Legendary

Popped off with my mate Paul to see I Am Legend today... A vampire film that never mentions the word 'vampire' (though it does sneak in the term 'darkseeker' a couple of times), starring Will Smith (yes, he sings - kinda - but no, he doesn't dance) as the last survivor of a plague that kills off the population of New York (and then the world) or turns them into haemovoric monsters.

It's a very strange film, not least because you'd tend to think Smith is miscast in the role of a scientist, but he acquits himself as admirably as usual. What makes it strange is that he makes dread pronouncements like "social order has completely broken down", and yet misses the very obvious implication that the monster who leads the hunt against him is hounding him because it's his daughter Smith captures for his experiments.

It's also quite a hard film to watch at times, notably when he has to kill his dog - his sole companion for the first half of the movie. The effects of his loneliness are shown in a quite light-hearted (though still creepy) way at the beginning, when he visits the video store, but when one of his 'friends' is used to bait a trap, and he later runs into another couple of survivors (predictably), his fragile sanity is very well played.

Not having read the book, I don't know how close this movie adaptation is... but it does have a saccharine ending. Perhaps not a happy ending in the traditional Hollywood sense, but it's rather less believable than the cinema ending to 28 Days Later (let alone the original ending!).

Several background details will, no doubt, raise an appropriate smile. My favourite would have to be the Batman/Superman movie poster prominently displayed in one scene. Are you toying with us, Warner Bros?

Before the movie, Paul and I were browsing in the nearby shops, and overheard some guy in the DVD section of HMV telling his companion "This is what I Am Legend is based on". He held in his hand not the book by Richard Matheson, but the DVD of The Omega Man, starring Charlton Heston. It is wrong to wish such people dead?

On the train home, a grubby, chavvy 'youth' offered his review to a couple of grubby, chavvy friends: "Da reason iss shit, yeah, is dat 'e kills 'imsewf at da end... E's da hero..." It would hardly be worth pointing out that there's a lot of movie before that happens. And to put it in perspective, yes he kills himself, but in doing so he gives two other survivors the opportunity to escape. It's what's known in the trade as 'a noble sacrifice' and it shows that, while he wasn't exactly the nicest person on the planet (even with the planet's population reduced so dramatically), he wasn't such a monster that he'd let his own sense of hopelessness get in the way of the survival of others.

Fun note: the 'Creature Vocals' were provided by Michael A Patton... a name which should be familiar to fans of Faith No More. It's the very same Mike Patton. I kid thee not.

My mate Paul goes back to work tomorrow, to do the Year End accounts for his employer. He mentioned that he's likely to be looking for a new job in the New Year, largely because the late nights of Year End are getting him down and because, this year, his boss warned him to keep next Sunday free, in case they all have to come in to finish the work. Paul was going to ask for a day off in lieu, I suggested giving them the option of paying him double time (because they wouldn't normally, even for a Sunday...) or time and a half, plus the day off in lieu.

When I brought him up to date on the events at my work, he was rather incredulous. I can't say I blame him... but that's why I'm hoping for a swift escape.

In the meantime, for those who were wondering...
18

(the image behind the number of five year olds I could take in a fight may be blocked by some anti-spyware programs)

Supply and Demand

There's a very strange force at work...

Whenever I realise I want something, or could make use of it, it's nowhere to be found, however common it was when I couldn't care less.

Deciding I don't want it anymore doesn't help either... This strange force knows it's a bluff.

And so it is with a couple of TransFormers Energon figures - Rodimus and Ravage. I don't even want the figures, really, it's the weapons I'm after. I had the rather cool idea of giving Movie Starscream a couple of afterburners for his robot mode and discovered that E-Rodimus's handgun was the perfect fit (if you know where to plug it). A couple of those, with a coating of the right kind of paintwork, and he'd had a spiffy pair of burners. The missile is a flame, too. It's a no-brainer.

But Rodimus is nowhere to be found... So I had another brainwave - E-Ravage has a decent looking cannon (not the homage to G1 Megatron's fusion cannon - the other one, with the spring loaded missile) which would have the same size of peg. I tried it for size and, sure enough, it looks passable. Not as good as the gun from E-Rodimus but, hey, any port in a kitbashing storm, right? And E-Ravage was a bit of a shelfwarmer, on account of being rubbish, right?

Well, yes... up until I wanted him.

Heard from my old mate Paul yesterday, suggesting either shopping or catching a movie for Sunday... Sounded like cool idea at the time. Sounds even better now - my mother just asked if I'd be interested in coming along to a Sunday Lunch (99% certain it'd be in a pub) with her mother. I swiftly replied that Paul had suggested going out. Safe! (I think)

I mean, really, it'd be in a pub (that 1% uncertainty suggests it might be a case of popping over to mother's mother's flat), it'd be typical, dull pub food, crap conversation - most likely a rerun of all the conversations I had with my grandmother on Christmas/Boxing Day (apart from the 3am one *shudder*), and lots of trudging around in the cold. Not exactly my favourite combination, or anything to look forward to. At least with shopping, I could end up buying some cool stuff at post-Christmas sale prices... and at least with a movie, I'd be going out to see a movie. Hell, if Paul and I can manage both, that'll be even better.

Part of me really hates that I dislike being with my family this much. My grandmother is old, she has Alzheimers, and she's probably happy to see any and all family as often as possible...

A Day of Small Accomplishment

So, yes, I stayed at home.

My folks left sometime after 8am and, a couple of hours later, my sister phoned to ask if they were on their way yet, mainly to give her an idea as to when she should start cooking. By my reckoning, they'd have been most of the way there by then... possibly not, if Mother's Mother was in tow.

I spent my day reading (finished The Power That Preserves, book 3 in the first Chronicles of Thomas Covenant), doing more TransFormer painting, watching more Beast Machines, watching the TF movie, and even doing a bit more writing. Not much, nothing very substantial, but something that needed to be done.

As well as some writing, I had a quick read - towards the end of today - of some of the older stuff I've written... Things that have been 'on hold' for several years. Most of what I read was still hitting the right notes... even though so much of it was very telling of what was going on in my head at the time. One of these days, I really hope to focus on the writing, and make some headway with it.

I also - by strange coincidence - partook of more alcohol today than any other day so far in this festive season. A glass of Pimms, and a nice mix of rum and ginger ale. Not sure why I chose today to get into the alcohol... other than just not liking drinking around my folks.

Right now, it's storming like crazy outside... As usual, I'm feeling a draft... but for the most part, I'm just glad it's not so cold that we're having a blizzard rather than a rainstorm.

Returning to normality

Mother's Mother has returned home and, despite the suggestion that she might be staying over again tonight, the spare room has returned to its normal state. Following the 'visit' this morning, I'm glad of that in so many ways... It wasn't mentioned at all this morning, so either she just didn't mention it, or she'd already forgotten it. I'm happy to leave it, either way.

...But, the story goes, she will be heading to Swindon with my folks to visit my sister and her husband in their own digs. Apparently she seemed very keen each time it was mentioned (or, as my mother put it, "each time I reminded her") and she's not been to their new place, so I can understand why she'd want to go... but I can also see that it's going to be a terrible journey for her. Even when we reserved seats, we had to stand on one outward journey because the seats were double-booked. The idea of her having to stand for a couple of hours journey isn't a pleasant one, and I can see her getting quite upset. Then, when they arrive, she'll have to contend with a three storey house, with nothing but staircases joining the floors. She used to live in a bungalow, then moved to a flat in a block with a lift. She has enough trouble with our staircase - having to cope with more isn't going to be good for her, unless they let her sleep on the ground floor (in the dining room?)... Still, it's her granddaughter's new house.

