Today marks the start of a very expensive period, all of which relates to my car.
I got the new car in April 3 years ago and so this year my free service comes to an end. I mean, I get this one free, but from now on it's going to cost me money. And it's going to cost me money anyway today, because as well as being in for its service, its first MOT is due. Not sure how much that is since I've not had one in a long time, but it's got to be about £35.
I'm not anticipating any particular problems, though I suspect I made need some new brake pads, which I'm guessing will be fairly expensive. Also, there's the wheel wobble which I'm hoping doesn't point to anything more than a wheel weight being in the wrong place.
Anyway, the other stuff is that I also need to get my car tax. I can do that online, but it's still another £150 or so.
Then of course there's the Nissan roadside assistance (the RAC, basically) and given the problems I had with the wheel not so long ago, I don't fancy giving that up. I've still to look at the details, but I think it's about £100 for the equivalent level to what I've got now.
And finally of course, there's my insurance, which is due. Now that I'm in my thirties and I've got a long period of no claims, that's not actually bad value, but it's still the best part of £350 for a year, which all adds up.
So yeah - at minimum, this weekend is going to cost me about £650. Money will be veritably pissing out of the bucket that is my bank account.
Friday, 12 March 2010
Thursday, 11 March 2010
venice or bust
I think I'm not hugely impressed with the Anno 1404: Venice expansion.
The problem is that the main thing it's added is the espionage element. Whilst this kinda sounds like fun, in actuality it's a little tedious.
I mean, one of the things is that, even though you're doing espionage, which is meant to be secret, in reality it's more like sabotage. Plus it's not secret. If you do anything, then your victim knows it was you - how is that espionage?
Plus it focuses on adding another of the more tedious elements into city management. Basically, there are a couple of things in the game that I always found a bit boring and tedious. These are kinda 'passive' elements, in that you build the building and then essentially they do their job independent of you.
Of course, they take up space and add cost to your city, which makes them annoying and that's why I always used to turn them off. The things in question are the carpenter, who repairs building and the fire station, that puts out fires.
I mean there are a few other similar things - the game can have storms and sandstorms too - but again, those are pretty tedious, so I used to turn them off too.
Well, the espionage introduces another building like that. The acts of sabotage you can do also mean that you need the other buildings I turn off, because you can start fires and stuff.
Plus, whenever there's an enemy spy in your city you have to do a mission to find them before they cause any problems. Well, those missions were always the most tedious as well - the 'find the person' missions.
So I'm roundly unimpressed.
There are some good aspects - there have been some good game mechanic tweaks (which I suspect are actually mostly in the v1.2 patch - not sure if that's available without the game), for example, and having the new Venetian NPC is quite good. Plus volcanoes are interesting.
They've also done lots of scenarios, which can be fun, but there's no new story element. I would have liked the game much more if there's been a new story-based campaign, I think, as I really liked that part of the original game.
So yeah - mixed bag.
And what doesn't help is that I got so far with my previous open-ended game and the thought of starting a new one, especially now I'm back watching anime and just starting scanning again, actually feels like something I don't want to do.
The problem is that the main thing it's added is the espionage element. Whilst this kinda sounds like fun, in actuality it's a little tedious.
I mean, one of the things is that, even though you're doing espionage, which is meant to be secret, in reality it's more like sabotage. Plus it's not secret. If you do anything, then your victim knows it was you - how is that espionage?
Plus it focuses on adding another of the more tedious elements into city management. Basically, there are a couple of things in the game that I always found a bit boring and tedious. These are kinda 'passive' elements, in that you build the building and then essentially they do their job independent of you.
Of course, they take up space and add cost to your city, which makes them annoying and that's why I always used to turn them off. The things in question are the carpenter, who repairs building and the fire station, that puts out fires.
I mean there are a few other similar things - the game can have storms and sandstorms too - but again, those are pretty tedious, so I used to turn them off too.
Well, the espionage introduces another building like that. The acts of sabotage you can do also mean that you need the other buildings I turn off, because you can start fires and stuff.
Plus, whenever there's an enemy spy in your city you have to do a mission to find them before they cause any problems. Well, those missions were always the most tedious as well - the 'find the person' missions.
So I'm roundly unimpressed.
There are some good aspects - there have been some good game mechanic tweaks (which I suspect are actually mostly in the v1.2 patch - not sure if that's available without the game), for example, and having the new Venetian NPC is quite good. Plus volcanoes are interesting.
They've also done lots of scenarios, which can be fun, but there's no new story element. I would have liked the game much more if there's been a new story-based campaign, I think, as I really liked that part of the original game.
So yeah - mixed bag.
And what doesn't help is that I got so far with my previous open-ended game and the thought of starting a new one, especially now I'm back watching anime and just starting scanning again, actually feels like something I don't want to do.
Wednesday, 10 March 2010
zack and miri make a porno
Most of Kevin Smith's films - especially his first few - were set in the "View Askewniverse". What this meant was that they were all set in the same world, so although the main character of each film might change, the characters from other films would be kicking about somewhere.
Some may appear as secondary characters or as cameos, or not at all, but the idea was they'd all be kicking about somewhere. The films were all pretty much also set in Smith's native New Jersey, although they'd occasionally venture elsewhere too.
But the key point was that the films all shared the same sense of humour and the same overly-verbose style of writing that Smith built his career on.
But more recently, Smith has tried branching out. For example, there was Jersey Girl, which was definitely not a VA film and also marked a very different style, notably with the huge monologing dialogue pretty much gone. By all accounts it tanked.
And that's been kinda a theme: when Smith has done a VA movie - a 'proper' Smith movie - they've done good business, but when he steps outside, there's been a tendency for a more mixed reaction. Sometimes you can see why, but others it's not so clean cut - I quite enjoyed Jersey Girl, for example.
Anyway, the point is that Zack and Miri isn't a VA film, but it might as well be. There's a lot in common here with the VA stuff - the humour is the same, the monologing is very much in attendance and even the theme of the movie is very VA. But it doesn't feature any of the VA characters and isn't set in Jersey, etc, etc.
It does feature some of the actors who have been in VA films, though they don't play their VA characters... except they're not 100% different.
See what I mean - it's technically not a VA film, but it doesn't really represent a huge departure, ether. It's like Smith wanted to make a movie similar to the other VA stuff but by tweaking some things he thought he could sneak it past people and hence break out. Only he change enough stuff, so it's a half-way house film.
I know I've wibbled on a bit about the same basic point for ages, but it kinda sums up my feeling on the film - because it's not a VA film, it kinda feels wrong, somehow. Because it's meant more as a regular comedy, the insertion of the usual Smith stuff also feels odd.
Which isn't to say there's not plenty to laugh at and that the story basically hangs together, it just disconcerted me a bit. I enjoyed it, but it confused me.
There was one element that didn't really work for me, though. The making of the porno stuff felt like a kind of rose-tinted view of it. I mean, they didn't really have any particular problems making the thing. Well, there was one big setback, but for example, there were no performance problems for the porn stars, even though most of them weren't actual porn stars.
Plus the porno that they were making looked like it would actually have been really bad, but then I think that was kinda the point.
I was also a little disappointed with the package - there were no extras at all. I mean, I appreciate it's probably a rental version, but it would have been nice to have something by way of extras.
Some may appear as secondary characters or as cameos, or not at all, but the idea was they'd all be kicking about somewhere. The films were all pretty much also set in Smith's native New Jersey, although they'd occasionally venture elsewhere too.
But the key point was that the films all shared the same sense of humour and the same overly-verbose style of writing that Smith built his career on.
But more recently, Smith has tried branching out. For example, there was Jersey Girl, which was definitely not a VA film and also marked a very different style, notably with the huge monologing dialogue pretty much gone. By all accounts it tanked.
And that's been kinda a theme: when Smith has done a VA movie - a 'proper' Smith movie - they've done good business, but when he steps outside, there's been a tendency for a more mixed reaction. Sometimes you can see why, but others it's not so clean cut - I quite enjoyed Jersey Girl, for example.
Anyway, the point is that Zack and Miri isn't a VA film, but it might as well be. There's a lot in common here with the VA stuff - the humour is the same, the monologing is very much in attendance and even the theme of the movie is very VA. But it doesn't feature any of the VA characters and isn't set in Jersey, etc, etc.
It does feature some of the actors who have been in VA films, though they don't play their VA characters... except they're not 100% different.
See what I mean - it's technically not a VA film, but it doesn't really represent a huge departure, ether. It's like Smith wanted to make a movie similar to the other VA stuff but by tweaking some things he thought he could sneak it past people and hence break out. Only he change enough stuff, so it's a half-way house film.
I know I've wibbled on a bit about the same basic point for ages, but it kinda sums up my feeling on the film - because it's not a VA film, it kinda feels wrong, somehow. Because it's meant more as a regular comedy, the insertion of the usual Smith stuff also feels odd.
Which isn't to say there's not plenty to laugh at and that the story basically hangs together, it just disconcerted me a bit. I enjoyed it, but it confused me.
There was one element that didn't really work for me, though. The making of the porno stuff felt like a kind of rose-tinted view of it. I mean, they didn't really have any particular problems making the thing. Well, there was one big setback, but for example, there were no performance problems for the porn stars, even though most of them weren't actual porn stars.
Plus the porno that they were making looked like it would actually have been really bad, but then I think that was kinda the point.
I was also a little disappointed with the package - there were no extras at all. I mean, I appreciate it's probably a rental version, but it would have been nice to have something by way of extras.
Tuesday, 9 March 2010
pray continue, my good man
Continuing from yesterday...
6) I got infected by Malware from icanhascheeseburger.com
I used to go there every so often and look at the lolcats for a little light relief, but on Wednesday Lunch I got some malware from something on the site. Specifically it was one of those bogus anti-virus jobs that claims to find stuff and then gets you to pay for software that does nothing.
I've no real idea what it was that infected me, but it kinda ruined the afternoon of work, as I spent a lot of time getting rid of it.
7) I updated trismugistus.com
I've uploaded a new review for steamboy and already prepped two more weeks. I've also got a further dozen or so where I've done the review and scanned stuff, but I need to actually turn them into reviews I can upload.
It's weird that it's March already - it only seems like yesterday I was last updating the site, but it was November since my last review and Christmas since I uploaded the chrimbo message. I can't believe that Easter is nearly upon us!
8) I bought some new shoes and clothes
My current ones are falling apart and I'd been meaning to for a while, but never got round to it - much like everything on this list! - so I got a new pair.
I find the sizes weird - these new ones are a 10, but others I've got are 11s, and these 10s don't feel uncomfortable. Well, no more uncomfortable than any new shoe while you're breaking it in. The sizes seems to vary so much from shoe to shoe. Or maybe my feet keep changing sizes - who knows?
I also bought some clothes. Being so fat, I have to get special big-size clothes. There wasn't much of a selection at the usual place I go to. I hope they're not going out of business and running down there stock and it was just a case of me catching it "between lines".
Do clothes shops suffer during recessions? I honestly don't know :/.
9) Steam sucks cock
This is steam by valve, not steam the boiled water.
Basically I put a bunch of auctions up last week on e-bay and they came to an end on Sunday, but someone contacted me asking if one of them - Modern Warfare 2 - would be accompanied by access to my steam account.
After some investigation, I found out that when I registered it on steam, as I was required to on install, that basically locked the CD-key I got with the game to my steam account.
If I'd known I would have set up a special account for the purpose, but I didn't, and I'm unwilling to hand over my entire steam account to someone else.
But seriously - what the fuck is that all about? I mean, it really pisses me off the way these piracy controls have been going - I've now got a game I've no interest in ever playing again that I can't sell second hand.
Selling games second hand is almost at the heart of gaming - it's why the astronomical prices they charge for new games doesn't hurt so bad, because you know you'll get a chunk of it back again. If you're now saying that that's dead, then I may well have to stop buying your games altogether.
In a way I don't even blame them - it's the fuckers that are the pirates that have driven it that way. But still, there should be some consideration for us legal purchasers - what about the ability to simply transfer your CD key from one account to another?
Anyway, it also meant I had to piss off some poor bloke on e-bay who won the auction in good faith, sent his payment and then got all these messages from me apologising, saying it couldn't be transferred and then refunding him his money.
10) I did some scanning and watched some anime
This has to be one of the biggest shocks - I not only sat down and finished Maria Holic, but I also started Dragonaut: The Resonance. Indeed, I've gotten 10 episodes into dragonaut (I think if I'd gone for a half series, I might have made an extra push and finished it, but I didn't, so I didn't). Here are some mini review type notes:
Maria Holic was very inconsistent. Some episodes were very funny, but others a lot less so. Indeed, some were more like a proper dramas than something in a comedy. Unfortunately, it wasn't the best drama, so that didn't really help matters.
Also, I have to admit this is one series that could really have done with a dub. Several of the characters talked incredibly fast and with a few translation notes popping up too, it was horribly difficult to follow at times without pausing and rewinding.
Dragonaut I've been kinda enjoying. I read a lot of stuff totally slating the series, but I think it's alright. I mean, I'm not gonna pretend it's the greatest thing ever, but it's not bad either. Well, not so far, anyway - maybe it goes terrible at the end?
