Yesterday wasn't quite as packed with excitement and things to do as I'd hoped, but it worked out nicely in the end.
I woke up at my usual work time to head off for my free consultation with the Chiropractor in Acton. The weather was quite bitter in the morning so, even with two t-shirts, quite a heavy shirt, my new winter jacket and my hat, I still felt the chill. Travel was OK, and the walk from Acton Town to the clinic was quite refreshing, and almost nostalgic... It would have been more so had Acton not changed so dramatically since my school days in the area.
The checkup was quite revealing - the doctor's trained eyes spotted a couple of odditites in my posture, and her hands found several irregularities - in the base of my spine, up the top of my spine, and in my left knee. By the end of the checkup, I was laughing every time something went crack. It's quite amazing that the body not only functions when parts are out of alignment, but adapts to compensate. If only that didn't end up making everything worse...
She warned me that, while I might feel great in the short term, by the end of the day, I'd be in pain. Quite an interesting, not to mention pleasant change from the doctors who say "This won't hurt a bit...".
She concluded the initial treatment with a brief (but painful!) shoulder massage, warning me "I may look petite, but I'm very strong". I left feeling loose and limber but, as she had warned, it was not to last.
By the time I got home, my sister had already arrived for our fun day out. The only certainty in our schedule was being at the National Film Theatre for 3.10, when Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes was being shown. The hope was that we'd have time to trip down to Greenwich to see some maritime chronometers but, since we only got started around 11am, that was looking unlikely. I had a backup plan in the form of trying to take a Duck Tour, but that was dependant on the duration of the tour. As a last resort, there's generally plenty to look at on the South Bank promenade.
Lunch at Giraffe on the South Bank was excellent as always, though I was surprised to see the waiting area turned into a buggy park. I wouldn't have thought that Giraffe would be so popular with younger families, considering how unusual and fussy their menu is. Still, they put balloons on any table with kids, and they seemed to keep the little terrors occupied.
We didn't really have time for dessert because we were hoping to fit something else in before the movie, so we headed off in search of the Duck Tours. By sheer chance, there was one 'bus' parked up at the pickup point in the road behind the London Eye (my sister commented one how incredible it now seemed, in 2008, that the 'Millennium Wheel' was originally conceived as an attraction to run for one year only). While there were, potentially, two seats available (because four people who had pre-booked had not turned up) the tour would have taken an hour and a quarter and, by this point, we had less than an hour.
So, we went back to the promenade.
Along the way is a book market that runs on Saturdays, right outside the NFT. The idea of my sister passing up the opportunity to browse cheap books being completely unprecedented, we took a turn around the tables. Only I bought anything, though... I chanced upon a 1973 edition of E.E. 'Doc' Smith's Masters of the Vortex (aka Vortex Blasters, the seventh book in the Lensman series) in pretty good shape for a 35 year old book, and easily worth £2.50.
After a while of browsing, I checked the time and suggested to my sister that we walk on, or we'd end up doing nothing but perusing the book market until the film started. We didn't really stroll far, though. Only to a small selection of shops including a creperie (well, we had skipped dessert!). With only a few minutes to go before we had to return to the NFT, we bought a crepe each and started to eat on the go. Mine kind of fell apart, so I ended up only having about half of it, but it was very nice all the same. Better cutlery would have helped, I feel, because the plastic knives and forks they were handing out were pretty darned useless.
When we got back to the NFT, we hurried to NFT2, the screen listed on the ticket, and were told by the usher that we needed to go back to NFT1... So back we traipsed. It would have been helpful if there had been some kind of sign up saying that The Lady Vanishes had been switched to a different screen... Had we known when we walked in, we wouldn't have missed the opening few minutes.
Still, the movie was great... and it was interesting to note that so many of the sarcastic swipes at British public transport as as true and funny today as they would have been then.
Afterward, we ventured back down the promenade and visited the little gallery that often has interesting shows on. Last time I was there, it was automata... This time it was more traditional paintings and suchlike, but many displayed an element of whimsy that I really enjoyed. One picture featured a man sawing wood, looking stunned as he was framed in the shadow of a tree in his doorway. A rather cute work of sequential art featured a besuited man gambolling in a flowery field, picking up a flower to smell it, only to be brought crashing back to reality - he was actually on a packed train in the London Underground.
We then walked on a bridge or two before crossing the river and walking back to Embankment to catch the train home. Not as full a day as I'd hoped, but it had been a lot of fun, and my sister was happy to find me so "well educated" about the wonders of the South Bank.
Coincidentally, when we arrived back home and I went up to my room, the time was precisely eleven hours and fifty nine minutes from when my alarm went off in the morning.
Over dinner, we watched the third episode of the new series of Primeval. Again, it was better than the last, but still exhibiting that videogame dynamic. And more irritating/stupid background characters. And another predictable ending.
As the day ended, I had a headache - I would imagine this was as a direct result of the realignment in the morning, as I had been warned. Certainly the very top of my spine was painful. Still, some ibuprofen took care of that, and today I feel mostly fine... apart from my shoulders...
Sunday 27 January 2008
Friday 25 January 2008
A reasonable day
With all the editorial set yesterday and only minor amends needed, today's magazine could have been a record-breaker had it not been for the MD's insistence that the sales team (and Classified) carry on selling beyond the agreed deadlines. Sure, they have to meet targets... but when the MD starts to renege on agreements made about selling time (along with the rest of the steadily mounting pile of bullshit), it really is time to be looking elsewhere.
I understand why... but I don't understand why he doesn't understand why it happens. It really is simple. If the MD actively encourages the booze culture, his Salespeople will not sell because they'll be out drinking with him, believe that to be the path to success. Particularly in the light of some of his bizarre choices for promotion.