I, on the other hand, will be remaining at home... Hopefully getting a few things done, but probably not. Today I spent reading, watching Beast Machines and TransFormers movie featurettes, and surfing the internet... Big news (comparatively speaking) is that the 2008 TransFormers Collectors' Club exclusives have been officially announced: The Seacons were more or less confirmed months ago (bar the behind-the-scenes legal arrangements), but the 'fan favourite' is none other than...

*Drum roll...*

Nightbeat (ta-dah!)

All things considered, I really wouldn't call that a no-brainer choice. He was one of the 'Headmasters Junior', was only released as Nightbeat in the US and UK (in Japan, 'he' was Minerva/Minelba, a female transformer who was a Red Cross Porsche (obviously)) and, as far as I was concerned, Nightbeat played a very small role in all things TransFormers - he was a Cybertronian detective... literally, a gumshoe. Still, they're using a mold I didn't pick up from the Energon line, so I may buy him. Of course, factoring in that I didn't buy it because it wasn't a very good model, and that he's such a strange character, there's a very good chance that I won't...

...And I'm still not sure about the Seacons.

Weirdness

While I am not inclined to see it as in any way sinister, I was nevertheless disturbed when, at about quarter past three this morning, I was awoken by the sound of someone shuffling in my bedroom doorway.

After a while of this shuffling, I was awake enough to turn over and see who it was. I said a bleary 'hello' to Mother's Mother, then repeated the greeting as it seemed she hadn't understood.

"Oh," said she, "I've come the wrong way... Where's the other room?"

Not sure whether she meant the room she was staying in or the bathroom, I asked "Which other room?"

When she clarified that she meant the spare room, I pointed her in the right direction, and she left.

I tried to go back to sleep, but the episode left me feeling very uncomfortable. She had been standing silently in my doorway for at least a minute... That's easily long enough to determine that she wasn't in the right room, even ignoring the huge difference in size and layout...

...And then, where had she come from? The spare room is the first she would have come to from the bathroom, while mine is the third. Had she come from the spare room intending to find the bathroom, she'd gone the wrong way. Even if she was remembering the layout of her own flat, rather than this house, she'd still gone completely the wrong way...

There was no sense to it at all.

And then another thing started to bother me, as I finally slipped back to sleep: Normally her voice quavers with age and nerves, but it was rock steady at 3.15am when she was in completely the wrong place.

But, like I said, I'm not inclined to see it as in any way sinister...

Boxing Day Blog #5

Boxing day draws to a close, and my sister and her husband have left. Downstairs is quiet... I'd imagine they're watching TV.

Had a brief, private catchup with my sister before she left - told her about all the office politics and that one of the Commercial Managers has a nasty brain tumor (that's a scary number of cancer-related illnesses we're aware of this year) and then, on a lighter note, discussed the Thomas Covenant books that I'm reading.

Turns out she (tried to) read them several years ago, but didn't get very far - most of what she remembered was from the first book, though she was certain she'd read the second, if not the third. She did remember the Illearth Stone, but nothing of the other significant events or characters of the second book. While she admitted that she had a hard time with it (not least because of the unsympathetic 'hero'), she pretty much dismissed it as 'derivative of Lord of the Rings', and summed up the story by saying "It's got horse-y people like the Rohan, a giant who sings, and a glowing green stone".

Yeah. Just like Lord of the Rings, then.

I may yet convince her to try again... I'm perfectly happy to read about heroes who aren't heroic, but my sister prefers her fantasy to involve good people (even if they are flawed) winning out against evil. At a stretch, one could say that Thomas Covenant is good - refusing to wield his power because he doesn't understand (or, for that matter, believe) it... but it would be a stretch.

Boxing Day Blog #4

Having dozed through a couple of hours of afternoon, I felt compelled to return downstairs.

Yep, it was excruciatingly dull.

Conversation had dried up completely, Mother's Mother was repeatedly scouring the TV listings (not that she wanted to watch anything... more that she'd normally just have the TV on and wanted to know what might have been on), and everyone had commenced the cold meat and pickles phase of Christmas fodder.

It's times like this that I wonder why we bother with a Family Christmas. We're not that big a family, nor are we especially close. What little news there is gets quickly disseminated throughout the year, so there's nothing new to discuss. and what little there is to talk about generally gets repeated three or four times for the benefit of Mother's Mother, who won't remember any of it anyway.

A short while earlier, I noticed she was using the bathroom without the light on. The light switch is hard to miss - half the time, it'd smack you on the head as you walk in (not hers though, obviously, because she's too small). The pull-cord is easily within reach, and doesn't require much strength to operate - she has exactly the same arrangement in her flat... It's all rather depressing.

Boxing Day Blog #3

Managed to do a bit of writing - not as thorough as I'd have liked, but at least it's something - and calm down a bit before going downstairs.

Today's present was the 2-disc Special Edition of TransFormers... No real surprise there, as it was pretty much the most obvious present in the entire world.

Lunch consisted of a salmon/cheese with prawn type of thing as a starter. I passed my prawn on, because just looking at it made me lose my appetite. The rest was fine, but had obviously suffered from being frozen and then thawed in the fridge. Main course for everyone but me was venison and mixed veg. Mine was leftover turkey and gammon from yesterday. I really don't do red meat, but game is even worse... I've tried venison, and it really doesn't agree with me - taste, texture, and what it does in my stomach later on.

Conversation was much more lively that yesterday, but did quickly turn to geeky technical stuff, and English county politics.

I'm feeling very tired - not the conversation, honest... nor the booze, as I only had a glass and a half of wine again.

Boxing Day Blog #2

And already it gets worse.

Following the visit from my sister, I actually managed to straighten out some thoughts out and start writing (not into the main document - I've had to start a new one because I couldn't fit what I need to write into the main set of notes).

Just now, I've had my mother knocking on my bloody door, asking if I "want to open some more presents".

For fuck's sake... a bit of peace and quiet is all I fucking need to finally get some fucking writing done. I don't give a flying fuck about presents until I've got this shit done.

I'd quite like to get it right.

Boxing Day Blog #1

Wonderful...

Over the last couple of days, I had some rather cool ideas about one of the characters I'm trying to write about... Nothing that would make a story, but certainly several details to flesh things out.

Today, I figured I'd write some of it out while I remembered it because I so often forget these little pieces of the puzzle. I didn't do it when I first got up because - for whatever reason - sitting at the computer early in the morning will often upset my stomach and, with Mother's Mother staying over, I knew there would be hell to pay if I ended up occupying the bathroom before she was up and about.

So it was past 11.30 before I started making any moves, and after midday before I started up the computer. No worries... I still remember it all...

During this time, though, my sister and her husband had arrived. My sister, being a pest, decided to pay me a visit (because I wasn't already downstairs). Being nosy, her first move was to examine my monitor and, seeing it was something to do with this character of mine, started asking questions and generally distracting me from my purpose.

I wasn't particularly welcoming, and eventually she got the message and left... but not before completely befuddling just about every thought I'd had by reminding me of stuff that's at least a couple of years out of date. What a brilliant start to the day.

And to think, I was looking forward to her visit... and had bought her a present intended to help with her writing.

Christmas Day Blog #4

And in the final few minutes of the day, it seems that Mother's Mother is staying the night - probably for the best, as it means we can keep track of her and make sure she's taking her medication, etc.

The day hasn't been as excruciating as it could have been, but it really is hard to know what to talk about - if at all - when there's someone in the house who can ask the same question several times within only a few minutes.

Tomorrow may be better, or it may be worse... I'm off to bed, to read for a little while before I got to sleep.

I've made out quite well this year: Beast Machines season 2, The Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, Mordant's Need, a Tron 20th Anniversary Special Edition red lightcycle/grey Sark, the Batman: Knightfall radio play and another Pratchett... with more to come tomorrow, from my sister and her husband. Not to mention a very fancy pen...

