work the tyre was totally dead.
My plan was to hope for the best - assume it was just a knackered tyre, get it off at lunchtime, go down kwik-fit and start the ball rolling on getting new one.
The first problem was that I could not get the tyre off. There are four nuts that you need to unscrew and I could do three of them, but the fourth was one of these locking wheel nuts. The idea seems to be that there's a kind of "key" that fits onto the nut and clips into your wrench, but for the life of me I just could not get any purchase to turn it.
Luckily, I'm a member of the RAC, so I called them up. I called them at about 1:30pm and they said it would probably not be until 4pm that someone would get to me. Fine - I was at work, I wasn't going anywhere any way.
However, because I knew my tyres are rather rare, I thought I'd call kwik fit and try to get the ball rolling. So I did that, explain the tyre size and stuff and that all 4 of my current tyres are continentals. The guy said they'd need to check the stocks and get back to me.
So, 4pm rolled around and no sign of the RAC. I phoned them up, chasing, and they said it was going to be 6pm before someone could get to me! I appreciate I'm not pregnant and stuck by the side of the motorway, but come on - that's just taking the piss. 4 and a half hours to get to me!
Next thing, I hadn't heard anything from kwik fit, so I called them up. Well, it turns out that there are no Continental tyres in my size in the entire country! Not even Continental themselves have got any in stock!
Well, I know that you're not supposed to mix tread patterns on your driving wheels, which are the ones with power going to them. In my case that's the fronts and it was the front left that was knackered. However, the guy said we could order another brand - Pirelli in this case - and swap one from the back to the front.
The RAC guy eventually turned up at 5:45pm and of course he had the tyre off and changed in less than 5 minutes!
Unfortunately, I've got one of these shitty space saver tyres. That means I can't go above 50, and in reality I've been driving everywhere at 40, because it's far too easy to go above and if I was at 50 and did that, Christ knows what would happen.
Anyway, got home and decided I'd tidy up so that my tyre was in easy reach for the next day and I'd put all the bits and pieces for changing the tyre away too.
Well, while I was doing that, I noticed that the inside of the wheel - the inner rim - looked a bit funny. Using a tape measure, I was able to determine that the wheel is actually bent! There's a part of it that isn't as round as it should be! I'm guessing that's actually why the tyre deflated - I certainly couldn't see any holes in it.
But that also means I can't just put a new tyre on it - it needs properly fixing. I therefore investigated this on the internet that night and a guy I e-mailed called me right back.
He said it was going to be about £75 to repair, which isn't cheap, but is a lot cheaper than a new wheel. He also said it was going to take a couple of days (there are loads and loads of people hitting potholes and bending alloys because the roads have been fucked up by the recent bad weather)and he'd pick it up on Thursday.
So I've been driving on this crappy space saver in the meant time and it's not fun I can tell you.
And guess what? Thursday rolls around and there's not a peep from this guy at all. I phoned him up towards the end of the day and it just went straight to voicemail. So I e-mailed him late last night and I've not had a reply yet - to be honest, that's kind of fair enough, because it was late, but it also means he's still not answered my phone message.
It's getting silly - he also said it would take about 48 hours to repair, because of the backlog, so that means it'll be ages before it's done. I therefore phoned the Nissan garage this morning and asked how much a new alloy would be. It's more expensive - £180 - but he said I could have it tomorrow if I ordered by 11am (not sure this would actually be the case, but even if it was Monday, that'd be quicker).
The way I'm currently feeling about the situation I'll probably actually do both. That way I might be able to have an actual proper spare tyre, rather than this space saver shit.
Thursday, 21 January 2010
babylon5: the lost tales
Y'know what? I can't be arsed to do a proper blog entry today, so instead I'm going to post the last of the mini-reviews of stuff I watched over Christmas. This weekend I can finally resume watching new stuff as my latest rental DVD finally turned up on Tuesday. The post has really been knackered after the snow - more so than when they were on strike!
I'm not going to spend much time explaining the show - go check out Wikipedia - but I was a huge fan of Babylon 5 back in the day.
For some reason, Babylon 5 never really broke through into the popular imagination in quite the same way as Star Trek and Star Wars have.
Now you could put this down to the fact that B5 is definitely hard sci-fi, but then Star Trek is actually surprisingly hard sci-fi. Star Wars is not really - it's set in space, but it fantasy more than it is SF, truth be told. And I think the difference with Star Trek is that it had a sufficiently large nerdy fan-base it managed to whether the storms.
Also, Star Trek was kind of a benchmark and let's be frank - occasionally things just manage to breakthrough. Be it timing or sheer quality or just random good luck, occasionally some niche things just manage to make that leap into the general consciousness.
Anyway, the point is I really enjoyed the B5 TV series, so when I saw heard about The Lost Tales I thought I'd rent it and see if it lived up to the original series.
B5's strength was always its storytelling. The budget was always more in the cardboard set realm, and it was a pioneer of CG when, to be frank, CG was in its infancy, but the point is that stuff didn't matter, because the writing was so good.
Well, I say that stuff didn't matter.
The Lost Tales kinda proves that actually, it does matter a bit. Because although the writing is okay, the severely limited budget kinda shows. I mean, there must only have been a dozen actors across both of the stories.
To be fair, they're cleverly set up so that you wouldn't expect big crowd scenes, but it gives the whole thing a stage-play feel, rather than living up to the standards of even the TV show.
I mean, the idea is both tales are set before a big ceremony on B5 to mark an anniversary. But we never get to see that ceremony, because that would need a big crowd.
More obviously there are quite a few bits of "Oh, do you remember Garibaldi? Will he be there?" "Oh no, he sent a message saying he couldn't make it." Which just ends up smelling of "we couldn't afford to get all the actors."