I've a sneaking suspicion that a lot of it is fuelled by the rather extreme character designs, which features more than a few boobs-bigger-than-heads characters. But then to be fair, the actual fan-service is relatively minimal. I mean, there's even been a "hot springs" episode, and even that had little fan service in it. Indeed, it wasn't really a hot springs - more like a swimming pool/water flume place, so everyone was in swimming costumes, rather than naked like they'd be at a hot spring.
And here's the real kicker - I did some scanning too!
Half of it was scanning the freebies and fliers I get with my cd-japan orders, of which there were a surprisingly large number, but I also did a complete issue of megami! I know, I was stunned too.
And while I scanned, I watched some fansubs (it's almost like the old days!):
Needless
Bit of a mixed feeling on this. I kinda liked the first episode, but the second was rather badly paced.
Overall, the show seemed to bare a close resemblance in tone to Gurren Lagann - a mish-mash of familiar ideas, but done with lots of gusto and energy. However, in the second episode there were long periods of people talking at each other (and supposedly during a fight :/), which smacked a bit too much of Dragonball Z syndrome and cheap budgets.
So I dunno - I'd probably watch it, but I've a feeling it would annoy me almost as much as I liked it.
Hipira: The Little Vampire
This is a series of shorts. It's actually cg animated, but it's done in such a way as to look more like normal anime than most.
In essence, it's a kids show and while there's nothing wrong with that, it didn't really appeal to me, to be honest.
I think I might have a bit of the old vampire fatigue too - they're absolutely every-bloody-where.
Charger Girl Juden Chan
A while back I was... well, I wouldn't say up in arms, but I was a bit miffed that Crunchyroll's streaming of this series was being edited. You should note that this was before I'd come to the conclusion that Crunchyroll's streaming is a hateful experience, so it was with reluctance at that time that I dl'ed an uncensored fansub version .
Well, to be perfectly frank if I'd known what Juden chan was like I would have not bothered and tried the Crunchyroll version (as I say, before I came to my current stance on Crunchyroll streaming). Now I say this without any sort of assurance that what I found objectionable is the stuff that's been removed, but I'm fairly sure it is.
The stuff in question is pee.
At least I'm pretty sure it's pee - it's yellow, and it runs down the female character's legs so I'm pretty sure it's pee. Trouble is, there's also a suggestion that it appears not only when the character gets knocked out (and hence looses control of their bladder - quite what the appeal of this fetish is I really don't know. It keeps cropping up in Ikkitousen and to me it's just plain gross.) but also when they're getting sexually aroused.
Of course that's sexual arousal in that faintly misogynistic way that still crops up in anime where the merest hint of contact with a woman's nipples, breasts or crotch area instantly has them dripping. Even when the person touching them is a complete stranger or, worse, a rapist or molester.
To be frank, this is the one aspect of mainstream anime that really annoys me. I can understand it in the total-fantasy that is the world of hentai, but in non-hentai anime, it's just plain wrong, because it's just plain wrong in real life.
I dunno - it's a double standard from me, I guess, as mostly I like fan-service, but to me there's a world of difference between getting a flash of panties or boobs and this.
Anyway, the point is, if it wasn't for the girls peeing themselves all over the place, this would be okay, but with it in, it's just nasty.
6) I got infected by Malware from icanhascheeseburger.com
I used to go there every so often and look at the lolcats for a little light relief, but on Wednesday Lunch I got some malware from something on the site. Specifically it was one of those bogus anti-virus jobs that claims to find stuff and then gets you to pay for software that does nothing.
I've no real idea what it was that infected me, but it kinda ruined the afternoon of work, as I spent a lot of time getting rid of it.
7) I updated trismugistus.com
I've uploaded a new review for steamboy and already prepped two more weeks. I've also got a further dozen or so where I've done the review and scanned stuff, but I need to actually turn them into reviews I can upload.
It's weird that it's March already - it only seems like yesterday I was last updating the site, but it was November since my last review and Christmas since I uploaded the chrimbo message. I can't believe that Easter is nearly upon us!
8) I bought some new shoes and clothes
My current ones are falling apart and I'd been meaning to for a while, but never got round to it - much like everything on this list! - so I got a new pair.
I find the sizes weird - these new ones are a 10, but others I've got are 11s, and these 10s don't feel uncomfortable. Well, no more uncomfortable than any new shoe while you're breaking it in. The sizes seems to vary so much from shoe to shoe. Or maybe my feet keep changing sizes - who knows?
I also bought some clothes. Being so fat, I have to get special big-size clothes. There wasn't much of a selection at the usual place I go to. I hope they're not going out of business and running down there stock and it was just a case of me catching it "between lines".
Do clothes shops suffer during recessions? I honestly don't know :/.
9) Steam sucks cock
This is steam by valve, not steam the boiled water.
Basically I put a bunch of auctions up last week on e-bay and they came to an end on Sunday, but someone contacted me asking if one of them - Modern Warfare 2 - would be accompanied by access to my steam account.
After some investigation, I found out that when I registered it on steam, as I was required to on install, that basically locked the CD-key I got with the game to my steam account.
If I'd known I would have set up a special account for the purpose, but I didn't, and I'm unwilling to hand over my entire steam account to someone else.
But seriously - what the fuck is that all about? I mean, it really pisses me off the way these piracy controls have been going - I've now got a game I've no interest in ever playing again that I can't sell second hand.
Selling games second hand is almost at the heart of gaming - it's why the astronomical prices they charge for new games doesn't hurt so bad, because you know you'll get a chunk of it back again. If you're now saying that that's dead, then I may well have to stop buying your games altogether.
In a way I don't even blame them - it's the fuckers that are the pirates that have driven it that way. But still, there should be some consideration for us legal purchasers - what about the ability to simply transfer your CD key from one account to another?
Anyway, it also meant I had to piss off some poor bloke on e-bay who won the auction in good faith, sent his payment and then got all these messages from me apologising, saying it couldn't be transferred and then refunding him his money.
10) I did some scanning and watched some anime
This has to be one of the biggest shocks - I not only sat down and finished Maria Holic, but I also started Dragonaut: The Resonance. Indeed, I've gotten 10 episodes into dragonaut (I think if I'd gone for a half series, I might have made an extra push and finished it, but I didn't, so I didn't). Here are some mini review type notes:
Maria Holic was very inconsistent. Some episodes were very funny, but others a lot less so. Indeed, some were more like a proper dramas than something in a comedy. Unfortunately, it wasn't the best drama, so that didn't really help matters.
Also, I have to admit this is one series that could really have done with a dub. Several of the characters talked incredibly fast and with a few translation notes popping up too, it was horribly difficult to follow at times without pausing and rewinding.
Dragonaut I've been kinda enjoying. I read a lot of stuff totally slating the series, but I think it's alright. I mean, I'm not gonna pretend it's the greatest thing ever, but it's not bad either. Well, not so far, anyway - maybe it goes terrible at the end?
I've a sneaking suspicion that a lot of it is fuelled by the rather extreme character designs, which features more than a few boobs-bigger-than-heads characters. But then to be fair, the actual fan-service is relatively minimal. I mean, there's even been a "hot springs" episode, and even that had little fan service in it. Indeed, it wasn't really a hot springs - more like a swimming pool/water flume place, so everyone was in swimming costumes, rather than naked like they'd be at a hot spring.
And here's the real kicker - I did some scanning too!
Half of it was scanning the freebies and fliers I get with my cd-japan orders, of which there were a surprisingly large number, but I also did a complete issue of megami! I know, I was stunned too.
And while I scanned, I watched some fansubs (it's almost like the old days!):
Needless
Bit of a mixed feeling on this. I kinda liked the first episode, but the second was rather badly paced.
Overall, the show seemed to bare a close resemblance in tone to Gurren Lagann - a mish-mash of familiar ideas, but done with lots of gusto and energy. However, in the second episode there were long periods of people talking at each other (and supposedly during a fight :/), which smacked a bit too much of Dragonball Z syndrome and cheap budgets.
So I dunno - I'd probably watch it, but I've a feeling it would annoy me almost as much as I liked it.
Hipira: The Little Vampire
This is a series of shorts. It's actually cg animated, but it's done in such a way as to look more like normal anime than most.
In essence, it's a kids show and while there's nothing wrong with that, it didn't really appeal to me, to be honest.
I think I might have a bit of the old vampire fatigue too - they're absolutely every-bloody-where.
Charger Girl Juden Chan
A while back I was... well, I wouldn't say up in arms, but I was a bit miffed that Crunchyroll's streaming of this series was being edited. You should note that this was before I'd come to the conclusion that Crunchyroll's streaming is a hateful experience, so it was with reluctance at that time that I dl'ed an uncensored fansub version .
Well, to be perfectly frank if I'd known what Juden chan was like I would have not bothered and tried the Crunchyroll version (as I say, before I came to my current stance on Crunchyroll streaming). Now I say this without any sort of assurance that what I found objectionable is the stuff that's been removed, but I'm fairly sure it is.
The stuff in question is pee.
At least I'm pretty sure it's pee - it's yellow, and it runs down the female character's legs so I'm pretty sure it's pee. Trouble is, there's also a suggestion that it appears not only when the character gets knocked out (and hence looses control of their bladder - quite what the appeal of this fetish is I really don't know. It keeps cropping up in Ikkitousen and to me it's just plain gross.) but also when they're getting sexually aroused.
Of course that's sexual arousal in that faintly misogynistic way that still crops up in anime where the merest hint of contact with a woman's nipples, breasts or crotch area instantly has them dripping. Even when the person touching them is a complete stranger or, worse, a rapist or molester.
To be frank, this is the one aspect of mainstream anime that really annoys me. I can understand it in the total-fantasy that is the world of hentai, but in non-hentai anime, it's just plain wrong, because it's just plain wrong in real life.
I dunno - it's a double standard from me, I guess, as mostly I like fan-service, but to me there's a world of difference between getting a flash of panties or boobs and this.
Anyway, the point is, if it wasn't for the girls peeing themselves all over the place, this would be okay, but with it in, it's just nasty.
Monday, 8 March 2010
the dreaded return
Well, I'm back at work.
Boo!
And of course, there's been tonnes for me to do. That's one of the problems with only having a couple of days off - people just stack things up on your desk 'because he'll be in a couple of days'. If you're off for two weeks, they don't because it would take so long before you turned it around.
The weekend was pretty much a success. Certainly I did, like, 95% of what I'd intended to. Here's a bit of a list/run-down:
1) Opticians
Went and got my eyes checked. I went to the Specsavers in Farnham - well, when I got the right place I did. Bizarrely, there's another opticians just 2 doors down and I initially went in there. I used to go to an independent opticians in Alton, but the last time they bent the frames of the glasses I'd picked and so I decided not to go there again.
I haven't really had any troubles with the glasses I've got, other than they're scratched to buggery - so much so that I can see weird lines across my vision. Interestingly they said my prescription hadn't really changed, which think is the first time I've ever had them checked and they've not changed, but I got some new specs anyway because of the scratches.
It was a bit weird actually in Specsavers - all of the employees seemed to be in a rush. They all even spoke really quickly. It was like they'd all been downing coffee all day :/. I'll pick the glasses up next Saturday and I guess I can check if they're still all in hyper-fast mode.
2) My dental hygienist is a sadist
You know when the dentist tells you to "have a rinse"? There are two reasons for that - they've either just done something messy, like polish your teeth, so there's gunk all over the shop, or, they've done you some damage and they can't see anymore for all the blood.
I had to rinse three times during my hygienist appointment. None of which were due to polishing.
On the third time she'd given me my glasses back (taken off to prevent splashes getting on them) and I could clearly see big clumps of flesh in the bowl.
A big part of the problem is that the inside edge of my gums is higher than the outside edge, so whenever you stick something through the gap from the outside, there's a good chance you'll injure or impale my gum. She did that a lot.
3) Halfords don't sell wheel nuts!
This was a bizarre one. I've detailed in the blog about my wheel/tyre problems, one of which was these appalling locking wheel nuts, so I thought I'd go to Halfords and see if I could get some ordinary ones to replace them.
But they don't do them - they only sell locking wheel nuts. Initially I thought I was being stupid or that they might only be available to order, so I asked the guy at the parts desk and he said they didn't do them. The reason - they can't make any money on them.
I was a bit stunned, so I just left, but I've been thinking about it and I might get some of the locking nuts. There seemed to be some with much better designs so I may get them. Plus it means I still get the security side of having locking nuts.
4) Got my windscreen fixed and car booked in
It's only taken, like, 5 months, but I went to Autoglass and they did the old crack filling thing. Obviously I wasn't in any sort of a rush, but it took them a good 45 minutes to turn it around from when I got there.
To be perfectly frank, it's not really a lot different to what it was before, but it only cost me £10 and hopefully it means it's sufficiently good to pass an MOT. It's not in the main line of sight, so I think it should be all right.
And I booked said MOT for Next Friday. It's also going in for a service, which will be the last free one as part of my service plan. I've also asked them to take a look at the wheel wobble I've been getting. I've a dreaded feeling it might be damage from the pothole, but I'm hoping it's just a wheel weight not on right.
5) I figured out what I'd done wrong with my scanner
Basically - the answer was the same as the answer to "what's the shortest distance between two points? A straight line - basically, I was trying to thread the cables around the desk, like I do with the other cables, but actually what I did with them was simply have them hanging loose.