It is interesting to note that my senior designer has put in some of his best work (still shoddily done, but looking pretty good) when working from home and - I would say more importantly - under extreme stress because of his mother's illness. I'd put it down to lack of distraction for someone who is very easily distracted. One of the Sales Managers suggested that this made a case for working from home but, as my boss pointed out, it would hardly be fair on everyone else to let him work from home, and solely on Editorial.
In other news, I had a call from the Estate Agent today... asking if I was putting down a massive deposit on the flat. This was based on the conversation I'd had with their Financial Adviser, who basically told them how much of my savings would be going into the purchase. I said that, no, I planned to put down a 5% deposit (which is a lot of money!).
"But you'd be able to put down more if necessary?"
Um. Right. Just as I was beginning to worry less about this whole flat-buying thing, I'm starting to worry that the Estate Agents are going to screw me around over the deposit.
Oh, and my mother found a two bedroom flat on sale in the same area (different block on the same road). Only £20,000 more expensive...
I understand why... but I don't understand why he doesn't understand why it happens. It really is simple. If the MD actively encourages the booze culture, his Salespeople will not sell because they'll be out drinking with him, believe that to be the path to success. Particularly in the light of some of his bizarre choices for promotion.
It is interesting to note that my senior designer has put in some of his best work (still shoddily done, but looking pretty good) when working from home and - I would say more importantly - under extreme stress because of his mother's illness. I'd put it down to lack of distraction for someone who is very easily distracted. One of the Sales Managers suggested that this made a case for working from home but, as my boss pointed out, it would hardly be fair on everyone else to let him work from home, and solely on Editorial.
In other news, I had a call from the Estate Agent today... asking if I was putting down a massive deposit on the flat. This was based on the conversation I'd had with their Financial Adviser, who basically told them how much of my savings would be going into the purchase. I said that, no, I planned to put down a 5% deposit (which is a lot of money!).
"But you'd be able to put down more if necessary?"
Um. Right. Just as I was beginning to worry less about this whole flat-buying thing, I'm starting to worry that the Estate Agents are going to screw me around over the deposit.
Oh, and my mother found a two bedroom flat on sale in the same area (different block on the same road). Only £20,000 more expensive...
Thursday 24 January 2008
There's no casual way to say this...
I put in an offer on a flat today.
Thinking about it overnight, it just made sense. The location couldn't be much better in terms of transport and local facilities, and it's only a short trip by train from my current location. The flat is affordable and, while it's only one bedroom, it's a space I can see myself living in.
Now I need to speak to the bank to bash out the mortgage, and arrange a survey. My folks have offered to pay the deposit (5%, but still a heck of a lot of cash) and cover the interim costs, so that I can raid (but, crucially, not empty) my savings and take the minimum mortgage. When I spoke to the bank last year, they were happy to give me five times my salary as a first-time buyer but, with any luck and a fair wind, I'll only need four times.
In other news, my senior designer was back in the office today and - wouldn't you know it - constantly distracted, meaning he didn't get everything tied up before the end of the day. He reckoned he wanted to be in to take his mind off his mother's illness (now confirmed as at least two cancerous growths, possibly three), but so much of the day was spent talking about it that I figure he just wanted to come in to get another fix of sympathy.
I feel sorry for the guy, in that his mother is very ill and, considering the circumstances, she may not survive treatment... but, frankly, he's a parasite.
Thinking about it overnight, it just made sense. The location couldn't be much better in terms of transport and local facilities, and it's only a short trip by train from my current location. The flat is affordable and, while it's only one bedroom, it's a space I can see myself living in.
Now I need to speak to the bank to bash out the mortgage, and arrange a survey. My folks have offered to pay the deposit (5%, but still a heck of a lot of cash) and cover the interim costs, so that I can raid (but, crucially, not empty) my savings and take the minimum mortgage. When I spoke to the bank last year, they were happy to give me five times my salary as a first-time buyer but, with any luck and a fair wind, I'll only need four times.
In other news, my senior designer was back in the office today and - wouldn't you know it - constantly distracted, meaning he didn't get everything tied up before the end of the day. He reckoned he wanted to be in to take his mind off his mother's illness (now confirmed as at least two cancerous growths, possibly three), but so much of the day was spent talking about it that I figure he just wanted to come in to get another fix of sympathy.
I feel sorry for the guy, in that his mother is very ill and, considering the circumstances, she may not survive treatment... but, frankly, he's a parasite.
Tuesday 22 January 2008
The 'Wow' Factor
Viewed another flat this morning, effectively scrubbing 2 hours of my work day to spend 10 minutes looking at two flats situated less than 10 minutes from my current domicile. They're being made (yes, work is still in progress) from one of the maisonettes above the Post Office.
I have to admit that, far more than the flat I saw at the weekend, these places came with an immediate 'wow' factor. In their unfinished state, they don't just look liveable, they look great. The upper floor, naturally, looks the better of the two, because it doesn't lose a good chunk of square footage to a staircase. It has a massive bathroom, as opposed to the dinky shower closet of the downstairs flat. Both have a single bedroom and a combined kitchen/lounge.
The downsides are that they are very close to my parents' house and - worse still - are overlooked by the retirement flats one of the Grandmothers lives in. Also, as was pointed out to me at work, problems in the kitchen means problems in the lounge.
On balance, 'wow' factor aside, Rayners Lane is still looking better... I just need answers on the service charge/ground rent issues.
I also need to see more properties.
We heard from my senior designer today (via one of his editors) that his mother is really terribly ill. Not just the chest infection, but no less than two tumors and uncertainty on a third. Apparently she hasn't been to a doctor in ten years, so there's not a lot of hope for her.
This could mean I'll be without a senior designer for a while. While this is a good thing in many ways, I'd be the first to say the circumstances are not what I'd have preferred. Even if he were to return to work, his current situation and the ridiculous level of 'sympathy' he'd end up enduring from certain parties in the office would mean that he wouldn't get a bloody thing done.
