I was bored yesterday, so I made a trailer for a movie I probably won't be bothered to make, but have had requests for:-
Actually I wanted to play around with Nero Vision and make sure I could create a movie that didn't have that "I made this on my home PC" type captions - I might try for something a little more spectacular next time.
(You may need to click view original post to see this)
Sunday, January 21, 2007
Saturday, January 20, 2007
Distraught!
Tom Baker was back as the voice of BT texts from December to early January and no-one told me! I'd have texted my own landline if I'd known - alas! However there is now another website with Bakeroke. Maybe it's me but I think all the songs generated from texts are not that bad, it's worrying they sound better than any song sung by William Shatner!
Friday, January 19, 2007
Friday, Bloody Friday
I used to like invigilating... used to...
I should point out I've been invigilating for about 6 years now. It was a great way to earn money - you sat there, read a book or academic paper and two to three hours later you stood up, collected some papers, handed it to the person in charge and claimed £15 or so. Now it's part of my newly expanded repertoire of demonstrator duties and should've been quite straight forward. Alas here in Leicester everything must be 100 times more complicated...
During the 3 hours I managed a grand total of 60 pages in the novel I was reading, inconveniently hitting a funny part just in time for the end of the exam. I suspect I looked a might evil, trying to cackle silently while my students struggled to finish on time. This slow reading was because of many, many "problems", and it was relatively stressful.
Another of the staff let a student wander out to the loo on her own.
One of my 'bathroom escorts'* was apparently quite ill.
Some of my exam paperwork went mysteriously missing, so it turned out that I had more scripts to mark than I had candidates registered!
One of my students was so late for the exam we couldn't let him in under regulations.**
To be honest the only other bad things that could've happened on the lists were someone actually cheating and someone actually dying. I actually think the latter would be easier to deal with because the paperwork for reporting a cheat looked pretty formidable!
Even after the nightmare of collating the papers and taking care of the paperwork was over it took me the best part of the afternoon to get hold of the exam answers I'd written before Christmas. I'd deliberately destroyed any of my own copies- and unfortunately the person holding them in escrow for me was nowhere to be found.
* It's worth pointing out the whole 'bathroom escort' is probably the most awkward part of the invigilating gig. The first time I did it I realised I was stood in the gents not doing anything with a lot of people staring oddly at me. However back then bathroom breaks were pretty rare in exams.
** I did this once, though I at least had the unique distinction of being 24 hours late for the exam in my first year. I was there at the right time of day, simply the day after everyone else. Thankfully Dr. Gregor of Dundee was a very, very understanding man (as were the Exams office), and I ironically the rest of my year disliked me enough not to give me the answers. It did involve a 3 hour wait in the departmental office to ensure I did not go off and get some insider-tips.
I should point out I've been invigilating for about 6 years now. It was a great way to earn money - you sat there, read a book or academic paper and two to three hours later you stood up, collected some papers, handed it to the person in charge and claimed £15 or so. Now it's part of my newly expanded repertoire of demonstrator duties and should've been quite straight forward. Alas here in Leicester everything must be 100 times more complicated...
During the 3 hours I managed a grand total of 60 pages in the novel I was reading, inconveniently hitting a funny part just in time for the end of the exam. I suspect I looked a might evil, trying to cackle silently while my students struggled to finish on time. This slow reading was because of many, many "problems", and it was relatively stressful.
Another of the staff let a student wander out to the loo on her own.
One of my 'bathroom escorts'* was apparently quite ill.
Some of my exam paperwork went mysteriously missing, so it turned out that I had more scripts to mark than I had candidates registered!
One of my students was so late for the exam we couldn't let him in under regulations.**
To be honest the only other bad things that could've happened on the lists were someone actually cheating and someone actually dying. I actually think the latter would be easier to deal with because the paperwork for reporting a cheat looked pretty formidable!
Even after the nightmare of collating the papers and taking care of the paperwork was over it took me the best part of the afternoon to get hold of the exam answers I'd written before Christmas. I'd deliberately destroyed any of my own copies- and unfortunately the person holding them in escrow for me was nowhere to be found.
* It's worth pointing out the whole 'bathroom escort' is probably the most awkward part of the invigilating gig. The first time I did it I realised I was stood in the gents not doing anything with a lot of people staring oddly at me. However back then bathroom breaks were pretty rare in exams.
** I did this once, though I at least had the unique distinction of being 24 hours late for the exam in my first year. I was there at the right time of day, simply the day after everyone else. Thankfully Dr. Gregor of Dundee was a very, very understanding man (as were the Exams office), and I ironically the rest of my year disliked me enough not to give me the answers. It did involve a 3 hour wait in the departmental office to ensure I did not go off and get some insider-tips.
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
Listening
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Up here in my palatial mansion I've been listening to some more of Paul McGann's Dr. Who. The new stuff is premiering on BBC7 rather than going to CD, and is thus broadcast in 45 minutes rather than the old series style serials.
The first one Blood of the Daleks starts with a strange woman appearing in the Tardis, which is a bit unfortunate as that's exactly how this year's Christmas Special began. However it differs shortly after that as it turns out the northern-accent woman is Lucie Miller, a girl from Blackpool (shock horror - not London, or Manchester - the default setting for 'the north' in England). They then take a trip to a planet that isn't Earth for some dalek related schennanigans and get involved in a war between Daleks and a character I call Mini-Davros. In two parts it's an excellent listen - much punchier than some of the bloated dramas (cough, Minuet in Hell). Very good stuff.
I'm looking forward to this week's one already - imaginatively titled "The Horror of Glam Rock", a play on an old Tom Baker episode, the second one, currently on Listen Again, sounds really, really Douglas Adamsy:-
The Doctor and Lucie go glam when the TARDIS makes an unexpected landing in 1974. Slade, The Sweet and Suzi Quatro are Top of the Pops - and brother-and-sister duo The Tomorrow Twins will soon be joining them, if starmaking Svengali Arnold Korns has his way. But will their dreams turn to dust at a service station somewhere on the M62, besieged by a pack of alien monsters?
Thursday, January 11, 2007
Marking Takes Its Toll
I'm back, but I'm marking at home for a while, but I need to stop as I'm getting a serious headache - this is how you begin to view the world after 4 hours of marking student papers.
Xmas Hols 3
When we last left I was on a sugar high from drinking several hot chocolates in rapid sensation.
For sheer variety I spent the afternoon of New Year's Eve in Lloyd's No. 1 with my brother and his new significant other. I drank a lot of hot chocolate as I was driving. Again.
In the evening Steve, Karen and I went to Jolly's, a dancey-type pub in Broughty Ferry. I inadvertently picked up a follower who seemed to insist on dancing into me in a not-so-suggestive way and at one point disturbed me by following me into the gents and provided plenty of amusement at my expense for my chums at the bells. This body is a curse, and this photo of Steve sums the experience up nicely...
And of course I simply tried to look as philosophical as possible all night:-
We went back to Steve's and thanks to his folks treated ourselves to the cinematic delights of "Sam" - a musical written back in days of yore and Monifieth High School by a commitee consisting of myself, Steve, the Mythical Man Hoppy and three of girls in our drama class. Actually implying myself or Steve had much say was probably going a bit far, and neither of us can write a tune to save our lives. One of the song-writing minstrels has gone on to success though, at least until the entire show hits YouTube soon.
This experience was probably most amusing for Karen however, as she'd never seen this video. We skipped the boring bits, so in fact we probably only watched about 10 minutes of video, even if it felt like two hours. After that an the New Year TV treat of Tales from the Crypt showed the BBC were once more pushing out all the stops for 2007.
When I finally got to bed I decided New Year's Day wasn't going to involve much action. I pretty much settled down to watch the new Sarah Jane Adventures, one of the billion spin-offs from Doctor Who. As Steve remarked it was just like Torchwood, but without the odd f-word. It was actually pretty good even if they had a bunk reason for writing out K9 (he's off closing a black-hole, could take years).
Other than that not a lot happened beyond mooching around, watching Pan's Labyrinth (an excellent Spanish film Six Foot Hobbit recommended I see) and the obligitary dinner at Ethiebeaton Farm that was my Xmas break. Then I returned to...
and I'm back in good old Leicester, still waiting on the bathroom, living room curtains and washing machine I reported on the 15th of December to be fixed. But that is as they say, another story...
For sheer variety I spent the afternoon of New Year's Eve in Lloyd's No. 1 with my brother and his new significant other. I drank a lot of hot chocolate as I was driving. Again.
In the evening Steve, Karen and I went to Jolly's, a dancey-type pub in Broughty Ferry. I inadvertently picked up a follower who seemed to insist on dancing into me in a not-so-suggestive way and at one point disturbed me by following me into the gents and provided plenty of amusement at my expense for my chums at the bells. This body is a curse, and this photo of Steve sums the experience up nicely...
And of course I simply tried to look as philosophical as possible all night:-
We went back to Steve's and thanks to his folks treated ourselves to the cinematic delights of "Sam" - a musical written back in days of yore and Monifieth High School by a commitee consisting of myself, Steve, the Mythical Man Hoppy and three of girls in our drama class. Actually implying myself or Steve had much say was probably going a bit far, and neither of us can write a tune to save our lives. One of the song-writing minstrels has gone on to success though, at least until the entire show hits YouTube soon.
This experience was probably most amusing for Karen however, as she'd never seen this video. We skipped the boring bits, so in fact we probably only watched about 10 minutes of video, even if it felt like two hours. After that an the New Year TV treat of Tales from the Crypt showed the BBC were once more pushing out all the stops for 2007.
When I finally got to bed I decided New Year's Day wasn't going to involve much action. I pretty much settled down to watch the new Sarah Jane Adventures, one of the billion spin-offs from Doctor Who. As Steve remarked it was just like Torchwood, but without the odd f-word. It was actually pretty good even if they had a bunk reason for writing out K9 (he's off closing a black-hole, could take years).
Other than that not a lot happened beyond mooching around, watching Pan's Labyrinth (an excellent Spanish film Six Foot Hobbit recommended I see) and the obligitary dinner at Ethiebeaton Farm that was my Xmas break. Then I returned to...
and I'm back in good old Leicester, still waiting on the bathroom, living room curtains and washing machine I reported on the 15th of December to be fixed. But that is as they say, another story...
Tuesday, January 09, 2007
141 142/239 movies - I am sad!
SUPPOSEDLY if you've seen over 85 films, you have no life. Mark the ones you've seen. There are 239 films on this list. Copy this list, go to your own facebook account, paste this as a note. Then, put x's next to the films you've seen, add them up, change the header adding your number, and click post at the bottom. Have fun.
(x) Rocky Horror Picture Show
(x) Grease
(x) Pirates of the Caribbean
(x) Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man's Chest
(x) Boondock Saints
(x) Fight Club
(x) Starsky and Hutch
(x) Neverending Story
(x) Blazing Saddles
(x) Airplane
Total: 10
(x) The Princess Bride
(x) AnchorMan
(x) Napoleon Dynamite
(x) Labyrinth
(x) Saw
(x) Saw II
(x) White Noise
( ) White Oleander
( ) Anger Management
(x) 50 First Dates
( ) The Princess Diaries
( ) The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement
Total so far: 18
(x) Scream
(x) Scream 2
(x) Scream 3
(x) Scary Movie
(x) Scary Movie 2
(x) Scary Movie 3
( ) Scary Movie 4
(x) American Pie
(x) American Pie 2
(x) American Wedding
(x) American Pie Band Camp
Total so far: 28
(x) Harry Potter 1
(x) Harry Potter 2
(x) Harry Potter 3
(x) Harry Potter 4
( ) Harry Potter 5
(x) Resident Evil 1
(x) Resident Evil 2
( ) The Wedding Singer
( ) Little Black Book
(x) The Village
( ) Lilo & Stitch
Total so far: 35
(x) Finding Nemo
(x) Finding Neverland
(x) Signs
( ) The Grinch
(x) Texas Chainsaw Massacre
( ) Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning
( ) White Chicks
(x) Butterfly Effect
( ) 13 Going on 30
(x) I, Robot
(x) Robots
Total so far: 42
(x) Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story
(x) Universal Soldier
(x) Lemony Snicket: A Series Of Unfortunate Events
( ) Along Came Polly
( ) Deep Impact
( ) KingPin
( ) Never Been Kissed
(x) Meet The Parents
(x) Meet the Fockers
( ) Eight Crazy Nights
( ) Joe Dirt
(x) KING KONG
Total so far: 48
( ) A Cinderella Story
(x) The Terminal
( ) The Lizzie McGuire Movie
( ) Passport to Paris
(x) Dumb & Dumber
( ) Dumber & Dumberer
(x) Final Destination
(x) Final Destination 2
( ) Final Destination 3
(x) Halloween
(x) The Ring
(x) The Ring 2
( ) Surviving X-MAS
(x) Flubber
Total so far: 56
( ) Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle
( ) Practical Magic
( ) Chicago
(x) Ghost Ship
(x) From Hell
(x) Hellboy
(x) Secret Window
( ) I Am Sam
( ) The Whole Nine Yards
( ) The Whole Ten Yards
Total so far: 60
( ) The Day After Tomorrow
( ) Child's Play
( ) Seed of Chucky
( ) Bride of Chucky
( ) Ten Things I Hate About You
(x) Just Married
(x) Gothika
(x) Nightmare on Elm Street
(x) Sixteen Candles
( ) Remember the Titans
( ) Coach Carter
(x) The Grudge
( ) The Grudge 2
( ) The Mask
( ) Son Of The Mask
Total so far: 65
( ) Bad Boys
( ) Bad Boys 2
( ) Joy Ride
( ) Lucky Number Seven
(x) Ocean's Eleven
( ) Ocean's Twelve
( ) Bourne Identity
( ) Bourne Supremecy
( ) Lone Star
(x) Bedazzled
(x) Predator I
(x) Predator II
( ) The Fog
( ) Ice Age
( ) Ice Age 2: The Meltdown
( ) Curious George
Total so far: 69
(x) Independence Day
( ) Cujo
( ) A Bronx Tale
(x) Darkness Falls
( ) Christine
(x) ET
( ) Children of the Corn
( ) My Bosses Daughter
(x) Maid in Manhattan
(x) War of the Worlds
( ) Rush Hour
(x) Rush Hour 2
Total so far: 75
( ) Best Bet
( ) How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
(x) She's All That
( ) Calendar Girls
( ) Sideways
(x) Mars Attacks
(x) Event Horizon
(x) Ever After
(x) Wizard of Oz
(x) Forrest Gump
(x) Big Trouble in Little China
(x) The Terminator
(x) The Terminator 2
(x) The Terminator 3
Total so far: 85
(x) X-Men
(x) X-2
(x) X-3
(x) Spider-Man
(x) Spider-Man 2
( ) Sky High
(x) Jeepers Creepers
(x) Jeepers Creepers 2
(x) Catch Me If You Can
( ) The Little Mermaid
( ) Freaky Friday
( ) Reign of Fire
(x) The Skulls
(x) Cruel Intentions
(x) Cruel Intentions 2
( ) The Hot Chick
(x) Shrek
(x) Shrek 2
Total so far: 98
( ) Swimfan
( ) Miracle on 34th street
( ) Old School
( ) The Notebook
( ) K-Pax
( ) Krippendorf's Tribe
( ) A Walk to Remember
( ) Ice Castles
( ) Boogeyman
(x) The 40-year-old Virgin
Total so far: 98
(x) Lord of the Rings Fellowship of the Ring
(x) Lord of the Rings The Two Towers
(x) Lord of the Rings Return Of the King
(x) Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark
(x) Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
(x) Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Total so far: 105
( ) Baseketball
(x) Hostel
( ) Waiting for Guffman
( ) House of 1000 Corpses
( ) Devils Rejects
( ) Elf
(x) Highlander
(x) Mothman Prophecies
( ) American History X
( ) Three
Total so Far: 108
( ) The Jacket
(x) Kung Fu Hustle
(x) Shaolin Soccer
(x) Night Watch
(x) Monsters Inc.