A Startling Retraction

Only probably not startling at all.

The thing about collecting TransFormers is that there's always something I don't know about lurking around the corner. Some reissue, exclusive or limited edition that I just have to have... Admittedly there aren't that many of them, but they're out there.

One such was the black and white 'Gasket Police Type' from the Galaxy Force line in Japan. Literally, Gasket repainted as a police bike. It was limited in that it was available from Toys'R'Us in Japan for one day only, with the purchase of any other TransFormers toy. The model is one of my favourites of that size class in the line, despite its simplicity, because it's quite well designed. The only flaw is that it was consistently misconstructed, up until the BotCon 2006 repaint as Rattrap.

I've even bought more movie toys that I wasn't intending to get... Payload, for example, and the '78 version of Bumblebee (which, being perfectly honest, I bought 'because it was there' as much as I did it for the customising possibilities). It's a decent model... just not as good as the 2008 version.

Christmas Day Blog #3

So, Doctor Who - Voyage of the Damned.

"In a production system with fixed and variable inputs, beyond some point, each additional unit of variable input yields less and less additional output. Conversely, producing one more unit of output costs more and more in variable inputs."

This is the law of diminishing returns, and it applies wholly to the new Doctor Who. Each new series has been less than the last, and each Christmas Special has been bloody awful.

It's almost as if they come up with a collection of dialogue that they way to include, then figure out a way to include them and fit the premise of the story around these pre-determined factors. The end result is incredibly patchy, feels very poorly-written and poorly-acted and leaves one wishing they'd never decided to resurrect Doctor Who.

David Tennant cannot be held wholly responsible, though his portrayal of the Doctor is in every way inferior to Christopher Ecclestone's brief tenure. Not even Russell T Davis is wholly responsible, though his rampant fanboyism has certainly contributed to the decline of the series (if I hear one more random character spout forth about how "wonderful" the Doctor is, I shall be physically sick). Production values have been consistently high (for the BBC doing Sci-Fi)... The problem is that they've lost, by degrees, the essential storytelling prowess that made even the worst of the old Doctor Who watchable.

I wasn't particularly inspired by the trailers for the upcoming mini-series, or the trailer for the new series of Torchwood. Diminishing returns applies to something that starts out crappy just as well as something that starts out brilliant. Adding Martha Jones to Torchwood almost certainly won't improve it... And whatever character James Marsters is playing will forever be compared to Spike, even if he's not a vampire.

Bit of a shame, but there we go...

Christmas Day Blog #2

Lunch was mercifully brief and, as with the morning, rather quiet. Food was pretty good - Turkey, dry cured gammon, cocktail sausages and mixed (rather soggy) veg all round, and the requisite Christmas Pudding though, while everyone else had a seafood/shellfish starter, I had a mixture of Italian meats.

Not sure what caused it but, over the years, I have grown a dislike of seafood, and shellfish in particular. Prawn cocktail used to be the staple Christmas starter in this household... but some years ago, I found I couldn't stomach it anymore. The flavour and texture no longer appealed, not matter how much sauce I used.

The Christmas Pudding really was good, though... and while I always need to drench it with cream to cover the sharpness, it tasted good, didn't leave my throat burning, and didn't clog up my mouth.

Grandmother asked (for the second time so far) if I had any holiday plans for the coming year and, again, I gave half an answer. Taking a holiday would be nice (BotCon, though I'm not sure Cincinnati has much else to offer as a holiday destination) but I'd rather just move out of home.

After lunch, it was back to the living room for The Queen's Christmas Message (also mercifully brief) followed by a documentary on the fifty years she's been doing it on television.

Of course that lead into All Star Family Fortunes, with Vernon Kay, so I'm back at the keyboard. Sometimes I wish they'd just shut down television for Christmas, rather than serving up the usual rubbish.

On the upside, I did see a short trailer for the winter season on ITV2, including The Bionic Woman, starring an ex-Eastender and the new Starbuck. Looks quite promising.

Christmas Day Blog #1

As in, the official "My Christmas Day Experiences" thang.

Well, it's half past one, and it's already pretty excruciating. Present from Grandmother: Terry Pratchett's Making Money. Present from parents: BBC Radio's Batman: Knightfall series on remastered CD. My mother made very sure I understood that this was an extra gift, because they'd already got me my winter coat and new raincoat (despite the fact that I'd repeatedly made it clear I intended to buy at least a winter coat for myself).

Very little conversation has happened. There isn't a great deal to talk about (apart from office politics, which aren't exactly appropriate Christmas conversation), and what little we do talk about just doesn't penetrate Grandmother's Alzheimer's. She's already asked twice what one of my father's presents is, and if he keeps playing with it (and, since it's a tool, that kinda goes without saying) she'll probably ask again.

She's asked me if I'm "in the same place" work-wise, to which I replied that the company had moved to West Kensington. Moments later, she asked if it was the same kind of work... She doesn't remember what the work is, or anything much about the magazines (despite having several brought to her over the last few years, most of which have my name listed quite prominently). It is at once heartbreaking and utterly frustrating. People at work often praise me for my patience when training people, but I have no patience for people who will not or cannot remember anything I tell them... Which puts me in a very uncomfortable position with ailing family members.

In the grey silences, Grandmother has popped out of the room (twice) to ask my mother if she needs help with anything, and it was only by chance that the second time perfectly coincided with the need to lay the table.

Either that, or my mother was just being polite... Either way, she made no mention of the previous enquiry.

Helen and Mark are coming round tomorrow, so today is liable to be pretty darned quiet. I honestly don't expect tomorrow to be much better, but at least there will be some conversation that won't be continually repeated... and it won't be as quiet.

Playing catch-up

So much crap has happened since the last post. I started writing about that, but it was all too depressing. Hey, it's Christmas Day, for crying out loud. I don't want to depress myself unnecessarily.

So, briefly, in the New Year I shall be looking for a new job. The pathetic, selfish, lazy good-for-nothings I work with have defeated my optimism, and I cannot carry on with them any more. Idle degree-educated wastrels, who think the world owes them a living.

In many ways, I have no reason to leave... So many things have gone well for me there over the last couple of years, and the potential is still huge. But I feel I have given so much (time, effort, loyalty) and they have given so very little... but they expect so much. Not 'in return', even. They expect their rewards up front. Even those who have cost the company thousands in their mistakes are baying for more money in their pockets. Their attitudes and 'work ethic' are so alien to me, I cannot imagine they'll ever understand how wrong they are.

Better, for me, to get out as soon as I can, and let them realise their folly in their own time.

A Startling Truth

OK, dramatic title, not so dramatic subject: I've just realised that, barring any new stuff that tickles my fancy, my collection of TransFormers is almost as complete as I want it to be.

Let's tackle the movie stuff first, because that's recent and easy:

Leader
Optimus Prime
Megatron
Brawl

Voyager
Blackout
Ratchet
Ironhide
Starscream
Thundercracker
Rescue Ratchet

Deluxe
Jazz
2008 Bumblebee
Scorponok
Wreckage
Barricade
Bonecrusher
Arcee
Longarm
Dropkick
Landmine
Stockade
'Stealth' Arcee
'Stealth' Bumblebee

Three more to go, and I'm done. The rest of the repaints aren't exactly lighting my candle.

I've already got more than I originally intended to get in the Galaxy Force/Cybertron line (though I may cave in and get Chromia/Thunderblast, just for the sake of it), all I want in the Superlink/Energon line, and all the halfway decent stuff in the Micron Legend/Armada line. Classics is also complete (including this year's BotCon set!), I have all the Robots in Disguise/Car Robots that I want (including 2 BotCon Lamborghinis), and all the worthwhile Binaltech/Alternators. With my recent purchases of Rattrap (BW and BM flavours!) and Airazor, I'm pretty much done with Beast Wars/Machines too... I may get some of the BW reissues - original Cheetor, Tigatron, Waspinator, Rhinox, maybe even Dinobot - and I continue to debate picking up Tigerhawk and 'Big Red Dragon' Megatron, but that's really it.