Unfortunately, I'd already been to PC World and bought a hugely long USB cable, but I'm sure it'll come in useful anyway. It wasn't cheap - cables are a right rip off at PC World - but I had a voucher thing my dad had given me, so it wasn't too bad.
I also...
Actually, this post is already massive, so I'll chop it in half and post the rest tomorrow, I think. That'll actually help me out because I'm off to a meeting tomorrow.
Boo!
And of course, there's been tonnes for me to do. That's one of the problems with only having a couple of days off - people just stack things up on your desk 'because he'll be in a couple of days'. If you're off for two weeks, they don't because it would take so long before you turned it around.
The weekend was pretty much a success. Certainly I did, like, 95% of what I'd intended to. Here's a bit of a list/run-down:
1) Opticians
Went and got my eyes checked. I went to the Specsavers in Farnham - well, when I got the right place I did. Bizarrely, there's another opticians just 2 doors down and I initially went in there. I used to go to an independent opticians in Alton, but the last time they bent the frames of the glasses I'd picked and so I decided not to go there again.
I haven't really had any troubles with the glasses I've got, other than they're scratched to buggery - so much so that I can see weird lines across my vision. Interestingly they said my prescription hadn't really changed, which think is the first time I've ever had them checked and they've not changed, but I got some new specs anyway because of the scratches.
It was a bit weird actually in Specsavers - all of the employees seemed to be in a rush. They all even spoke really quickly. It was like they'd all been downing coffee all day :/. I'll pick the glasses up next Saturday and I guess I can check if they're still all in hyper-fast mode.
2) My dental hygienist is a sadist
You know when the dentist tells you to "have a rinse"? There are two reasons for that - they've either just done something messy, like polish your teeth, so there's gunk all over the shop, or, they've done you some damage and they can't see anymore for all the blood.
I had to rinse three times during my hygienist appointment. None of which were due to polishing.
On the third time she'd given me my glasses back (taken off to prevent splashes getting on them) and I could clearly see big clumps of flesh in the bowl.
A big part of the problem is that the inside edge of my gums is higher than the outside edge, so whenever you stick something through the gap from the outside, there's a good chance you'll injure or impale my gum. She did that a lot.
3) Halfords don't sell wheel nuts!
This was a bizarre one. I've detailed in the blog about my wheel/tyre problems, one of which was these appalling locking wheel nuts, so I thought I'd go to Halfords and see if I could get some ordinary ones to replace them.
But they don't do them - they only sell locking wheel nuts. Initially I thought I was being stupid or that they might only be available to order, so I asked the guy at the parts desk and he said they didn't do them. The reason - they can't make any money on them.
I was a bit stunned, so I just left, but I've been thinking about it and I might get some of the locking nuts. There seemed to be some with much better designs so I may get them. Plus it means I still get the security side of having locking nuts.
4) Got my windscreen fixed and car booked in
It's only taken, like, 5 months, but I went to Autoglass and they did the old crack filling thing. Obviously I wasn't in any sort of a rush, but it took them a good 45 minutes to turn it around from when I got there.
To be perfectly frank, it's not really a lot different to what it was before, but it only cost me £10 and hopefully it means it's sufficiently good to pass an MOT. It's not in the main line of sight, so I think it should be all right.
And I booked said MOT for Next Friday. It's also going in for a service, which will be the last free one as part of my service plan. I've also asked them to take a look at the wheel wobble I've been getting. I've a dreaded feeling it might be damage from the pothole, but I'm hoping it's just a wheel weight not on right.
5) I figured out what I'd done wrong with my scanner
Basically - the answer was the same as the answer to "what's the shortest distance between two points? A straight line - basically, I was trying to thread the cables around the desk, like I do with the other cables, but actually what I did with them was simply have them hanging loose.
Unfortunately, I'd already been to PC World and bought a hugely long USB cable, but I'm sure it'll come in useful anyway. It wasn't cheap - cables are a right rip off at PC World - but I had a voucher thing my dad had given me, so it wasn't too bad.
I also...
Actually, this post is already massive, so I'll chop it in half and post the rest tomorrow, I think. That'll actually help me out because I'm off to a meeting tomorrow.
Wednesday, 3 March 2010
last day
Today is my last day... of the week.
I'd love for it to be my last day of work forever. Well, I mean if I'd won the lottery or got a better job or something. Not if I'd be fired or made redundant or something. That would obviously suck big, hairy monkey balls.
Anyway, the point is that I've taken tomorrow and Friday off work. It's not for any exciting reason like I'm going on holiday to some tropical paradise or anything. No, basically I'm taking them off in order to get a bunch of stuff done. And the bunch of stuff is all very boring and tedious life stuff.
For example, I've an appointment at the dentists and at the opticians to get my eyes tested. Plus I want to see if I can get my windscreen fixed (with the terrible weather I'm figuring it's best to go to one of their places as they have a covered area) and I need to book to get my car in for an MOT and to get it serviced.
There's other stuff too, but it's all equally tedious.
The only good part is that I'm hoping I'll get a chance to do some fun stuff. I may try to marathon an entire anime show, but at the least I'm hoping I'll start the scanning I keep flirting with.
I actually did some scanning last weekend, but it was DVD covers to put in reviews over at trismugistus.com. One thing I did discover is I can't remember how I set up my scanner.
The problem seemed to be that the cables weren't long enough, but I distinctly remember that before I didn't used to have any problems with cable lengths. It was kinda bizarre actually, as I kept tugging on the wires thinking they must be caught up somewhere, but instead I'd just pull it out of the scanner or pull my USB hub thing off the desk. I did think that maybe I'd got the cables mixed up and put a shorter one in the scanner by mistake, but not of the other USB cables seemed longer.
Plus it turned out the scanner wasn't even plugged into the power, which took me ages to fiddle to get into a plug hole. And then when I did, I again found the cable seemed too short to reach. I've really no idea how I used to route the cables and stuff, but I know I didn't used to have all these problems.
Anyway, I'm sure I'll figure it out.
I'd love for it to be my last day of work forever. Well, I mean if I'd won the lottery or got a better job or something. Not if I'd be fired or made redundant or something. That would obviously suck big, hairy monkey balls.
Anyway, the point is that I've taken tomorrow and Friday off work. It's not for any exciting reason like I'm going on holiday to some tropical paradise or anything. No, basically I'm taking them off in order to get a bunch of stuff done. And the bunch of stuff is all very boring and tedious life stuff.
For example, I've an appointment at the dentists and at the opticians to get my eyes tested. Plus I want to see if I can get my windscreen fixed (with the terrible weather I'm figuring it's best to go to one of their places as they have a covered area) and I need to book to get my car in for an MOT and to get it serviced.
There's other stuff too, but it's all equally tedious.
The only good part is that I'm hoping I'll get a chance to do some fun stuff. I may try to marathon an entire anime show, but at the least I'm hoping I'll start the scanning I keep flirting with.
I actually did some scanning last weekend, but it was DVD covers to put in reviews over at trismugistus.com. One thing I did discover is I can't remember how I set up my scanner.
The problem seemed to be that the cables weren't long enough, but I distinctly remember that before I didn't used to have any problems with cable lengths. It was kinda bizarre actually, as I kept tugging on the wires thinking they must be caught up somewhere, but instead I'd just pull it out of the scanner or pull my USB hub thing off the desk. I did think that maybe I'd got the cables mixed up and put a shorter one in the scanner by mistake, but not of the other USB cables seemed longer.
Plus it turned out the scanner wasn't even plugged into the power, which took me ages to fiddle to get into a plug hole. And then when I did, I again found the cable seemed too short to reach. I've really no idea how I used to route the cables and stuff, but I know I didn't used to have all these problems.
Anyway, I'm sure I'll figure it out.
Tuesday, 2 March 2010
wall-e
Bit of a different order for things this week, so I'm doing the usual Wednesday film review on a Tuesday.
The film in question was WALL-E, which is a CGI film by Pixar.
I have a bit of a tough time with Pixar's films. There are some that I really like, but a lot of them I don't think quite live up to the hype surrounding them. A good example of this is the Incredibles, which I found very disappointing.
Which isn't to say I didn't like it, it's more like it didn't seem as good as it could have been. Another example is Finding Nemo - I just found it a bit disappointing and, if I'm honest, rather predictable.
I dunno, maybe it's because all of Pixar's films are essentially kid's films. Finding Nemo in particular you've got a father loosing his son and trying to find him. I mean, was there ever any doubt that he would find him?
Now don't get me wrong- even if it wasn't animated or it wasn't a kid's film, if that was the core plot it'd be extremely unlikely not to have a successful outcome. I dunno - it's difficult to explain.
I think the best I can cover it is that the jeopardy in Finding Nemo is false because there's that inevitability. However, if you'd got to the end and Nemo had suggested he wanted to stay where he was then I'd have been interested in that jeopardy.
I'm babbling - the point I'm coming round to is that WALL-E didn't disappoint me. I really enjoyed it. The writing in particular was superb.
One of the things I liked about it is that when they do these films they often bits for the adult - gags or whatever that kids won't get but that let the parents enjoy it a bit more. Well, in WALL-E, they didn't r really need to do that, because it's a more grown up story.
It's a love story, essentially, and I'm not sure Pixar have really tackled a love story like this before.
I will say that I did have a couple of reservations about the film, but they were more from me being a pedant about stuff than actual problems.
I won't go into detail over these, but one of the ones that did kinda puzzle me was towards the end. It's not really a spoiler as all I'll say is that there's a part where the ship they end up on gets tilted to the side and all the humans slide out of their chairs.
The basic idea is that all the people have become fat and feeble from having everything done for them. This includes walking and they all kinda sit in these automatic wheel chairs (we'll leave how they defecate out of proceedings).
Anyway, so the idea is the ship tilts, they all slide out of their chairs and then down the floor. Okay, it sorta works. Except think about this - in space there is no "up". It's clearly shown in other bits that there's no gravity in space and so the suggestion is that there's an artificial gravity system at work somewhere.
But wouldn't that gravity system be orientated along the axis of the ship? Which is to say, if you tilt the ship, you tilt the gravity too, so from the perspective of the humans in the chairs, there should be no sense of leaning.
Even if you come up with some reason for that, then why aren't the chairs affected too? Even if you say they're anchored in place, they should lean in the opposite direction if that stays fixed. So in other words, there's no way in which the chairs would upend and evict their users.
Another one that didn't quite make sense was that WALL-E and EVE end up in a trash compactor that's basically flinging all the ship's waste otut into space. And yet they've been in space for 700 years - wouldn't they have run out of raw materials if the ship was designed to just dump waste into space, rather than recycle/reuse it?
But as I say, these things don't affect the core story and you can happily ignore them as otherwise it's very, very good.
The film in question was WALL-E, which is a CGI film by Pixar.
I have a bit of a tough time with Pixar's films. There are some that I really like, but a lot of them I don't think quite live up to the hype surrounding them. A good example of this is the Incredibles, which I found very disappointing.
Which isn't to say I didn't like it, it's more like it didn't seem as good as it could have been. Another example is Finding Nemo - I just found it a bit disappointing and, if I'm honest, rather predictable.
I dunno, maybe it's because all of Pixar's films are essentially kid's films. Finding Nemo in particular you've got a father loosing his son and trying to find him. I mean, was there ever any doubt that he would find him?
Now don't get me wrong- even if it wasn't animated or it wasn't a kid's film, if that was the core plot it'd be extremely unlikely not to have a successful outcome. I dunno - it's difficult to explain.
I think the best I can cover it is that the jeopardy in Finding Nemo is false because there's that inevitability. However, if you'd got to the end and Nemo had suggested he wanted to stay where he was then I'd have been interested in that jeopardy.
I'm babbling - the point I'm coming round to is that WALL-E didn't disappoint me. I really enjoyed it. The writing in particular was superb.
One of the things I liked about it is that when they do these films they often bits for the adult - gags or whatever that kids won't get but that let the parents enjoy it a bit more. Well, in WALL-E, they didn't r really need to do that, because it's a more grown up story.
It's a love story, essentially, and I'm not sure Pixar have really tackled a love story like this before.
I will say that I did have a couple of reservations about the film, but they were more from me being a pedant about stuff than actual problems.
I won't go into detail over these, but one of the ones that did kinda puzzle me was towards the end. It's not really a spoiler as all I'll say is that there's a part where the ship they end up on gets tilted to the side and all the humans slide out of their chairs.
The basic idea is that all the people have become fat and feeble from having everything done for them. This includes walking and they all kinda sit in these automatic wheel chairs (we'll leave how they defecate out of proceedings).
Anyway, so the idea is the ship tilts, they all slide out of their chairs and then down the floor. Okay, it sorta works. Except think about this - in space there is no "up". It's clearly shown in other bits that there's no gravity in space and so the suggestion is that there's an artificial gravity system at work somewhere.
But wouldn't that gravity system be orientated along the axis of the ship? Which is to say, if you tilt the ship, you tilt the gravity too, so from the perspective of the humans in the chairs, there should be no sense of leaning.
Even if you come up with some reason for that, then why aren't the chairs affected too? Even if you say they're anchored in place, they should lean in the opposite direction if that stays fixed. So in other words, there's no way in which the chairs would upend and evict their users.
Another one that didn't quite make sense was that WALL-E and EVE end up in a trash compactor that's basically flinging all the ship's waste otut into space. And yet they've been in space for 700 years - wouldn't they have run out of raw materials if the ship was designed to just dump waste into space, rather than recycle/reuse it?