(x) Titanic
(x) Monty Python and the Holy Grail
(x) Shaun Of the Dead
( ) Willard
Total so far: 115
( ) High Tension
( ) Club Dread
(x) Hulk
(x) Dawn Of the Dead
(x) Hook
(x) Chronicles Of Narnia The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe
(x) 28 days later
( ) Orgazmo
( ) Phantasm
(x) Waterworld
Total so far: 121
(x) Kill Bill vol 1
(x) Kill Bill vol 2
(x) Mortal Kombat
(x) Wolf Creek
(x) Kingdom of Heaven
( ) the Hills Have Eyes
( ) I Spit on Your Grave aka the Day of the Woman
( ) The Last House on the Left
( ) Re-Animator
(x) Army of Darkness
Total so far: 127
(x) Star Wars Ep. I The Phantom Menace
(x) Star Wars Ep. II Attack of the Clones
(x) Star Wars Ep. III Revenge of the Sith
(x) Star Wars Ep. IV A New Hope
(x) Star Wars Ep. V The Empire Strikes Back
(x)Star Wars Ep. VI Return of the Jedi
(x) Ewoks Caravan Of Courage
(x) Ewoks The Battle For Endor
Total so far: 135
(x) The Matrix
(x) The Matrix Reloaded
(x) The Matrix Revolutions
(x) Animatrix
(x) Evil Dead
(x) Evil Dead 2
(x) Team America: World Police
( ) Red Dragon
( ) Silence of the Lambs
( ) Hannibal
Total so far: 142
(x) Rocky Horror Picture Show
(x) Grease
(x) Pirates of the Caribbean
(x) Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man's Chest
(x) Boondock Saints
(x) Fight Club
(x) Starsky and Hutch
(x) Neverending Story
(x) Blazing Saddles
(x) Airplane
Total: 10
(x) The Princess Bride
(x) AnchorMan
(x) Napoleon Dynamite
(x) Labyrinth
(x) Saw
(x) Saw II
(x) White Noise
( ) White Oleander
( ) Anger Management
(x) 50 First Dates
( ) The Princess Diaries
( ) The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement
Total so far: 18
(x) Scream
(x) Scream 2
(x) Scream 3
(x) Scary Movie
(x) Scary Movie 2
(x) Scary Movie 3
( ) Scary Movie 4
(x) American Pie
(x) American Pie 2
(x) American Wedding
(x) American Pie Band Camp
Total so far: 28
(x) Harry Potter 1
(x) Harry Potter 2
(x) Harry Potter 3
(x) Harry Potter 4
( ) Harry Potter 5
(x) Resident Evil 1
(x) Resident Evil 2
( ) The Wedding Singer
( ) Little Black Book
(x) The Village
( ) Lilo & Stitch
Total so far: 35
(x) Finding Nemo
(x) Finding Neverland
(x) Signs
( ) The Grinch
(x) Texas Chainsaw Massacre
( ) Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning
( ) White Chicks
(x) Butterfly Effect
( ) 13 Going on 30
(x) I, Robot
(x) Robots
Total so far: 42
(x) Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story
(x) Universal Soldier
(x) Lemony Snicket: A Series Of Unfortunate Events
( ) Along Came Polly
( ) Deep Impact
( ) KingPin
( ) Never Been Kissed
(x) Meet The Parents
(x) Meet the Fockers
( ) Eight Crazy Nights
( ) Joe Dirt
(x) KING KONG
Total so far: 48
( ) A Cinderella Story
(x) The Terminal
( ) The Lizzie McGuire Movie
( ) Passport to Paris
(x) Dumb & Dumber
( ) Dumber & Dumberer
(x) Final Destination
(x) Final Destination 2
( ) Final Destination 3
(x) Halloween
(x) The Ring
(x) The Ring 2
( ) Surviving X-MAS
(x) Flubber
Total so far: 56
( ) Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle
( ) Practical Magic
( ) Chicago
(x) Ghost Ship
(x) From Hell
(x) Hellboy
(x) Secret Window
( ) I Am Sam
( ) The Whole Nine Yards
( ) The Whole Ten Yards
Total so far: 60
( ) The Day After Tomorrow
( ) Child's Play
( ) Seed of Chucky
( ) Bride of Chucky
( ) Ten Things I Hate About You
(x) Just Married
(x) Gothika
(x) Nightmare on Elm Street
(x) Sixteen Candles
( ) Remember the Titans
( ) Coach Carter
(x) The Grudge
( ) The Grudge 2
( ) The Mask
( ) Son Of The Mask
Total so far: 65
( ) Bad Boys
( ) Bad Boys 2
( ) Joy Ride
( ) Lucky Number Seven
(x) Ocean's Eleven
( ) Ocean's Twelve
( ) Bourne Identity
( ) Bourne Supremecy
( ) Lone Star
(x) Bedazzled
(x) Predator I
(x) Predator II
( ) The Fog
( ) Ice Age
( ) Ice Age 2: The Meltdown
( ) Curious George
Total so far: 69
(x) Independence Day
( ) Cujo
( ) A Bronx Tale
(x) Darkness Falls
( ) Christine
(x) ET
( ) Children of the Corn
( ) My Bosses Daughter
(x) Maid in Manhattan
(x) War of the Worlds
( ) Rush Hour
(x) Rush Hour 2
Total so far: 75
( ) Best Bet
( ) How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
(x) She's All That
( ) Calendar Girls
( ) Sideways
(x) Mars Attacks
(x) Event Horizon
(x) Ever After
(x) Wizard of Oz
(x) Forrest Gump
(x) Big Trouble in Little China
(x) The Terminator
(x) The Terminator 2
(x) The Terminator 3
Total so far: 85
(x) X-Men
(x) X-2
(x) X-3
(x) Spider-Man
(x) Spider-Man 2
( ) Sky High
(x) Jeepers Creepers
(x) Jeepers Creepers 2
(x) Catch Me If You Can
( ) The Little Mermaid
( ) Freaky Friday
( ) Reign of Fire
(x) The Skulls
(x) Cruel Intentions
(x) Cruel Intentions 2
( ) The Hot Chick
(x) Shrek
(x) Shrek 2
Total so far: 98
( ) Swimfan
( ) Miracle on 34th street
( ) Old School
( ) The Notebook
( ) K-Pax
( ) Krippendorf's Tribe
( ) A Walk to Remember
( ) Ice Castles
( ) Boogeyman
(x) The 40-year-old Virgin
Total so far: 98
(x) Lord of the Rings Fellowship of the Ring
(x) Lord of the Rings The Two Towers
(x) Lord of the Rings Return Of the King
(x) Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark
(x) Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
(x) Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Total so far: 105
( ) Baseketball
(x) Hostel
( ) Waiting for Guffman
( ) House of 1000 Corpses
( ) Devils Rejects
( ) Elf
(x) Highlander
(x) Mothman Prophecies
( ) American History X
( ) Three
Total so Far: 108
( ) The Jacket
(x) Kung Fu Hustle
(x) Shaolin Soccer
(x) Night Watch
(x) Monsters Inc.
(x) Titanic
(x) Monty Python and the Holy Grail
(x) Shaun Of the Dead
( ) Willard
Total so far: 115
( ) High Tension
( ) Club Dread
(x) Hulk
(x) Dawn Of the Dead
(x) Hook
(x) Chronicles Of Narnia The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe
(x) 28 days later
( ) Orgazmo
( ) Phantasm
(x) Waterworld
Total so far: 121
(x) Kill Bill vol 1
(x) Kill Bill vol 2
(x) Mortal Kombat
(x) Wolf Creek
(x) Kingdom of Heaven
( ) the Hills Have Eyes
( ) I Spit on Your Grave aka the Day of the Woman
( ) The Last House on the Left
( ) Re-Animator
(x) Army of Darkness
Total so far: 127
(x) Star Wars Ep. I The Phantom Menace
(x) Star Wars Ep. II Attack of the Clones
(x) Star Wars Ep. III Revenge of the Sith
(x) Star Wars Ep. IV A New Hope
(x) Star Wars Ep. V The Empire Strikes Back
(x)Star Wars Ep. VI Return of the Jedi
(x) Ewoks Caravan Of Courage
(x) Ewoks The Battle For Endor
Total so far: 135
(x) The Matrix
(x) The Matrix Reloaded
(x) The Matrix Revolutions
(x) Animatrix
(x) Evil Dead
(x) Evil Dead 2
(x) Team America: World Police
( ) Red Dragon
( ) Silence of the Lambs
( ) Hannibal
Total so far: 142
Monday, January 08, 2007
Xmas Hols 2
Christmas Day was spent opening prezzies and watching really bad TV. Boxing Day was pretty much the same - I stayed in and watched Casper the Friendly Ghost, which is actually quite good as it has Eric Idle in it.
That's the thing with Monifieth - over Christmas it becomes impossible to leave, and yet there's very little to actually do while you're trapped there. By the 27th I was going stir-crazy. I went to town to pay the Highlander Games and Grouchos Taxes but find a depressing lack of anything I am interested in buying. Oh, and happy 30th Birthday to Grouchos apparently.
The day after that was spent visiting the rellies near Ayr. Travelling to Adrossan and back with my dad was as always an experience in terror. The day after that was spent going avec Egor, Mare and Stevie to the Pizza Hut for buffet, to the bowling where I bowled really, really badly and then finally to sample the culinary delights of Visocchi's in the Ferry. What was truly special about this visit was Mrs. Visocchi gave me a free sample of their award winnning ice cream because she thought Gregor looked like a fishmonger from St. Andrews. I always knew there was something fishy about him...
Aside from that I seemed to spend a lot of time in the pub - the Kittiwake or the Counting House, Dundee's local Wetherspoon's, with Bradley and Kev where we blethered all evening and I got a sugar high from drinking several hot chocolates in rapid sensation.
Next: Will our beloved hero ever leave the pub? Also featuring molestation and humiliation at New Year.
That's the thing with Monifieth - over Christmas it becomes impossible to leave, and yet there's very little to actually do while you're trapped there. By the 27th I was going stir-crazy. I went to town to pay the Highlander Games and Grouchos Taxes but find a depressing lack of anything I am interested in buying. Oh, and happy 30th Birthday to Grouchos apparently.
The day after that was spent visiting the rellies near Ayr. Travelling to Adrossan and back with my dad was as always an experience in terror. The day after that was spent going avec Egor, Mare and Stevie to the Pizza Hut for buffet, to the bowling where I bowled really, really badly and then finally to sample the culinary delights of Visocchi's in the Ferry. What was truly special about this visit was Mrs. Visocchi gave me a free sample of their award winnning ice cream because she thought Gregor looked like a fishmonger from St. Andrews. I always knew there was something fishy about him...
Aside from that I seemed to spend a lot of time in the pub - the Kittiwake or the Counting House, Dundee's local Wetherspoon's, with Bradley and Kev where we blethered all evening and I got a sugar high from drinking several hot chocolates in rapid sensation.