Going back to G1, there are a few of the Autobots I'd like to grab - Mirage, Sunstreaker, Trailbreaker... maybe Bluestreak and Smokescreen - but, thanks to various reissues, I've got pretty much everything I wanted but missed out on 20-odd years ago.

I'm far from being a completist. In all things, I get what I like the look of, or whatever amuses me (I'm looking at you, Beast Wars Break!). They don't have to be any good, either (G1 Wheelie, anyone?).

It's a weird feeling... Just about everything I still want should be reasonably easy to find (G1 Mirage and Sunstreaker are being 'unofficially reissued' by some very talented knock-off merchants) and so, until the next line, there's nothing to hunt.

On the subject of the next line, Animated... It's all very impressive, but clearly aimed at kids. Sure, they all are... but Animated really looks it. I'll probably get Optimus Prime and Megatron... Possibly Bumblebee, Lockdown, Prowl and Starscream... Maybe even Blitzwing and Blackarachnia... But that'll leave me with nothing to look forward to until the next Movie line.

Oh, and the TFCC Exclusives. I'm debating (read: not really interested in) the Seacons, curious about this other exclusive they're hinting toward, and very keen to finish the Club Combiner (for which I'll need to renew one more time). I'm hoping they'll come up with something exciting after that, because I really like being a member...

But, seriously... All the TransFormers I want? Surely some mistake?

Retail Therapy

The perfect antidote to several crappy weeks of work (and the sure knowledge that the next few will be rather crappy as well) surely has to be a trip to something like Memorabilia at the Birmingham NEC.

Get there early (very little difference between the cost of standard (11am) entry and Early Bird (9am) entry) and wander round at leisure, taking the opportunity to study what's there before crowds of the great unwashed pile in and block every aisle. Find a few things you thought you'd never see again. Pick up a bargain or twelve. Grab something that's not available in this country yet. Discover how keenly you want something you didn't think you'd be interested in until you clapped eyes on it. 'Meet' celebrities and get their autographs, if you're that way inclined.

Then get the hell out with your haul and enjoy the rest of the day however you like.

For the record, I made off with:

TF Movie: Dropkick, Landmine (and Voyager class Optimus Prime for the office)
TF Classics: Grimlock
RiD: Megatron Megabolt (should really be Beast Machines, but hey)
Beast Machines: Rattrap
Beast Wars: Airazor, Tripredacus (Cicadon, Ram Horn and Sea Clamp)

A very respectable haul, all things considered. Details? OK then. From the top...

Dropkick is quite an oddity. His packaging proudly proclaims that he his "As seen in the TransFormers Video Game", which explains why he wasn't seen in the movie by any stretch of the imagination. The alternate mode is a low-riding pickup truck with a spoiler on its bed cover. Transformation is far simpler than the likes of Longarm, but still very satisfying. Robot mode is rather bizarre, in that he has animal-like legs, but a very humanoid shape overall. Unlike most of the videogame drones, Dropkick has something approaching a normal robot head, rather than the usual large lens and consequently has a lot more personality. The only downside to him is his ridiculous 'capture claw' weapon, which just looks like pliers.

Landmine is also an oddity, for many reasons. Firstly, he's an Autobot created out of a Sector 7 vehicle by the Allspark. Secondly, he appears to have claws. Thirdly, he appears to be wearing a hockey mask. He has some quite clever features, such as the vehicle's seats transforming into the robot's hands, and some bizarre features, like the fact that he seems to move around on roller skates. Hardly the most elegant of robots, but an effective and satisfying model.

Classics Grimlock is the one Classic I've never seen in the shops. In so many way's he's inferior to the original Gen 1 model, but he's far more poseable, and remains distinctively Grimlock. As has been mentioned all over the web, his shoulder assembly has been put together completely wrong, so things don't lock into place as they should, but he's still pretty effective... and he completes my Classics collection.

Megatron Megabolt was released under the Robots in Disguise banner despite clearly displaying a Vehicon logo on his chest, which would place him in the Beast Machines continuity. Moreover, his alternate mode appeared as a giant flying fortress in the Beast Machines TV series and not at all - as far as I'm aware - in RiD/Car Robots. The robot is another awkward one - no head movement, and even the ball-jointed limbs offer limited dynamic posing ability. Transformation is very complex for such a small model, and he wins a few points by utilising a magnet to attach his helmet and cannon to the robot's head. The insectoid legs of his alternate mode move thanks to wheels on the bottom and, supposedly, this thing can function as an alternate head for Fortress Maximus or Brave Maximus.

Beast Machine Rattrap is about twice the size of the original BW model in robot mode, and much larger in his robotic rat mode. Robot mode can use legs or wheels to get around, but frankly he looks terrible either way. Rat mode is a real winner, though, because it's very accurate to the TV show, and features a mechanical action where rotating his tail causes his head to move from side to side, tilting and waggling his ears as it goes. In that way, it's far more cool than I was expecting.

Beast Wars Airazor is a very simple model - this and the original Rattrap typify the simplistic construction that went into most of that line. Bird mode is only really effective when viewed from above (it's curious how true that statement is of almost all flying TransFormers), but it does feature a sort of 'diving' action where pulling back on part of the tail angles the wings forward. Robot mode is very simplistic, but quite effective. I'm aiming to display this model along with the TFCC Airazor eventually.

Tripredacus - not to be confused with Tripredacus Agent - is one of a very few Beast Wars gestalts. Made up of Cicadon, Ram Horn and Sea Clamp (each of whom has a robot mode of their own) he's a bizarre-looking monster of a robot. The face is curiously reminiscent of The Joker, due to some unfortunate and sparse paintwork, and the arms are not exactly convincing but, as a feat of toy engineering, he's pretty clever... How else could a fly, a beetle and a lobster be combined into one robot? As was frequently the case with Beast Wars and its offshoots, the beast modes are far more convincing and impressive than the robot modes, but the use of translucent plastic is very good, making the parts and the gestalt 'whole' very eerie-looking in a certain light.

We ended up leaving the show just before standard entry time, partly because we had other plans for the rest of the day, and partly because it was a much smaller event that previously. It only took up one hall, when it has previously been two. That said, it felt to me like a distillation rather than a drop-off. Attendance was high, even before standard entry kicked in, and the quality and range of merchandise on offer was very impressive. I don't think there's been a single show that hasn't been dominated by Star Wars one way or another, but it's never felt as though it's becoming a Star Wars convention... even if security appears to be provided by the Stormtroopers of the UK Garrison.

One stall was selling all kinds of movie props, including two pieces of TransFormers. One was an unrecognisable talon, listed simply as 'TransFormer Part', by the other was a section of Scorponok's tail. Even a cursory glance revealed obvious welded joints, which was disappointing but, equally, proved that there is still enough magic left in cinema to turn human-made props into convincing alien robotic monsters.

After the show, we headed into the town nearest the hotel for some food, then back to the hotel to eat, snooze, lark about and watch DVDs for the remainder of the day. The trip back home today was smooth - far smoother than the outward journey, in which we got lost because we left directions to and details of the hotel back at the office - and without any of the snow that was threatened in weather reports earlier in the week.

New, new, new!

During my two days off work, it occurred to me that if sitting on my chair while at the computer was making my legs and back ache in a vaguely similar way to when I sit on the end of my bed, then there was almost certainly something wrong with my chair.

It further occurred to me that, compared to my office chair, my home chair was rather low.

Unfortunately, the screw that was the sole means of adjustment was well and truly stuck in position, and any attempt at moving it resulted only in mangled plastic. Not even a liberal application of WD-40 had any effect.