But as I say, these things don't affect the core story and you can happily ignore them as otherwise it's very, very good.
Monday, 1 March 2010
commence floggery
My main goal this last weekend was to get some stuff on e-bay.
I have a box that I keep next to my bed and as I finish reading or watching something I dump it in the box. When the box is overflowing with stuff is usually my cue (I had a real thicko moment there where I couldn't remember how to spell cue!) to get some stuff flogged.
The thing about this pile though is that it can be a little deceptive. Although it often gets the point of overflowing, sometimes there's not actually much in it that I can actually sell.
The reason is that often the majority of the pile is made up of manga volumes and while I will eventually sell them, I've learned that manga sells best when you sell it as a complete collection. That's particularly true at the moment where I've got a lot of ongoing series that I'm collected, but that aren't really keepers.
I mean, they're not bad, but equally they're not ones I want to hang onto in the long term. That means I have to put them away in boxes until the series is complete and I can sell them all in one go.
The other thing that does work is if I dump a series and I'm up to date. They usually sell quite well if it's a case of "all released so far" as you're effectively kick-starting someone else collecting them. The thing that doesn't sell at all well is single volumes in the middle of a series.
The problem, I guess, is that you're relying on several people being on that same volume in order to get multiple bids and also that they'll be looking on e-bay for that specific volume. It's usually fairly unlikely.
But what that does mean is you can't sell, say, volumes 1-10 in a lot and then try and sell the individual volumes as you read them. I've tied something similar to that before and I just cannot sell them at anything like a reasonable price. Where I would at minimum get a third back from selling multiple volumes or a complete series, with individual volumes I'm lucky to be getting 5% back.
When you consider postage and e-bay fees, that means it's almost guaranteed to be a loss-maker. And while I don't mind selling stuff and not making a lot of money so that other people can enjoy the series, I'm not happy about loosing money for the privilege.
Anyway, the upshot of going through the pile was that I've ended up with about a dozen things on e-bay. The pile had a lot more stuff in it that I've boxed away for the time being, but a dozen things isn't bad all things considered.
Hopefully I'll have more stuff to get rid of soon as well, because for the first time in ages I sat down and marathoned a load of episodes on DVD on Sunday. And that was on top of playing a load of Anno 1404: Venice, so a fairly successful weekend.
I have a box that I keep next to my bed and as I finish reading or watching something I dump it in the box. When the box is overflowing with stuff is usually my cue (I had a real thicko moment there where I couldn't remember how to spell cue!) to get some stuff flogged.
The thing about this pile though is that it can be a little deceptive. Although it often gets the point of overflowing, sometimes there's not actually much in it that I can actually sell.
The reason is that often the majority of the pile is made up of manga volumes and while I will eventually sell them, I've learned that manga sells best when you sell it as a complete collection. That's particularly true at the moment where I've got a lot of ongoing series that I'm collected, but that aren't really keepers.
I mean, they're not bad, but equally they're not ones I want to hang onto in the long term. That means I have to put them away in boxes until the series is complete and I can sell them all in one go.
The other thing that does work is if I dump a series and I'm up to date. They usually sell quite well if it's a case of "all released so far" as you're effectively kick-starting someone else collecting them. The thing that doesn't sell at all well is single volumes in the middle of a series.
The problem, I guess, is that you're relying on several people being on that same volume in order to get multiple bids and also that they'll be looking on e-bay for that specific volume. It's usually fairly unlikely.
But what that does mean is you can't sell, say, volumes 1-10 in a lot and then try and sell the individual volumes as you read them. I've tied something similar to that before and I just cannot sell them at anything like a reasonable price. Where I would at minimum get a third back from selling multiple volumes or a complete series, with individual volumes I'm lucky to be getting 5% back.
When you consider postage and e-bay fees, that means it's almost guaranteed to be a loss-maker. And while I don't mind selling stuff and not making a lot of money so that other people can enjoy the series, I'm not happy about loosing money for the privilege.
Anyway, the upshot of going through the pile was that I've ended up with about a dozen things on e-bay. The pile had a lot more stuff in it that I've boxed away for the time being, but a dozen things isn't bad all things considered.
Hopefully I'll have more stuff to get rid of soon as well, because for the first time in ages I sat down and marathoned a load of episodes on DVD on Sunday. And that was on top of playing a load of Anno 1404: Venice, so a fairly successful weekend.
Friday, 26 February 2010
seasonal norm?
For the last couple of days the weather's almost been mild.
I wouldn't go as far as to say that it's been warm and there's been plenty of rain, so it's not been great weather, but it has definitely not been as cold as it has these last few months.
As I understand it this almost-mild spell has been rather restricted to the South, with plenty of snow and cold weather further north, but then I don't live there. I live in the South and down here it's not been too bad.
The bad news is that looking at the forecasts it's meant to get cold again next week, but for now I'm enjoying not freezing to death at work at the very least.
It was fully my intention this week to watch some anime. However, for the early part of the week I focused more on watching some things I'd recorded. My logic was that this weekend is going to be quite a busy one, so the more stuff I could clear the better.
That's all fine, but then I'd completely forgotten about something. Anno 1404 - Venice turned up yesterday. Of course, if I was sensible I would have held back and watched the anime as I'd promised myself. But of course I didn't do that. I installed the game and gave it a quick go.
I was a little disappointed by one thing if I'm honest - there's no new campaign, which is the story-based version of the game.
Instead they've introduced a lot more Scenarios. The first one of these I played did feature an animated cut scene like the campaign has, so my guess would be they've built cut scenes for all of the scenarios, but I don't know.
What they have introduced, as per the name, is a whole load of new stuff that mainly relates to Venice. There's a bunch of new NPCs, which by the looks of things includes a new equivalent to the Occident and Orient quest givers for Venice.
There also appears to be multiplayer, which is of little interest to me. But the big introduction of interest to me seems to be 'espionage', which allows you to plant spies and to undertake sabotage missions. This looks interesting, but I have to confess in the sample I played in that first scenario there was something that puzzled me.
If the idea is that these are secret espionage missions then it seemed odd that the player I was doing them on keeping sending me messages about loosing reputation for conducting them. I mean, I understood some of these when he caught my spy, but it also seemed like I got them when the spy successfully completed his mission.
Maybe it was my not understanding it properly, but doesn't that kinda defeat the point? If he knows it's me all the time then they're hardly secret espionage missions are they :/.
Anyway, the big point here is that I can already feel that I'm going to end up being a naughty boy and playing Venice this weekend.
I wouldn't go as far as to say that it's been warm and there's been plenty of rain, so it's not been great weather, but it has definitely not been as cold as it has these last few months.
As I understand it this almost-mild spell has been rather restricted to the South, with plenty of snow and cold weather further north, but then I don't live there. I live in the South and down here it's not been too bad.
The bad news is that looking at the forecasts it's meant to get cold again next week, but for now I'm enjoying not freezing to death at work at the very least.
It was fully my intention this week to watch some anime. However, for the early part of the week I focused more on watching some things I'd recorded. My logic was that this weekend is going to be quite a busy one, so the more stuff I could clear the better.
That's all fine, but then I'd completely forgotten about something. Anno 1404 - Venice turned up yesterday. Of course, if I was sensible I would have held back and watched the anime as I'd promised myself. But of course I didn't do that. I installed the game and gave it a quick go.
I was a little disappointed by one thing if I'm honest - there's no new campaign, which is the story-based version of the game.
Instead they've introduced a lot more Scenarios. The first one of these I played did feature an animated cut scene like the campaign has, so my guess would be they've built cut scenes for all of the scenarios, but I don't know.
What they have introduced, as per the name, is a whole load of new stuff that mainly relates to Venice. There's a bunch of new NPCs, which by the looks of things includes a new equivalent to the Occident and Orient quest givers for Venice.
There also appears to be multiplayer, which is of little interest to me. But the big introduction of interest to me seems to be 'espionage', which allows you to plant spies and to undertake sabotage missions. This looks interesting, but I have to confess in the sample I played in that first scenario there was something that puzzled me.
If the idea is that these are secret espionage missions then it seemed odd that the player I was doing them on keeping sending me messages about loosing reputation for conducting them. I mean, I understood some of these when he caught my spy, but it also seemed like I got them when the spy successfully completed his mission.
Maybe it was my not understanding it properly, but doesn't that kinda defeat the point? If he knows it's me all the time then they're hardly secret espionage missions are they :/.
Anyway, the big point here is that I can already feel that I'm going to end up being a naughty boy and playing Venice this weekend.
Thursday, 25 February 2010
ripping good time
The other day I was ordering a was browsing Amazon for a couple of CDs (yes, I still buy CDs! How very old school of me!) when it occurred to me I hadn't mentioned the completing of a grand project.
A lot of this time this blog is all about how rubbish I am at completing or doing stuff. I'm supposed to be an anime fan, but I can't be bothered watching all my anime DVDs. I'm supposed to be buying the anime mags so I can scan them, but can't be arsed. I'm supposed to enjoy reading, but instead of reading the books I buy, I read manga instead. I'm supposed to be a gamer, but fixate on 1 game and play that to the exclusion of all others. And all the other stuff.
Well, the project in question was also a bit of a victim of this effect to. The project in question was the ripping of all of my CD collection to MP3.
I used to be really into music, but when after Uni I kinda rediscovered anime and manga and what gave way was my interest in music. Plus, at the time the bands I was most into had all either broken up or had started releasing crap.
What I'm saying is that my music collection used to be huge, given the amount of time I'd been building it, but since Uni I've hardly bought anything, so I guess now it's just big.
Anyway, the idea was that given the MP3 player I got for my thirtieth I should start ripping my CDs. I started on this and got a long way, but then I hit a problem.
The ripping program I was using has a database that looks up the album and track titles and it covered 95% of my CDs. Admittedly it wasn't perfect - some of the album names especially are a bit wonky - but it was good enough.
But then I found that some of my CDs weren't in there. And I also found that tying the stuff in was horribly tortuous. So I put these to the side and did the rest. There weren't many, but enough that once I'd completed the others I kept making excuse to not do them.
Well recently I made the time and ripped them plus the few newer CDs I'd bought since putting the project on hold. Now, interestingly and technically, I also found about half a dozen disks that had some sort of copy protection on them, so I've not ripped them, but I'm pretty happy to say that I've completed the project.
It's kinda a good feeling to really finish something.
A lot of this time this blog is all about how rubbish I am at completing or doing stuff. I'm supposed to be an anime fan, but I can't be bothered watching all my anime DVDs. I'm supposed to be buying the anime mags so I can scan them, but can't be arsed. I'm supposed to enjoy reading, but instead of reading the books I buy, I read manga instead. I'm supposed to be a gamer, but fixate on 1 game and play that to the exclusion of all others. And all the other stuff.
Well, the project in question was also a bit of a victim of this effect to. The project in question was the ripping of all of my CD collection to MP3.
I used to be really into music, but when after Uni I kinda rediscovered anime and manga and what gave way was my interest in music. Plus, at the time the bands I was most into had all either broken up or had started releasing crap.
What I'm saying is that my music collection used to be huge, given the amount of time I'd been building it, but since Uni I've hardly bought anything, so I guess now it's just big.
Anyway, the idea was that given the MP3 player I got for my thirtieth I should start ripping my CDs. I started on this and got a long way, but then I hit a problem.
The ripping program I was using has a database that looks up the album and track titles and it covered 95% of my CDs. Admittedly it wasn't perfect - some of the album names especially are a bit wonky - but it was good enough.
But then I found that some of my CDs weren't in there. And I also found that tying the stuff in was horribly tortuous. So I put these to the side and did the rest. There weren't many, but enough that once I'd completed the others I kept making excuse to not do them.
Well recently I made the time and ripped them plus the few newer CDs I'd bought since putting the project on hold. Now, interestingly and technically, I also found about half a dozen disks that had some sort of copy protection on them, so I've not ripped them, but I'm pretty happy to say that I've completed the project.
It's kinda a good feeling to really finish something.
Wednesday, 24 February 2010
the incredible hulk
This has to be one of the quickest reboots in the history of reboots.
The Incredible Hulk is not a sequel to "Hulk", the Ang Lee movie from 2003. Interestingly, though, it's also not an origin story, as such. Indeed, the origin stuff is covered across the opening title sequence.
Instead, we get what would work quite well as a sequel movie, except that the origin movie wasn't made. Or, to put it another way, if you've seen the Ang Lee movie which does have origin stuff in it, but instead of making a sequel to that, they switched back to the comic, but made a sequel.
I know - it's a bit confusing when you actually think about it.
Not the movie itself that is - the movie is relatively simple, story-wise - but the meta-textual stuff. The real world and outside stuff.
And to some extent that stuff is detectable in the movie. The main feeling you get is that they're trying to cram all the stuff into this movie from the comics and the TV series that Ang Lee either didn't want to or decided not to include in the first one.
Some examples are that Lou Ferrigno (who played the hulk in the TV show) pops up in a cameo, there's a tiny burst of the TV show's theme and that the iconic line "Hulk Smash!" makes it into the film. There are quite a few others that you'll pick up on if you know the comic or the TV series and these add a nice, fun layer to this film that perhaps wasn't there in the original.