Next: Will our beloved hero ever leave the pub? Also featuring molestation and humiliation at New Year.
Friday, January 05, 2007
Xmas Hols 1
So, let's flash back a couple of weeks and recap the whole holiday in...
After driving through the infernal mists that seemed to shroud the entire M1 I made it home by car. This meant by the morning of the 23rd I didn't really fit for much except watching Peep Show and Dead Zone on DVD.
On Christmas Eve however I slept in, but managed to do some literal last minute shopping. Fortunately all I needed by this point was a DVD of Shrek for Dad to go with his mulled wine and some toys for the dogs (given how rarely I see them I thought it best to spoil them). Those infernal mists however blanketed the entire town...
As is something of a tradition I went to the Kittywake in the evening with Gregor, Mare, Steve and Jenna. We bumped into other Monifieth High School survivors but curiously this year there were fewer of them. If we outcasts start to outnumber the cool kids things will get weird. Also the Kittywake called last orders at a ridiculously early time. We went back to Egor and Mare's palatial mansion before my folks showed up to drag Mare and myself to midnight mass.
I guess midnight mass sets up Christmas nicely on our family. It used to be optional but since I moved away I make the effort to go with my folks. It also means we typically open our presents around 2am and have a nice lie-in.
However I have size 12 and a bit feet, which means lowering the prayer stools in St. Bride's is a little difficult. For those of you not in the know prayer mats are things you lower down to kneel on to save wear and tear on your knees. Most churches etc. have them.
Anyroads as I'm gently trying to lower the mat around my freakishly large feet without dislocating my leg and popping it behind my neck my dad decides they're low enough for him to kneel on. This has the net effect of him crushing a rather painful toe-nail with his weight, and we Kerrigans are not exactly light on our feet. Then there's me desperately trying to attract his attention while not screaming out in church. I hear they frown on that.
My attempts to alert him to this minor problem were in vain until the rest of the row in church leap on the prayer stools as well.
Is our hero going to have to hop for the rest of his days? Find out in Part 2.
After driving through the infernal mists that seemed to shroud the entire M1 I made it home by car. This meant by the morning of the 23rd I didn't really fit for much except watching Peep Show and Dead Zone on DVD.
On Christmas Eve however I slept in, but managed to do some literal last minute shopping. Fortunately all I needed by this point was a DVD of Shrek for Dad to go with his mulled wine and some toys for the dogs (given how rarely I see them I thought it best to spoil them). Those infernal mists however blanketed the entire town...
As is something of a tradition I went to the Kittywake in the evening with Gregor, Mare, Steve and Jenna. We bumped into other Monifieth High School survivors but curiously this year there were fewer of them. If we outcasts start to outnumber the cool kids things will get weird. Also the Kittywake called last orders at a ridiculously early time. We went back to Egor and Mare's palatial mansion before my folks showed up to drag Mare and myself to midnight mass.
I guess midnight mass sets up Christmas nicely on our family. It used to be optional but since I moved away I make the effort to go with my folks. It also means we typically open our presents around 2am and have a nice lie-in.
However I have size 12 and a bit feet, which means lowering the prayer stools in St. Bride's is a little difficult. For those of you not in the know prayer mats are things you lower down to kneel on to save wear and tear on your knees. Most churches etc. have them.
Anyroads as I'm gently trying to lower the mat around my freakishly large feet without dislocating my leg and popping it behind my neck my dad decides they're low enough for him to kneel on. This has the net effect of him crushing a rather painful toe-nail with his weight, and we Kerrigans are not exactly light on our feet. Then there's me desperately trying to attract his attention while not screaming out in church. I hear they frown on that.
My attempts to alert him to this minor problem were in vain until the rest of the row in church leap on the prayer stools as well.
Is our hero going to have to hop for the rest of his days? Find out in Part 2.
Wednesday, January 03, 2007
The Holidays Are Going
Not much to report at this juncture other than that I've had a little time to catch up on my TV and DVD collection. My brother introduced me to Life on Mars, which is a most excellent show. Also, despite being aimed at an age group nearly 20 years my junior I thought The Sarah-Jane Adventures on New Year's Day were actually pretty good, even better than the Doctor Who special.
My dad was also introduced to Pirates of the Carribean. Despite inexplicably owning the film on DVD he waited until it was on BBC1 this Xmas to realise what everyone else on the planet realises: that this is a good film. He was also lucky in that I had Pirates 2 on my laptop, so we sat watching it on the big screen telly at midnight a few weeks back. Ironically I was dragged to a midnight showing of it when it was first on in the cinemas, and having got up around noon, not 7am, this time I actually thought it was a far better film on the second viewing.
I've done other things than sit watching TV and stuffing myself on mince pies, danish whirls and patriotic ice cream dishes, but a full debunk on my Xmas and New Year adventures will have to wait. It's almost time to put all the prezzies in the car and head back to the Bad Place. I don't start work until Tuesday, and plan on doing most of my marking at home anyroads, but I've learned it's always good to have a few days to climatise to Lesta before going back to work.
My dad was also introduced to Pirates of the Carribean. Despite inexplicably owning the film on DVD he waited until it was on BBC1 this Xmas to realise what everyone else on the planet realises: that this is a good film. He was also lucky in that I had Pirates 2 on my laptop, so we sat watching it on the big screen telly at midnight a few weeks back. Ironically I was dragged to a midnight showing of it when it was first on in the cinemas, and having got up around noon, not 7am, this time I actually thought it was a far better film on the second viewing.
I've done other things than sit watching TV and stuffing myself on mince pies, danish whirls and patriotic ice cream dishes, but a full debunk on my Xmas and New Year adventures will have to wait. It's almost time to put all the prezzies in the car and head back to the Bad Place. I don't start work until Tuesday, and plan on doing most of my marking at home anyroads, but I've learned it's always good to have a few days to climatise to Lesta before going back to work.
Monday, January 01, 2007
My New Year's Thought...
Yes, I look like this when I'm thinking apparently. More detailed detail to come soon.
Photoshopping by Steve. As usual. Sigh.
Sunday, December 31, 2006
Last Post of 2006
This being the last post of 2006 I'm likely to make I just thought I'd say Happy New Year to everyone. One of the coolest things about blogging is that you are able to look back on where you were in the previous year, and I can say 2006 has been a fantastic year.
And now the obligatory movie...
And now the obligatory movie...
Saturday, December 30, 2006
Wesley Crusher Plays Kill Doctor Lucky
Apparently Wesley Crusher plays the awesome Kill Doctor Lucky game. Or rather Wil Wheaton, the actor does. Wil rocks in my book now. But I shall not buy the deluxe edition... until I have The Totally Renamed Spygame (or rather Before I Kill You Mr Bond).
Wednesday, December 27, 2006
Stuff I Like: Wing Commander
Part flight-sim, part interactive movie I would say these games were perhaps the most successful results of the Full Motion Video dalliance of the late 90s.
Mark "Luke Skywalker" Hamill stars as Blair (the hero in Wing Commander 1-4). You might argue that going from being the ace Jedi pilot of the rebellion flying against the Empire to being the ace aging pilot of the Confederation flying against the Kilrathi Empire was not much of a stretch for Mark but the characters were quite different. Tom "That guy who was Biff" Wilson plays the annoying butt-head of a sidekick, Maniac, your oft wingman who never follows orders and only survives by sheer chance. By the way if you haven't seen his Back to the Future song see it here!
Malcolm "Clockwork Orange" MacDowell as Admiral Tolwyn and John "Indy" Rhys-Davies as Paladin also added to the respectable caliber of actors to appear in the games - a particularly good cast for a computer game.
The plot of the first three games was the good Confederation were under attack by the evil Kilrathi Empire, a race of evolved warlike cats. In WC1 and 2 the Confederation were the clear goodies, and beyond what happened in your missions there was no way to influence the plotlines. WC1 had a relatively straightforward plotline, while WC2 was literally crying out to be made into a film:-
As the games moved into Full Motion Video WC3 and WC4 were definitely more shades of greys - feeling like a cross between Top Gun, Babylon 5 and Star Wars. As far back as WC2 your wingmen would die in battle, or as the results of nefarious plots. It was dark stuff - WC3 ends with you blowing up the Kilrathi home world:-
Essentially the game comprised of full-motion segments which would occasionally pause and allow you the player to make a decision as to how Mark Hamill's character reacts to the situation. This would then impact subsequent missions. Also by WC3 Hamill's character, Blair, was a Colonel and thus made command level decisions regarding missions. The actual flight-sim itself contained video segments to handle inter-ship communications but for the most part you just shot things and completed your mission objectives. If you failed enough missions bad stuff happened in the overall storyline, usually leading to you being removed of command, Earth being nuked by the Kilrathi, being shot as a traitor or any other number of bad things. There were so many possible permeatations in the storyline - WC3 even had a choice of 2 love interests affecting the end of the game.
Wing Commander 4 was my favourite of the games however - it is set after the Kilrathi wars (bit difficult to continue a war when your homeland has been nuked). The following clip does a good job of explaining matters:-
It was epic, lavishly filmed. Wing Commander 3 was rather obviously filmed on a blue screen, but for Wing Commander 4 they went to town and spent millions on essentially filming a proper sci-fi movie. Nowhere is this more evident than in the intro:-
Despite being a space-sim the end of WC4 is largely dependant on your choices in the cinematic sequences:-
There was a Wing Commander 5 featuring a new main character and (true to Tolwyn's predictions) a new alien threat, but to be honest it was nowhere near as good as WDC4. Wing Commander: Prophecy was a passing of the torch game, where Hamill's Blair turned up to give the new hero the thumbs up. Despite being the greatest pilot in the galaxy on the two missions he features in as a pilot, he is captured and (presumably) killed:-
Note to self: When on big alien mothership run, not walk, back to your mode of transport.
There was supposed to be a Wing Commander 6 and 7 to tie up the alien threat, but the market fell out of the full motion video market and the line was dropped by Origin Systems.
Wing Commander was ripe to spin off on to TV and cinema. Wing Commander Academy was surprisingly gritty for a Saturday morning cartoon series, featuring the voices of Hamill, Wilson and Macdowell as younger versions of the game characters. It lasted 13 episodes but way very true to the spirit of the games.
There was also a Wing Commander movie, starting Freddie "I took Buffy off the market" Prinze Jnr. as Blair and Matthew "That Bloke From Scream" Lilliard as Maniac. Personally I thought it was a good film despite Prinze's presence, the new quasi-religious Jedi mumbo-jumbo (Blair is the last of the pilgrims, a genetically superior race of spacefaring humans) and the continual WW2 motifs (and the fact that ships launching off the carriers appear to be under the influence of gravity in deep space).
Mark "Luke Skywalker" Hamill stars as Blair (the hero in Wing Commander 1-4). You might argue that going from being the ace Jedi pilot of the rebellion flying against the Empire to being the ace aging pilot of the Confederation flying against the Kilrathi Empire was not much of a stretch for Mark but the characters were quite different. Tom "That guy who was Biff" Wilson plays the annoying butt-head of a sidekick, Maniac, your oft wingman who never follows orders and only survives by sheer chance. By the way if you haven't seen his Back to the Future song see it here!
Malcolm "Clockwork Orange" MacDowell as Admiral Tolwyn and John "Indy" Rhys-Davies as Paladin also added to the respectable caliber of actors to appear in the games - a particularly good cast for a computer game.
The plot of the first three games was the good Confederation were under attack by the evil Kilrathi Empire, a race of evolved warlike cats. In WC1 and 2 the Confederation were the clear goodies, and beyond what happened in your missions there was no way to influence the plotlines. WC1 had a relatively straightforward plotline, while WC2 was literally crying out to be made into a film:-
As the games moved into Full Motion Video WC3 and WC4 were definitely more shades of greys - feeling like a cross between Top Gun, Babylon 5 and Star Wars. As far back as WC2 your wingmen would die in battle, or as the results of nefarious plots. It was dark stuff - WC3 ends with you blowing up the Kilrathi home world:-
Essentially the game comprised of full-motion segments which would occasionally pause and allow you the player to make a decision as to how Mark Hamill's character reacts to the situation. This would then impact subsequent missions. Also by WC3 Hamill's character, Blair, was a Colonel and thus made command level decisions regarding missions. The actual flight-sim itself contained video segments to handle inter-ship communications but for the most part you just shot things and completed your mission objectives. If you failed enough missions bad stuff happened in the overall storyline, usually leading to you being removed of command, Earth being nuked by the Kilrathi, being shot as a traitor or any other number of bad things. There were so many possible permeatations in the storyline - WC3 even had a choice of 2 love interests affecting the end of the game.
Wing Commander 4 was my favourite of the games however - it is set after the Kilrathi wars (bit difficult to continue a war when your homeland has been nuked). The following clip does a good job of explaining matters:-
It was epic, lavishly filmed. Wing Commander 3 was rather obviously filmed on a blue screen, but for Wing Commander 4 they went to town and spent millions on essentially filming a proper sci-fi movie. Nowhere is this more evident than in the intro:-
Despite being a space-sim the end of WC4 is largely dependant on your choices in the cinematic sequences:-
There was a Wing Commander 5 featuring a new main character and (true to Tolwyn's predictions) a new alien threat, but to be honest it was nowhere near as good as WDC4. Wing Commander: Prophecy was a passing of the torch game, where Hamill's Blair turned up to give the new hero the thumbs up. Despite being the greatest pilot in the galaxy on the two missions he features in as a pilot, he is captured and (presumably) killed:-
Note to self: When on big alien mothership run, not walk, back to your mode of transport.