And unfortunately it's really noticeable.
Plus, to be frank, the two stories are actually inconsequential.
Given the huge, Space Opera scope of the original series, if these had appeared as actual episodes, they'd have been in the "filler" bracket, rather than really adding to the grand storylines.
And that makes them a little disappointing, to be frank.
Plus the first one is kinda on a religious theme and to me wasn't very satisfying as it kinda came across as "oh, btw, actually, God exists in the B5 universe" when religion wasn't really a big issue in the series. Not to mention it conflicting wit my personal views... and common sense.
I'm not going to spend much time explaining the show - go check out Wikipedia - but I was a huge fan of Babylon 5 back in the day.
For some reason, Babylon 5 never really broke through into the popular imagination in quite the same way as Star Trek and Star Wars have.
Now you could put this down to the fact that B5 is definitely hard sci-fi, but then Star Trek is actually surprisingly hard sci-fi. Star Wars is not really - it's set in space, but it fantasy more than it is SF, truth be told. And I think the difference with Star Trek is that it had a sufficiently large nerdy fan-base it managed to whether the storms.
Also, Star Trek was kind of a benchmark and let's be frank - occasionally things just manage to breakthrough. Be it timing or sheer quality or just random good luck, occasionally some niche things just manage to make that leap into the general consciousness.
Anyway, the point is I really enjoyed the B5 TV series, so when I saw heard about The Lost Tales I thought I'd rent it and see if it lived up to the original series.
B5's strength was always its storytelling. The budget was always more in the cardboard set realm, and it was a pioneer of CG when, to be frank, CG was in its infancy, but the point is that stuff didn't matter, because the writing was so good.
Well, I say that stuff didn't matter.
The Lost Tales kinda proves that actually, it does matter a bit. Because although the writing is okay, the severely limited budget kinda shows. I mean, there must only have been a dozen actors across both of the stories.
To be fair, they're cleverly set up so that you wouldn't expect big crowd scenes, but it gives the whole thing a stage-play feel, rather than living up to the standards of even the TV show.
I mean, the idea is both tales are set before a big ceremony on B5 to mark an anniversary. But we never get to see that ceremony, because that would need a big crowd.
More obviously there are quite a few bits of "Oh, do you remember Garibaldi? Will he be there?" "Oh no, he sent a message saying he couldn't make it." Which just ends up smelling of "we couldn't afford to get all the actors."
And unfortunately it's really noticeable.
Plus, to be frank, the two stories are actually inconsequential.
Given the huge, Space Opera scope of the original series, if these had appeared as actual episodes, they'd have been in the "filler" bracket, rather than really adding to the grand storylines.
And that makes them a little disappointing, to be frank.
Plus the first one is kinda on a religious theme and to me wasn't very satisfying as it kinda came across as "oh, btw, actually, God exists in the B5 universe" when religion wasn't really a big issue in the series. Not to mention it conflicting wit my personal views... and common sense.
Wednesday, 20 January 2010
public enemies
I'll stick with the traditional Wednesday mini-review today and leave updates on the tyre/wheel situation for later (it's not working out well).
Interestingly, I watched this at my Dad's while I was visiting him down in Devon.
He recently got broadband, as I've discussed on the blog before, and as part of the package he got BT Vision, which is an on-demand thing from BT. The box actually also gives him access to Freeview, which is digital television via your aerial, but we watched Public Enemies via a streaming service.
You actually pay for the films a bit like you would if you were downloading them from iPlayer or something like that; however, they appear not be downloaded, but streamed.
I was rather curious (and a little dubious) that this would work. He only has the most basic package, so his internet speed is not the greatest and I was puzzled what system it would use and how it would work.
As I've discussed before on the blog I know of two streaming types - YouTube style, where it caches the video and iPlayer style where you watch live. Unfortunately, BT Vision appears to use the latter method and presumably because his speed is not great, it didn't work very well.
If you've ever watched the iPlayer on a low bandwidth connection you'll know what I mean - it kept stuttering, which really affected the experience.
The odd thing, though was that picture quality was surprisingly good. I mean, I know TV is deceptive in that it's actually at quite a low resolution compared to most computer monitors, but it actually looked quite good. I'm guessing this was part of the problem - if the video was compressed a bit more, maybe it would have streamed better?
Anyway, the film itself seemed okay, although I guess that opinion could be affected by the poor viewing experience.
I think my biggest criticism about the film was that if felt like you needed to know about the period. It's basically about John Dillinger, who was a bank robber during the early 1930s.
Now the film looked like it was set during that period and the performances were quite good, but I dunno - it sort of lacked context. I mean, the 1930s was when the great depression happened and the early 1930s was also when America had prohibition.
Now while Dillinger wasn't a bootlegger, so I guess you could argue prohibition wasn't of quite a great importance, the Great Depression was. I mean, the whole mythos and rose-tinted view of gangsters, bootleggers and bank robbers was virtually caused by the depression.
The whole "Robin Hood" feel to them was erroneous, but it was what people felt about them and yet there's nothing that really conveys that in the film. I mean, unless you knew it was the depression, you really wouldn't have a clue from the film.
It lacked context in that sense.
I have to admit it also felt both too long and not long enough. In other words, it felt like they were trying to cram too much in, so you get an odd sense of jumping huge chunks of time in order to show little snippets, and yet because there were so many snippets it kinda went on a long time.
I've a feeling that was the aspect that was most affected by it stuttering, though.
I think generally if you watch the film I'd say do a bit of reading about who Dillinger was before hand and you may enjoy it a bit more.
Interestingly, I watched this at my Dad's while I was visiting him down in Devon.