Comparatively, he's done far more work in one day at home than he'd generally manage to do in about two or three days at the office.
I have to admit that, far more than the flat I saw at the weekend, these places came with an immediate 'wow' factor. In their unfinished state, they don't just look liveable, they look great. The upper floor, naturally, looks the better of the two, because it doesn't lose a good chunk of square footage to a staircase. It has a massive bathroom, as opposed to the dinky shower closet of the downstairs flat. Both have a single bedroom and a combined kitchen/lounge.
The downsides are that they are very close to my parents' house and - worse still - are overlooked by the retirement flats one of the Grandmothers lives in. Also, as was pointed out to me at work, problems in the kitchen means problems in the lounge.
On balance, 'wow' factor aside, Rayners Lane is still looking better... I just need answers on the service charge/ground rent issues.
I also need to see more properties.
We heard from my senior designer today (via one of his editors) that his mother is really terribly ill. Not just the chest infection, but no less than two tumors and uncertainty on a third. Apparently she hasn't been to a doctor in ten years, so there's not a lot of hope for her.
This could mean I'll be without a senior designer for a while. While this is a good thing in many ways, I'd be the first to say the circumstances are not what I'd have preferred. Even if he were to return to work, his current situation and the ridiculous level of 'sympathy' he'd end up enduring from certain parties in the office would mean that he wouldn't get a bloody thing done.
Comparatively, he's done far more work in one day at home than he'd generally manage to do in about two or three days at the office.
And other things
I may have found one possible source of my computer's performance issues.
It's a web browser called Firefox.
It's the browser I've been using for ages, because I didn't want to use Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator, and because Mozilla basically foisted the upgrade on me.
Over the weekend and this evening, I started using Mozilla as my browser again and, sure enough, I've had little to no slowdown. Mozilla does tend to crash on certain sites but, for those, I can use Explorer without taking a performance hit.
Perhaps I should download a fresh copy of Firefox and try again...
In work news, my senior designer will now only be in the office for one more day this week - Thursday - and working from home for the rest. This is a good thing on balance because, although it means my other two designers have to do all the ads between them and it's a large magazine, a good proportion of the ads will be repeats or supplied complete, and there won't be quite so much distraction for them. As far as my senior designer goes, it's probably better that he's not in the office. While he was talking about coming into work to help take his mind off things, the net result was that he spent even more time yapping - either about football, or his health, or his mother being in hospital. Only one of those topics would help him take his mind off things, and I don't think even that was working too well.
It's a web browser called Firefox.
It's the browser I've been using for ages, because I didn't want to use Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator, and because Mozilla basically foisted the upgrade on me.
Over the weekend and this evening, I started using Mozilla as my browser again and, sure enough, I've had little to no slowdown. Mozilla does tend to crash on certain sites but, for those, I can use Explorer without taking a performance hit.
Perhaps I should download a fresh copy of Firefox and try again...
In work news, my senior designer will now only be in the office for one more day this week - Thursday - and working from home for the rest. This is a good thing on balance because, although it means my other two designers have to do all the ads between them and it's a large magazine, a good proportion of the ads will be repeats or supplied complete, and there won't be quite so much distraction for them. As far as my senior designer goes, it's probably better that he's not in the office. While he was talking about coming into work to help take his mind off things, the net result was that he spent even more time yapping - either about football, or his health, or his mother being in hospital. Only one of those topics would help him take his mind off things, and I don't think even that was working too well.
Monday 21 January 2008
Proactive?
So after starting the ball rolling by viewing a flat at the weekend, I've arranged to see another couple before work tomorrow. These two are in a block above the shops right near my nearest tube station. One bedroom again, rather than two, but at least I'm looking... and starting the year on a rather more proactive note than I finished 2007, so I'm kind of getting back on track with the whole "Go, Do, Be" thing.
In other news, I've figured out what's wrong with Primeval... not to mention lots of other examples of contemporary genre television: They're created by people who spent too long playing videogames, so they're structuring everything as if it's a videogame.
Example:
Prologue reveals setting and Monster Du Jour, and reintroducing viewers to Main Characters (cut scene).
Main Characters start investigating events detailed in prologue, meeting up with first Scene of Peril which introduces bit-part character, who may give them an object or weapon, and will either escape, or be dead within five minutes. (Level 1)
Having encountered Monster Du Jour, Main Characters formulate plan (cut scene) and put it into effect (Level 2a)
New Team Member gets into peril by not following advice, or team get separated (cutscene)
Main Characters must now rescue New Team Member or regroup (Level 2b)
Now back together (cutscene), Main Characters put plan into action, and beat Monster Du Jour either by returning it whence it came, or by killing it (Level 3)
Summing up of episode, concluding some story parts, leaving others open (cutscene to credits)
I have to say this weekend's episode was far more tense than the season opener, but it was riddled with clichés, bad dialogue and ropey special effects, along with some truly stunning deus ex machina that would look dubious even in a videogame (why, pray tell, would an office block have a display of samurai swords in the halls of one floor? Because one company in the building (not even on that floor) is pitching its advertising ideas to a Japanese lager company?). Worse still is the clumsy 'outside work' story, where we have a pair of pretty twentysomethings who are going to be a couple before the end of the series, and yet still insist that there's no attraction. Because there isn't. Until the writers say so.
Bah.
In other news, I've figured out what's wrong with Primeval... not to mention lots of other examples of contemporary genre television: They're created by people who spent too long playing videogames, so they're structuring everything as if it's a videogame.
Example:
Prologue reveals setting and Monster Du Jour, and reintroducing viewers to Main Characters (cut scene).