So, almost on a whim this evening, my boss whisked me off to Ikea on the drive home. She was after a frame for the leaving gift for one of our staff and, of course, they had a goodly selection of chairs. I opted for the £16.99 Svenning, with its fancy pneumatic height adjustment. I am sitting on it as I write, and I am comfortable. Hurrah.

Also, when I arrived home with flat-packed Svenning in hand, there was a small surprise waiting for me, in the form of Beast Wars Rattrap - won recently in an eBay auction after losing out on about three previous auctions. Hurrah again. He's rather cute, utilises an early - but no less clever - form of the movie line's 'Automorph' gimmick (lift the tail, and Rattrap transforms... all by himself!), and his handgun is contained inside his beast mode in two parts. He's actually smaller than I was expecting in robot mode, despite being almost exactly the size I expected in rat mode. How strange.

The final bit of news is that there has finally been an announcement about Auto Assembley 2008. First and foremost, there will be one! In August! In the same place as last year's! Hurrah the third.

Now I must pack for the weekend. But once more, hurrah!

Foiled again...

There is something very wrong with my computer, and it seems to be getting worse. It's been getting these intermittent lags for a while now, but they're getting longer and closer together. It gets to the point where the screen isn't even keeping up with my typing. I can work quite happily for a while, then all of a sudden, the damned thing is next to useless. Video playback is obviously similarly affected (though not so if it's DVD playback).

This evening, for no obvious reason, I was getting obscure error messages when I tried to connect to my website's FTP to update some content... Having shut down and restarted (as opposed to plain old restarting) it seems to be back to normal, and connecting merrily. I really hate PCs sometimes. I may just give in and buy a Mac next time. It's not as if I play games anymore...

News? Not a great deal. My collection of TF movie toys is almost complete:

Leader
Optimus Prime
Megatron
Brawl

Voyager
Blackout
Ratchet
Ironhide
Starscream
Thundercracker
Rescue Ratchet

Deluxe
Jazz
2008 Bumblebee
Scorponok
Wreckage
Barricade
Bonecrusher
Arcee
Longarm
Dropkick

I also nabbed the movie Robot Heroes - the only time I've seen them, and I grabbed almost everything on the shelf - because they're rather sweet. There's something very odd about seeing Frenzy with a mouth molded into a cheeky grin but, somehow, it works.

And the upcoming new stuff (dubbed "Allspark Power", and largely comprised of repaints), for the most part, isn't lighting my candle. This is probably a good thing, as I'm pretty much out of space (again). I've added paintwork to most of the movie figures I've picked up because the Hasbro paintjobs are generally inadequate.

In many ways, this weekend's trip to Memorabilia isn't so much about going to the show and buying loads of stuff (though that's almost inevitable - I don't think there's been a single Memorabilia that I've left empty-handed, even though I have previously managed to spend far less than my budget), as much as it is getting away from home and larking about at the weekend... Which I should do more often, if only by doing touristy crap around town. I'm sure I promised myself I'd to that around this time last year...

I've been off work these last two days - two out of the three holiday days I have yet remaining - and have managed to arrange a visit to the dentist for a routine checkup next week, but very little else. I've woken up both days and said to myself "I will sit down and turn my extensive notes on that story of mine into a proper short story" and "I will sit down and work on my little fairy tale story" and done absolutely bugger all. I've read some more... getting about halfway through the second book of Stephen Donaldson's first Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, and it's quite a fascinating read. I decided to look it up on Wikipedia, and discovered a whole new angle on it that I hadn't considered, which certainly threw a new light on parts I've read recently, and lead me to go back and skim through the first couple of chapters of the first book.

Recently, I've been to see the computer generated movie based on the legends of Beowulf and I must say the story in the movie is far more interesting and coherent than the stories it is based upon. My only real quibble (apart from the usual not-quite-human movement of the CG faces) was that the animation of the horses in the movie was terrible - roughly videogame standard. While the movement of the human characters was clearly the result of some seriously high-end motion capture, the horses were not... That kind of thing really shows up, too. It's quite a gory film, but true to the legends in that respect. One amusing point is that Beowulf takes the first opportunity to strip naked (to fight Grendel as his equal), and then the movie uses an increasingly unlikely stream of things to obscure certain bodyparts. Some of it almost had me laughing out loud. I also got the impression it was made with IMAX 3D in mind, because so much of it took full advantage of the system to throw things right at the audience. I'm hoping to see it in a 'normal' cinema, just to see how it compares...

Work is currently rather tiresome, with the same old people making the same old mistakes. It's getting all the more depressing that, in spite of all the progress, we're still scuppered by the same incompetence and, in spite of Production moving heaven and earth to accommodate the demands of the Salespeople, they haven't made good on their part of the bargain until they've seen things go horribly wrong because if their tardiness and stupidity.

On my most recent visit to Forbidden Planet, I picked up the soundtrack to (deep breath) Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex: Solid State Society - the movie based on the TV series based on the movie based on the manga. It's the usual Yoko Kanno stuff - eclectic, occasionally beautiful, and featuring a goodly amount of vocals by Russian singer Origa. It's bound to make its way onto my MP3 player... Which I must remember to charge before the weekend.

Orbital Manga was also graced with my presence on that same day... Plenty there that I'd like to snap up, but there's always the question of whether I'd get better prices elsewhere. It's a cool shop, and good to know about, even if their stock can be a little inconsistent. I took note of a few prices, have compared them to eBay, and will compare them to the stands at Memorabilia before deciding what to buy, when, and from whom. Strategy, that's the key.

Miscellany, and general Catching Up

I keep letting this blog slip... Terrible, really... Poor thing must get so lonely.

So:
At the end of last month, my boss popped into London's Forbidden Planet to see Stephen Donaldson and get his latest book (Fatal Revenant, of 'The Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant') signed. I invited myself along, to watch her turn into a giggly fangirl. In the end, all she did was gush a little, but even that was fun to watch.

The next day, we bounded off to Milton Keynes for Collectormania and I, personally, found it so disappointing that I've set a dangerous precident... I bought nothing, while she bought lots. Being a Sunday, the CentreMK branch of The Entertainer wasn't open - they being part of the 'Keep Sunday Special' brigade - and even browsing M&S for a new winter jacket yielded no purchases. Why can I never find anything in Small? I did buy a six pack each of A&W's Cream Soda and Root Beer, along with some sweets... but nothing from the show.

I've come up with a detailed outline for a new short story (hurrah!) which should actually be short (my last first attempt at a short story in recent years was quite long... my second topped 30,000 words, and my third has been on indefinite hold for the last three years or so having topped 30K while still mostly in note form). I'm pretty certain this one is going to be the first in my secondary cycle... which may end up being finished first. It certainly felt good to come up with such a complete concept, and it all happened while I was half asleep in bed.

Work has been bonkers. Nothing new there, but the sheer scale of staff turnover lately has been staggering. Two editors have resigned in the last month... One moving on to bigger and better things, the other taking a well-earned break and considering her options in this big, wide world. There is more... but I'm too tired to go into it right now.

In other news, there was a disturbing rumour circulating at work this morning... later confirmed as more than mere rumour... My cyberstalker of old apparently made a pass at one of our gay salesmen at a leaving do for one of our Copy Controllers a couple of years back. Scary...

On a similarly weird note, I was rooting around in my drawers at home the other night, and came across a printout of an email exchange I had with a female colleague about three years ago (symptomatic of the rumours that circulated about me at the time), and an apologetic letter from her mother which accompanied the return of a book I loaned her that she lost. I giggled over both briefly, then threw them away...