But this is where things get a little weird - the film tries to both have its cake and eat it. It tries to be that fun, comic-book film that wasn't really the case in the first one (although, weirdly, the first one was shot to look like a comic, even though it wasn't really a comic book film in tone), but it also tries to be a bit more serious.
There are quite a few heavy scenes between Bruce and Betty, for example and they try to play up the tragic nature of being the Hulk. But I dunno, it doesn't quite sit well here. Edward Norton's performance in particular is played pretty straight and while it works in and of itself, it seems to jar a bit with the more comic-booky stuff.
In a way, it's like he thought he was in a sequel to the Ang Lee movie, where the producers (Marvel) were trying to bring in more of the fun, fan-favourite comic book and TV stuff. I got the feeling then that the director was caught in the middle a bit - trying to do both and kinda agreeing with both sides and keep them happy at the same time.
I think I'm being a bit overly analytical here. This stuff doesn't really detract from the film as a whole, which is basically okay.
Part of the trouble with the hulk, and it was particularly evident in the TV show, is that basically it's a rather simple, repetitive story. Bruce Banner can't have a proper life with the woman he loves because when he gets angry he turns into a huge green monster that smashes stuff up. So instead, he spends his life looking for a cure and (obviously, otherwise the whole story would stop) not finding it. That's also why he doesn't just go and live in a monastery or deep in the woods - he needs a cure so he can be with Betty.
It's also why over the years they've had to do so much buggering about with that basic story. It's repetitive and predictable unless you start doing stuff like make the hulk intelligent.
Its also why they pitch him against all sorts of good and bad guys - it at least gives him something different to do.
The Incredible Hulk is not a sequel to "Hulk", the Ang Lee movie from 2003. Interestingly, though, it's also not an origin story, as such. Indeed, the origin stuff is covered across the opening title sequence.
Instead, we get what would work quite well as a sequel movie, except that the origin movie wasn't made. Or, to put it another way, if you've seen the Ang Lee movie which does have origin stuff in it, but instead of making a sequel to that, they switched back to the comic, but made a sequel.
I know - it's a bit confusing when you actually think about it.
Not the movie itself that is - the movie is relatively simple, story-wise - but the meta-textual stuff. The real world and outside stuff.
And to some extent that stuff is detectable in the movie. The main feeling you get is that they're trying to cram all the stuff into this movie from the comics and the TV series that Ang Lee either didn't want to or decided not to include in the first one.
Some examples are that Lou Ferrigno (who played the hulk in the TV show) pops up in a cameo, there's a tiny burst of the TV show's theme and that the iconic line "Hulk Smash!" makes it into the film. There are quite a few others that you'll pick up on if you know the comic or the TV series and these add a nice, fun layer to this film that perhaps wasn't there in the original.
But this is where things get a little weird - the film tries to both have its cake and eat it. It tries to be that fun, comic-book film that wasn't really the case in the first one (although, weirdly, the first one was shot to look like a comic, even though it wasn't really a comic book film in tone), but it also tries to be a bit more serious.
There are quite a few heavy scenes between Bruce and Betty, for example and they try to play up the tragic nature of being the Hulk. But I dunno, it doesn't quite sit well here. Edward Norton's performance in particular is played pretty straight and while it works in and of itself, it seems to jar a bit with the more comic-booky stuff.
In a way, it's like he thought he was in a sequel to the Ang Lee movie, where the producers (Marvel) were trying to bring in more of the fun, fan-favourite comic book and TV stuff. I got the feeling then that the director was caught in the middle a bit - trying to do both and kinda agreeing with both sides and keep them happy at the same time.
I think I'm being a bit overly analytical here. This stuff doesn't really detract from the film as a whole, which is basically okay.
Part of the trouble with the hulk, and it was particularly evident in the TV show, is that basically it's a rather simple, repetitive story. Bruce Banner can't have a proper life with the woman he loves because when he gets angry he turns into a huge green monster that smashes stuff up. So instead, he spends his life looking for a cure and (obviously, otherwise the whole story would stop) not finding it. That's also why he doesn't just go and live in a monastery or deep in the woods - he needs a cure so he can be with Betty.
It's also why over the years they've had to do so much buggering about with that basic story. It's repetitive and predictable unless you start doing stuff like make the hulk intelligent.
Its also why they pitch him against all sorts of good and bad guys - it at least gives him something different to do.
Tuesday, 23 February 2010
too much food
Dinner last night was a bit weird.
When I went home for Christmas my Dad gave me a bunch of food. This happens every Christmas, because, even though he doesn't buy excessive amounts, he still buys too much stuff. Basically, it's because he's buying extra things on top of what he normally buys anyway.
But also recently, he's started giving me meat. The reason is that a friend of his gives him meat (it's complicated) and because he can't eat it all, he bungs it in the freezer and then passes it on to me when I visit.
Now this is fine in concept, only he doesn't really tend to think it through enough. So, for example, last time he gave me some pork chops. This would be great - ideal even, because obviously you can do as many chops as you need, right? Except he froze all four chops as one lump.
That's a lot of chops in anyone's book and it also means you can't cook them individually under the grill or anything. I effectively had to treat them as a large roast, but then they're rubbish like that, because they're very bony and fatty, so you can't really keep the leftovers. In other words, I cooked the whole thing, but could only eat the main meat part of the chop.
Plus, I don't know about you, but I can't just eat a chop on its own as a meal, so I ended up doing a full roast, so it's really a big meal. So anyway, I informed him of this when I next saw him and he now freezes the chops individually.
However, at Christmas he game me a proper roasting joint of pork. It was a big joint and I finally decided this weekend to tackle it.
One of the things about pork I find is that it doesn't really shrink. Most meats do - if you roast beef, for example, what comes out of the oven will be up to a third smaller that what went in, in my experience. But that doesn't seem to work for pork - what come out is roughly the size of what went in.
I could easily have gotten four meals off of this joint, but instead I had big portions and did three meals. In other words, on Saturday I cooked a full roast that featured pork, apple sauce, gravy, Yorkshire puddings, roast potatoes, carrots and peas.
From that, I ended up with cold meat, Yorkshires, apple sauce and the gravy, so on Sunday I reheated those and did some more roast potatoes, carrots and peas and had another roast.
But then Monday I obviously still had meat, Yorkshires, apple sauce and gravy left, so what to do?
Normally when I do a roast, what I do is I have the Saturday and Sunday roast, but then I make a stew on Monday, half of which I can keep and have on Tuesday. I don't do it that often - perhaps once a month? - as it's complicated and time consuming, but it also represents great value for money. Generally speaking home cooking is always cheaper, especially when your most expensive ingredient (the meat) goes a long way.
Anyway, the problem was that I don't really like making stews with pork. My stew recipe works for dark meats - beef and lamb, in particular - but it's not so good for white meats like pork and chicken.
That meant only one option - do more potatoes and carrots and have another 'roast' (I actually boiled the potatoes as it was quicker - well I steamed them technically, but you know what I mean).
So rather bizarrely I've eaten full roast dinner for three days in a row. I still feel a bit full now :/.
When I went home for Christmas my Dad gave me a bunch of food. This happens every Christmas, because, even though he doesn't buy excessive amounts, he still buys too much stuff. Basically, it's because he's buying extra things on top of what he normally buys anyway.
But also recently, he's started giving me meat. The reason is that a friend of his gives him meat (it's complicated) and because he can't eat it all, he bungs it in the freezer and then passes it on to me when I visit.
Now this is fine in concept, only he doesn't really tend to think it through enough. So, for example, last time he gave me some pork chops. This would be great - ideal even, because obviously you can do as many chops as you need, right? Except he froze all four chops as one lump.
That's a lot of chops in anyone's book and it also means you can't cook them individually under the grill or anything. I effectively had to treat them as a large roast, but then they're rubbish like that, because they're very bony and fatty, so you can't really keep the leftovers. In other words, I cooked the whole thing, but could only eat the main meat part of the chop.
Plus, I don't know about you, but I can't just eat a chop on its own as a meal, so I ended up doing a full roast, so it's really a big meal. So anyway, I informed him of this when I next saw him and he now freezes the chops individually.
However, at Christmas he game me a proper roasting joint of pork. It was a big joint and I finally decided this weekend to tackle it.
One of the things about pork I find is that it doesn't really shrink. Most meats do - if you roast beef, for example, what comes out of the oven will be up to a third smaller that what went in, in my experience. But that doesn't seem to work for pork - what come out is roughly the size of what went in.
I could easily have gotten four meals off of this joint, but instead I had big portions and did three meals. In other words, on Saturday I cooked a full roast that featured pork, apple sauce, gravy, Yorkshire puddings, roast potatoes, carrots and peas.
From that, I ended up with cold meat, Yorkshires, apple sauce and the gravy, so on Sunday I reheated those and did some more roast potatoes, carrots and peas and had another roast.
But then Monday I obviously still had meat, Yorkshires, apple sauce and gravy left, so what to do?
Normally when I do a roast, what I do is I have the Saturday and Sunday roast, but then I make a stew on Monday, half of which I can keep and have on Tuesday. I don't do it that often - perhaps once a month? - as it's complicated and time consuming, but it also represents great value for money. Generally speaking home cooking is always cheaper, especially when your most expensive ingredient (the meat) goes a long way.
Anyway, the problem was that I don't really like making stews with pork. My stew recipe works for dark meats - beef and lamb, in particular - but it's not so good for white meats like pork and chicken.
That meant only one option - do more potatoes and carrots and have another 'roast' (I actually boiled the potatoes as it was quicker - well I steamed them technically, but you know what I mean).
So rather bizarrely I've eaten full roast dinner for three days in a row. I still feel a bit full now :/.
Monday, 22 February 2010
good intentions
I had seriously good intentions this weekend.
The first part of the plan was to give my dad a call on Saturday, and I did that. Unfortunately, the call was a really long one - 2 hours, in fact, so it basically ate up my entire Saturday morning, which was a bit inconvenient.
The second part of the plan was to finally finish off watching all of the stuff I've recorded over the last couple of weeks. For example, I recorded both a Midsommer Murders and the last Wallander some time back and I haven't had the chance to watch them.
Mainly this is because my ironing schedule has gone to pot in recent weeks. Normally, I like to watch a good crime mystery while I do my ironing. Midsommer Murders is particularly good ironing viewing.
Well, this weekend I had a huge pile of ironing to do, so I figured I'd take the opportunity to at least watch one of them. If you know Midsommer Murders, then you'll know they're about 2 hours long, as broadcast. Well, when you skip the ads, you find they're actually only about 1.5 hours long.
Also, the Wallenders (these are the BBC ones) are about an hour and a half too. So I figured one of them would get me through the ironing.
I watched both. To be fair, I couldn't iron continuously - my arm starts to ache after a while - but still, even given that, I spent the best part of three hours ironing and watching them.
The final part of my genuine good intentions plan therefore didn't come to proper fruition. This part involved me actually sitting down and doing some scanning.
My plan wasn't to be stupid about it - just do one magazine or something. Make a start - that was the key. Even given the amount of spare time I'd used up with the phone and ironing, I figured I could do one magazine.
However, what I didn't count on was that I've gotten a long way out of touch.
What I'd forgotten or failed to realise was that the unscanned magazines stretched back to September last year. In other words, I had all of the months mags from September 2009 to March 2010 stacked up.
That means I've got 7 issues of Megami, 7 issues of New Type, 7 issues of Animedia and 7 issues of Animage for a starter. I also found 2 issue of Nyan Type (the megami 'bishoujo' rival from New Type) and 3 artbooks in the same pile.
That's a lot of magazines and it meant a lot of sorting out. Before I can scan, I have to take the magazines apart, removing staples, etc. This makes it about 200 times easier to scan them and also means I can chuck away the cheap black and white pages all the mags have in them, but it is a time consuming process. It's also a process that's way better to do in a block, rather than while I'm scanning.
Well, sorting, tidying, taking them apart and all that jazz took me the best part of two hours. And what's more, I didn't have enough time to do the animage's. Unlike the other mags, animage is glue-bound. Taking them apart therefore involves use of an iron to melt the glue. This is a pain in the arse, but it actually makes scanning animage a really simple and easy process, so to be fair it is kinda swings and roundabouts.
So yea - no scanning done, but I've done a big chunk of the prep, so when I do get around to it (and I really am determined to do it now) I'll be pretty much ready to roll straight out of the gate.
The first part of the plan was to give my dad a call on Saturday, and I did that. Unfortunately, the call was a really long one - 2 hours, in fact, so it basically ate up my entire Saturday morning, which was a bit inconvenient.
The second part of the plan was to finally finish off watching all of the stuff I've recorded over the last couple of weeks. For example, I recorded both a Midsommer Murders and the last Wallander some time back and I haven't had the chance to watch them.
Mainly this is because my ironing schedule has gone to pot in recent weeks. Normally, I like to watch a good crime mystery while I do my ironing. Midsommer Murders is particularly good ironing viewing.
Well, this weekend I had a huge pile of ironing to do, so I figured I'd take the opportunity to at least watch one of them. If you know Midsommer Murders, then you'll know they're about 2 hours long, as broadcast. Well, when you skip the ads, you find they're actually only about 1.5 hours long.
Also, the Wallenders (these are the BBC ones) are about an hour and a half too. So I figured one of them would get me through the ironing.