He recently got broadband, as I've discussed on the blog before, and as part of the package he got BT Vision, which is an on-demand thing from BT. The box actually also gives him access to Freeview, which is digital television via your aerial, but we watched Public Enemies via a streaming service.
You actually pay for the films a bit like you would if you were downloading them from iPlayer or something like that; however, they appear not be downloaded, but streamed.
I was rather curious (and a little dubious) that this would work. He only has the most basic package, so his internet speed is not the greatest and I was puzzled what system it would use and how it would work.
As I've discussed before on the blog I know of two streaming types - YouTube style, where it caches the video and iPlayer style where you watch live. Unfortunately, BT Vision appears to use the latter method and presumably because his speed is not great, it didn't work very well.
If you've ever watched the iPlayer on a low bandwidth connection you'll know what I mean - it kept stuttering, which really affected the experience.
The odd thing, though was that picture quality was surprisingly good. I mean, I know TV is deceptive in that it's actually at quite a low resolution compared to most computer monitors, but it actually looked quite good. I'm guessing this was part of the problem - if the video was compressed a bit more, maybe it would have streamed better?
Anyway, the film itself seemed okay, although I guess that opinion could be affected by the poor viewing experience.
I think my biggest criticism about the film was that if felt like you needed to know about the period. It's basically about John Dillinger, who was a bank robber during the early 1930s.
Now the film looked like it was set during that period and the performances were quite good, but I dunno - it sort of lacked context. I mean, the 1930s was when the great depression happened and the early 1930s was also when America had prohibition.
Now while Dillinger wasn't a bootlegger, so I guess you could argue prohibition wasn't of quite a great importance, the Great Depression was. I mean, the whole mythos and rose-tinted view of gangsters, bootleggers and bank robbers was virtually caused by the depression.
The whole "Robin Hood" feel to them was erroneous, but it was what people felt about them and yet there's nothing that really conveys that in the film. I mean, unless you knew it was the depression, you really wouldn't have a clue from the film.
It lacked context in that sense.
I have to admit it also felt both too long and not long enough. In other words, it felt like they were trying to cram too much in, so you get an odd sense of jumping huge chunks of time in order to show little snippets, and yet because there were so many snippets it kinda went on a long time.
I've a feeling that was the aspect that was most affected by it stuttering, though.
I think generally if you watch the film I'd say do a bit of reading about who Dillinger was before hand and you may enjoy it a bit more.
Tuesday, 19 January 2010
fucking potholes
Last night I hit a pothole.
And when I say hit, I mean mother fucking hit (I should warn that this blog entry may be a little more sweary than usual as I'm a rather pissed off). It felt like I was mounting the curb. And since I was on the A31 doing the best part of 60 miles an hour it was not a fun experience. It was a massive jolt and a there was a huge bang as I guess the shocks slammed up to take the impact.
Unfortunately, however, when I got home I was not sensible.
When I got home I should have checked out the tyre. I can't really check out the suspension, but the tyre is easily checkable and I now appreciate I should have had a look.
The reason I should have had a look is because the tyre has punctured. I don't think it could have burst as I didn't detect anything odd on the rest of the drive home. However, the drive in this morning got increasingly worse as I went.
I realise now that this was the tyre deflating. It's currently sat in the office car park awaiting me putting the skinny space-saver tyre on.
And that'll be a fucking nightmare. I've never changed the tyres before and it's got one of those locking wheel nuts, which I bet will be a pig to do. That's assuming the garage hasn't done the usual trick of tightening the tyres to such a degree that even bloody Hercules couldn't get them off.
So now I have a catalogue of potential problems.
First off the obvious - I'll need a new tyre. My tyres are a special size that are both quite rare and fucking expensive. We're talking at least £100. That's a lot of money. This means that even getting it sorted now will mean it will be tomorrow before a new one arrives. That means I'll have to drive on the skinny tyre, which is not the safest thing to be doing.
Next up the alignment/tracking could have been put out, which is not a big fix, but obviously represents more money.
Then it gets horrible - the shocks could have been damaged, the springs could have been damaged, the wheel bearing could have been damaged or the damn steering rack could even have been damaged. Those are all fucking expensive.
This is all assuming I've not caused even more damage by running on a flat tyre like a stupid idiot. Which, knowing my luck, I'm sure I have.
And when I say hit, I mean mother fucking hit (I should warn that this blog entry may be a little more sweary than usual as I'm a rather pissed off). It felt like I was mounting the curb. And since I was on the A31 doing the best part of 60 miles an hour it was not a fun experience. It was a massive jolt and a there was a huge bang as I guess the shocks slammed up to take the impact.
Unfortunately, however, when I got home I was not sensible.
When I got home I should have checked out the tyre. I can't really check out the suspension, but the tyre is easily checkable and I now appreciate I should have had a look.
The reason I should have had a look is because the tyre has punctured. I don't think it could have burst as I didn't detect anything odd on the rest of the drive home. However, the drive in this morning got increasingly worse as I went.
I realise now that this was the tyre deflating. It's currently sat in the office car park awaiting me putting the skinny space-saver tyre on.
And that'll be a fucking nightmare. I've never changed the tyres before and it's got one of those locking wheel nuts, which I bet will be a pig to do. That's assuming the garage hasn't done the usual trick of tightening the tyres to such a degree that even bloody Hercules couldn't get them off.
So now I have a catalogue of potential problems.
First off the obvious - I'll need a new tyre. My tyres are a special size that are both quite rare and fucking expensive. We're talking at least £100. That's a lot of money. This means that even getting it sorted now will mean it will be tomorrow before a new one arrives. That means I'll have to drive on the skinny tyre, which is not the safest thing to be doing.