There was supposed to be a Wing Commander 6 and 7 to tie up the alien threat, but the market fell out of the full motion video market and the line was dropped by Origin Systems.
Wing Commander was ripe to spin off on to TV and cinema. Wing Commander Academy was surprisingly gritty for a Saturday morning cartoon series, featuring the voices of Hamill, Wilson and Macdowell as younger versions of the game characters. It lasted 13 episodes but way very true to the spirit of the games.
There was also a Wing Commander movie, starting Freddie "I took Buffy off the market" Prinze Jnr. as Blair and Matthew "That Bloke From Scream" Lilliard as Maniac. Personally I thought it was a good film despite Prinze's presence, the new quasi-religious Jedi mumbo-jumbo (Blair is the last of the pilgrims, a genetically superior race of spacefaring humans) and the continual WW2 motifs (and the fact that ships launching off the carriers appear to be under the influence of gravity in deep space).
Tuesday, December 26, 2006
Christmas Who
I'm taking a break from the pressures of mince pie and turkey to post my thoughts on yesterday's TV.
Dr. Who's Xmas Special seemed really disjointed, and while it was entertaining it was nowhere near as good as last year's. This may have been my folks constant moaning, chatter and fiddling with the TV, but it seemed the plot was really disjointed and simplistic, and certainly the science was utterly nonsense. "Drink these particles..." and the hole going to the centre of the Earth in particular made me do a double take. Apparently evil alien spiders from the dawn of time climb holes really, really quickly, either that or a certain villain would have died of terminal velocity long before they became an issue. I also really didn't take to Catherine Tate - she seemed to play to too much like her bovvered alter-ego. Or the robot Santas. I'd assumed that their appearance this Xmas would tie in to their previous appearance, but again it came across as being Santas purely for the sake of it being a Christmas special.
However the Doc was surprisingly dark and vicious for a Christmas special and the ending with the snow and fireworks seemed similar to the McGann TV Movie from 10 years back - right down to asking the companion "D'ya want to come with me?" "No thanks." Only this time the show won't be cancelled.
Speaking of my favourite under-dog Doctor McGann, given this trailer I am looking forward to streaming the BBC7 season starting on New Year's eve on Listen Again.
I also finally caught this week's Torchwood, Combat, and it was really, really good. The script was by the guy that played Mickey in Doctor Who, and while it did seem reminiscent of another Angel episode and Fight Club it was sufficiently dark. I really don't like Owen, but that's a reflection on how well rounded the character is in this show. He's perhaps the most realistic of the Torchwood crew. Though that isn't saying that much.
Dr. Who's Xmas Special seemed really disjointed, and while it was entertaining it was nowhere near as good as last year's. This may have been my folks constant moaning, chatter and fiddling with the TV, but it seemed the plot was really disjointed and simplistic, and certainly the science was utterly nonsense. "Drink these particles..." and the hole going to the centre of the Earth in particular made me do a double take. Apparently evil alien spiders from the dawn of time climb holes really, really quickly, either that or a certain villain would have died of terminal velocity long before they became an issue. I also really didn't take to Catherine Tate - she seemed to play to too much like her bovvered alter-ego. Or the robot Santas. I'd assumed that their appearance this Xmas would tie in to their previous appearance, but again it came across as being Santas purely for the sake of it being a Christmas special.
However the Doc was surprisingly dark and vicious for a Christmas special and the ending with the snow and fireworks seemed similar to the McGann TV Movie from 10 years back - right down to asking the companion "D'ya want to come with me?" "No thanks." Only this time the show won't be cancelled.
Speaking of my favourite under-dog Doctor McGann, given this trailer I am looking forward to streaming the BBC7 season starting on New Year's eve on Listen Again.
I also finally caught this week's Torchwood, Combat, and it was really, really good. The script was by the guy that played Mickey in Doctor Who, and while it did seem reminiscent of another Angel episode and Fight Club it was sufficiently dark. I really don't like Owen, but that's a reflection on how well rounded the character is in this show. He's perhaps the most realistic of the Torchwood crew. Though that isn't saying that much.
Sunday, December 24, 2006
Back Home
As you might have guessed via the deluge of pointless videos I made it back okay for Xmas.
Somehow I managed to get home by 7pm, which isn't bad for a 10am start given the weather and conditions. This was with the obligatory 3 stops and a little bit of confusion over the concepts of north and south around Carlisle. As expected the mist didn't exactly make for the most pleasant drive, though after Leeds there didn't seem to be much fog until I hit Lanarkshire, so it seems that north of the border was not particularly fog free.
However not getting to bed until 2am meant I was little use the day after beyond dog walking. Today I decided to do some last minute Xmas shopping - literally last minute as all my favourite shops closed just before I arrived, but now I'm fully prepared for tomorrow's festivities.
Dundee seemed mist-free when I first arrived but now we have the worst fog I think I have ever seen. You can see fog gently swirling literally in front of your face. I'm rather glad, for me, ze driving is over.
Somehow I managed to get home by 7pm, which isn't bad for a 10am start given the weather and conditions. This was with the obligatory 3 stops and a little bit of confusion over the concepts of north and south around Carlisle. As expected the mist didn't exactly make for the most pleasant drive, though after Leeds there didn't seem to be much fog until I hit Lanarkshire, so it seems that north of the border was not particularly fog free.
However not getting to bed until 2am meant I was little use the day after beyond dog walking. Today I decided to do some last minute Xmas shopping - literally last minute as all my favourite shops closed just before I arrived, but now I'm fully prepared for tomorrow's festivities.
Dundee seemed mist-free when I first arrived but now we have the worst fog I think I have ever seen. You can see fog gently swirling literally in front of your face. I'm rather glad, for me, ze driving is over.
Saturday, December 23, 2006
Worse than Madness... Uwe Boll
If you have no idea who Uwe Boll is you haven't been paying attention to previous posts. This latest trailer looks suspiciously Lord of the Ringsesque until about 1 min 47 seconds, when the Ninjas turn up. Fortunately our hero Farmer the Farmer knows kung-fu of course.
Here's the trailer (which you can only view on the original post, not the RSS feed)
Here's the trailer (which you can only view on the original post, not the RSS feed)
Friday, December 22, 2006
The Mists Are Closing
I'm off as of today back to good old Dundee. It should be a nice pleasant drive - or rather it would be if the whole of Engerland and that other place they call Wales didn't seem to be covered in thick mists. I'm sure it won't turn out the mists curiously end at the Borders.
Anyroads this week hasn't been totally unproductive. I've wrapped most of my presents, watched Hogfather, watched Knight Rider 2000 (I was bored), watched Eragon (George Lucas called, he wants his plot back) and just generally chilled and hung out.
See you on the flip side of the border.
Anyroads this week hasn't been totally unproductive. I've wrapped most of my presents, watched Hogfather, watched Knight Rider 2000 (I was bored), watched Eragon (George Lucas called, he wants his plot back) and just generally chilled and hung out.
See you on the flip side of the border.
Thursday, December 21, 2006
Highlander 5 - Some Footage Finally
Somehow in this day and age the first few minutes of Highlander 5 seem to have leaked onto the internet (albeit in a very crappy format). Looks cool so far, even if Connor Macleod is now permanently dead and buried...
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
Stuff I Like: Gabriel Knight
Gabriel Knight 2 was the first full-motion video game I ever played on my brand spanking new PC back in 1996. I think I even got it as a birthday present. It was also the first game to carry a 15 sticker on it, and to be honest for at least one scene in the game.
Gabriel Knight was very much in tune with the X-Files generation. You were descended from the Ritter family, German nobility who functioned as Schattenjaegers, Shadow Hunters. After investigating a voodoo cult, discovering your heritage and avoiding dying in the first game the second game saw you investigating werewolves in Germany, despite your character couldn't speak German:-
The intros were awesome:-
The Beast Within Intro
and
You also had a female sidekick who did all the legwork, called Grace. Obviously there was sexual tension between the two of them (damn 3rd game cliffhanger!):-
It also saw you in search of Wagner's Lost Opera, and even includes a pretty darn cool opera scene:-
Gabriel Knight 3 I wasn't so fond of. There didn't seem to be many memorable confrontations (the hunt for the werewolf in GK2 has to be played to be believed) and it got a bit Da Vinci Code for my liking (long before that was a gleam in Dan Brown's eye I should add). And as usual Gabriel Knight 3 was the only one of the games to end on a cliffhanger. Naturally no Gabriel Knight 4 is forthcoming from Sierra.
Gabriel Knight was very much in tune with the X-Files generation. You were descended from the Ritter family, German nobility who functioned as Schattenjaegers, Shadow Hunters. After investigating a voodoo cult, discovering your heritage and avoiding dying in the first game the second game saw you investigating werewolves in Germany, despite your character couldn't speak German:-
The intros were awesome:-
The Beast Within Intro
and
You also had a female sidekick who did all the legwork, called Grace. Obviously there was sexual tension between the two of them (damn 3rd game cliffhanger!):-
It also saw you in search of Wagner's Lost Opera, and even includes a pretty darn cool opera scene:-
Gabriel Knight 3 I wasn't so fond of. There didn't seem to be many memorable confrontations (the hunt for the werewolf in GK2 has to be played to be believed) and it got a bit Da Vinci Code for my liking (long before that was a gleam in Dan Brown's eye I should add). And as usual Gabriel Knight 3 was the only one of the games to end on a cliffhanger. Naturally no Gabriel Knight 4 is forthcoming from Sierra.
Monkey Island: The Play
Awesomeness personified - someone made a high school play out of Monkey Island. As an ex-playwright myself this is more like what I would've wanted to have done. You know they've got the humour right when the dialogue sparkles with gems like:-
"You know I've learned something from all this."
"What's that?"
"Never spend more than 5 bucks to see a high school play."
There are 9 clips in total. If I had 2 hours I'd watch them all...
"You know I've learned something from all this."
"What's that?"
"Never spend more than 5 bucks to see a high school play."
There are 9 clips in total. If I had 2 hours I'd watch them all...
Saturday, December 16, 2006
The End of Days
I'm on my hols now, having finished up at the University of Leicester for the year. After shopping in Nottingham I'm about to put my feet up and watch Nightmare on Elms Street. Yes, somehow I got through the last 26.8 years without seeing any of the films except New Nightmare.
Compared to the past few days at work I imagine this movie will seem quite chilled out.
Suffice it to say that the fact, or perhaps because of the fact that I had no real work to do beyond helping the students. Friday on the other hand was plain weird. I'll elaborate on this in more detail at another point, beyond saying the chaps and I went to the Landsdowne for an Xmas lunch. It was good though we needed a Mathematician to work the bill out for us! Then after spending the afternoon doing what little work I could do before closing time I caught Happy Feet at the cinema - which was quite amusing, though the graphics on that film must have been a pain to
I've also been playing around with Facebook, which seems to be a strange marriage betwixt MySpace and Photobox. It does have a nice interface for loading photographs, much much nicer than my Buzznet because you can upload an entire directory of images at the click of a button rather than spending all night specifying each inidividual image path. It also has an RSS feed from my blog, though to be honest that sucks as all my YouTube movies don't show up (so if you are viewing this through Facebook go to this link instead and a lot of the posts will make sense). I may retire the RSS feed if it gives me too many problems.
I've got a few albums on Facebook now that I will put on this blog as soon as I remember. The Buzznet account will be retired at some point - it is just too plain slow to browse, or to upload to.
Compared to the past few days at work I imagine this movie will seem quite chilled out.
Suffice it to say that the fact, or perhaps because of the fact that I had no real work to do beyond helping the students. Friday on the other hand was plain weird. I'll elaborate on this in more detail at another point, beyond saying the chaps and I went to the Landsdowne for an Xmas lunch. It was good though we needed a Mathematician to work the bill out for us! Then after spending the afternoon doing what little work I could do before closing time I caught Happy Feet at the cinema - which was quite amusing, though the graphics on that film must have been a pain to
I've also been playing around with Facebook, which seems to be a strange marriage betwixt MySpace and Photobox. It does have a nice interface for loading photographs, much much nicer than my Buzznet because you can upload an entire directory of images at the click of a button rather than spending all night specifying each inidividual image path. It also has an RSS feed from my blog, though to be honest that sucks as all my YouTube movies don't show up (so if you are viewing this through Facebook go to this link instead and a lot of the posts will make sense). I may retire the RSS feed if it gives me too many problems.
I've got a few albums on Facebook now that I will put on this blog as soon as I remember. The Buzznet account will be retired at some point - it is just too plain slow to browse, or to upload to.
Thursday, December 14, 2006
I'm Legit...
Not had the best day, but the good news is, only 18 months after I sat my PhD my first journal paper has been accepted. That'll be useful at, say, Research interviews.
Yes, kids, the review process takes that long on journals.
In Japan they don't let you get your PhD until you have 3 journal papers.
Blimey.
Yes, kids, the review process takes that long on journals.
In Japan they don't let you get your PhD until you have 3 journal papers.
Blimey.
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
Leaky Labs
Yesterday the heavens opened up over Leicester and it was kind of wet everywhere. As the PTB don't really think my floor of the Charles Wilson is worth improving, our labs are apparently not quite waterproof. I shouldn't complain because after two months of picking up crisp packets we finally got a cleaner last summer, while one floor up they have the builders in installing a wedding room for external events. Nice priorities there.