Main Characters start investigating events detailed in prologue, meeting up with first Scene of Peril which introduces bit-part character, who may give them an object or weapon, and will either escape, or be dead within five minutes. (Level 1)
Having encountered Monster Du Jour, Main Characters formulate plan (cut scene) and put it into effect (Level 2a)
New Team Member gets into peril by not following advice, or team get separated (cutscene)
Main Characters must now rescue New Team Member or regroup (Level 2b)
Now back together (cutscene), Main Characters put plan into action, and beat Monster Du Jour either by returning it whence it came, or by killing it (Level 3)
Summing up of episode, concluding some story parts, leaving others open (cutscene to credits)
I have to say this weekend's episode was far more tense than the season opener, but it was riddled with clichés, bad dialogue and ropey special effects, along with some truly stunning deus ex machina that would look dubious even in a videogame (why, pray tell, would an office block have a display of samurai swords in the halls of one floor? Because one company in the building (not even on that floor) is pitching its advertising ideas to a Japanese lager company?). Worse still is the clumsy 'outside work' story, where we have a pair of pretty twentysomethings who are going to be a couple before the end of the series, and yet still insist that there's no attraction. Because there isn't. Until the writers say so.
Bah.
Sunday 20 January 2008
Things I Did At The Weekend...
Quite a packed weekend, by my standards. On Saturday, I went into town to the British Museum, hoping to view the new exhibition, The First Emperor. Sadly, the first available ticket slot was almost 10pm, so that was basically out of the question. Instead, my companion and I mooched around some of the other exhibits, including the carefully retitled Elgin Marbles. It was all rather inspiring, in so many ways... Part of me was tickled by the thought of Sleepy Cat being unearthed in centuries to come, and being put on display in a museum... Perhaps sparking a belief that the people of Perivale in the early 2000s were cat worshippers. One other display struck me, and has stayed with me as an idea for using in one of my stories - there was one display of a set of gates upon which was carved a story... history, in fact. Interesting concept, as visitors would have a better understanding of the people behind the gates before they even opened.
After that, we were considering mooching around the Seven Dials/Shaftesbury Avenue area, but got distracted by The Cartoon Museum. The first part of this museum (once you get past the gift shop and pay your entrance fee) is all about political cartoons... making for a rather drier introduction to cartoons than the book I was reading about the origins of comics in the USA. Not that it is in any way an inaccurate portrayal of anything - cartoons over here did start with the political variety. Upstairs was another section, but we had no time to look there as I had another pressing engagement in the late afternoon/early evening.
Yes, I was viewing a flat.
I had arranged to view two flats in the same block, but the agent was only able to gain entry to one - the other has the tenant in situ, but they were out when we arrived, so the agent didn't want to barge in unannounced. The place I viewed (with parents in tow) turned out to be pretty good, though smaller than I'd expected. I guess I can't judge sizes that accurately, based on measurements. It's probably large enough, though fitting in all my toys might be a squeeze... Then again, I could stand to lose much of the later Gen1 stuff. After they'd milked Diaclone for all it was worth TransFormers went rather odd.
But back to the point. I
f it weren't for a few unanswered questions (service charge, ground rent... who's supposed to fix the entrance/stairwell lights and when) I'd almost be tempted to make an offer straight away. It's only a one bedroom, and I'd prefer two... but there are several ways to make it work.
The kitchen and bathrooms are larger than I have at home with my parents and, while neither the bedroom nor the lounge are particularly large, they're not terribly small either.
Sunday was more straightforward. I popped off the Shepherd's Bush with Paul to see No Country For Old Men, the new film from the Coen Brothers, starring Tommy Lee Jones. It's very quirky, and quite funny at times... I really enjoyed it, but was disturbed by the way it ended. So much was left unresolved... but, in some ways, that's the Coens' style. Many of their films seem to be stories unfolding however they're 'meant' to unfold... as if the events would be happening whether the cameras were there or not. It's a curious effect.
Not quite sure what to expect from the coming week at work. My troublesome senior designer wishes to leave early as often as possible. That should be no problem, as long as he gets his bloody work done. I have a nasty feeling that he's going to kick up a fuss, but it really is all in his hands. With his magazine going to press on Friday, he has to ensure that the editorial and features are done, because Friday is the one day he cannot leave early otherwise.
Tomorrow's mag is in a bad enough mess, frankly. Although the editor put through more work early on this time, there's still a whole lot to sign off, and I had two designers on sick leave by Friday meaning a lot of advertising didn't get touched. We are a tad behind, but - as was pointed out by one of the Sales Managers - I usually manage to pull it off in the end...
After that, we were considering mooching around the Seven Dials/Shaftesbury Avenue area, but got distracted by The Cartoon Museum. The first part of this museum (once you get past the gift shop and pay your entrance fee) is all about political cartoons... making for a rather drier introduction to cartoons than the book I was reading about the origins of comics in the USA. Not that it is in any way an inaccurate portrayal of anything - cartoons over here did start with the political variety. Upstairs was another section, but we had no time to look there as I had another pressing engagement in the late afternoon/early evening.
Yes, I was viewing a flat.
I had arranged to view two flats in the same block, but the agent was only able to gain entry to one - the other has the tenant in situ, but they were out when we arrived, so the agent didn't want to barge in unannounced. The place I viewed (with parents in tow) turned out to be pretty good, though smaller than I'd expected. I guess I can't judge sizes that accurately, based on measurements. It's probably large enough, though fitting in all my toys might be a squeeze... Then again, I could stand to lose much of the later Gen1 stuff. After they'd milked Diaclone for all it was worth TransFormers went rather odd.
But back to the point. I
f it weren't for a few unanswered questions (service charge, ground rent... who's supposed to fix the entrance/stairwell lights and when) I'd almost be tempted to make an offer straight away. It's only a one bedroom, and I'd prefer two... but there are several ways to make it work.