Next up the alignment/tracking could have been put out, which is not a big fix, but obviously represents more money.
Then it gets horrible - the shocks could have been damaged, the springs could have been damaged, the wheel bearing could have been damaged or the damn steering rack could even have been damaged. Those are all fucking expensive.
This is all assuming I've not caused even more damage by running on a flat tyre like a stupid idiot. Which, knowing my luck, I'm sure I have.
Monday, 18 January 2010
sleep patterns
My sleep patterns are all over the place it seems.
Normally they get a bit messed up when I take a long holiday, but the other thing that's buggered them up has been the getting up early during the last week because of the snow.
Sunday's a good example - my fritzed body clock woke me up about 5:30AM. I tried to go back to sleep, but it was no use as I was totally wide awake. So instead, I just watched some stuff I'd recorded.
Then, by about 8:00PM I was utterly shattered. However, I knew that if I went to sleep I'd end up waking up early again, so I forced myself to stay awake and read some manga. Eventually I turned in at about 9:30PM, which was still a bit early, but I just couldn't keep my eyes open.
I must have fallen asleep instantly, as next thing I know I'm lying in bed totally awake again. I checked the clock and it was only 1:30AM, but again I was really awake. What didn't help here was that I think I've pulled a muscle in my back and it was aching.
I took some pain killers and read for about half an hour or so until they kicked in and was then able to get back to sleep. But then I was woken up by my alarm at 6:45AM, which never normally happens. I was really tired when I got up, because of the messed up sleep pattern, but I'm okay now.
Hopefully with the return to normality my body-clock will get back on track this week. I say hopefully, because I saw a forecast over the weekend that predicted snow on Wednesday.
The snow has basically cleared here to the extent that it's not a problem. There are still a few patches, mainly where it was piled up.
The weekend was suitably dull and quite relaxing. I did a big shop and restocked a lot of stuff and cleaned the flat, which got some of the domestics out of the way. I also received about a dozen parcels, which was all the mail that had built up that they hadn't been able to deliver.
They were all parcels though - letters must still be backlogged, as I seem to be lacking a few things I would normally have expected to come through.
Normally they get a bit messed up when I take a long holiday, but the other thing that's buggered them up has been the getting up early during the last week because of the snow.
Sunday's a good example - my fritzed body clock woke me up about 5:30AM. I tried to go back to sleep, but it was no use as I was totally wide awake. So instead, I just watched some stuff I'd recorded.
Then, by about 8:00PM I was utterly shattered. However, I knew that if I went to sleep I'd end up waking up early again, so I forced myself to stay awake and read some manga. Eventually I turned in at about 9:30PM, which was still a bit early, but I just couldn't keep my eyes open.
I must have fallen asleep instantly, as next thing I know I'm lying in bed totally awake again. I checked the clock and it was only 1:30AM, but again I was really awake. What didn't help here was that I think I've pulled a muscle in my back and it was aching.
I took some pain killers and read for about half an hour or so until they kicked in and was then able to get back to sleep. But then I was woken up by my alarm at 6:45AM, which never normally happens. I was really tired when I got up, because of the messed up sleep pattern, but I'm okay now.
Hopefully with the return to normality my body-clock will get back on track this week. I say hopefully, because I saw a forecast over the weekend that predicted snow on Wednesday.
The snow has basically cleared here to the extent that it's not a problem. There are still a few patches, mainly where it was piled up.
The weekend was suitably dull and quite relaxing. I did a big shop and restocked a lot of stuff and cleaned the flat, which got some of the domestics out of the way. I also received about a dozen parcels, which was all the mail that had built up that they hadn't been able to deliver.
They were all parcels though - letters must still be backlogged, as I seem to be lacking a few things I would normally have expected to come through.
Friday, 15 January 2010
watched stuff
So when I've not been at work or doing epic battle with the snow this week I've mainly been watching and reading stuff.
The main thing I've been watching is the second series of 30 Rock. I really like this show. I think it's very well written and pretty damn funny, but for some reason it's not generally very popular.
It's surprisingly actually because it's not hugely popular in America, and yet it's not been cancelled. Stuff get cancelled pretty quickly in America if it's not popular, or its popularity fades. I think what might be helping 30 Rock stay on air is something hinted at in the extras - NBC wasn't expecting it to be popular.
As such, because its rating seen to have stayed pretty stable and in some cases gone up, they may be pretty happy with it. Plus it apparently tests well in certain demographics. It's also a critical darling and has won a clutch of awards, including Emmys, which are some of the big ones.
I dunno - it's one of those odd things about American TV where it's all a bit random as to what's renewed and cancelled.
I'll be doing a proper review of it at some point, but I've got a lot of reviews to write and prepare after Christmas, so it might be a while before it appears.
I've also sampled a couple of anime shows:
Kampfer
This is a gender-swap comedy. It's got quite a lot of fan-service and the plot is quite predictable. There's lots of elements I've seen in other shows.
So it's not really innovative or original. Plus the animation rarely bobs above the 'basic' threshold. Also, the soundtrack is slightly odd, flipping into heavy metal when there's an action sequence, which really doesn't shit the bright, colourful visuals of the show.
But do you know what? I kinda enjoyed it.
I was rather surprised by this, and tried o pin down what it was that made me like it, but I really can't figure it out.
Don't get me wrong - I'm not saying it's amazing or ground-breaking or anything, just that I kinda enjoyed it.
Maybe it's just that I've been out of the anime loop too long?
The Sacred Blacksmith
The other show I sampled had much higher production values. The animation was much generally smoother, and the soundtrack fit the show better.
I must admit, though I was a bit torn over it. There was stuff I quite liked - the characters were quite interesting, for example. But then there were quite a few things I didn't like.