We have a few problems with our rooms here. So much so that one of our demonstrators (I'm not saying who, but guess) mailed the following urgent email to all of us:-
There has been water coming into the lab by student PC 134. The window cannot shut properly by this pc. Some of the students have smelt burning.
To which he got the (pretty obvious and yet amusing) response of:-
Switch the machine off, and if you have any blue paper towel mop up the water as best you can.
I went through to the lab to make sure everything was okay, I was expecting said fellow to be either electrocuted, or crouched in the fetal position, worrying as he had no blue towels, only white towels. Thankfully we had a student who in the 20 minutes the email exchange took was smart enough to activate the circuit breaker for that part of the room.
And, no, we don't employ this guy:-
We have a few problems with our rooms here. So much so that one of our demonstrators (I'm not saying who, but guess) mailed the following urgent email to all of us:-
There has been water coming into the lab by student PC 134. The window cannot shut properly by this pc. Some of the students have smelt burning.
To which he got the (pretty obvious and yet amusing) response of:-
Switch the machine off, and if you have any blue paper towel mop up the water as best you can.
I went through to the lab to make sure everything was okay, I was expecting said fellow to be either electrocuted, or crouched in the fetal position, worrying as he had no blue towels, only white towels. Thankfully we had a student who in the 20 minutes the email exchange took was smart enough to activate the circuit breaker for that part of the room.
And, no, we don't employ this guy:-
Monday, December 11, 2006
The Ordeal of the Three Meals
So, three meals out in a row it was, proving Xmas is just round the corner. Wednesday was spent in the familiar haunt of the Old Horse, eating blue burgers (which I recommend to anyone new to Leicester, either at the Old Horse or at the Blue Point on Evington) and deciding to have a leaving do the next night at the Chinese.
The restaurant on Thursday seemed to be in a takeout place on Highfields Street. We were upstairs in this particular restaraunt, in a room for large parties and visiting Chinese wanting privacy. I even drank Chinese tea, which for those of you who know me well is a remarkable thing in itself. However I didn't just drink tea - there was the particularly tasty Tsingtao beer in plentiful amounts.
However the meal was relatively messy (at least for me) and it seems I really really must learn to use chopsticks. I'm not the most coordinated of fellow's but I plan on learning.
Friday night's meal was a veritable banquet at Poppadom's, though I must confess due to having been drinking straight after work in Babelas (nice pub BTW) I really drank more than I ate, particularly the deadly Cobra beer that I'd be introduced to on a previous expedition to Manchester a few year's back.
I seem to have -far- too many photos of the evening, including a choice one of me I must upload at some point. Suffice it to say what followed on Saturday morning was not good - no baths were harmed, mainly because I haven't got one, nor where there any traumatised rabbits, but also I didn't manage to write the talk I'd planned to and there was the Catch-22 of feeling too miserable to go out but also not having much food in the house, except cereal, since I'd eaten out every evening since Friday. In fact if Claudia hadn't come round I expect I'd still be sat on my couch just now thinking about going to Morrison's. However, despite what certain parties say, after a pizza and some of Claudia's most excellent strudel I was my usual chirpy self.
I am looking forward to a week of eating in and not drinking. Unless anyone knows of a place that sells Cobra or Tsingtao beer wholesale.
The restaurant on Thursday seemed to be in a takeout place on Highfields Street. We were upstairs in this particular restaraunt, in a room for large parties and visiting Chinese wanting privacy. I even drank Chinese tea, which for those of you who know me well is a remarkable thing in itself. However I didn't just drink tea - there was the particularly tasty Tsingtao beer in plentiful amounts.
However the meal was relatively messy (at least for me) and it seems I really really must learn to use chopsticks. I'm not the most coordinated of fellow's but I plan on learning.
Friday night's meal was a veritable banquet at Poppadom's, though I must confess due to having been drinking straight after work in Babelas (nice pub BTW) I really drank more than I ate, particularly the deadly Cobra beer that I'd be introduced to on a previous expedition to Manchester a few year's back.
I seem to have -far- too many photos of the evening, including a choice one of me I must upload at some point. Suffice it to say what followed on Saturday morning was not good - no baths were harmed, mainly because I haven't got one, nor where there any traumatised rabbits, but also I didn't manage to write the talk I'd planned to and there was the Catch-22 of feeling too miserable to go out but also not having much food in the house, except cereal, since I'd eaten out every evening since Friday. In fact if Claudia hadn't come round I expect I'd still be sat on my couch just now thinking about going to Morrison's. However, despite what certain parties say, after a pizza and some of Claudia's most excellent strudel I was my usual chirpy self.
I am looking forward to a week of eating in and not drinking. Unless anyone knows of a place that sells Cobra or Tsingtao beer wholesale.
Sweet Lord... Noooooooooo!
Just after last week's abysmal Robin Hood I thought things would pick up. Guess again! I hope this is bunk or Tuck will be the "only friar in the village".
Thursday, December 07, 2006
Howdy Y'all
| What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Inland North You may think you speak "Standard English straight out of the dictionary" but when you step away from the Great Lakes you get asked annoying questions like "Are you from Wisconsin?" or "Are you from Chicago?" Chances are you call carbonated drinks "pop." | |
| The Northeast | |
| Philadelphia | |
| The Midland | |
| The South | |
| Boston | |
| The West | |
| North Central | |
| What American accent do you have? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz | |
Questionably Unequestrian
This week is shaping up to be tough. Tonight I was down The Old Horse to have a blue burger and celebrate the coming of age of one our teaching assistants from Italy. Tomorrow we are going out for Chinese to mark him leaving for Italy, and on Friday I have to go out to the Fencing Christmas meal. I am thinking of skipping lunch tomorrow.
This week's Torchwood was interesting, though the villain's genius plot was just a little too open to random variables to be believable, and apparently Ianto may be sleeping with Jack (though I think this was deliberately implied but isn't true).
Recently the desire to rewatch some of my old films and look them out for other folk so unfortunate to have never seen such classics as Highlander, Jabberwocky and the Monty Python series caused me to rummage through my DVD collection. One film I'd forgotten I had was Ladyhawke - this is a wonderful film and if you have not seen it you simply must. Rutger Hauer plays a bad-ass good guy, a young Matthew Broderick plays a sidekick who steers dangerously close to becoming annoying but never crosses the line into Jar-Jarland and a young Michelle Pfiefer does okay too.
However what always sticks in my mind with this film is the music - the Alan Parson's Project did the soundtrack and electric guitars and 80s funk do not exactly match the lush landscapes of medieval Italy that are present in the film. However the music is fantastic in its own rights. I downloaded the soundtrack shortly after remembering this. I used to have it but used to be really terrible at backing files up - in fact I gave Alex and Lesley a copy of the mp3s to use during our old Rolemaster and Riddle of Steel campaigns. Any time during the game we rode on horses we made sure to play the funky and totally inappropriate cues from "The Search for Phillipe" (listen to it here). It was a great mood killer, as medieval as a Costner monologue on freedom, and often caused poor Paul, our Evil GM, to watch in utter dismay as we attempted to imitate horse riding in a way that made the coconut banging in Monty Python and the Holy Grail look like Shaft. Mind you Paul seemed to spend a lot of Wednesday's looking quietly dismayed at us, this was but one reason...
This week's Torchwood was interesting, though the villain's genius plot was just a little too open to random variables to be believable, and apparently Ianto may be sleeping with Jack (though I think this was deliberately implied but isn't true).
Recently the desire to rewatch some of my old films and look them out for other folk so unfortunate to have never seen such classics as Highlander, Jabberwocky and the Monty Python series caused me to rummage through my DVD collection. One film I'd forgotten I had was Ladyhawke - this is a wonderful film and if you have not seen it you simply must. Rutger Hauer plays a bad-ass good guy, a young Matthew Broderick plays a sidekick who steers dangerously close to becoming annoying but never crosses the line into Jar-Jarland and a young Michelle Pfiefer does okay too.
However what always sticks in my mind with this film is the music - the Alan Parson's Project did the soundtrack and electric guitars and 80s funk do not exactly match the lush landscapes of medieval Italy that are present in the film. However the music is fantastic in its own rights. I downloaded the soundtrack shortly after remembering this. I used to have it but used to be really terrible at backing files up - in fact I gave Alex and Lesley a copy of the mp3s to use during our old Rolemaster and Riddle of Steel campaigns. Any time during the game we rode on horses we made sure to play the funky and totally inappropriate cues from "The Search for Phillipe" (listen to it here). It was a great mood killer, as medieval as a Costner monologue on freedom, and often caused poor Paul, our Evil GM, to watch in utter dismay as we attempted to imitate horse riding in a way that made the coconut banging in Monty Python and the Holy Grail look like Shaft. Mind you Paul seemed to spend a lot of Wednesday's looking quietly dismayed at us, this was but one reason...
Tuesday, December 05, 2006
You Were A Most Worthy Adversary
This may be the funniest 5 minutes of TV I ever saw... from my favourite Red Dwarf episode ever:-
Insomnia, I Am Thy Cure
Term is drawing to a close, students are stressed and finally have that permanent flu-state and sadly I'm down to my last couple of lectures of the semester. But as I face being chained to the help desk and increased exposure to the mad one I can at least live with the fact that today, for the first time I sent a student to sleep. In fact I sent two students to the land of nod with only the power of my voice - one in each of my lectures.
The first one was right down at the front and started snoring quite obviously. The rest of the class stopped listening to me and were watching the sleeping student. It was so funny I stopped lecturing and fixed him with a beady eye along with the rest of what was supposed to be my audience. Alas he woke up while I was torn between turning the microphone up to full volume, getting everyone to cover their ears and yelling "WAKE UP!" or running to the bathroom to fetch something wet.
In my second lecture this student came in late and as soon as I saw him I burst into a fit of hysterics, followed by most of the class including this student. I'm not good at self-control, but this was funny. However during the intensity of my revision lecture another student, also at the front slowly began to nod off.
Also, one of our general teaching assistants came into the office today while I was fiddling with this blog and saw the Flibble movie. Said Flibble movie had him in hysterics whilst he was teaching the same group of sleepy students. In fact he seemed to find a video of a grown man he knew wrestling with a puppet penguin a lot more funny than I would've expected.
The first one was right down at the front and started snoring quite obviously. The rest of the class stopped listening to me and were watching the sleeping student. It was so funny I stopped lecturing and fixed him with a beady eye along with the rest of what was supposed to be my audience. Alas he woke up while I was torn between turning the microphone up to full volume, getting everyone to cover their ears and yelling "WAKE UP!" or running to the bathroom to fetch something wet.
In my second lecture this student came in late and as soon as I saw him I burst into a fit of hysterics, followed by most of the class including this student. I'm not good at self-control, but this was funny. However during the intensity of my revision lecture another student, also at the front slowly began to nod off.
Also, one of our general teaching assistants came into the office today while I was fiddling with this blog and saw the Flibble movie. Said Flibble movie had him in hysterics whilst he was teaching the same group of sleepy students. In fact he seemed to find a video of a grown man he knew wrestling with a puppet penguin a lot more funny than I would've expected.
Monday, December 04, 2006
Mr. Flibble Attacks
Mare gave me the idea for this little early Xmas present proving what you can do with puppets, a webcam and Windows Media Player (it's the music that works best for me).
I do all my own stunts and puppet work. Yes I am sad, why do you ask?
I do all my own stunts and puppet work. Yes I am sad, why do you ask?
Sunday, December 03, 2006
My Little Eye
While plotting my escape from the funny-farm that is work I've been watching the Office: An American Workplace. I dismissed the first season as an Americanised carbon copy of the UK but watching Season 2 late on ITV4 it becomes clear the show gets a life of it's own once all the UK scripts have been used up. The characters are different, Michael Scott (Brent) is a lot more tragic. Brent always came across as sleazy and self-serving, while Michael is naive and relatively alturistic, if a twit. Dwight (Gareth) is not in the army, as it would be unthinkable for Americans to poke fun at their armed forces. He's a volunteer sheriff deputy, a sci-fi geek and has a love-interest in the form of the uptight christian chick in the office.
I've watched all the way to the latest Season 3 episode (written and directed by Ricky Gervais and Steve Marchent, though I wouldn't have guessed to be honest) and overall its a lot more zany and silly that the UK one, but it's a good laugh. After watching Season 3 in one evening I went to work and when the inevitable craziness occurred I was looking for a camera to stare at akwardly.
Which links to my next point - I have a webcam now finally. This means people on MSN can now see my ugly mug and apartment. It also means the number of people on MSN has dropped. It also shows my hands as being very, very big when held up to the camera, but never ever do the Numa Numa, record it, overwrite another video file you were going to show and... well you get the picture.
I even set it up as a motion detector with FTP access to upload pictures to my web account at work if anyone comes in the apartment while I'm away - useful for watching the workmen who've had to replace all the wood in my bathroom as it's been slowly flooding for the past 6 months and no-one noticed. Finally I might even bring it into work but that would just be too entertaining...
Finally caught Casino Royale this week, which was actually quite good. Very gritty, less cartoony and in places downright nasty. This week's Adventures of Much, Also Featuring a Hobbit Called Hood was pretty good if you can get past the silliness of the Sherriff making Much a lord rather than just quietly killing him and not telling anyone to avoid making him a martyr. This show should count Much as the star, he has far more charisma than Robin and seems to carry the show when the Sheriff and Gisbourne aren't around.