I watched both. To be fair, I couldn't iron continuously - my arm starts to ache after a while - but still, even given that, I spent the best part of three hours ironing and watching them.
The final part of my genuine good intentions plan therefore didn't come to proper fruition. This part involved me actually sitting down and doing some scanning.
My plan wasn't to be stupid about it - just do one magazine or something. Make a start - that was the key. Even given the amount of spare time I'd used up with the phone and ironing, I figured I could do one magazine.
However, what I didn't count on was that I've gotten a long way out of touch.
What I'd forgotten or failed to realise was that the unscanned magazines stretched back to September last year. In other words, I had all of the months mags from September 2009 to March 2010 stacked up.
That means I've got 7 issues of Megami, 7 issues of New Type, 7 issues of Animedia and 7 issues of Animage for a starter. I also found 2 issue of Nyan Type (the megami 'bishoujo' rival from New Type) and 3 artbooks in the same pile.
That's a lot of magazines and it meant a lot of sorting out. Before I can scan, I have to take the magazines apart, removing staples, etc. This makes it about 200 times easier to scan them and also means I can chuck away the cheap black and white pages all the mags have in them, but it is a time consuming process. It's also a process that's way better to do in a block, rather than while I'm scanning.
Well, sorting, tidying, taking them apart and all that jazz took me the best part of two hours. And what's more, I didn't have enough time to do the animage's. Unlike the other mags, animage is glue-bound. Taking them apart therefore involves use of an iron to melt the glue. This is a pain in the arse, but it actually makes scanning animage a really simple and easy process, so to be fair it is kinda swings and roundabouts.
So yea - no scanning done, but I've done a big chunk of the prep, so when I do get around to it (and I really am determined to do it now) I'll be pretty much ready to roll straight out of the gate.
Friday, 19 February 2010
yawns
I was knackered last night.
I think it was because I've been pushing quite hard to watch some anime, but also I've been pretty busy at work.
The work I've been doing should have been really simple, because the idea is that there's some tools that have been built where you just click the button and it pretty much does what you want.
Unfortunately, while these did some of what was needed, they didn't work properly for all of it. And to make things more complicated the person who built the tools no longer works for RED. Plus he wrote them in a stats language that only he knows, so they're effectively unfixable by me.
This meant that I had to build some workaround tools that did the missing parts of the process. Now normally I quite enjoy this sort of problem solving, but I've been quite aware that the deadline for the week was "as soon as possible" and I don't like working to that sort of deadline, because it means you make mistakes because you're rushing.
So yeah, I went to bed pretty early last night.
I'm planning to call my Dad this weekend, but now that he has broadband I thought I'd e-mail him and let him know.
It's weird communicating with my dad via e-mail. It's like he has a completely different online personality.
It's difficult to explain - I guess it's because I know him as my dad, rather than as a person? That doesn't make much sense does it? But it's like when he communicates via e-mail he does so as him, the person, rather than him, my dad, whereas when I talk to him or see him, he's in dad mode.
I guess part of it is that he really does have a "dad mode". This might be a bit deep considering how frivolous this blog is, but my dad's dad mode involves a lot of telling you what to do.
I don't mean he's an authoritarian, but you know how you can have a conversation about stuff with a normal person and maybe if they've had a similar experience, they might offer some advice or just there thoughts? Well, when I talk to my dad he always comes at things from a "here's what you do" slant.
There's an old Harry Enfield character that had the catchphrase "you don't want to do it like that, you want to do it like this..." and my dad is a lot like that character. It's the difference between offering advice, or telling you what happened to them, compared to giving you instruction.
My dad always gives instruction, he never offers advice.
Or that is to say, that's what he does in dad mode. When communicating via e-mail he doesn't do that, and it's a bit disconcerting.
I think it was because I've been pushing quite hard to watch some anime, but also I've been pretty busy at work.
The work I've been doing should have been really simple, because the idea is that there's some tools that have been built where you just click the button and it pretty much does what you want.
Unfortunately, while these did some of what was needed, they didn't work properly for all of it. And to make things more complicated the person who built the tools no longer works for RED. Plus he wrote them in a stats language that only he knows, so they're effectively unfixable by me.
This meant that I had to build some workaround tools that did the missing parts of the process. Now normally I quite enjoy this sort of problem solving, but I've been quite aware that the deadline for the week was "as soon as possible" and I don't like working to that sort of deadline, because it means you make mistakes because you're rushing.
So yeah, I went to bed pretty early last night.
I'm planning to call my Dad this weekend, but now that he has broadband I thought I'd e-mail him and let him know.
It's weird communicating with my dad via e-mail. It's like he has a completely different online personality.
It's difficult to explain - I guess it's because I know him as my dad, rather than as a person? That doesn't make much sense does it? But it's like when he communicates via e-mail he does so as him, the person, rather than him, my dad, whereas when I talk to him or see him, he's in dad mode.
I guess part of it is that he really does have a "dad mode". This might be a bit deep considering how frivolous this blog is, but my dad's dad mode involves a lot of telling you what to do.
I don't mean he's an authoritarian, but you know how you can have a conversation about stuff with a normal person and maybe if they've had a similar experience, they might offer some advice or just there thoughts? Well, when I talk to my dad he always comes at things from a "here's what you do" slant.
There's an old Harry Enfield character that had the catchphrase "you don't want to do it like that, you want to do it like this..." and my dad is a lot like that character. It's the difference between offering advice, or telling you what happened to them, compared to giving you instruction.
My dad always gives instruction, he never offers advice.
Or that is to say, that's what he does in dad mode. When communicating via e-mail he doesn't do that, and it's a bit disconcerting.
Thursday, 18 February 2010
even more anime watching
I've been keeping up with the anime watching. I was a little afraid I'd stop, but I haven't - I've kept going. And I'm also keen to keep going.
I think one thing that's really helped was hacking back my telly watching. I'm kinda at a stage where I've nothing to watch except anime. Now normally the risk there would be that I'd play Anno instead.
But I've also had a help there too - for a little while I've had quite a lot of pain in my right shoulder. I don't think it's from over-use of the mouse as I'm fairly sure I strained it, but I am finding that even mouse use at work has been a bit uncomfortable, which has discouraged me from doing much computer wise in the evening.
Unfortunately, extended periods of staring at subtitles has made something else apparent to me - I really need some new glasses. I've been getting headaches and so I think my prescription has changed. But even if it hasn't I'm not surprised - my current glasses are so covered in scratches, that it's like looking through frosted glass.
I've known for a while they were getting bad, but as I say, staring at subtitles that are blurry really brings it home.
Anyway, I finished Mnemosyne last night.
Overall I enjoyed it. There were a few plot holes, as is normal with anime, but overall it did wrap up pretty well. I'm going to do a full review of it on trismugistus.com later, so I won't go into too many details.
However, I also managed to find the time to sample more fansubs, so here's some mini reviews:
Seikon No Qwaser
Seikon No Qwaser is about the power of boobs.
Well, it's not entirely about boobs. It's also one of those shounen series of the D-Grayman type, where the creator has just taken a bunch of random stuff and his favourite series and blended it together.
Here we have some vaguely Christian religious stuff, some alchemy, plenty of fighting, a bit of magic and mystical powers, lashings of fan-service and the aforementioned boobs. Or rather, more specifically, what I think is roughly breast feeding where 'soma' is sucked out of a ladies chesticles.
I say 'think', because the censorship is a bit on the heavy side - it cuts to some random images or the shots are framed weirdly so that you can't see anything. Recent shows with heavy fanservice have tended to use extreme shadows to hide stuff, although you could still roughly see what was going on - here you're really left to guess.
So plenty of fan-service, but you can't see it. Also, it sits on that side of the line where the fan-service is wrapped up into a story element that's so artificial it just becomes annoying. I think shows like Ikki Tousen, Queens' Blade or Kanokon work for me because they're happy to ladle in the fanservice and don't feel guilty about it.
Fan-service is great, so they show it. They don't come up with bizarre and non-sensensical plot elements as an excuse to have it. Well, okay, they do, I suppose, but they don't pretend the fan-service is incidental to that.
I was rather surprised that this was based on a manga, rather than a light novel. Light novels seem to be the home of hackneyed cliché and this is that sort of show.
Kuchu Buranko (trapeze)
Er... okay.
This was a bit of an odd one - both in terms of animation style and what it's about.
The animation was an odd mix of purely drawn stuff, CG and real-world stuff that was either filtered or possibly rotoscoped. It's also a complete riot of psychedelic colours and patterns and there's plenty of weird symbolism going on.
The story is equally odd, being as it focuses on a psychiatrist who appears to be a kid dressed in a clown suit. And the people who come to see him have very weird problems.
I dunno - I can't really explain it, other than to say it kinda works. And it works because it's so weird, but in a consistent way. The weirdness of the style actually complements and enhances the weirdness of story, which is perfectly matched by the weird style.
Umineko No Naku Kori Ni
I don't really know much about Higurashi: When they Cry. I've never seen any of the episodes or read the manga (I think there's a manga? I have a weird notion it's actually a video game originally). I've never even read any summaries of it or anything like that.
I've seen some images via the Japanese anime mags and as scans and wallpapers of course, and from those I kinda picked up it was a horror job, but other than that, nothing.
As such I didn't know what to expect from Umineko - was it a sequel or prequel or side story or basically unrelated? Obviously I can't answer that question, but my guess is that it's thematically similar. In other words, it's a horror, mystery job.
Often I don't like the anime and manga horrors - the disconnect for it to be an animated character makes them less effective. However, I quite liked this. I mean I wouldn't say I was scarred by it, but it looked quite interesting and worth a go.
I'm even tempted to pick up Higurashi and see what that's like.
Aoi Bungaku
Aoi translates to blue. Bungaku appears to be something akin to literature that's written in the form of a diary. I'm guessing, but I therefore think the title roughly translates as Blue Diaries - the blue possibly being a reference to mood as well as the colour blue.
Perhaps that's more a western spin - I don't know if the Japanese regard blue as being a particularly melancholy colour or if they have an expression equivalent to "feeling a bit blue." If they don't it's quite a coincidence, because melancholic diaries would probably be quite a good title for this series.
I only sampled the first two episodes and apparently the series actually adapts 6 classical Japanese literature pieces across it's 12 episodes. As such, I can only really talk about the first of these and overall I enjoyed it. It was pretty miserable though, from what I watched. I dunno, maybe it has a happy ending of some description, but the first two eps aren't exactly a barrel of laughs.
Which isn't a bad thing - it's good to have all sorts of moods in stuff.
I think one thing that's really helped was hacking back my telly watching. I'm kinda at a stage where I've nothing to watch except anime. Now normally the risk there would be that I'd play Anno instead.
But I've also had a help there too - for a little while I've had quite a lot of pain in my right shoulder. I don't think it's from over-use of the mouse as I'm fairly sure I strained it, but I am finding that even mouse use at work has been a bit uncomfortable, which has discouraged me from doing much computer wise in the evening.
Unfortunately, extended periods of staring at subtitles has made something else apparent to me - I really need some new glasses. I've been getting headaches and so I think my prescription has changed. But even if it hasn't I'm not surprised - my current glasses are so covered in scratches, that it's like looking through frosted glass.
I've known for a while they were getting bad, but as I say, staring at subtitles that are blurry really brings it home.
Anyway, I finished Mnemosyne last night.
Overall I enjoyed it. There were a few plot holes, as is normal with anime, but overall it did wrap up pretty well. I'm going to do a full review of it on trismugistus.com later, so I won't go into too many details.
However, I also managed to find the time to sample more fansubs, so here's some mini reviews:
Seikon No Qwaser
Seikon No Qwaser is about the power of boobs.
Well, it's not entirely about boobs. It's also one of those shounen series of the D-Grayman type, where the creator has just taken a bunch of random stuff and his favourite series and blended it together.
Here we have some vaguely Christian religious stuff, some alchemy, plenty of fighting, a bit of magic and mystical powers, lashings of fan-service and the aforementioned boobs. Or rather, more specifically, what I think is roughly breast feeding where 'soma' is sucked out of a ladies chesticles.
I say 'think', because the censorship is a bit on the heavy side - it cuts to some random images or the shots are framed weirdly so that you can't see anything. Recent shows with heavy fanservice have tended to use extreme shadows to hide stuff, although you could still roughly see what was going on - here you're really left to guess.
So plenty of fan-service, but you can't see it. Also, it sits on that side of the line where the fan-service is wrapped up into a story element that's so artificial it just becomes annoying. I think shows like Ikki Tousen, Queens' Blade or Kanokon work for me because they're happy to ladle in the fanservice and don't feel guilty about it.
Fan-service is great, so they show it. They don't come up with bizarre and non-sensensical plot elements as an excuse to have it. Well, okay, they do, I suppose, but they don't pretend the fan-service is incidental to that.
I was rather surprised that this was based on a manga, rather than a light novel. Light novels seem to be the home of hackneyed cliché and this is that sort of show.
Kuchu Buranko (trapeze)
Er... okay.
This was a bit of an odd one - both in terms of animation style and what it's about.
The animation was an odd mix of purely drawn stuff, CG and real-world stuff that was either filtered or possibly rotoscoped. It's also a complete riot of psychedelic colours and patterns and there's plenty of weird symbolism going on.