The background/setting is another one of those weirdly random anime things. Part standard fantasy, part mumbo-jumbo mystical stuff and part odd take on Christianity.
Also, the show is sort of about a Blacksmith, which I thought might be interesting, but it didn't really show much of that in the first few episodes. What it did show a bit of was the 'sacred' part and I didn't really like it.
It came across a bit like magically making the sword, and I dunno it just left me really cold. There's a big difference between the sweat and toil of making a sword (especially a samurai sword with all that folding) and just going all mystical mumbo-jumbo and conjuring one up.
Plans for the weekend are basically pretty dull.
My main aim, as mentioned yesterday, is to get a big shop in and to buy some electricity for the meter. Apart from that, I need to clean my flat.
Otherwise, it's sleeping and relaxing watching a bit of telly, I think. This week has really left me shattered.
The main thing I've been watching is the second series of 30 Rock. I really like this show. I think it's very well written and pretty damn funny, but for some reason it's not generally very popular.
It's surprisingly actually because it's not hugely popular in America, and yet it's not been cancelled. Stuff get cancelled pretty quickly in America if it's not popular, or its popularity fades. I think what might be helping 30 Rock stay on air is something hinted at in the extras - NBC wasn't expecting it to be popular.
As such, because its rating seen to have stayed pretty stable and in some cases gone up, they may be pretty happy with it. Plus it apparently tests well in certain demographics. It's also a critical darling and has won a clutch of awards, including Emmys, which are some of the big ones.
I dunno - it's one of those odd things about American TV where it's all a bit random as to what's renewed and cancelled.
I'll be doing a proper review of it at some point, but I've got a lot of reviews to write and prepare after Christmas, so it might be a while before it appears.
I've also sampled a couple of anime shows:
Kampfer
This is a gender-swap comedy. It's got quite a lot of fan-service and the plot is quite predictable. There's lots of elements I've seen in other shows.
So it's not really innovative or original. Plus the animation rarely bobs above the 'basic' threshold. Also, the soundtrack is slightly odd, flipping into heavy metal when there's an action sequence, which really doesn't shit the bright, colourful visuals of the show.
But do you know what? I kinda enjoyed it.
I was rather surprised by this, and tried o pin down what it was that made me like it, but I really can't figure it out.
Don't get me wrong - I'm not saying it's amazing or ground-breaking or anything, just that I kinda enjoyed it.
Maybe it's just that I've been out of the anime loop too long?
The Sacred Blacksmith
The other show I sampled had much higher production values. The animation was much generally smoother, and the soundtrack fit the show better.
I must admit, though I was a bit torn over it. There was stuff I quite liked - the characters were quite interesting, for example. But then there were quite a few things I didn't like.
The background/setting is another one of those weirdly random anime things. Part standard fantasy, part mumbo-jumbo mystical stuff and part odd take on Christianity.
Also, the show is sort of about a Blacksmith, which I thought might be interesting, but it didn't really show much of that in the first few episodes. What it did show a bit of was the 'sacred' part and I didn't really like it.
It came across a bit like magically making the sword, and I dunno it just left me really cold. There's a big difference between the sweat and toil of making a sword (especially a samurai sword with all that folding) and just going all mystical mumbo-jumbo and conjuring one up.
Plans for the weekend are basically pretty dull.
My main aim, as mentioned yesterday, is to get a big shop in and to buy some electricity for the meter. Apart from that, I need to clean my flat.
Otherwise, it's sleeping and relaxing watching a bit of telly, I think. This week has really left me shattered.
Thursday, 14 January 2010
bored of this now
I'm bored of the snow now.
On Wednesday it snowed again - well, it's snow several times, actually, but this was proper snow that covered the ground with an extra inch or so. And the journey to work was horrendous.
Part of the problem was that I hadn't gotten up early. Since this snowy weather started I've been getting up a bit earlier in attempt to beat the heavier traffic periods. But on Wednesday I was so tired I just couldn't do it again, so I got up at my usual time.
My usual time is actually pretty early anyway and I usually get to work at about 8AM or so. This is with setting off at 7:30, so in other words it's about a half hour journey. It should be quicker, truth be told, as it's only about 11 miles, with most of it on the A31, which is a dual carriageway.
Yesterday it took an hour and a half.
The problem really seemed to stem from the fact that the roads appeared not to have been treated at all. It's really difficult to describe, but there was a sort of weird texturing of the roads, caused by the compacting of the snow. It was like driving on a cobbled road, only made of icy clumps, rather than cobbles.
I'm pretty sure that if they'd been out and put salt down it wouldn't have been like that. Especially because the temperature was actually not that old. Which isn't to say it wasn't chilly, just not like it has been.
So the journey to work was an extremely slow crawl - everywhere it could be snarled up, it was. I mean, it took half an hour for me to even get down to the Shepherd and Flock roundabout, which is only about 3 miles or so.
I weird consequence of this is that I've strained my groin muscle. My car's clutch is really heavy, and when you're driving in traffic you're constantly using the clutch. SO this morning driving in my groin was aching like a bastard.
So yeah, I'm falling apart. I'm really tired and my groin aches. Plus my back still aches from the snow shovelling. Also my shoulders ache because of how stressful it all is. Driving in weather like this is just the most tiring thing ever
Plus, my diet's gone to pot. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't on a diet, I just mean that what I'm eating has gone silly. The office is really bad at warming up and my job means I'm really sedentary, so I end up eating more stuff to try to keep warm.
I've also not been risking going out at lunch, and of course evening I don't (and can't) go anywhere, so I'm getting a bit of cabin fever.