I've watched all the way to the latest Season 3 episode (written and directed by Ricky Gervais and Steve Marchent, though I wouldn't have guessed to be honest) and overall its a lot more zany and silly that the UK one, but it's a good laugh. After watching Season 3 in one evening I went to work and when the inevitable craziness occurred I was looking for a camera to stare at akwardly.
Which links to my next point - I have a webcam now finally. This means people on MSN can now see my ugly mug and apartment. It also means the number of people on MSN has dropped. It also shows my hands as being very, very big when held up to the camera, but never ever do the Numa Numa, record it, overwrite another video file you were going to show and... well you get the picture.
I even set it up as a motion detector with FTP access to upload pictures to my web account at work if anyone comes in the apartment while I'm away - useful for watching the workmen who've had to replace all the wood in my bathroom as it's been slowly flooding for the past 6 months and no-one noticed. Finally I might even bring it into work but that would just be too entertaining...
Finally caught Casino Royale this week, which was actually quite good. Very gritty, less cartoony and in places downright nasty. This week's Adventures of Much, Also Featuring a Hobbit Called Hood was pretty good if you can get past the silliness of the Sherriff making Much a lord rather than just quietly killing him and not telling anyone to avoid making him a martyr. This show should count Much as the star, he has far more charisma than Robin and seems to carry the show when the Sheriff and Gisbourne aren't around.
Thursday, November 30, 2006
DRRAAACCCCOOOOO
I used to study for exams this way:-
Family Guy rocks.
And if you have no idea what this is about, it's from Rocky IV. I've always had a soft-spot for this particular piece of jingoistic Cold War propaganda (which along with Rambo III, ironically dedicated to those wonderful freedom fighters in Afghanistan won Sly a commendation from President Reagan).
It's mostly the 80s music I love about Rocky IV - it's certainly not the plot. A rough synopsis of most of the series is that Rocky has to face some boxer so he trains in a montage, and wins. However in Rocky IV the evil steroid taking Russian opponent is so powerhouse it takes two montages of training to defeat him in darkest Russia, under the watchful eyes of the KGB:-
Anyway, I'm off to yell my archnemesis's name from a snowy mountain top.
Family Guy rocks.
And if you have no idea what this is about, it's from Rocky IV. I've always had a soft-spot for this particular piece of jingoistic Cold War propaganda (which along with Rambo III, ironically dedicated to those wonderful freedom fighters in Afghanistan won Sly a commendation from President Reagan).
It's mostly the 80s music I love about Rocky IV - it's certainly not the plot. A rough synopsis of most of the series is that Rocky has to face some boxer so he trains in a montage, and wins. However in Rocky IV the evil steroid taking Russian opponent is so powerhouse it takes two montages of training to defeat him in darkest Russia, under the watchful eyes of the KGB:-
Anyway, I'm off to yell my archnemesis's name from a snowy mountain top.
Totally Mental
|
You love to get pampered, take lots of naps, and eat mashed bananas. Okay, we’re only speculating on the mashed bananas.Wednesday, November 29, 2006
Reflections
Some things I learned from being dragged kicking and screaming to a Physics night out at Elements:-
Oh, and I also remembered to download the Baywatch Theme. That song has continued to haunt me, as you know, for a while. I think someone out there is upset I no longer watch Baywatch before going to work. Nonetheless here is the theme remixed:-
- Going out on a Monday night is not a good idea
- Staying out late on a Monday night is really, really bad when you have 2 hours of labs and 2 lectures to give
- I need to learn to dance (other than ceilidhs, where I'm not bad, but that's just relative)
- Walking across the park on your own at 1am is not a good idea - you either worry you're going to be mugged or that you look like a mugger (I managed to scare some old folks by wearing the hood on my hoodie on Friday evening at 6pm, on the way home from work).
- I've learned the meaning of dirty stopout
Oh, and I also remembered to download the Baywatch Theme. That song has continued to haunt me, as you know, for a while. I think someone out there is upset I no longer watch Baywatch before going to work. Nonetheless here is the theme remixed:-
Well this saves time...
10 seasons for Friends in 90 seconds...
And I agree Phoebe was pointless.
Also, this is awesome, how did they get the dead Lost chick?
And I agree Phoebe was pointless.
Also, this is awesome, how did they get the dead Lost chick?
Monday, November 27, 2006
Whityepedia?
Blogging while invigilating a test to say I looked up the hood on wikipedia (the hood being apt apparently):-
Monifieth's youth - mainly those from Monifieth High School - are noted for their severe rivalry with the youth of neighbouring town Broughty Ferry, most of whom come from the high school Grove Academy. This rivalry has grown to such an extent that it has resulted in the formation of several groups - Monifieths 'YMR' (Young Moni Rool), and Grove's 'Ferry Fleet'. As well as battling each other, these groups - who consist mainly of 'neds' - also enjoy tormenting local residents. The YMR taking over this mantle from the YPT (Young Panny Tongs), the last group of whom disbanded in 2004. There are many known prostitutes in Monifieth, but none as famous as the local Jewish prostitute, Derek Soutar.
So, um, yes. Real accurate info there.
Even more interesting is the page on Monifieth High School that links to a website rating the teachers.
Monifieth's youth - mainly those from Monifieth High School - are noted for their severe rivalry with the youth of neighbouring town Broughty Ferry, most of whom come from the high school Grove Academy. This rivalry has grown to such an extent that it has resulted in the formation of several groups - Monifieths 'YMR' (Young Moni Rool), and Grove's 'Ferry Fleet'. As well as battling each other, these groups - who consist mainly of 'neds' - also enjoy tormenting local residents. The YMR taking over this mantle from the YPT (Young Panny Tongs), the last group of whom disbanded in 2004. There are many known prostitutes in Monifieth, but none as famous as the local Jewish prostitute, Derek Soutar.
So, um, yes. Real accurate info there.
Even more interesting is the page on Monifieth High School that links to a website rating the teachers.
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
The D-Day Landings
D-Day. This is the term we sane folk have coined for today, Door Day.
This is the day we got a glass door. Or more precisely we thought a circular window in our door. Or actually, as it turns out, a postbox style glass slit you can look through if you stare really, really hard.
This is our old office door. For such an innocuous looking thing it was a cause of many, many, many arguments. Note also the angry handwriting on the note on the door - I'll let you guess who did that:-
You see, despite the fact we are supposed to run a student drop-in support centre B. objects to having the door open. There's a draft in his bit of the room, by the window, at his desk. He can't switch desks of course, as that would make him more accessible to students, and I routinely wander round the office in a t-shirt, never feeling the draft... but anyroads...
Last year he went so far as to yell "BBBRRRRRR..." when a group of students came by and left the door open, put on three layers of clothing in front of them and steal the only electric heater in the room, leaving a trip-wire by my office space. A bit like this...
Anyroads when the students left (with very quizzical expressions on their face) I shut our door and tried to tell B. that yelling "BRRRRRR..." and stealing heaters wasn't professional behaviour in front of students, and certainly not welcoming. This 'discussion' was countered with a "I'm not listening, lalala" response, including him comically slapping both of his ears loudly and sorely in an attempt to not listen. Once his hands were removed and the red ears he'd given himself exposed I fruitlessly tried some rational discussion that ended with him swearing, me swearing louder and better (I'm Scottish, I've been to Glasgow, I can therefore swear better), him looking for a sheet of paper to write down all my swearing for a formal complaint and me slamming a 200 page hardback notebook, suggesting he might need all 200 pages to contain my forthcoming litany of curse-words followed by astute observations about his character.
I call this my "going postal day". I'm normally really easy-going, in fact I'm a softie and a pushover. But that was the day I was physically dragged out of the office by A for fear that I may decide to use the hardback notebook as a rectal thermometer.
We had several days with 'discussions' like this over the Christmas and Easter semesters last year. Sometime A. did the swearing by the end of the discussion, sometimes me. I think if both A. and I lose it we may tag-team Ben in some bizarre WWF style and end up ripping him half.
Anyway TPTB, after listening to our tales of woe about life with B. and his prima-donna attitude towards the job (I was in the HoD's office for 2 hours once, practically lying on his couch twitching) decided the door doesn't need to be open, just unlocked, and as a compromise we were getting a glass door. Fair enough, I guess.
The plan was according to our boss to get a nice circular porthole style window for the door. The builders would arrive at 8:30am to remove our door, and bring it back by 4pm to install it with the window. Sysadmin would be there to meet them and B. and I were supposed to come in at 9:00am to relieve the sysadmin guy. Then we'd all stay in the office, 'cos if no-one is here all our nice shiny might get nicked. We'd take it in turns to cover each other so we could go to the loo etc. And eventually we'd get our nice new glassy door.
What actually happened was A. and Sysadmin was in our office when the builder came by at 8:30am. The builder remarked on how the window he'd been told to install was the smallest possible and would look weird. Apparently after further discussion our bemused admin and A. discovered the builder had come by the office when B. was the only person on duty last week. Despite claiming he is the busiest of us all B. never ever leaves the office (but see below). Even during his own classes he's here at least half of the duration of the class to pick up the hundreds of things he's forgotten or to do tasks he didn't do prior to the lab. He routinely sends out emails saying he wants to play snooker in the staffroom upstairs and reminding our staff he has his own balls. I honestly an't think why no-one ever takes him up on an opportunity to play with his... Never mind, I can't type this...
B. had decided on a window design that was the smallest window possible for fear someone might see his desk through the glass. Naturally he'd not mentioned this, focusing more on making sure someone else other than him was in at 8:30am. So our doorway looked like this by the time I turned up:-
I turned up at 9:00 am. No sign of B. - he dropped an email around 10ish saying he had decided to work across the road instead. The irony being this was the one day he might be useful in the office. This left A. and me, so if either of us is out working with students the other was stuck. He eventually turned up at lunch time to let us get some lunch.
Fast forwards to this afternoon and the new door arrived. Look at the rather odd geometry of the window - I think you are actually meant to install 4 of these into a door, not 1.
I feel at this point it is necessary to reintroduce the concept of Ben-Shui - B.'s way of making a student-proof nest that discourages students from bothering him by making his office as inaccessible as possible without a five mile hike. You can see previous thread on this here.
What was crazier was no sooner had we got this new door than we were asked to cover the glass window for security purposes. So now it looks like this:-
You may note the "Coming Soon" on our makeshift cover was written by me. This is because I had a bet with A. that B. would take 'til Friday to cover the window in notices. This way I can still win my bet...
So to recap in Ben-Shui tradition I've drawn what was supposed to be the intended window, the actual window and the desired Ben-Shui window for our office:-
You're probably wondering what B.'s reaction to the window. Let me summarise.
B (-2 hours): "After we get this window installed we can cut down our number of office hours."
Boss: "..."
B (5 minutes after installation): "I love this window - it's so small and you can't see anything."
B (10 minutes after installation and seeing me staring at his workstation and making faces at him through said window): "Hmm... you can see a bit much through this window."
B (15 mins): "I didn't ask for this window."
B (20 mins): "I hate this window."
B (1 hour): Proceeds to rearrange his workspace to hide from the window.
So to recap...
Inserting the world's smallest window - £100
Wages paying employees to argue about the window - £200
Covering up said window an hour after installation - Priceless
For everything else there's Mastercard.
This is the day we got a glass door. Or more precisely we thought a circular window in our door. Or actually, as it turns out, a postbox style glass slit you can look through if you stare really, really hard.
This is our old office door. For such an innocuous looking thing it was a cause of many, many, many arguments. Note also the angry handwriting on the note on the door - I'll let you guess who did that:-
You see, despite the fact we are supposed to run a student drop-in support centre B. objects to having the door open. There's a draft in his bit of the room, by the window, at his desk. He can't switch desks of course, as that would make him more accessible to students, and I routinely wander round the office in a t-shirt, never feeling the draft... but anyroads...
Last year he went so far as to yell "BBBRRRRRR..." when a group of students came by and left the door open, put on three layers of clothing in front of them and steal the only electric heater in the room, leaving a trip-wire by my office space. A bit like this...
Anyroads when the students left (with very quizzical expressions on their face) I shut our door and tried to tell B. that yelling "BRRRRRR..." and stealing heaters wasn't professional behaviour in front of students, and certainly not welcoming. This 'discussion' was countered with a "I'm not listening, lalala" response, including him comically slapping both of his ears loudly and sorely in an attempt to not listen. Once his hands were removed and the red ears he'd given himself exposed I fruitlessly tried some rational discussion that ended with him swearing, me swearing louder and better (I'm Scottish, I've been to Glasgow, I can therefore swear better), him looking for a sheet of paper to write down all my swearing for a formal complaint and me slamming a 200 page hardback notebook, suggesting he might need all 200 pages to contain my forthcoming litany of curse-words followed by astute observations about his character.
I call this my "going postal day". I'm normally really easy-going, in fact I'm a softie and a pushover. But that was the day I was physically dragged out of the office by A for fear that I may decide to use the hardback notebook as a rectal thermometer.
We had several days with 'discussions' like this over the Christmas and Easter semesters last year. Sometime A. did the swearing by the end of the discussion, sometimes me. I think if both A. and I lose it we may tag-team Ben in some bizarre WWF style and end up ripping him half.
Anyway TPTB, after listening to our tales of woe about life with B. and his prima-donna attitude towards the job (I was in the HoD's office for 2 hours once, practically lying on his couch twitching) decided the door doesn't need to be open, just unlocked, and as a compromise we were getting a glass door. Fair enough, I guess.