Sideswiped

It had to happen sooner or later... Since I picked up BotCon 2003 Sunstreaker some time ago, I had a strange yearning for his brother Sideswipe. Supposedly they turn up on eBay quite regularly but it wasn't until last month that I actually saw one for myself.

Naturally, I had to have it.

It arrived today, some 20 days after being posted (thanks, Royal Mail, you really shot yourselves in the feet with those two strikes, and I wouldn't be surprised if you start losing a whole lot of business because of them), all nicely wrapped up and waiting to be set free.

It actually looks damned good... In some ways, I regret recently picking up the second release of RiD Prowl to feed my RiD Lamborghini fetish. With both Sideswipe and Sunstreaker (TransFormers' only true 'Car Brothers'), I've rounded off that part of my collection on a real high note.

And, no, I'm not going to cave in and go looking for the other pair of BotCon 2003 cars, Shadow Striker and Roulette. Frankly, I find their remolded heads disturbing.

Guilt

Dunno what's come over me this evening... My plan was to get back into writing this evening, but my mind's just not in the right place at the moment.

For some reason, I can start thinking along vaguely positive lines, and then gradually descend into outright maudlin.

The train of thought was roughly as follows:

Following my week off work, I now have a much clearer idea of where I'm likely to be able to find an affordable place of my own.
Of course, due to the vagaries of the property market, I probably don't want to move as soon as I'd like, lest I lose a fair chunk of the value of the house before I move in.
Mortgages are still a worry, despite already having one arranged in principle.
But then, of one of the grandmothers were to die - as has been previously discussed with my folks - I probably wouldn't need a mortgage for the areas I'm aiming at...
That being the case, if that were to come to pass, should I worry about property cost versus imminent drop in property value?
Gosh, now that I think about it, I feel kind of bad that I don't visit my grandmothers very often these days.
But then, on the other hand, it's a deliberate thing because I want to remember who they were at their best. It's bad enough at Christmas, seeing less and less of the women I called 'Grandma' while I was growing up...

And that's really what it is... I want to remember my Globetrotting Granny (father's mother) - who'd pop off to China for a holiday simply because she could - not the poor, frail thing who can't even get herself out of bed, and barely remembers who my parents are.

I see my mother's mother more often because she lives locally. If my folks go on holiday, I'll sometimes pop over to her for an evening meal, so the both of us have some company. She has Alzheimer's, but is still just 'forgetful' rather than completely gone.

I can't imagine what my parents are going through, watching their parents unravel like this. They don't tend to show it (my mother tends to make light of her mother's situation... and then starts playing on her 'brain-training' gadget, or Sudoku, or something) but I'm sure they're horrified by how quickly their condition can change, and has changed in recent months.

Much as I say I don't want to see them as they are now, I'm sure I will soon enough... It'll be either by myself or with my sister, though.

One of these days...

...I'll learn not to touch the lens on my camera.

It seems very likely that the problem I had earlier with anything in the top/right of a photo being lighter than the rest was entirely down to a fingerprint occupying much of that area. Now that it's wiped away, the images are nice and clean again. Shame I didn't think to check earlier, but I didn't know I'd touched the lens.

Oh well.

In what little daylight remained before the afternoon became the evening, I snapped another few shots of Movie Leader Prime, Voyager Ironhide and Deluxe 08 Bumblebee, individually, to turn into 3D images. Worked reasonably well, though not as well as it might if they'd had a background of some kind to give them context. I ended up doing two versions of each - one where the 3D midpoint was at the waist, and one where it's the head. Interesting difference it makes...

At this point in the year, it seems that the light is good enough for photography between about 8/9 am and about noon, then again from about 2 to 4pm. Between those two slots, I have too much direct light casting shadows.

Kinda wish I'd done more of this earlier in the week, but the weather really wasn't up to it, and only cleared up on Thursday.

Back to work tomorrow... Shouldn't be too bad... depends on whether or not I have to lay down the law with the editor.

"Full Aperture!"

By which extremely obscure sci-fi reference, we come to... More stereoscopic photography!

One of my favourite things about this life is that it's a true learning experience. There's the old saying - all too often used sarcastically - "you learn something new every day", and it's so true. If only we pay attention, it's possible to learn thing without even trying. Forget school (well, OK, don't... it's important in its own way), just try things out and think about the results, and you're learning.

Getting back to the point now, I've had this digital camera of mine for at least 8 years... possibly closer to 10 or more. During that time, I've done holiday snaps, pictures in the back garden and, of course, photos of my toys.

And during that time I've never once fiddled with the aperture settings. I've just stuck it on Auto Colour Balance, Auto Focus, Auto everything.

Now that I have, I'm looking back at so many photography sessions I've done and thinking "That would have worked so much better if I'd adjusted the aperture settings..."

Thing is, I remember years ago reading a tutorial in a computer magazine or photography magazine on how to get good, detailed closeups of things that are perfectly in focus. I'm pretty sure (in retrospect) that it mentioned aperture settings but, to be honest, I lost that magazine ages ago. Knowing me, I filed it somewhere 'sensible', and I'll find it next time I do a clearout... but as far as I know, it's gone, and the photography tips with it.

Yesterday's stereoscopic photography yielded some excellent results (see below, if you have Red/Blue 3D glasses handy), but the models in the foreground were always hopelessly blurred, and those in the background weren't perfect.

The above is the result of using the default aperture setting, and placing the camera 0.8m away from the middle row of models, with focus set to 0.8m. Blackout and Starscream are nicely in focus, but everyone else is blurry. The 3D effect works quite well, but the blurriness reduces the impact. Bonecrusher, in particular, looks like a fuzzy blob - no detail whatsoever.

Same deal here. With the default aperture setting, Bumblebee, Arcee and Jazz are so blurry, you can barely make out who they are. The 3D effect is excellent and they stand out well... but where's the sharpness?

Well, that's where aperture comes in. It's dealt with quite strangely for a novice like me. When I did a web search for 'digital camera techniques macro' (since Macro mode is used for closeups, as the majority of my model photos tend to be), one of the pages dealt with where to focus, and how to set the aperture.

For a greater focal range, the aperture must be reduced... The article then went on to say "f/8 rather than f/2.5" or whatever. Now, call me simple, but when I first read that, I thought "Why does a higher number equate to a smaller aperture?" I was on the verge of putting it down to photographers being strange when I realised that it equates to 'f divided by [whatever number]', so dividing 'f' by a smaller number produces a larger result, and dividing by a larger number produces a smaller result. Not sure if that's what it actually means, but that's a good enough way for me to remember it...

I'm still experimenting, but the results so far are good... See here (again, only if you have a pair of Red/Blue 3D glasses handy...)

Everyone is now nicely in focus - so much so that I decided to add Scorponok and Frenzy into the mix. Not sure I've made the best use of either but, as I said, still experimenting...

Now you can see lots of detail on Bumblebee, Arcee and Jazz, and Prime is still in focus. Both he and Megatron seem to have become somehow washed out, so that'll be the next thing to fix... but I'm very happy with these two results.

I shall leave you with a quick battle scene I threw together. I really need a better background than my towel...

Weird Dreams

2 work-related dreams last night... One I barely remember now, because it seemed to just be routine stuff (inspired, no doubt, by news of my Monday magazine, that the Editor is being a prick and huge numbers of ads aren't on the system because of a problem with Sales Support). It was odd... but nothing spectacular.

The really weird one seemed to be set back at the old office. Recent enough that we were running PCs, and editorial featured the current lineup, but not really recent... My cyberstalker ex-colleague turned up, put his bag down, picked up some work, and proceeded to act as if he still worked there. Everyone was a little perturbed and confused because he was 'made redundant' some time ago even in the dream. No-one actually wanted to do anything about it (who knew what might happen if they tried?), and my boss wasn't around...