The story is equally odd, being as it focuses on a psychiatrist who appears to be a kid dressed in a clown suit. And the people who come to see him have very weird problems.
I dunno - I can't really explain it, other than to say it kinda works. And it works because it's so weird, but in a consistent way. The weirdness of the style actually complements and enhances the weirdness of story, which is perfectly matched by the weird style.
Umineko No Naku Kori Ni
I don't really know much about Higurashi: When they Cry. I've never seen any of the episodes or read the manga (I think there's a manga? I have a weird notion it's actually a video game originally). I've never even read any summaries of it or anything like that.
I've seen some images via the Japanese anime mags and as scans and wallpapers of course, and from those I kinda picked up it was a horror job, but other than that, nothing.
As such I didn't know what to expect from Umineko - was it a sequel or prequel or side story or basically unrelated? Obviously I can't answer that question, but my guess is that it's thematically similar. In other words, it's a horror, mystery job.
Often I don't like the anime and manga horrors - the disconnect for it to be an animated character makes them less effective. However, I quite liked this. I mean I wouldn't say I was scarred by it, but it looked quite interesting and worth a go.
I'm even tempted to pick up Higurashi and see what that's like.
Aoi Bungaku
Aoi translates to blue. Bungaku appears to be something akin to literature that's written in the form of a diary. I'm guessing, but I therefore think the title roughly translates as Blue Diaries - the blue possibly being a reference to mood as well as the colour blue.
Perhaps that's more a western spin - I don't know if the Japanese regard blue as being a particularly melancholy colour or if they have an expression equivalent to "feeling a bit blue." If they don't it's quite a coincidence, because melancholic diaries would probably be quite a good title for this series.
I only sampled the first two episodes and apparently the series actually adapts 6 classical Japanese literature pieces across it's 12 episodes. As such, I can only really talk about the first of these and overall I enjoyed it. It was pretty miserable though, from what I watched. I dunno, maybe it has a happy ending of some description, but the first two eps aren't exactly a barrel of laughs.
Which isn't a bad thing - it's good to have all sorts of moods in stuff.
Wednesday, 17 February 2010
dara o'briain talks funny: live in london
Something a little different for the DVD rental this week - a live comedy DVD.
Also, I've actually seen this before. Well, sorta. Basically, it's been on telly and I watched it then.
I could have therefore not bothered with the DVD, but I've found before that they tend to trim live comedy DVDs down when they show them on telly. Often they don't remove a lot, but it does mean you get some new gags when you watch the full DVD.
Plus in this case, I enjoyed the telly viewing enough that watching the DVD was still funny. And there was some bonus stuff too - nearly an extra hour of material recorded in Dublin in Ireland on the same tour and a "kinda of" commentary which also had David Mitchell on it.
I'd been aware of O'Briain for a while, but mainly form him appearing on panel shows and other comedy stuff on telly. He also does Mock the Week, which I've seen a few times, but never really got into, I have to admit. I mean, I always found him quite funny, but it was on QI I think that I found out he was from my 'neck of the woods' as it were.
I don't mean literally in the way that phrase is often used - I'm not Irish or of Irish descent or anything - I just mean that he studied Physics at University and is also a proper atheist.
I'm a physics person and a proper atheist too, and I was glad to see that this does make it into his stand-up material. If I'm honest it did get a little bit preachy at one point and it wasn't the funniest bit of the show, but it's good when people stand-up and get counted, as it were.
Anyway, the funniest stuff on the DVD is when he's talking to the audience. I guess it's quite old school stuff, but I've not seen it done in a while. What he essentially does is ask people in the audience about themselves and what they do and things like that.
Now sometimes that can be done in quite a nasty way, but here, although O'Briain does kinda take the piss on occasion, but it's in a gentle ribbing fashion, rather than being nasty.
There are also a few more general questions he puts out to the audience in general and he either riffs on the answers or again talks with a particular audience member.
Which isn't to say the whole show is on that improv vein, there's plenty of pre-prepared material. It's also clear he has a kind of 'bank' of stuff that he can go to if the bits from the audience go in a particular direction.
So yeah, it's a good mix of different types of funny stuff and I enjoyed it a great deal.
The extras are also nice. The Dublin stuff is a bit Irish-centric, so some of it just doesn't work - a bit like if you'd never seen Star Wars and he did a Star Wars gag. Still, plenty of it is more general and he does explain some of it, knowing the cameras are there.
The chat/commentary/drinking game with David Mitchell is also quite good. It's a bit random if I'm honest, but there's some funny points and O'Briain is happy to mock his own stuff, so it works well.
Also, I've actually seen this before. Well, sorta. Basically, it's been on telly and I watched it then.
I could have therefore not bothered with the DVD, but I've found before that they tend to trim live comedy DVDs down when they show them on telly. Often they don't remove a lot, but it does mean you get some new gags when you watch the full DVD.
Plus in this case, I enjoyed the telly viewing enough that watching the DVD was still funny. And there was some bonus stuff too - nearly an extra hour of material recorded in Dublin in Ireland on the same tour and a "kinda of" commentary which also had David Mitchell on it.
I'd been aware of O'Briain for a while, but mainly form him appearing on panel shows and other comedy stuff on telly. He also does Mock the Week, which I've seen a few times, but never really got into, I have to admit. I mean, I always found him quite funny, but it was on QI I think that I found out he was from my 'neck of the woods' as it were.
I don't mean literally in the way that phrase is often used - I'm not Irish or of Irish descent or anything - I just mean that he studied Physics at University and is also a proper atheist.
I'm a physics person and a proper atheist too, and I was glad to see that this does make it into his stand-up material. If I'm honest it did get a little bit preachy at one point and it wasn't the funniest bit of the show, but it's good when people stand-up and get counted, as it were.
Anyway, the funniest stuff on the DVD is when he's talking to the audience. I guess it's quite old school stuff, but I've not seen it done in a while. What he essentially does is ask people in the audience about themselves and what they do and things like that.
Now sometimes that can be done in quite a nasty way, but here, although O'Briain does kinda take the piss on occasion, but it's in a gentle ribbing fashion, rather than being nasty.
There are also a few more general questions he puts out to the audience in general and he either riffs on the answers or again talks with a particular audience member.
Which isn't to say the whole show is on that improv vein, there's plenty of pre-prepared material. It's also clear he has a kind of 'bank' of stuff that he can go to if the bits from the audience go in a particular direction.
So yeah, it's a good mix of different types of funny stuff and I enjoyed it a great deal.
The extras are also nice. The Dublin stuff is a bit Irish-centric, so some of it just doesn't work - a bit like if you'd never seen Star Wars and he did a Star Wars gag. Still, plenty of it is more general and he does explain some of it, knowing the cameras are there.
The chat/commentary/drinking game with David Mitchell is also quite good. It's a bit random if I'm honest, but there's some funny points and O'Briain is happy to mock his own stuff, so it works well.
Tuesday, 16 February 2010
off the boil a bit
Last night I was re-reading the latest Air Gear volume (the latest translated into English this is) and it occurred to me that Oh! Great's (OG's) stuff has gone off the boil a bit.
As well as Air Gear, OG does a manga called Tenjho Tenge. They're both very much in a similar vein, although TenTen is a bit more adult that Air Gear. Both are essentially that speciality of boy's manga - fighting/tournament series.
I won't go into too much detail as I've reviewed both over at trismugistus.com, but basically TenTen is about people properly fighting fisticuffs style and Air Gear is about skating teams who use special powered skates called Air Treks.
There are still plenty of things I like about both series. The artwork is amazing - OG's stuff seems to just get better and better. Going along with that, the echhi fan-service is also pretty top notch. OG's girls are pretty damn hot and there's plenty to enjoy on that front.
Also the way he draws the fights and battles is good and generally speaking I enjoy the characters. I have to admit that slightly oddly I tend to prefer his supporting characters to the main characters, but then to some degree these are ensemble series.
The problem is that both appear to be disappearing up their own backsides.
In TenTen there was a part where it flashed back to show you the recent history of some of the characters. We're not talking far - a couple of years, back when they first joined the high school.
Now this was a double-edged sword - he seemed to get really carried away and this flashback went on for loads of volumes. So may that when we got back to the present it was like he'd gotten bored of his original story and decided to bugger about with it.
Unfortunately this meant a flashback even further to Samurai times. One of the big problems here was it was involving all sorts of new characters who'd never been explained to us before. I think the main problem is that many of these were characters from proper Japanese history, and, never having studied it, I got completely lost. Plus it involved a hell of a lot of mystical mumbo-jumbo.
And unfortunately this story is essentially now that the manga is back to the modern day. So we've not only got the original threads and the first flashback threads, there's now this mystical mumbo-jumbo thread.
And it's this mystical mumbo-jumbo-ness that is also making Air Gear a bit naff too.
Part of the problem here is that I hate what I think of Dragonball-type stories. In these, a new, more powerful enemy keeps appearing and in order to beat them, the hero must learn a new technique or otherwise "level up". I find this sort of thing predictable and rather tedious.
Now fair enough, Ten Ten and Air Gear have both always had that sort of aspect to them and I've just lived with it.
The problem now is that OG has gotten a bit carried away with it all. So where previously the hero might have had to simply practice a lot to learn how to jump high and build up his muscles, now he has to learn something that's mumbo-jumbo-ish about, I dunno, controlling the flow of chi or walking on air pressure or some other nonsense that OG has read in a book and made weird.
Now if this was just once n a while it wouldn't be too bad, but it seems to have gotten to that Dragonball Z stage where it's happening all the damn time.
As well as Air Gear, OG does a manga called Tenjho Tenge. They're both very much in a similar vein, although TenTen is a bit more adult that Air Gear. Both are essentially that speciality of boy's manga - fighting/tournament series.
I won't go into too much detail as I've reviewed both over at trismugistus.com, but basically TenTen is about people properly fighting fisticuffs style and Air Gear is about skating teams who use special powered skates called Air Treks.
There are still plenty of things I like about both series. The artwork is amazing - OG's stuff seems to just get better and better. Going along with that, the echhi fan-service is also pretty top notch. OG's girls are pretty damn hot and there's plenty to enjoy on that front.
Also the way he draws the fights and battles is good and generally speaking I enjoy the characters. I have to admit that slightly oddly I tend to prefer his supporting characters to the main characters, but then to some degree these are ensemble series.
The problem is that both appear to be disappearing up their own backsides.
In TenTen there was a part where it flashed back to show you the recent history of some of the characters. We're not talking far - a couple of years, back when they first joined the high school.
Now this was a double-edged sword - he seemed to get really carried away and this flashback went on for loads of volumes. So may that when we got back to the present it was like he'd gotten bored of his original story and decided to bugger about with it.
Unfortunately this meant a flashback even further to Samurai times. One of the big problems here was it was involving all sorts of new characters who'd never been explained to us before. I think the main problem is that many of these were characters from proper Japanese history, and, never having studied it, I got completely lost. Plus it involved a hell of a lot of mystical mumbo-jumbo.
And unfortunately this story is essentially now that the manga is back to the modern day. So we've not only got the original threads and the first flashback threads, there's now this mystical mumbo-jumbo thread.
And it's this mystical mumbo-jumbo-ness that is also making Air Gear a bit naff too.
Part of the problem here is that I hate what I think of Dragonball-type stories. In these, a new, more powerful enemy keeps appearing and in order to beat them, the hero must learn a new technique or otherwise "level up". I find this sort of thing predictable and rather tedious.
Now fair enough, Ten Ten and Air Gear have both always had that sort of aspect to them and I've just lived with it.
The problem now is that OG has gotten a bit carried away with it all. So where previously the hero might have had to simply practice a lot to learn how to jump high and build up his muscles, now he has to learn something that's mumbo-jumbo-ish about, I dunno, controlling the flow of chi or walking on air pressure or some other nonsense that OG has read in a book and made weird.
Now if this was just once n a while it wouldn't be too bad, but it seems to have gotten to that Dragonball Z stage where it's happening all the damn time.
Monday, 15 February 2010
nearly good, but not quite
I actually watched some anime this weekend.
I think it's the first thing I've watched at the weekend since the star of the year. And it was on DVD and everything.
Before I get to excited I should perhaps say that it was only 2 episodes, but then to be fair the episodes each run about 50 minutes in length and it's a 6-episode series, so I'm a third of the way through.
The anime in question is Rin: Daughters of Mnemosyne, which is a suitably odd title. As far as I can work out the daughters of Mnemosyne are the muses from ancient Greek mythology. The muses are kinda like figures that inspire art, I believe. To some extent the title does make a bit of sense with the anime, but that doesn't mean it's really about a Muse as such (well, that I know of so far).
I actually sampled Rin via fansub and enjoyed it so I bought it when it came out recently. I've actually been having a bit of a bad time with my sampling, as most of the stuff I've then gone on to watch hasn't been all that good.
I don't know if that's because I mentally hype them, or because the conditions of sampling affect the outcome. Generally speaking I've been watching the fansubs while I'm scanning, and that means I watch them in a very stop-start fashion. When you're scanning, you have to keep switching the pages, but each scan can take a couple of minutes, which is why fansubs are ideal. Unlike, say, a DVD fansubs stop and start instantly with no problems.
But does that make them a true sample? Is being broken up into bits helping some shows that are actually a bit dull seem more interesting?