The plan was according to our boss to get a nice circular porthole style window for the door. The builders would arrive at 8:30am to remove our door, and bring it back by 4pm to install it with the window. Sysadmin would be there to meet them and B. and I were supposed to come in at 9:00am to relieve the sysadmin guy. Then we'd all stay in the office, 'cos if no-one is here all our nice shiny might get nicked. We'd take it in turns to cover each other so we could go to the loo etc. And eventually we'd get our nice new glassy door.
What actually happened was A. and Sysadmin was in our office when the builder came by at 8:30am. The builder remarked on how the window he'd been told to install was the smallest possible and would look weird. Apparently after further discussion our bemused admin and A. discovered the builder had come by the office when B. was the only person on duty last week. Despite claiming he is the busiest of us all B. never ever leaves the office (but see below). Even during his own classes he's here at least half of the duration of the class to pick up the hundreds of things he's forgotten or to do tasks he didn't do prior to the lab. He routinely sends out emails saying he wants to play snooker in the staffroom upstairs and reminding our staff he has his own balls. I honestly an't think why no-one ever takes him up on an opportunity to play with his... Never mind, I can't type this...
B. had decided on a window design that was the smallest window possible for fear someone might see his desk through the glass. Naturally he'd not mentioned this, focusing more on making sure someone else other than him was in at 8:30am. So our doorway looked like this by the time I turned up:-
I turned up at 9:00 am. No sign of B. - he dropped an email around 10ish saying he had decided to work across the road instead. The irony being this was the one day he might be useful in the office. This left A. and me, so if either of us is out working with students the other was stuck. He eventually turned up at lunch time to let us get some lunch.
Fast forwards to this afternoon and the new door arrived. Look at the rather odd geometry of the window - I think you are actually meant to install 4 of these into a door, not 1.
I feel at this point it is necessary to reintroduce the concept of Ben-Shui - B.'s way of making a student-proof nest that discourages students from bothering him by making his office as inaccessible as possible without a five mile hike. You can see previous thread on this here.
What was crazier was no sooner had we got this new door than we were asked to cover the glass window for security purposes. So now it looks like this:-
You may note the "Coming Soon" on our makeshift cover was written by me. This is because I had a bet with A. that B. would take 'til Friday to cover the window in notices. This way I can still win my bet...
So to recap in Ben-Shui tradition I've drawn what was supposed to be the intended window, the actual window and the desired Ben-Shui window for our office:-
You're probably wondering what B.'s reaction to the window. Let me summarise.
B (-2 hours): "After we get this window installed we can cut down our number of office hours."
Boss: "..."
B (5 minutes after installation): "I love this window - it's so small and you can't see anything."
B (10 minutes after installation and seeing me staring at his workstation and making faces at him through said window): "Hmm... you can see a bit much through this window."
B (15 mins): "I didn't ask for this window."
B (20 mins): "I hate this window."
B (1 hour): Proceeds to rearrange his workspace to hide from the window.
So to recap...
Inserting the world's smallest window - £100
Wages paying employees to argue about the window - £200
Covering up said window an hour after installation - Priceless
For everything else there's Mastercard.
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Sunday, November 19, 2006
Lectures, Exams, Pirates in da Hood Oh My!
It's been a busy week. After my crap Monday a good evening's sleep meant that I returned to my regular game. I even went so far as to basically redo my errant lectures under the guise of a recap, a recap where I explained everything I had glossed over during my haze of sleeplessness. Further to that I've discovered that exam writing is a science in itself and it takes weeks to prepare a single paper.
We're getting a glass door, or more precisely a glass window into our door. I think this is supposed to alleviate the arguments over whether a drop-in centre should have a closed door, though it threatened to start an argument over who should be here at 8:30am on the day when the workmen turn up. I expect tantrums and tiaras soon.
At fencing I've been learning epee for a few weeks and some weird retroactive learning effect means I now find foils far too light and have little control when fencing with them. I also think my accuracy has decreased as I keep getting lots of near hits or hits with the flat of the blade. Today a fresher creamed me in epee. I've also finally bought some kit, though this stuff is not cheap, costing >£100 for a jacket and breeches, but at least they'll fit and I can finally do electrics.
I've uploaded my photos of the Pirate Pub Crawl and Bonfire Night - Bonfire Night was spent in the Old Horse watching a pirate themed burning of a ghostly galleon. Hence me wearing the pirate hat I am clearly getting good value for money from. It was certainly a lot better than watching the fireworks from the bus stop near my old gaff in Ireton Road last year before going to the pub I now aptly refer to as the Wyvern's Armpit.
In terms of TV I am starting to watch This Life, which was a show in the 90s I missed as I wasn't a 20-something back then. My mother watched it, despite I suspect disapproving of some of its themes and characters, and it is definitely "Friends on Acid" as A. described it. Torchwood has been good, though I wasn't so sure about the fairies episode, but overall it's a quality show. Season 3 of Galactica has proven epic, without a bad episode so far, compared to Season 2 which lost its way after the resolution of the cliffhanger from Season 1 (which took too long back then).
This week's episode of the increasingly mediocre Robin Hood 2006 was pure brilliance. Marion being maneuvered into marrying a somewhat dim Gisbourne and the Sheriff hanging Robin's men an hour early, preventing the obligatory gallows rescue, were genius - though I was worried how I was actually cheering on the villains rather than the excessively modern-moralistic heroes.
An example of this twaddle was in last week's episode where we had Robin shutting down a butcher for providing poor quality fly-riddled meat to peasants. I can see why Jamie Oliver inspired this incarnation of Hood. This week had a mobile pawn shop where peasants could sell their valuables (bit of a misstep in logic here, but hey). I am also not taking to the politically correct female Turk merry man Djaq though - so far she's been superfluous to all the plots. I'd say bring back Roy but his death added much needed grit to the show.
We're getting a glass door, or more precisely a glass window into our door. I think this is supposed to alleviate the arguments over whether a drop-in centre should have a closed door, though it threatened to start an argument over who should be here at 8:30am on the day when the workmen turn up. I expect tantrums and tiaras soon.
At fencing I've been learning epee for a few weeks and some weird retroactive learning effect means I now find foils far too light and have little control when fencing with them. I also think my accuracy has decreased as I keep getting lots of near hits or hits with the flat of the blade. Today a fresher creamed me in epee. I've also finally bought some kit, though this stuff is not cheap, costing >£100 for a jacket and breeches, but at least they'll fit and I can finally do electrics.
I've uploaded my photos of the Pirate Pub Crawl and Bonfire Night - Bonfire Night was spent in the Old Horse watching a pirate themed burning of a ghostly galleon. Hence me wearing the pirate hat I am clearly getting good value for money from. It was certainly a lot better than watching the fireworks from the bus stop near my old gaff in Ireton Road last year before going to the pub I now aptly refer to as the Wyvern's Armpit.
In terms of TV I am starting to watch This Life, which was a show in the 90s I missed as I wasn't a 20-something back then. My mother watched it, despite I suspect disapproving of some of its themes and characters, and it is definitely "Friends on Acid" as A. described it. Torchwood has been good, though I wasn't so sure about the fairies episode, but overall it's a quality show. Season 3 of Galactica has proven epic, without a bad episode so far, compared to Season 2 which lost its way after the resolution of the cliffhanger from Season 1 (which took too long back then).
This week's episode of the increasingly mediocre Robin Hood 2006 was pure brilliance. Marion being maneuvered into marrying a somewhat dim Gisbourne and the Sheriff hanging Robin's men an hour early, preventing the obligatory gallows rescue, were genius - though I was worried how I was actually cheering on the villains rather than the excessively modern-moralistic heroes.
An example of this twaddle was in last week's episode where we had Robin shutting down a butcher for providing poor quality fly-riddled meat to peasants. I can see why Jamie Oliver inspired this incarnation of Hood. This week had a mobile pawn shop where peasants could sell their valuables (bit of a misstep in logic here, but hey). I am also not taking to the politically correct female Turk merry man Djaq though - so far she's been superfluous to all the plots. I'd say bring back Roy but his death added much needed grit to the show.
Monday, November 13, 2006
Bad Day in Building B
I'm having an honest to goodness bad day at work that ordinary people have. Not the kind of bad day where workmates yell at you, or drag in 5 year old furniture to form a scale model of the Maginot line, but rather one of those "can quite hit the mark and can't seem to really care" days that everyone else has.
Something really discouraging and disappointing has been nagging me lately and last night it seemed to be weighing heavily on my mind, so coupled with a few more niggles I didn't seem to get any sleep last night. Around 3am I decided to take some herbal sleep remedy which, I am convinced I am immune to as it always means I stay awake and feel extra drowsy in the morning.
Anyroads, half asleep today I went into work and tried to go over my notes for the unholy trinity of lectures I have to give on Wednesdays. They went badly. Binary addition, something I've gone over ad naseum seemed to be very, very difficult today. Every time I tried to prove some sort of concept I got completely the other answer. It was like pantomine came early to Leicester this year with the students ably yelling, "Oh, no it isn't." All I was missing was the frock and bad makeup.
However some lateral thinking saved me - I tried to write out the circuit diagram for one of my lectures and failed miserably 3 times, so using my brain for the first time I ran off and photocopied the diagram onto OHP 10 or so times to work through some examples. I feel I really deserved a cookie for this lateral thinking as it saved my posterior from completed embarassment... unfortunately it also saved me so much time I got onto a bunch of material I wasn't expecting to, and left me wittering on for another 20 minutes or so.
Tonight I shall be boning up on my material and hoping the world ends. Ah joy.
Something really discouraging and disappointing has been nagging me lately and last night it seemed to be weighing heavily on my mind, so coupled with a few more niggles I didn't seem to get any sleep last night. Around 3am I decided to take some herbal sleep remedy which, I am convinced I am immune to as it always means I stay awake and feel extra drowsy in the morning.
Anyroads, half asleep today I went into work and tried to go over my notes for the unholy trinity of lectures I have to give on Wednesdays. They went badly. Binary addition, something I've gone over ad naseum seemed to be very, very difficult today. Every time I tried to prove some sort of concept I got completely the other answer. It was like pantomine came early to Leicester this year with the students ably yelling, "Oh, no it isn't." All I was missing was the frock and bad makeup.
However some lateral thinking saved me - I tried to write out the circuit diagram for one of my lectures and failed miserably 3 times, so using my brain for the first time I ran off and photocopied the diagram onto OHP 10 or so times to work through some examples. I feel I really deserved a cookie for this lateral thinking as it saved my posterior from completed embarassment... unfortunately it also saved me so much time I got onto a bunch of material I wasn't expecting to, and left me wittering on for another 20 minutes or so.
Tonight I shall be boning up on my material and hoping the world ends. Ah joy.
Thursday, November 09, 2006
Wednesday, November 08, 2006
Mistaken Identity
Students call me all sorts of things. Some of them I even hear about, or read about. Some of them can even be repeated. For example some people email me saying "Dear Dr. Stuart" or "Dr. Kerrigan". However in the gr8 t3xt cult00r we live in these days emails tend to be a lot less formal, and riddled with umpteen typos, poor grammar and more often than not my name wrong.
One particular student wrote "Dear Sir Stuart", which is great, but surely they should know the correct address is "Lord Stuart" or, more appropriately "Lord Kerrigan". However until her maj decides to add me to the nansy-boy club that is the knighthood Sir Stuart it ain't.
More disturbingly one poor student, desperate to submit her coursework on time referred to me as "Mrs. Kerrigan". Now, short of a painful operation or an accident while running with scissors, Mrs. Kerrigan it ain't.
Which reminds me I was called Steve by another student in conversation today. In fact this has happened a lot since I moved to Leicester. People don't quite hear my name and they assume I was introduced as Steve. They say I look like a Steve. I personally think it's due to exposure to a Steve that I have developed Steve-like qualities. But I am not Steve. I am pretty certain of this. In fact if this persists I may have to write a book called "I am not Steve" and then in my dotage write one called "Shucks. Yes I am Steve. But arrest that man anyway."
So in short, Stuart, milord, Dr. Stu, Dr. Kerrigan, Doc or (most preferrably) Lord Kerrigan it is. :P
Yours with much ego,
Mrs. Kerrigan
One particular student wrote "Dear Sir Stuart", which is great, but surely they should know the correct address is "Lord Stuart" or, more appropriately "Lord Kerrigan". However until her maj decides to add me to the nansy-boy club that is the knighthood Sir Stuart it ain't.
More disturbingly one poor student, desperate to submit her coursework on time referred to me as "Mrs. Kerrigan". Now, short of a painful operation or an accident while running with scissors, Mrs. Kerrigan it ain't.
Which reminds me I was called Steve by another student in conversation today. In fact this has happened a lot since I moved to Leicester. People don't quite hear my name and they assume I was introduced as Steve. They say I look like a Steve. I personally think it's due to exposure to a Steve that I have developed Steve-like qualities. But I am not Steve. I am pretty certain of this. In fact if this persists I may have to write a book called "I am not Steve" and then in my dotage write one called "Shucks. Yes I am Steve. But arrest that man anyway."
So in short, Stuart, milord, Dr. Stu, Dr. Kerrigan, Doc or (most preferrably) Lord Kerrigan it is. :P
Yours with much ego,
Mrs. Kerrigan
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
Have you seen this man?