Add to that I'm going to have to do a big shop on Saturday to replace all my stocks and buy some more electricity, but they're still forecasting torrential rain and black ice, and you can see why I'm a bit bored of all this.
On Wednesday it snowed again - well, it's snow several times, actually, but this was proper snow that covered the ground with an extra inch or so. And the journey to work was horrendous.
Part of the problem was that I hadn't gotten up early. Since this snowy weather started I've been getting up a bit earlier in attempt to beat the heavier traffic periods. But on Wednesday I was so tired I just couldn't do it again, so I got up at my usual time.
My usual time is actually pretty early anyway and I usually get to work at about 8AM or so. This is with setting off at 7:30, so in other words it's about a half hour journey. It should be quicker, truth be told, as it's only about 11 miles, with most of it on the A31, which is a dual carriageway.
Yesterday it took an hour and a half.
The problem really seemed to stem from the fact that the roads appeared not to have been treated at all. It's really difficult to describe, but there was a sort of weird texturing of the roads, caused by the compacting of the snow. It was like driving on a cobbled road, only made of icy clumps, rather than cobbles.
I'm pretty sure that if they'd been out and put salt down it wouldn't have been like that. Especially because the temperature was actually not that old. Which isn't to say it wasn't chilly, just not like it has been.
So the journey to work was an extremely slow crawl - everywhere it could be snarled up, it was. I mean, it took half an hour for me to even get down to the Shepherd and Flock roundabout, which is only about 3 miles or so.
I weird consequence of this is that I've strained my groin muscle. My car's clutch is really heavy, and when you're driving in traffic you're constantly using the clutch. SO this morning driving in my groin was aching like a bastard.
So yeah, I'm falling apart. I'm really tired and my groin aches. Plus my back still aches from the snow shovelling. Also my shoulders ache because of how stressful it all is. Driving in weather like this is just the most tiring thing ever
Plus, my diet's gone to pot. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't on a diet, I just mean that what I'm eating has gone silly. The office is really bad at warming up and my job means I'm really sedentary, so I end up eating more stuff to try to keep warm.
I've also not been risking going out at lunch, and of course evening I don't (and can't) go anywhere, so I'm getting a bit of cabin fever.
Add to that I'm going to have to do a big shop on Saturday to replace all my stocks and buy some more electricity, but they're still forecasting torrential rain and black ice, and you can see why I'm a bit bored of all this.
Wednesday, 13 January 2010
rocky balboa
So over the Chrimbo period I watched a few films via rental and just generally.
The first was Rocky Balboa, which, rather amazingly, is the sixth film in the Rocky series.
The idea with this one is it's meant to be a proper end to the series. We catch up with Rocky with him having completely retired from boxing, as he's getting on a bit, and running Adrian's - a restaurant named after his recently deceased wife.
I think over the years I've seen all of the Rocky movies. Certainly I've seen the first two and the fifth ones, which are the better of the Rocky movies. The third and fourth, from memory, were fairly forgettable.
So I've seen them all, but I'm not really sure if I'm a fan.
I mean, I remember enjoying the first one and I seem to recall the fifth one had something about it, but I dunno. I think one of my main problems was that the character of Rocky never actually seemed all that good of a boxer to me.
Now to be fair I can't honestly claim to be anything of an aficionado when it comes to the pugilistic arts, but I'm pretty sure boxing is about more than simply absorbing as many of the other guy's punches with your face. This seemed to be Rocky's entire strategy - he punches me in the face until he gets tired and then I win.
From memory he didn't really even seem to guard himself properly in an attempt to prevent some of the bows making contact. He'd just stand there taking a pounding until the other guy was knackered.
Anyway, the idea behind this film is broadly one of Rocky making something of a comeback. The film features a modern boxer who's become hugely unpopular and in order to boost his popularity they put together a show fight.
Now this could have been extremely cheesy. It has actually happened in real life as I understand it, with old boxers coming back, and what they do here actually kinda makes sense.
They don't make it seem like the aging Stallone could really go toe-to-toe with the younger man, but they do create a few things that put them on more of a level playing field. But the key is how they end the film. I won't spoiler it, but there's actually an alternative ending on the disc that if they'd used that it would have undermined the whole film, so it's good they went the way they did.
The other clever thing is that there's much more of a focus on Rocky outside of boxing. The death of Adrian forms a core plot-thread, as does his relationship with his brother in law, Paulie.
There's also other non-ring plot threads and it's by focusing on these that make the film a good film, rather than purely a boxing film.
So yeah, I quite enjoyed it, though I still think it's a little daft that after all these years Rocky basically stands there taking the punches.
The first was Rocky Balboa, which, rather amazingly, is the sixth film in the Rocky series.
The idea with this one is it's meant to be a proper end to the series. We catch up with Rocky with him having completely retired from boxing, as he's getting on a bit, and running Adrian's - a restaurant named after his recently deceased wife.
I think over the years I've seen all of the Rocky movies. Certainly I've seen the first two and the fifth ones, which are the better of the Rocky movies. The third and fourth, from memory, were fairly forgettable.
So I've seen them all, but I'm not really sure if I'm a fan.
I mean, I remember enjoying the first one and I seem to recall the fifth one had something about it, but I dunno. I think one of my main problems was that the character of Rocky never actually seemed all that good of a boxer to me.
Now to be fair I can't honestly claim to be anything of an aficionado when it comes to the pugilistic arts, but I'm pretty sure boxing is about more than simply absorbing as many of the other guy's punches with your face. This seemed to be Rocky's entire strategy - he punches me in the face until he gets tired and then I win.
From memory he didn't really even seem to guard himself properly in an attempt to prevent some of the bows making contact. He'd just stand there taking a pounding until the other guy was knackered.