I think the answer might be yes in some cases, but also I think, any sampling can be prone problems. I mean, I've encountered quite a few shows fansub-wise where I enjoyed the first ep and then further eps weren't so good, so if my sample stops and a similar thing happens, I've no way of knowing.
Plus a lot of it depends on mood - if you're catching a show when you're in the mood for that type of thing then you'll look on it more favourably than if you watch it when you're not in the mood.
Also, I've noticed quite a few shows I've sampled, liked and bought but not watched have gotten some good reviews, so I think ultimately the problem is more I happen to have picked the duffers to watch on DVD. In other words, the giant pile of anime contains plenty of gems, I just haven't hit any.
Well, until now - I really quite enjoyed the two eps of Rin I watched and I'd only watched the first one on fansub, so that's a really good sign.
I also made a special effort this weekend to watch the things I'd recorded and, more importantly, to prune out stuff from my recording schedule. I've actually managed to get it down to only about a dozen shows that I'm mainly watching as ongoing series. That bodes really well both for the week ahead and next weekend.
Plus I actually feel really in the mood for watching some anime, which if I'm honest I'm not sure I have for quite a while.
I think it's the first thing I've watched at the weekend since the star of the year. And it was on DVD and everything.
Before I get to excited I should perhaps say that it was only 2 episodes, but then to be fair the episodes each run about 50 minutes in length and it's a 6-episode series, so I'm a third of the way through.
The anime in question is Rin: Daughters of Mnemosyne, which is a suitably odd title. As far as I can work out the daughters of Mnemosyne are the muses from ancient Greek mythology. The muses are kinda like figures that inspire art, I believe. To some extent the title does make a bit of sense with the anime, but that doesn't mean it's really about a Muse as such (well, that I know of so far).
I actually sampled Rin via fansub and enjoyed it so I bought it when it came out recently. I've actually been having a bit of a bad time with my sampling, as most of the stuff I've then gone on to watch hasn't been all that good.
I don't know if that's because I mentally hype them, or because the conditions of sampling affect the outcome. Generally speaking I've been watching the fansubs while I'm scanning, and that means I watch them in a very stop-start fashion. When you're scanning, you have to keep switching the pages, but each scan can take a couple of minutes, which is why fansubs are ideal. Unlike, say, a DVD fansubs stop and start instantly with no problems.
But does that make them a true sample? Is being broken up into bits helping some shows that are actually a bit dull seem more interesting?
I think the answer might be yes in some cases, but also I think, any sampling can be prone problems. I mean, I've encountered quite a few shows fansub-wise where I enjoyed the first ep and then further eps weren't so good, so if my sample stops and a similar thing happens, I've no way of knowing.
Plus a lot of it depends on mood - if you're catching a show when you're in the mood for that type of thing then you'll look on it more favourably than if you watch it when you're not in the mood.
Also, I've noticed quite a few shows I've sampled, liked and bought but not watched have gotten some good reviews, so I think ultimately the problem is more I happen to have picked the duffers to watch on DVD. In other words, the giant pile of anime contains plenty of gems, I just haven't hit any.
Well, until now - I really quite enjoyed the two eps of Rin I watched and I'd only watched the first one on fansub, so that's a really good sign.
I also made a special effort this weekend to watch the things I'd recorded and, more importantly, to prune out stuff from my recording schedule. I've actually managed to get it down to only about a dozen shows that I'm mainly watching as ongoing series. That bodes really well both for the week ahead and next weekend.
Plus I actually feel really in the mood for watching some anime, which if I'm honest I'm not sure I have for quite a while.
Friday, 12 February 2010
winter olympics sans snow
The winter olympics start today.
On the whole, sport isn't really my thing. The only sport I really follow is Formula one and I also have a passing interest in most other forms of motor sport. However, what I would say is that the winter olympics do have some interesting events. Certainly more interesting that the summer olympics.
I'm not a big fan of stuff on skis or skateboards, but I like all the ones where they careen down an ice course in a toboggan or what amounts to a tea tray. I also quite like the more team based events - curling is particularly interesting (I've always really enjoyed sports of that nature - bowling like sports - when I've played them) and the Scots are quite good at it too, which always adds something.
Anyway, I was chatting about it with a work colleague the other day and I was saying that although it's been unusually cold here (and in the USA, interestingly), the rest of the world has been quite warm and I'd heard that Canada was lacking snow. Which kinda shows how, even though I've said I'm vaguely interested, I've not really been paying much attention.
The reason not was because he informed me that indeed, the bit of Canada that's hosting the games - British Columbia, I believe - has had very little snow. So I asked how they were going to hold the games and he told me that they've actually been shipping snow up from the US.
I found this highly amusing - the idea that the slopes, etc have had to have snow dug up from America and shipped up North. Not in a bad way - it's just odd. Apparently it's happened several times before, though and they solved it in exactly the same way by shipping the snow to where it was needed.
I've been having a weird couple of weeks at work where things seem to come in big peaks and troughs. So for example, the start of this week I had very little to do, but then Wednesday and yesterday absolutely loads. It's all a bit confusing.
Sorry this post is a bit random and rambly. I looked back at my previous Friday posts the other day and realised they're always full of me saying how I'm hoping to do some stuff over the weekend but expecting I'll be rubbish and not do it, so I wanted to post about something else.
On the whole, sport isn't really my thing. The only sport I really follow is Formula one and I also have a passing interest in most other forms of motor sport. However, what I would say is that the winter olympics do have some interesting events. Certainly more interesting that the summer olympics.
I'm not a big fan of stuff on skis or skateboards, but I like all the ones where they careen down an ice course in a toboggan or what amounts to a tea tray. I also quite like the more team based events - curling is particularly interesting (I've always really enjoyed sports of that nature - bowling like sports - when I've played them) and the Scots are quite good at it too, which always adds something.
Anyway, I was chatting about it with a work colleague the other day and I was saying that although it's been unusually cold here (and in the USA, interestingly), the rest of the world has been quite warm and I'd heard that Canada was lacking snow. Which kinda shows how, even though I've said I'm vaguely interested, I've not really been paying much attention.
The reason not was because he informed me that indeed, the bit of Canada that's hosting the games - British Columbia, I believe - has had very little snow. So I asked how they were going to hold the games and he told me that they've actually been shipping snow up from the US.
I found this highly amusing - the idea that the slopes, etc have had to have snow dug up from America and shipped up North. Not in a bad way - it's just odd. Apparently it's happened several times before, though and they solved it in exactly the same way by shipping the snow to where it was needed.
I've been having a weird couple of weeks at work where things seem to come in big peaks and troughs. So for example, the start of this week I had very little to do, but then Wednesday and yesterday absolutely loads. It's all a bit confusing.
Sorry this post is a bit random and rambly. I looked back at my previous Friday posts the other day and realised they're always full of me saying how I'm hoping to do some stuff over the weekend but expecting I'll be rubbish and not do it, so I wanted to post about something else.
Thursday, 11 February 2010
more cold
It's been really cold again this week.
Quite frankly I'm getting rather bored of it being cold all the time. And I mean all the time - if feels like for the last 2 or 3 years it's never stopped being cold.
I mean, sure, I remember the summers, but they seem to have been really short-lived compared to the winters. That is, when it's not raining, of course. A few years ago the summers seemed to go on forever, with months of really hot weather - that's why I bought my air conditioner. To be fair, I hate hot weather too, but I'm just getting sick of feeling cold all the time.
Which is to say what makes the cold weather worse is that the heating where I work is really crap. I work in a single, open plan office, although it's not that large because we're a small company. There are lots of radiators on the walls, but they just don't seem to heat the space properly.
I think there are a multitude of problems. First, off there's a lot of window area. That's great for making the room light, but you loose a lot of heat through windows - even double glazed ones. Second, I think the insulation in the roof is rubbish.
But most importantly I think it's because the heating is off for long periods of time. I know for a fact that it switches off a good few hours before going home time and doesn't come on until I'm coming in (about 8am). Also, it's off all weekend, which I think is why it starts to feel warmer towards the end of the week.
Then there's the heating at home. It's electric, which is really inefficient. Plus where I am is really drafty and 'full of holes' where my landlord has done a rubbish job at DIY instead of getting builders in to do it properly.
Recently, my landlord went on holiday, and with it being so cold he said I should run a cable across from one of his sockets and run a heater from it (I've actually done this in the past without telling him ><;). His point was that if the pipes froze then that would cost him a lot more than the few quid it would cost to keep my heating going.
Anyway, I did this and left the heater on with the thermostat controlling it. I can't tell you how glorious it was to have the whole flat warm all the time. I've actually got this suspicion that it might be cheaper in the long run for me to leave a heater on all time and keep the place 'mildly warm'.
See, the problem is I tend to switch the heaters on full blast so it warms up the room I'm in and then turn them off again. Plus they're off during the day and at night, so it gets really properly cold. My suspicion is that this means more is used because I overheat the room. The difficulty comes in the fact that I'm not there all day and I don't have the heating on while I'm asleep, so it seems wasteful to leave a heater on all the time. But I've really no idea which works out cheaper.
Anyway, normally, the only time I really feel warm is when I'm in my car, or I say bugger it and slam my heating on full at home for a long time. Both of these cost a fortune in terms of heating - petrol is not cheap and my key meter is really quite expensive.
And that's the real rub, I think. As I say, I've always preferred winter, but I like winter where you go outside and it's cold and then you come in and it's toasty warm. Work is permanently cold and where I live is cold the majority of the time, so it's not really what I want.
I also get bored of wearing loads of clothes. As I type this I'm in my work clothes, but on top of my usual garb (socks, shoes, boxers, suit trousers, shirt and tie) I'm wearing the following: extra pair of socks, t-shirt, jumper and my suit jacket. If I hadn't run out I'd have a vest on too.
And I'm still cold (shows you how bad work is). But after a while I just get bored of it and want to strip off, especially at weekends. Sometimes I turn the heating up and wander about in my pants, which I know is really bad environmentally, but it's... I dunno, restrictive, wearing loads of layers all the time (especially since I still feel cold).
I do know one thing that works - exercise. The problem is, going for a walk or whatever isn't really appealing, especially when it's raining and snowing all the time!
Quite frankly I'm getting rather bored of it being cold all the time. And I mean all the time - if feels like for the last 2 or 3 years it's never stopped being cold.
I mean, sure, I remember the summers, but they seem to have been really short-lived compared to the winters. That is, when it's not raining, of course. A few years ago the summers seemed to go on forever, with months of really hot weather - that's why I bought my air conditioner. To be fair, I hate hot weather too, but I'm just getting sick of feeling cold all the time.
Which is to say what makes the cold weather worse is that the heating where I work is really crap. I work in a single, open plan office, although it's not that large because we're a small company. There are lots of radiators on the walls, but they just don't seem to heat the space properly.
I think there are a multitude of problems. First, off there's a lot of window area. That's great for making the room light, but you loose a lot of heat through windows - even double glazed ones. Second, I think the insulation in the roof is rubbish.
But most importantly I think it's because the heating is off for long periods of time. I know for a fact that it switches off a good few hours before going home time and doesn't come on until I'm coming in (about 8am). Also, it's off all weekend, which I think is why it starts to feel warmer towards the end of the week.
Then there's the heating at home. It's electric, which is really inefficient. Plus where I am is really drafty and 'full of holes' where my landlord has done a rubbish job at DIY instead of getting builders in to do it properly.
Recently, my landlord went on holiday, and with it being so cold he said I should run a cable across from one of his sockets and run a heater from it (I've actually done this in the past without telling him ><;). His point was that if the pipes froze then that would cost him a lot more than the few quid it would cost to keep my heating going.
Anyway, I did this and left the heater on with the thermostat controlling it. I can't tell you how glorious it was to have the whole flat warm all the time. I've actually got this suspicion that it might be cheaper in the long run for me to leave a heater on all time and keep the place 'mildly warm'.
See, the problem is I tend to switch the heaters on full blast so it warms up the room I'm in and then turn them off again. Plus they're off during the day and at night, so it gets really properly cold. My suspicion is that this means more is used because I overheat the room. The difficulty comes in the fact that I'm not there all day and I don't have the heating on while I'm asleep, so it seems wasteful to leave a heater on all the time. But I've really no idea which works out cheaper.
Anyway, normally, the only time I really feel warm is when I'm in my car, or I say bugger it and slam my heating on full at home for a long time. Both of these cost a fortune in terms of heating - petrol is not cheap and my key meter is really quite expensive.
And that's the real rub, I think. As I say, I've always preferred winter, but I like winter where you go outside and it's cold and then you come in and it's toasty warm. Work is permanently cold and where I live is cold the majority of the time, so it's not really what I want.
I also get bored of wearing loads of clothes. As I type this I'm in my work clothes, but on top of my usual garb (socks, shoes, boxers, suit trousers, shirt and tie) I'm wearing the following: extra pair of socks, t-shirt, jumper and my suit jacket. If I hadn't run out I'd have a vest on too.
And I'm still cold (shows you how bad work is). But after a while I just get bored of it and want to strip off, especially at weekends. Sometimes I turn the heating up and wander about in my pants, which I know is really bad environmentally, but it's... I dunno, restrictive, wearing loads of layers all the time (especially since I still feel cold).
I do know one thing that works - exercise. The problem is, going for a walk or whatever isn't really appealing, especially when it's raining and snowing all the time!
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