When he went off to make himself a cup of tea, I made a beeline for the Accounts guy - who seemed to be the only person in any worthwhile position of responsibility in the office - and mentioned that this guy had apparently returned. He then ran off to the kitchen and escorted him out of the office... While I hung back, out of sight, in the Accounts area.

I'm happy to report that this is only the second time - ever - that my cyberstalker has appeared in a dream of mine, and his first appearance (as an entirely black figure, standing in my back garden) was far more sinister... but still... not really a good start to the weekend.

Speaking of which, I slept far later than I'd intended, despite getting to bed at a reasonable hour last night. I finally surfaced around 11am. I'd planned to do some more stereoscopic photography this morning - before the sun rose too high, ruining the light conditions - and when I got up, the light was already creeping round into the danger zone.

Still, I had already prepared the shot I wanted in my head, so it was easy enough to get it set up. The hardest part, as usual, was getting the models out of the cupboard without knocking the rest over.

The next hurdle was that, while the camera reckoned it had about 50 minutes of charge yesterday, it wasn't five minutes after I turned it on today that it flashed up its battery warning. Thankfully, I managed to fire off three good shots, and have turned them into two 'greyscale' 3D pictures (the second being far more effective than the first) and - just to be all cool and experimental - one full-colour 3D picture. The latter doesn't work as well, but it does work. Assuming the light is still good - and that I get out of bed in good time - I may well do some more tomorrow... The key, as always, is to plan in advance, and have a very good idea of the layout of each shot before I make everything ready.

Now... Where's that camera charger...

Getting the message across

So there I was, just off the phone to my boss about an event we're hoping to get to (the AGM of the folks who organised that stonecarving day I did for my birthday), and I go downstairs to check on the progress of my lunch.

All of a sudden, and without any obvious context, my mother asked me "Do you know (friends of my sister and her husband)?"

I sort-of remember them... The guy frequently argues over trivia with my sister's husband, and the girl (his wife) barely says a word... ever... because whatever she says tends to earn sarcasm in response.

Well, to cut a long story short, this girl has just been diagnosed with terminal breast cancer.

I say 'just diagnosed' but I hear that she's known about the lumps - and been in considerable pain - for at least a year but was (quote) "too afraid to do anything about it". It seems she hadn't told anyone - family, friends, husband - let alone a doctor, and had been passing the pain off as the result of a horse-riding accident. When she finally told her mother, she was whisked off to a doctor, then to a hospital. When examined, they found her now riddled with tumors and, while they're talking about chemotherapy, they're also pumping her full of morphine and describing it as 'terminal'.

Now, say all you want about me lacking sympathy and/or empathy, but how bloody stupid do you have to be to ignore the steadily worsening signs of cancer because you're too scared to find out whether it is definitely cancer? Hell, years ago, my sister found a lump, went straight to hospital and had it removed. That may not have been pleasant for her (and I only found out about it while she was in hospital), better that than wait a full year, 'soldiering on' through increasing pain, only to find you've left it too late to be treated.

Dumb, dumb, dumb... Seriously, that is a special kind of stupid.

"Now everyone's shattered," my mother said. I'm not bloody surprised! A year ago, this could all have been over and forgotten in a few days... Now this young woman is dying because she was too thick - sorry, scared - to get herself checked out when the first signs presented themselves.

And it's not as if medical practitioners need any cajoling to deal with a cancer scare. A couple of years ago, I went to my doctor with a certain discomfort/swelling and, without anyone so much as uttering the 'c' word, I was sent for an ultrasound scan. I was all clear, and I was relieved. That was the end of it.

In this day and age, when they've been recommending for years that women examine themselves regularly and go to their doctor with anything out of the ordinary, not doing so might as well be considered a deliberately slow suicide... I sympathise with her friends, family and husband, but that's about as far as it goes.

Cyberwulf

Following last night's strange outage, here are a couple of images of my basically-finished Sabrewulf repaint of Cybertron Snarl. I'm particularly pleased with the dark metallic brown over the bulk of the model... It was a random mixture of two enamel paints, and it turned out looking great. I actually managed to match the second batch pretty well, considering the first batch was just a few drips of each paint.

The rest of the colourscheme was an attempt to ensure it wasn't all brown and plain. There's copper, silver, touches of gold and a few red highlights dotted about. Of course, I wanted to recolour his translucent yellow missile, but don't really have anything suitable. Translucent red would be ideal...

With so much of the metallic brown, I felt it was important to highlight a few details on his wolf head, hence the gold around the mouth and the black and non-metallic brown emphasising the bags under his red eyes. The gold also extends through the narrow bands leading to his ears, and in the ears themselves.


Robot mode maintains the use of silver to break up the browns, also adding gold to the strip across his chest, the plate at his groin, and his face. There's also a lighter brown used on some of his chest/torso panels. Any kind of paintwork would improve this model dramatically - the plastic used on the basic model doesn't show up any of the molded detail - but the metallics really make the detail leap out.

This is easily the most extensive repaint I've done so far, and I'm really please with the way it turned out.

Foiled!

Having forgotten all about this, I've just tried posting a few pictures of the almost-finished Cybertron Sabrewulf repaint I've been working on, only to find that I can't currently post photos.

I'll give it a go tomorrow...

I keep telling myself that I take my holiday during this particular press week because the magazine is of a manageable size, and generally isn't too problematic... I now realise that's completely untrue.

The Sales Manager is still pretty inept, his team are insane (actually, one isn't that bad... he's just a bit loud and brash. The other one has no filtration between brain and mouth, so she ends up letting an entire stream of consciousness spill out of her gob without ever considering what she's saying or how it sounds. Seriously, one conversation I had with her some time ago went from comic book superheroes to accusations of sexual deviance when I humphed in response to one of her dumb comments), and the editor is bizarre. On the one hand, she's enthusiastic and cares about her content... on the other, she spends more time larking about with 'her' designer (ahem... I think you'll find that's my designer) than any other editor, and that occasionally gets in the way of her designing of ads and suchlike. That which pays the bills. The current theory is that the (bisexual) editor fancies 'her' designer. I don't doubt it.

Sounds like I'm in for a rum old time when I go back next Monday... the editor of my next magazine has been causing trouble and getting angry over very silly things.

Much like the rest of them, then.

I've managed to make a few waves in the office without even being there, by spying on the progress of today's magazine... and catching a mistake. Bizarrely, none of the monkeys I work with seem to have twigged that an internet-based file delivery system can be accessed from anywhere that has internet access... like my home.

Like, duh.

Today's writing went well... it's all very piecemeal. I can't seem to write any narrative from start to finish these days. It's always "beginning, end, middle, bits towards the end, bits around the middle, bits towards the beginning, more bits around the middle..." However it happens, as long as it works, it works and that's all that matters... it's only ever troublesome when the beginning, middle and end don't quite match up where they're supposed to.

Anyway. Tired now... Want to do some reading before I turn in...

Midweek

I know what you're thinking.

"You're on holiday... Not in the office for the whole week... why aren't you blogging every half hour or something?"

Well, I do have other things to do.

Not that I've been doing them, by and large. I had planned to more actively look into property, and the purchase thereof, but a quick chat with one of the salesmen at work last week put me right off that idea. The market, it is said, has reached the point where so many 'buy to let' schemes are failing, banks are no longer mortgaging them, and there's likely to be a huge flood of such properties returning to the market. Prices could plummet, and buying now may mean losing a fair chunk of the value of the property before I'd even moved in. Better to wait till the new year...

Not ideal news, to be honest. Yeah, great, there's a chance I'll get something better at a lower price, but that doesn't do anything about the fact that I'm still living with my parents. On the other hand, while discussing all this with them, it was said that, should one of my grandparents die anytime soon, I wouldn't have to worry about a mortgage...