Anyway, the idea behind this film is broadly one of Rocky making something of a comeback. The film features a modern boxer who's become hugely unpopular and in order to boost his popularity they put together a show fight.
Now this could have been extremely cheesy. It has actually happened in real life as I understand it, with old boxers coming back, and what they do here actually kinda makes sense.
They don't make it seem like the aging Stallone could really go toe-to-toe with the younger man, but they do create a few things that put them on more of a level playing field. But the key is how they end the film. I won't spoiler it, but there's actually an alternative ending on the disc that if they'd used that it would have undermined the whole film, so it's good they went the way they did.
The other clever thing is that there's much more of a focus on Rocky outside of boxing. The death of Adrian forms a core plot-thread, as does his relationship with his brother in law, Paulie.
There's also other non-ring plot threads and it's by focusing on these that make the film a good film, rather than purely a boxing film.
So yeah, I quite enjoyed it, though I still think it's a little daft that after all these years Rocky basically stands there taking the punches.
Tuesday, 12 January 2010
chrimbo break
I always get this feeling towards the end of a holiday of "what have I actually done?"
Well, unless it's a proper holiday where I've been away, I mean. If it's one of my less exciting "not going to work, but staying at home" holidays I'll almost inevitably have made a great big to do list.
These are like my normal weekend to do lists, but on a much bigger scale. Where the normal lists are basically just notepad files with a big list of stuff to do, these will be done in word, and have a colour-coded table mapping the days and what I'm planning or have to do.
It takes anal retentiveness to a whole new level.
Anyway, despite this level of planning there's always a bunch of stuff that I put down as more general things, like watching DVDs and reading books and stuff, with the idea that when I tick off the appropriate stuff on the timetable, I can do these.
And I think it's these that produce the "so what have I done" feeling, because I don't tend to kill them off in the same way. So even though I did loads of stuff like cleaning my cupboards in the kitchen (I've been there 5 years and never done them once - the grime was thick, to say the least), the fact that I made no real impact on my pile of unread Empire mags means I feel like I've not really been doing anything.
Which isn't to say I didn't do anything on that front. I mean, I even watched some anime. Admittedly, it wasn't much, but it was something.
Actually, the only thing I totally failed to do was any scanning. It's gotten to the point of being stupid now - I've a stack of more than 6 months worth of anime mags and considering I buy 4 a month (plus Nyan type whenever I can find it) that's a lot of magazines to scan.
That also means I've not been watching fansubs. I've now reached the stage where I've started on a new season (it's a half season really) and so I've downloaded all the episodes of loads of shows without watching a single one of them. There must be about 20 shows I need to watch the fansubs of, and that's not thinking about all the stuff that's available on crunchyroll too.
If truth be told the big problem here is Anno 1404 - I'm still playing it obsessively. My ray of light here is that I've resolved to turn the current sandbox map I'm doing into the definitive article. Indeed, I've actually reached the point where I only have 1 item I need to unlock for both the occident and orient and then that's it. Plus the world is relatively well planned out, so I don't feel like abandoning it.
I'm basically thinking that if I can 'complete' this world then I'll be able to put it down for a while. Well, until the expansion pack comes out in April anyway :/.
But on the brighter side I did make some progress in terms of watching US TV series. For example, I've watched all of 30Rock season 1 and am half way through season 2. Plus I've come out of the holidays with nothing stacked up on my PVR - that's definitely a good thing.
So mixed bag for Christmas really - did quite a lot but also didn't do everything I set out to. So a typical holiday, then.
Well, unless it's a proper holiday where I've been away, I mean. If it's one of my less exciting "not going to work, but staying at home" holidays I'll almost inevitably have made a great big to do list.
These are like my normal weekend to do lists, but on a much bigger scale. Where the normal lists are basically just notepad files with a big list of stuff to do, these will be done in word, and have a colour-coded table mapping the days and what I'm planning or have to do.
It takes anal retentiveness to a whole new level.
Anyway, despite this level of planning there's always a bunch of stuff that I put down as more general things, like watching DVDs and reading books and stuff, with the idea that when I tick off the appropriate stuff on the timetable, I can do these.
And I think it's these that produce the "so what have I done" feeling, because I don't tend to kill them off in the same way. So even though I did loads of stuff like cleaning my cupboards in the kitchen (I've been there 5 years and never done them once - the grime was thick, to say the least), the fact that I made no real impact on my pile of unread Empire mags means I feel like I've not really been doing anything.
Which isn't to say I didn't do anything on that front. I mean, I even watched some anime. Admittedly, it wasn't much, but it was something.
Actually, the only thing I totally failed to do was any scanning. It's gotten to the point of being stupid now - I've a stack of more than 6 months worth of anime mags and considering I buy 4 a month (plus Nyan type whenever I can find it) that's a lot of magazines to scan.
That also means I've not been watching fansubs. I've now reached the stage where I've started on a new season (it's a half season really) and so I've downloaded all the episodes of loads of shows without watching a single one of them. There must be about 20 shows I need to watch the fansubs of, and that's not thinking about all the stuff that's available on crunchyroll too.
If truth be told the big problem here is Anno 1404 - I'm still playing it obsessively. My ray of light here is that I've resolved to turn the current sandbox map I'm doing into the definitive article. Indeed, I've actually reached the point where I only have 1 item I need to unlock for both the occident and orient and then that's it. Plus the world is relatively well planned out, so I don't feel like abandoning it.
I'm basically thinking that if I can 'complete' this world then I'll be able to put it down for a while. Well, until the expansion pack comes out in April anyway :/.