The kitchen and bathrooms are larger than I have at home with my parents and, while neither the bedroom nor the lounge are particularly large, they're not terribly small either.
Sunday was more straightforward. I popped off the Shepherd's Bush with Paul to see No Country For Old Men, the new film from the Coen Brothers, starring Tommy Lee Jones. It's very quirky, and quite funny at times... I really enjoyed it, but was disturbed by the way it ended. So much was left unresolved... but, in some ways, that's the Coens' style. Many of their films seem to be stories unfolding however they're 'meant' to unfold... as if the events would be happening whether the cameras were there or not. It's a curious effect.
Not quite sure what to expect from the coming week at work. My troublesome senior designer wishes to leave early as often as possible. That should be no problem, as long as he gets his bloody work done. I have a nasty feeling that he's going to kick up a fuss, but it really is all in his hands. With his magazine going to press on Friday, he has to ensure that the editorial and features are done, because Friday is the one day he cannot leave early otherwise.
Tomorrow's mag is in a bad enough mess, frankly. Although the editor put through more work early on this time, there's still a whole lot to sign off, and I had two designers on sick leave by Friday meaning a lot of advertising didn't get touched. We are a tad behind, but - as was pointed out by one of the Sales Managers - I usually manage to pull it off in the end...
Tuesday 15 January 2008
Beastly
And on the subject of dinosaurs, I arrived home today to the news that a large box with my name on it had arrived. A box from Singapore. A box containing toys.
Specifically, five of TakaraTomy's original Beast Wars reissue/repaints (Cheetor, Dinobot, Rhinox, Tigatron and Waspinator) and the knock-off 'reissue' Generation 1 Mirage.
I must say that the Beast Wars toys are everything I expected them to be - good and bad. The paint jobs are excellent, but the models themselves seem poorly conceived, oddly constructed, and flimsy in all the wrong places... But they do look good. Not necessarily accurate to the TV series (though this was meant to be their big selling point), but very good in their own right.
Waspinator is far more stable than I'd expected - his legs seemed awkwardly constructed and likely to be unable to properly support him but so far, so good. The way the beast mode head separates and becomes the robot chest is very flimsy, but it works well enough.
Cheetor and Tigatron are basically the same model with a different paint job... but it's amazing what a difference the paint job makes. Somehow, between the two, the beast heads do look different - Cheetor seems leaner, Tigatrons more muscular. Robot mode is the more convincing of the two (not least because it's the only mode that's actually poseable), but even that isn't without its problems. Having the whole beast head as the robot's chest makes it look pretty daft. The robots can't even look straight forward because their chests are in the way! Still, both make up for it by having water pistols - I hadn't realised before I held them in my hand, but the 'guts guns' are able to suck up water and squirt it out. Hours of fun!
Rhinox came misassembled - the shoulder pieces and upper arms were on the wrong arms. Easily fixed, but daft - it was quite obvious how they were supposed to look (screws visible, and large gashes in his biceps? I think not!). Strangely, Rhinox is the least stable in robot mode, mostly due to excessively large beast shell pieces, and comparatively small feet. I'm sure I'll figure him out sooner or later, though.
Dinobot actually looks better in person than in photos. He's still very broad, and the tail still looks crap, but robot mode works pretty well. The spinny-tail-thing is rather weird (I could never figure out what it was supposed to achieve, even having seen one series of the TV show!), and his sword looks fairly ineffectual, but he's a decent enough model.
Mirage... was one of those toys I wish I'd bought 20+ years ago. Back then, he would have been fantastic. Sure, he's a brick with only limited arm articulation, and his vehicle mode is rather chunky for a racing car... But back in the days of Generation 1, he was a pretty nifty toy. The knock-off is by all accounts and almost perfect replica, though the paintjob has been improved (at least one part which was originally stickers is now tampographed). My only gripe is that mine appears to have two right fists. Still, I'm not about to send it back over something so minor. It barely notices, and he looks so cool with my other Gen 1 reissues... Also, can I be the only one who wishes Hasbro would go back to the edgier, less black-and-white profiles of Generation 1?
Now, I really should get off to bed...
Specifically, five of TakaraTomy's original Beast Wars reissue/repaints (Cheetor, Dinobot, Rhinox, Tigatron and Waspinator) and the knock-off 'reissue' Generation 1 Mirage.
I must say that the Beast Wars toys are everything I expected them to be - good and bad. The paint jobs are excellent, but the models themselves seem poorly conceived, oddly constructed, and flimsy in all the wrong places... But they do look good. Not necessarily accurate to the TV series (though this was meant to be their big selling point), but very good in their own right.
Waspinator is far more stable than I'd expected - his legs seemed awkwardly constructed and likely to be unable to properly support him but so far, so good. The way the beast mode head separates and becomes the robot chest is very flimsy, but it works well enough.
Cheetor and Tigatron are basically the same model with a different paint job... but it's amazing what a difference the paint job makes. Somehow, between the two, the beast heads do look different - Cheetor seems leaner, Tigatrons more muscular. Robot mode is the more convincing of the two (not least because it's the only mode that's actually poseable), but even that isn't without its problems. Having the whole beast head as the robot's chest makes it look pretty daft. The robots can't even look straight forward because their chests are in the way! Still, both make up for it by having water pistols - I hadn't realised before I held them in my hand, but the 'guts guns' are able to suck up water and squirt it out. Hours of fun!
Rhinox came misassembled - the shoulder pieces and upper arms were on the wrong arms. Easily fixed, but daft - it was quite obvious how they were supposed to look (screws visible, and large gashes in his biceps? I think not!). Strangely, Rhinox is the least stable in robot mode, mostly due to excessively large beast shell pieces, and comparatively small feet. I'm sure I'll figure him out sooner or later, though.