My students have been visiting my staff webpage and wondering where the following picture comes from:-
I should point out the picture isn't of me, though the resemblance is um... well... he has the same colour hair. However my favourite theory that my students offered was that they assumed it was a picture from my days in a rock and roll band. I kid you not.
Work is busy, and this whole running an entire module lark yourself is lots of work, but it isn't that hard. I gave 3 lectures today, well to be honest, assisted with 1, and gave 2, and also found time to run a 2 hour lab. I'm also setting exams, which is a lot harder work than you'd think.
I should point out the picture isn't of me, though the resemblance is um... well... he has the same colour hair. However my favourite theory that my students offered was that they assumed it was a picture from my days in a rock and roll band. I kid you not.
Work is busy, and this whole running an entire module lark yourself is lots of work, but it isn't that hard. I gave 3 lectures today, well to be honest, assisted with 1, and gave 2, and also found time to run a 2 hour lab. I'm also setting exams, which is a lot harder work than you'd think.
The Ghost of Bios Past
I visited the Onnwal website today to get some files for a chum and noticed they need to update their bio for me, like, a bit. It's over 4 years old methinks and harks back to when I was a fresh faced PhD student writing scenarios instead of a PhD thesis. Still if anything it proves my wit hasn't improved with age.
Stuart Kerrigan, at 22, likes to think he brings youth, enthusiasm and good looks to the team that it simply couldn't do without. Born in Jedburgh, Scotland (a place that boasts "The Last Shop in Scotland") he has been roleplaying ever since the fateful day 12 years ago when hepicked up the Basic Set in Beatties model shop, Aberdeen. Since then Stuart has been hooked on roleplaying and has the death sentence on twelve systems(including D&D 3rd Ed). He currently roleplays regularly at Dundee University and allegedly works there on a PhD in Computer Vision when not writing 100-word bios.
Stuart Kerrigan, at 22, likes to think he brings youth, enthusiasm and good looks to the team that it simply couldn't do without. Born in Jedburgh, Scotland (a place that boasts "The Last Shop in Scotland") he has been roleplaying ever since the fateful day 12 years ago when hepicked up the Basic Set in Beatties model shop, Aberdeen. Since then Stuart has been hooked on roleplaying and has the death sentence on twelve systems(including D&D 3rd Ed). He currently roleplays regularly at Dundee University and allegedly works there on a PhD in Computer Vision when not writing 100-word bios.
Monday, November 06, 2006
Dr. Stu on Dr. Who Audios
I've been meaning for a while to post reviews of the excellent Big Finish 8th Doctor audios. There's a new season coming on BBC 7 with a new companion shortly (her from Two Pints of Lager probably playing a similar character), so I've been catching up. I mostly listen to the McGann ones, but recently I started listening to the McCoy ones (the Harvest, Night Thoughts and Master are excellent), and one Colin Baker audio which wasn't too bad. I plan on listening to more McGann and Peter Davidson's Spare Parts, which apparently formed the basis for the Tennant Cybermen stories.
Listening to the Master on a trip to Nottingham reminded me to finish this post I started yonks ago.
Storm Warning acts as the pilot for the series, so the Doctor naturally picks up a companion, 1930s self-styled Edwardian adventureress Charley Pollard. The story starts out a bit like Titanic, set aboard the R101 airship but suddenly becomes very steampunk - with aliens and Her Britannic Majesty's forces clashing in an epic battle. In the end the Doctor is not able to save the R101 but he does save Charley, irreperably ripping the web of time and setting up 2 seasons worth of arc plots. Good stuff, definitely a good first play to listen to.
Stones of Venice on the other hand is very Shakespearean. It's set in Venice in the future and deals with a cursed duke and his lost love. Despite it's future setting there seems to be little technology and the dialogue is very Shakespearean, with many many monologues. It is quite a good play though.
Sword of Orion is set in a Bladerunneresque future, when mankind is at war with replicants. Both sides are courting the Cybermen for aid, with disasterous effects. The doctor and Charley transport into a lone human military vessel, cuing a claustrophobic alienesque story.
Minuet in Hell is where Doctor Who tries to do Buffy badly. The Doc has gone to the States and lost his memory (again!), and it seems his very identity is in question. In the meantime there seems to be this whole convoluted plot with demons, the Brigadier (back in the days when UNIT, not Torchwood were everywhere), Charley, an evil priest and a demon-fighting chick named Becky-Lee (guess what this is a rip-off of). It goes on a little too long. Quite weak and skippable.
The second season starts with Mark Gatiss's Invaders from Mars, a story a bit like the Idiot's Lantern in that it is set around Orson Welles's broadcast of War of the World. Simon Pegg and Jessica Stevens from Spaced star, but with everyone doing similar mafiaesque accents it is difficult to tell who's who.
Embrace the Darkness is another alienesque claustrophobic adventure but much better than Sword of Orion. It also puts a twist on the formula however. Seasons of Fear is a romp through time, visiting Ancient Rome, medieval times, 19th Century England and beyond. Excellent stuff, though Time of the Daleks, where the time-ripples created in the arc plot cause Shakespare to disappear from the timeline, and the Daleks are involved. It's not particularly great, though the Daleks do quote Shakespare and it leads into...
Neverland, which is very Timelordy, but is excellent nevertheless. The Doctor, Charley and Romana discover what has been affecting time since Charley was rescued, and take on anti-time (think anti-matter). With much heroism the Doc seemingly sacrifices himself to save Gallifrey (a bit pointless now, given the new series, but hey) and returns infected with anti-time as...
Zagreus. This was meant to be the 40th anniversary story, featuring all the Doctors that Big Finish have on the payroll, namely Davidson (meh), Colin Baker (bad Doctor, though his audio stuff seems okay), McCoy (yay) and of course McGann. Pertwee returns via some sound-bytes he recorded for a fanfilm that was not released. Tom Baker on the other hand doesn't feature, but nearly everyone else who has ever appeared in Doctor Who also features. However rather than doing a multi-doctor story the 3 CD extravaganza follows a surreal narrative, using elements from Alice in Wonderland and the relatively insular Timelord lore RTD has trimmed from the new series. The surreal visions are meant to highlight the Doctor's battle with the anti-time infection, and all the cast play weird characters in the visions, even the ex-Doctors. Eventually it turns out Rassilon was behind it all, and the Doc exiles himself to a universe where time does not exist... and proceeds to have lots of adventures over... er... time? And Charley comes along despite her plotlines being ably resolved in Neverland. I recommend listening to the first 20 minutes of Zagreus, and then the last CD entirely.
Season 3 has its highs and lows. Season 2 is doubtless the best, as most folk seem to think Invaders is amazing (admittedly I was driving while listening to that one).
Listening to the Master on a trip to Nottingham reminded me to finish this post I started yonks ago.
Storm Warning acts as the pilot for the series, so the Doctor naturally picks up a companion, 1930s self-styled Edwardian adventureress Charley Pollard. The story starts out a bit like Titanic, set aboard the R101 airship but suddenly becomes very steampunk - with aliens and Her Britannic Majesty's forces clashing in an epic battle. In the end the Doctor is not able to save the R101 but he does save Charley, irreperably ripping the web of time and setting up 2 seasons worth of arc plots. Good stuff, definitely a good first play to listen to.
Stones of Venice on the other hand is very Shakespearean. It's set in Venice in the future and deals with a cursed duke and his lost love. Despite it's future setting there seems to be little technology and the dialogue is very Shakespearean, with many many monologues. It is quite a good play though.
Sword of Orion is set in a Bladerunneresque future, when mankind is at war with replicants. Both sides are courting the Cybermen for aid, with disasterous effects. The doctor and Charley transport into a lone human military vessel, cuing a claustrophobic alienesque story.
Minuet in Hell is where Doctor Who tries to do Buffy badly. The Doc has gone to the States and lost his memory (again!), and it seems his very identity is in question. In the meantime there seems to be this whole convoluted plot with demons, the Brigadier (back in the days when UNIT, not Torchwood were everywhere), Charley, an evil priest and a demon-fighting chick named Becky-Lee (guess what this is a rip-off of). It goes on a little too long. Quite weak and skippable.
The second season starts with Mark Gatiss's Invaders from Mars, a story a bit like the Idiot's Lantern in that it is set around Orson Welles's broadcast of War of the World. Simon Pegg and Jessica Stevens from Spaced star, but with everyone doing similar mafiaesque accents it is difficult to tell who's who.
Embrace the Darkness is another alienesque claustrophobic adventure but much better than Sword of Orion. It also puts a twist on the formula however. Seasons of Fear is a romp through time, visiting Ancient Rome, medieval times, 19th Century England and beyond. Excellent stuff, though Time of the Daleks, where the time-ripples created in the arc plot cause Shakespare to disappear from the timeline, and the Daleks are involved. It's not particularly great, though the Daleks do quote Shakespare and it leads into...
Neverland, which is very Timelordy, but is excellent nevertheless. The Doctor, Charley and Romana discover what has been affecting time since Charley was rescued, and take on anti-time (think anti-matter). With much heroism the Doc seemingly sacrifices himself to save Gallifrey (a bit pointless now, given the new series, but hey) and returns infected with anti-time as...
Zagreus. This was meant to be the 40th anniversary story, featuring all the Doctors that Big Finish have on the payroll, namely Davidson (meh), Colin Baker (bad Doctor, though his audio stuff seems okay), McCoy (yay) and of course McGann. Pertwee returns via some sound-bytes he recorded for a fanfilm that was not released. Tom Baker on the other hand doesn't feature, but nearly everyone else who has ever appeared in Doctor Who also features. However rather than doing a multi-doctor story the 3 CD extravaganza follows a surreal narrative, using elements from Alice in Wonderland and the relatively insular Timelord lore RTD has trimmed from the new series. The surreal visions are meant to highlight the Doctor's battle with the anti-time infection, and all the cast play weird characters in the visions, even the ex-Doctors. Eventually it turns out Rassilon was behind it all, and the Doc exiles himself to a universe where time does not exist... and proceeds to have lots of adventures over... er... time? And Charley comes along despite her plotlines being ably resolved in Neverland. I recommend listening to the first 20 minutes of Zagreus, and then the last CD entirely.
Season 3 has its highs and lows. Season 2 is doubtless the best, as most folk seem to think Invaders is amazing (admittedly I was driving while listening to that one).
Thursday, November 02, 2006
Much Dressing Up About Nothing
There's something about this time of year that seems to involve parties and dressing up. First off was Diwali, which I went to this year and have surreal pictures arsty type photos of.
I now have an outrageously French looking pirate hat, complete with wig hair, which I wrote appropriately enough to a pirate pub crawl. This pub crawl ended with me in a night club in Leicester. In a night club where I had to check in my plastic katana (yes, katana, I was a ninja pirate - they're going to be in the vogue once Pirates of the Carribean 3 is out so remember I was ahead of the times).
More embarassingly I had to ask the bouncer for said toy katana on the way out (it's not mine so I was meaning to return it to its rightful owner), which was fun. In front of one of the students I'd been lecturing that day. On my own. Dressed as a pirate. On my own. Good job I don't take myself seriously. Said student certainly doesn't now.
For the second crawl, our Halloween party crawl I went as a witch hunter, which meant a black shirt, dog collar, holy book (actually the gospel on Computer Systems according to me as it was the course notes for the course I'm lecturing), outrageously silly crucifix, stake and battle axe. This also was my first foray to the cocktail bar at the bottom of my street, which is nice, though needs more research done in the name of science. It's a bit like Tally's in Dundee, though nicer, and the cocktail menu rivals Tally's in its hay-day. Though I still wish I'd tried the toffee crisp flavour cocktails when Tally's had them.
This one didn't end in the nightclub for me, but it did end up with me staggering home (I'm convinced the dregs of the pitcher of cocktail I drank had all the alcohol in it) and feeling a little worse for wear in my morning lab. Judging by the chat of my students I would've run into all of them in said nightclub, so I probably avoided a repeat of the katana incident.
I now have an outrageously French looking pirate hat, complete with wig hair, which I wrote appropriately enough to a pirate pub crawl. This pub crawl ended with me in a night club in Leicester. In a night club where I had to check in my plastic katana (yes, katana, I was a ninja pirate - they're going to be in the vogue once Pirates of the Carribean 3 is out so remember I was ahead of the times).
More embarassingly I had to ask the bouncer for said toy katana on the way out (it's not mine so I was meaning to return it to its rightful owner), which was fun. In front of one of the students I'd been lecturing that day. On my own. Dressed as a pirate. On my own. Good job I don't take myself seriously. Said student certainly doesn't now.
For the second crawl, our Halloween party crawl I went as a witch hunter, which meant a black shirt, dog collar, holy book (actually the gospel on Computer Systems according to me as it was the course notes for the course I'm lecturing), outrageously silly crucifix, stake and battle axe. This also was my first foray to the cocktail bar at the bottom of my street, which is nice, though needs more research done in the name of science. It's a bit like Tally's in Dundee, though nicer, and the cocktail menu rivals Tally's in its hay-day. Though I still wish I'd tried the toffee crisp flavour cocktails when Tally's had them.
This one didn't end in the nightclub for me, but it did end up with me staggering home (I'm convinced the dregs of the pitcher of cocktail I drank had all the alcohol in it) and feeling a little worse for wear in my morning lab. Judging by the chat of my students I would've run into all of them in said nightclub, so I probably avoided a repeat of the katana incident.
Wednesday, November 01, 2006
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