But on the brighter side I did make some progress in terms of watching US TV series. For example, I've watched all of 30Rock season 1 and am half way through season 2. Plus I've come out of the holidays with nothing stacked up on my PVR - that's definitely a good thing.
So mixed bag for Christmas really - did quite a lot but also didn't do everything I set out to. So a typical holiday, then.
Monday, 11 January 2010
it's snow joke
It was like déjà vu all over again last week.
After my big old couple of weeks off for Chrimbo and the New Year I was supposed to start work again on the Wednesday. I always like to take a couple of extra days and come back mid-week when I have any sort of holiday, because I find that shift to a full working week from holiday quite stressful.
Well my timing weirdly meant that I was coming back on Wednesday and Tuesday night was when it snowed heavily. Of course it had snowed before Christmas and had been pretty horrendous by all accounts, but it wasn't too bad while I was at work and then when it got bad I was off.
In fact, that pre-Christmas snow actually ended when I went down to Devon to visit my Dad - it was milder and rained heavily that morning I went down and that actually cleared away the snow, so my journey down was okay. And of course down in the South west they never have it so bad anyway.
I did have scary moment, though. I stopped at Cartgate services to have a pea and when I was driving out of their I hit some black ice on the road out. I turned left and the car went straight on.
It was my own fault because I was going too fast and it was just lucky that no-one was coming the other way. I didn't make it all the way across to the other side of the road, but I crossed the line marking the middle of the road.
Anyway, the déjà vu came because the snow that fell on Tuesday night was almost the exact same depth at what we got last February. And as then, I was trapped.
To be frank I probably would have stayed trapped as well if it wasn't for the fact that my landlord was going on holiday on the Sunday. That meant that he organised a "digging party" and we dug ourselves out on the Thursday.
Also, what would have encouraged me to stay is that I can actually work remotely from home. Plus, because of my pack rat mentality, I'd estimate that I had about 2 weeks of food that I coudl have lived off of. Admittedly, after a while my diet would have gotten a bit bland - lots of pasta and chicken and rice (which aren't great breakfast choices, in my opinion), but I could have survived.
Anyway, the dig out meant it was worth attempting to come to work on the Friday. The journey wasn't great to be frank. The roads had been cleared a bit, but they were a long way from being properly cleared. Especially when you got off the main roads - the industrial estate I work in was almost impassable and I actually got stuck. Luckily my boss has a 4x4 and was able to tow me out.
I took it steady both going and coming back, especially given my experience before Christmas, but that didn't seem to be the attitudes of most people on the roads - I had loads of people tailgating me, which seems the most ridiculous behaviour imaginable in this weather.
One slip or slide and what would have been me having a scary moment on my own could easily become a horrendous pile-up, just because people weren't giving enough space.
After my big old couple of weeks off for Chrimbo and the New Year I was supposed to start work again on the Wednesday. I always like to take a couple of extra days and come back mid-week when I have any sort of holiday, because I find that shift to a full working week from holiday quite stressful.
Well my timing weirdly meant that I was coming back on Wednesday and Tuesday night was when it snowed heavily. Of course it had snowed before Christmas and had been pretty horrendous by all accounts, but it wasn't too bad while I was at work and then when it got bad I was off.
In fact, that pre-Christmas snow actually ended when I went down to Devon to visit my Dad - it was milder and rained heavily that morning I went down and that actually cleared away the snow, so my journey down was okay. And of course down in the South west they never have it so bad anyway.
I did have scary moment, though. I stopped at Cartgate services to have a pea and when I was driving out of their I hit some black ice on the road out. I turned left and the car went straight on.
It was my own fault because I was going too fast and it was just lucky that no-one was coming the other way. I didn't make it all the way across to the other side of the road, but I crossed the line marking the middle of the road.
Anyway, the déjà vu came because the snow that fell on Tuesday night was almost the exact same depth at what we got last February. And as then, I was trapped.
To be frank I probably would have stayed trapped as well if it wasn't for the fact that my landlord was going on holiday on the Sunday. That meant that he organised a "digging party" and we dug ourselves out on the Thursday.
Also, what would have encouraged me to stay is that I can actually work remotely from home. Plus, because of my pack rat mentality, I'd estimate that I had about 2 weeks of food that I coudl have lived off of. Admittedly, after a while my diet would have gotten a bit bland - lots of pasta and chicken and rice (which aren't great breakfast choices, in my opinion), but I could have survived.
Anyway, the dig out meant it was worth attempting to come to work on the Friday. The journey wasn't great to be frank. The roads had been cleared a bit, but they were a long way from being properly cleared. Especially when you got off the main roads - the industrial estate I work in was almost impassable and I actually got stuck. Luckily my boss has a 4x4 and was able to tow me out.
I took it steady both going and coming back, especially given my experience before Christmas, but that didn't seem to be the attitudes of most people on the roads - I had loads of people tailgating me, which seems the most ridiculous behaviour imaginable in this weather.
One slip or slide and what would have been me having a scary moment on my own could easily become a horrendous pile-up, just because people weren't giving enough space.
Friday, 18 December 2009
seasons well wishings and a happy new year
And there we go.
So today is my last day of work for the week, the month and, indeed, the year. Since I generally write this blog at work, it's highly unlikely I'll be posting again until the new year, so I thought I'd take the opportunity to leave a festive message up.
Or, to put it simply, I hope you have a good festive period and a happy New Year and I'll see you again when the calendar says 2010!
So today is my last day of work for the week, the month and, indeed, the year. Since I generally write this blog at work, it's highly unlikely I'll be posting again until the new year, so I thought I'd take the opportunity to leave a festive message up.
Or, to put it simply, I hope you have a good festive period and a happy New Year and I'll see you again when the calendar says 2010!
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