Dinobot actually looks better in person than in photos. He's still very broad, and the tail still looks crap, but robot mode works pretty well. The spinny-tail-thing is rather weird (I could never figure out what it was supposed to achieve, even having seen one series of the TV show!), and his sword looks fairly ineffectual, but he's a decent enough model.
Mirage... was one of those toys I wish I'd bought 20+ years ago. Back then, he would have been fantastic. Sure, he's a brick with only limited arm articulation, and his vehicle mode is rather chunky for a racing car... But back in the days of Generation 1, he was a pretty nifty toy. The knock-off is by all accounts and almost perfect replica, though the paintjob has been improved (at least one part which was originally stickers is now tampographed). My only gripe is that mine appears to have two right fists. Still, I'm not about to send it back over something so minor. It barely notices, and he looks so cool with my other Gen 1 reissues... Also, can I be the only one who wishes Hasbro would go back to the edgier, less black-and-white profiles of Generation 1?
Now, I really should get off to bed...
Saturday 12 January 2008
Past its Prime(val)
It's always strange when an established TV show makes changes to its format, but Primeval has just taken the biscuit. The first series bored me to tears within the first few episodes of the first series - trite dialogue, unconvincing pretty clotheshorse cast, generally poor execution of a reasonably interesting idea - and series two probably won't improve on it, thanks to a complete change in format 'explained' by use of the anomalies that pepper the series: Something happened in the past to rewrite history. The upshot is that the university professor protagonist is now the head field operative of an organisation created to take on the dinosaurs and return them from whence they came. Oh, and a character from the original series doesn't exist, and the protagonist is the only one who remembers her.
Essentially, series two looks to be 'Dino Crisis: The Series'. Capcom would be proud... but I suspect even their dialogue would have been better.
Yes, the team will now be running around, guns (tranquilisers, natch) blazing, taking on the dino-du-jour, and saving lots of screaming people from being eaten.
Good grief.
The end of the week was most peculiar. My senior designer will be off work next week (this is a good thing) because he's still very ill and he has lots of personal things to attend to with regards to his ailing mother (these are bad things). I kind of sympathise with him, but it's hard because he's so pathetic. He acts like the alpha male, commanding the floor with his raucous 'humour' and lapping up the attention of all the silly little girls in the office... but he's a 40-something loser who breaks down in tears at the first sign of trouble. He complains about being overworked, but takes on all kinds of stupid crap he shouldn't bother with because one of his harem of silly little girls asks him, and then he complains even more when he doesn't have time to do what he's supposed to because he's wasted time on whatever crap they give him. Then they complain that he hasn't done something he was supposed to, and he complains that he's being asked to do things he shouldn't have to.
I'd swear he's not self-aware sometimes.
Due to stress, illness and whatever other excuses, he was rather late in finishing our magazine on Friday... Everything else was done, and I was waiting on him for about 12-15 pages at the end of the day - this, despite him telling me at about 4.30 that he only had "about 10 minutes" work to do, and it'd all be done.
Still, in many ways he's not as bad as the senior designer on my counterpart's team, who has essentially escaped disciplinaries over his timekeeping because one of his editors has pissed off the MD. The politics in that place are insane. To make matters worse, his hours have been adjusted from 9-5.30 to 9.30-6... and on his first day on those hours, he still managed to arrive ten minutes late.
During the week, I had a couple of bites at my CV, now that it's up on some internet jobhunting sites. Some have been hopeless (one agency in particular can't tell the difference between a 'production manager' and a 'product manager' and asks in its emails that the recipient forward them to anyone they thinks suitable for the jobs on offer. How pathetic?
The other seemed promising, but I've yet to hear back from them, either by phone or email... They are becoming less promising by the day.
I've also received my most recent Amazon order - my first order of books in absolutely ages - including a collection of Maurice Leblanc's short stories of Arsene Lupin, Gentleman-Thief. I'd quite like to start reading it immediately, but I'm already dividing my time between The Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant and Mordant's Need, both by Stephen Donaldson.
Earlier today, I reorganised my display cabinets to give the TransFormers movie toys some breathing space. Galaxy Force has been reshuffled across only three shelves (which will need tidying), RiD has been moved over to the shelf that freed, and the movie toys have been split into an Autobots shelf and a Decepticons shelf. What I need now are 'Protect' and 'Destroy' posters to stick in the background...
Today's other achievement is that I finally managed to transform my TF:Universe Nemesis Prime into his beast mode. The instructions were utterly useless, so I ended up doing it by intuition having examined as many photos of the model I could find. It is a hopelessly overcomplicated model, made more so by the fact that it cannot properly transform with the missiles in their launchers (this is not true of other Beast Wars models). Even so, once everything is in place, Nemesis Prime makes a pretty good-looking black woolly mammoth.
Essentially, series two looks to be 'Dino Crisis: The Series'. Capcom would be proud... but I suspect even their dialogue would have been better.
Yes, the team will now be running around, guns (tranquilisers, natch) blazing, taking on the dino-du-jour, and saving lots of screaming people from being eaten.
Good grief.
The end of the week was most peculiar. My senior designer will be off work next week (this is a good thing) because he's still very ill and he has lots of personal things to attend to with regards to his ailing mother (these are bad things). I kind of sympathise with him, but it's hard because he's so pathetic. He acts like the alpha male, commanding the floor with his raucous 'humour' and lapping up the attention of all the silly little girls in the office... but he's a 40-something loser who breaks down in tears at the first sign of trouble. He complains about being overworked, but takes on all kinds of stupid crap he shouldn't bother with because one of his harem of silly little girls asks him, and then he complains even more when he doesn't have time to do what he's supposed to because he's wasted time on whatever crap they give him. Then they complain that he hasn't done something he was supposed to, and he complains that he's being asked to do things he shouldn't have to.
I'd swear he's not self-aware sometimes.
Due to stress, illness and whatever other excuses, he was rather late in finishing our magazine on Friday... Everything else was done, and I was waiting on him for about 12-15 pages at the end of the day - this, despite him telling me at about 4.30 that he only had "about 10 minutes" work to do, and it'd all be done.
Still, in many ways he's not as bad as the senior designer on my counterpart's team, who has essentially escaped disciplinaries over his timekeeping because one of his editors has pissed off the MD. The politics in that place are insane. To make matters worse, his hours have been adjusted from 9-5.30 to 9.30-6... and on his first day on those hours, he still managed to arrive ten minutes late.
During the week, I had a couple of bites at my CV, now that it's up on some internet jobhunting sites. Some have been hopeless (one agency in particular can't tell the difference between a 'production manager' and a 'product manager' and asks in its emails that the recipient forward them to anyone they thinks suitable for the jobs on offer. How pathetic?
The other seemed promising, but I've yet to hear back from them, either by phone or email... They are becoming less promising by the day.
I've also received my most recent Amazon order - my first order of books in absolutely ages - including a collection of Maurice Leblanc's short stories of Arsene Lupin, Gentleman-Thief. I'd quite like to start reading it immediately, but I'm already dividing my time between The Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant and Mordant's Need, both by Stephen Donaldson.
Earlier today, I reorganised my display cabinets to give the TransFormers movie toys some breathing space. Galaxy Force has been reshuffled across only three shelves (which will need tidying), RiD has been moved over to the shelf that freed, and the movie toys have been split into an Autobots shelf and a Decepticons shelf. What I need now are 'Protect' and 'Destroy' posters to stick in the background...
Today's other achievement is that I finally managed to transform my TF:Universe Nemesis Prime into his beast mode. The instructions were utterly useless, so I ended up doing it by intuition having examined as many photos of the model I could find. It is a hopelessly overcomplicated model, made more so by the fact that it cannot properly transform with the missiles in their launchers (this is not true of other Beast Wars models). Even so, once everything is in place, Nemesis Prime makes a pretty good-looking black woolly mammoth.
Saturday 5 January 2008
Backpeddling
This morning, I caved in and ordered some of the Japanese 10th Anniversary Beast Wars figures - Cheetor, Dinobot, Rhinox, Tigatron and Waspinator. These are the only models that interest me from that first run, because they're halfway decent plastic versions of the characters from the TV show (particularly with the new paint jobs). Terrorsaur, Tarantulas and Scorponok are pretty poor models in both beast and robot modes... but if I suddenly turn completist, I may pick them up as well. That said, BW Scorponok appears to have become one of the rarities, and can fetch a hefty price...
I also snagged the knockoff Generation 1 Mirage (it's a mold I've always wanted, but which tends to be either prohibitively expensive if complete, or irreparably damaged due to dodgy molding and weak parts) and the last two World's Smallest Dino(ro)bots, because the ones I have are pretty darned cool. Thanks to an 'End Of Year Sale' coupon code, I got a 15% discount on the lot. Hurrah.
Yesterday went far better than expected, despite my boss calling in sick (probably due to dodgy seafood the night before). Ads were signed off promptly, Classified didn't misbehave (although the rep left her folder somewhere stupid and then blamed my designer, when I'm pretty sure he handed everything back to her), features weren't too bad, and the magazine had been cut down in size on Thursday, so it was easily manageable.
Monday is still likely to be quite painful... and now there are even more reasons why it could be. The new editor is very full of herself (having learned her technique from the top editor by working as her editorial assistant), but lacks the creative eye that makes her boss tolerable. My designer showed me two versions of a particular page - her own, and the editor's - and it was obvious which was the 'right' version and which was haphazardly thrown together by an incompetent. Sparks may well fly.
Amusingly, when I mentioned this to the departing editor (who had been acting editor of Monday's mag for a month or two), she agreed that the new editor has "a very different technique" (putting it mildly). She was also a touch regretful that she wasn't staying to see how the designer who worked on her own magazine handles the top editor. She is completely unafraid to point out to any editor that supplied materials are rubbish, or that their ideas are bad. That's one of the reasons she's such a good designer... I wonder whether her new editor will see it that way.
The late afternoon/evening saw everyone off down the pub for yet another leaving do - for the aforementioned departing editor - which was pretty good fun until one of the salesmen started really creeping me out. Prior to that, I had couple of interesting conversations with a couple of them. I bowed out early (about 6.30) and came home under the influence of a couple of glasses of brandy.
I also snagged the knockoff Generation 1 Mirage (it's a mold I've always wanted, but which tends to be either prohibitively expensive if complete, or irreparably damaged due to dodgy molding and weak parts) and the last two World's Smallest Dino(ro)bots, because the ones I have are pretty darned cool. Thanks to an 'End Of Year Sale' coupon code, I got a 15% discount on the lot. Hurrah.
Yesterday went far better than expected, despite my boss calling in sick (probably due to dodgy seafood the night before). Ads were signed off promptly, Classified didn't misbehave (although the rep left her folder somewhere stupid and then blamed my designer, when I'm pretty sure he handed everything back to her), features weren't too bad, and the magazine had been cut down in size on Thursday, so it was easily manageable.
Monday is still likely to be quite painful... and now there are even more reasons why it could be. The new editor is very full of herself (having learned her technique from the top editor by working as her editorial assistant), but lacks the creative eye that makes her boss tolerable. My designer showed me two versions of a particular page - her own, and the editor's - and it was obvious which was the 'right' version and which was haphazardly thrown together by an incompetent. Sparks may well fly.
Amusingly, when I mentioned this to the departing editor (who had been acting editor of Monday's mag for a month or two), she agreed that the new editor has "a very different technique" (putting it mildly). She was also a touch regretful that she wasn't staying to see how the designer who worked on her own magazine handles the top editor. She is completely unafraid to point out to any editor that supplied materials are rubbish, or that their ideas are bad. That's one of the reasons she's such a good designer... I wonder whether her new editor will see it that way.
The late afternoon/evening saw everyone off down the pub for yet another leaving do - for the aforementioned departing editor - which was pretty good fun until one of the salesmen started really creeping me out. Prior to that, I had couple of interesting conversations with a couple of them. I bowed out early (about 6.30) and came home under the influence of a couple of glasses of brandy.
Thursday 3 January 2008
The little rewards
Today didn't really go as planned or expected, in so many ways.
Workwise, we're not in an ideal position. I have one deadline tomorrow, and the next on Monday. My main concern is that I probably won't have a lot of time for next week's magazines until Monday, at which point it'll be a crunch-time deadline day.
Tomorrow's magazine isn't in desperately bad shape, all things considered. It dropped by 8 pages today, owing to a distinct lack of sales and being several thousand off it's projected target. On the downside, this meant that vast swathes of editorial had to cut, and much of the remainder had to be renumbered. On the upside, rather than having about 5 and a half pages of filler (free) ads, there are only two quarter page fillers, one of which is due to be sold tomorrow. It's a fairly small magazine, and what remains to be done is quite manageable... but even so, it prevents me from getting very involved in Monday's magazine.
I'm glad this kind of crap only happens once a year.
After work, the plan was to pop off uptown for shopping, food and fun. The shopping was disappointing (who knew Harrods was little more than a theme park these days? Who knew???), food was decent... but the day had been too depressing for the rest of the plan.
But just to show that no day can be all bad, I got home and found a parcel waiting for me: My latest eBay purchase, Galaxy Force Gasket Police Type. Like the standard version, he's pretty cute, with an oversized, double-barrelled weapon. Like just about every version of the mold, the pieces that attach the rear wheel to the body of the vehicle (and the two halves to the legs of the robot) are assembled incorrectly, but it doesn't really damage the model in any significant way.
Workwise, we're not in an ideal position. I have one deadline tomorrow, and the next on Monday. My main concern is that I probably won't have a lot of time for next week's magazines until Monday, at which point it'll be a crunch-time deadline day.
Tomorrow's magazine isn't in desperately bad shape, all things considered. It dropped by 8 pages today, owing to a distinct lack of sales and being several thousand off it's projected target. On the downside, this meant that vast swathes of editorial had to cut, and much of the remainder had to be renumbered. On the upside, rather than having about 5 and a half pages of filler (free) ads, there are only two quarter page fillers, one of which is due to be sold tomorrow. It's a fairly small magazine, and what remains to be done is quite manageable... but even so, it prevents me from getting very involved in Monday's magazine.
I'm glad this kind of crap only happens once a year.
After work, the plan was to pop off uptown for shopping, food and fun. The shopping was disappointing (who knew Harrods was little more than a theme park these days? Who knew???), food was decent... but the day had been too depressing for the rest of the plan.
But just to show that no day can be all bad, I got home and found a parcel waiting for me: My latest eBay purchase, Galaxy Force Gasket Police Type. Like the standard version, he's pretty cute, with an oversized, double-barrelled weapon. Like just about every version of the mold, the pieces that attach the rear wheel to the body of the vehicle (and the two halves to the legs of the robot) are assembled incorrectly, but it doesn't really damage the model in any significant way.
Wednesday 2 January 2008
2008
So, on balance, 2007 was an OK year. Would have been great if it weren't for most of what happened in the office during December. It felt as though enormous progress had been made up until then.
But now here we are in 2008. It got off to a pretty good start with a shopping trip uptown (actually on the last day of 2007, but who's counting?) that would have included a visit to the Hyde Park funfair and other delights after that, but the shopping part was kind of tiring. Still there's a chance for a second attempt later this week, so who knows?
The first day back at work was weird. Got through it mostly unscathed but my copy controller was off sick (the old 'food poisoning' excuse), so that side of things was in disarray from the get go. While the magazine made good progress today, it didn't do quite as well as I'd hoped, considering my first deadline this year is Friday, and the second is Monday. Doesn't give me much wriggle-room.
The MD did not, in fact, move into the old Publishing Director's office (not surprising), and people did seem to be getting on with their work (what little there was) rather than doing the usual 'first day back' piss-taking. Of course, we were somewhat hampered by an office-wide telephone breakdown which took till mid-afternoon for BT to fix, but that didn't seem to hamper us too much.
There is also the underlying sense of things changed in the office. Its hard to put one's finger on it... but in the few moments when I wasn't concentrating on work, I could feel it.
Definitely looking to move on this year.
But now here we are in 2008. It got off to a pretty good start with a shopping trip uptown (actually on the last day of 2007, but who's counting?) that would have included a visit to the Hyde Park funfair and other delights after that, but the shopping part was kind of tiring. Still there's a chance for a second attempt later this week, so who knows?
The first day back at work was weird. Got through it mostly unscathed but my copy controller was off sick (the old 'food poisoning' excuse), so that side of things was in disarray from the get go. While the magazine made good progress today, it didn't do quite as well as I'd hoped, considering my first deadline this year is Friday, and the second is Monday. Doesn't give me much wriggle-room.
The MD did not, in fact, move into the old Publishing Director's office (not surprising), and people did seem to be getting on with their work (what little there was) rather than doing the usual 'first day back' piss-taking. Of course, we were somewhat hampered by an office-wide telephone breakdown which took till mid-afternoon for BT to fix, but that didn't seem to hamper us too much.
There is also the underlying sense of things changed in the office. Its hard to put one's finger on it... but in the few moments when I wasn't concentrating on work, I could feel it.
Definitely looking to move on this year.
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