But I know roughly the areas I'm interested in, and that's a start. It means I won't be quite so blindly fumbling around the property market once I'm properly looking to buy.

In the time I might otherwise have spent doing important things, I've been reading (returning to the first Thomas Covenant trilogy having finished both Wintersmith and Thud! recently), working on a TransFormers repaint that's rather more 'all-over' than my little movie figure touch-ups (pictures to be posted later!), attending to some of my oft-neglected writing, and watching the remainder of Captain Scarlet series 2.

And what an amazing series it is. I know I've said this before, but the storytelling really is leaps and bounds ahead of series 1. The models look slightly more real, landscapes and cityscapes are more complex and used more impressively, movement is better... there's even something approaching lip-synch most of the time (which puts Hypermarionation even further ahead of Supermarionation). Of course, there are a few duff episodes... But my biggest concern about the package is that (a) the synopsis for the final episode in the sleeve is wrong (presumably based on the episode that was rewritten dozens of times before finally being abandoned because it was considered 'too scary for children'), (b) the penultimate episode really should have been the final episode and, (c) the actual final episode would have worked far better at any other point in this series, or as an opener for series 3.

Returning to point (b), it occurred to me some time after I'd seen the whole of series 2 that, if one were to re-edit and splice together the series 1 pilot episodes "Instrument of Destruction (parts 1 & 2)" and series 2 episode 12 "Dominion", one would have a rather fine "New Captain Scarlet - The Movie".

I hope they do at least one more series of this... The story isn't over by any stretch of the imagination, and they've opened so many doors for possible future plots and events... But it seems that this experiment into computer generated Hypermarionation may have come to a premature end.

Familiar Faces

Over the weekend, I popped into Harrow to get a replacement for my factory-ruined TF Movie Strongarm, and browse for a new winter coat. On the former, I was successful. On the latter, I was not.

I have sometimes noticed that however grumpy shop staff look when I get to them, I've normally got a smile out of them before I leave... Strange, that. Also weird is that certain shops have a policy whereby, if they cannot determine the price of the item you wish to purchase, they will make a price up. Because of this, I ended up paying an extra £3 for the replacement Strongarm, as it's meant to be £7.99, but I was originally only charged a random £4.99 because the barcode wasn't recognised by the reader. Oh well. This new one works, and doesn't have a glue spillage in one knee.

Of coats, there were plenty... just none in my size. It's amazing that Small is such a popular size, really... I could make do with a Medium but, frankly, if I'm paying £80+ for a winter jacket, I'd like it to fit, please.

As I left Harrow, I glimpsed a familiar face out of the corner of my eye... One of the Salesmen I worked with years ago, back when I first started in my current job. Either that, or someone startlingly like him. I must admit, the guy I saw in Harrow seemed shorter than the Salesman I remember... but it's been so long, I couldn't be sure. Same smile... definitely same nose.

It is perhaps because of this that I did something very silly before I went to bed last night... Seeing one familiar face possibly stirred the need to see some more... Whatever.

Let's get one thing very straight: I loathe Facebook. I don't see the point of it, beyond the adolescent need to create a sense of community for oneself by having dozens of people you don't know add you to their list of friends because you're a friend of a friend of a friend... of a friend. I also loathe it because so many people at work seem to spend their entire lives either down the pub, or in Facebook.

Get lives, people.

Anyway... Adding to the "What possessed me?" file of utter stupidity, curiosity got the better of me and I popped over to Facebook late last night and tapped in a few names.

Really, they were names I should never want to utter ever again... Names I'd do well to forget... And yet they are names I can't seem to rid myself of.

And because I found a couple of them (the others probably wouldn't use their own names) and because they're looking happy (God forbid), I found myself flustered and unable to sleep.

They're still out there... and, I guess, I still need closure.

I am very angry with myself right now.

REALLY Giant F'ing Robots Are Here (for a limited time only)

Forgot to mention yesterday that I'd been to see TransFormers at IMAX. Gotta say, fourth time, I'm still liking it. Obviously the sound was crystal clear this time, so there was no difficulty in understanding any of the robot dialogue. Even Frenzy's bizarre mutterings became clear (particularly when he beheads himself with one of his own razor discs and - quite obviously - says "Oh, shit..."). The robots looked awesome and, while I'd disagree that the fight scenes were blurry on the massive IMAX screen, that format in general is a very convincing argument against the juddery camerawork that has become de rigeur in Hollywood.

Did the extra 2 minutes add anything to the movie? Not really... Just another couple of gags and a few redundant scenes. Nothing that will be missed on the DVD release.

Did IMAX presentation add anything to the movie? Well... Yes and no. It's the same movie, warts and all... but the giant robots really were giant, and the detail on them was phenomenal. Seeing Bonecrusher's highway transformation on such a large screen was worth the entrance fee alone. I would urge anyone who liked the movie to catch its limited engagement in IMAX

First week, close

And so we begin again in our new office in a new location in west London. True to my predictions, I don't miss the old place, and I'm not remotely troubled by the differences between offices old and new. The layout kinda works, the air conditioning works (the leak turned out to be unrelated to the aircon, something on the roof was leaking and, supposedly, has now been fixed), the computers work, the network is there, the internet is there (albeit slower, because IS didn't think we needed the faster connection in the new office), and we continue to function almost seamlessly.

No-one has mentioned missing the old place, so I can only assume that they don't. The 'bistro bar' is actually pretty darned good, with quite a variety of food, so it doesn't seem as important that we can't pop out of the office to the dozens of different restaurants or food shops that Notting Hill had to offer. Transport is easier for some, and more difficult for others... My journey, in terms of travel time, is much the same... But I can get away with being later before I arrive at the office late.

My magazine going to press on Monday could be healthier... The brand new designer somehow got the idea she had till next Friday to finish, so there are ten bits of editorial untouched. Neither she nor the Editor saw fit to voice any concerns to me (y'know, being Production Manager and all), so I had no idea. On Monday, I'll be redistributing the work between team members so we can get it all done. Not the most auspicious of beginnings for a new member of staff.

Worse still, the ads are in a terrible state. In the morning, 23 ads were not properly booked onto the system, and there were 13 pages filled with free ads. Somehow the Sales team had convinced the Commercial Manager that they had record takings, and so were being encouraged to keep the 13 pages to see how well they could really do.

My counterpart's team has been having an interesting time. With one designer on holiday, our Junior has been filling in... and the Editor he worked with prefers him. He's easier to work with, doesn't whine constantly and, contrary to many of my expectations, is a far better designer by most standards. It's a shame he had to flunk a chance at promotion before he raised his game.

In other news, I was planning to go back to Kingston today, to return my TF Movie Strongarm for replacement. On the way home last night, by boss offered to drive me if I could put it off till next weekend... I didn't go today but, depending on how I feel, I may yet brave public transport tomorrow. Of course, the idea of spending about an hour and a half travelling for a transaction that will be completed (assuming Strongarm is still in stock) in seconds seems a little daft even to me...

To occupy myself instead, I've been painting like crazy on my TF Cybertron Sabrewulf. Robot mode is all but complete now - just need to let things dry to avoid mucking up what I've already done, then tidy up a bit. Once I'm completely happy, I'll put him back into wolf mode and complete that (mostly details on the forelegs) and see what gets damaged by the moving parts. I was even able to mix an excellent approximation of the darker metallic brown I came up with last time, so it looks nice and even. This is going to be one cool custom paintjob...

On the subject of custom painting of TransFormers, it seems that the UK market for customs isn't quite as big as the US market. On eBay today, I found a bunch of movie customs going for only a couple of quid more than one could buy the plain, box-fresh version in the shops. Compare and contrast to the results of similar auctions on the US site, where certain customs sold for several hundred dollars.

In my slack moments, I watched more of New Captain Scarlet season 2... and I'm mightily impressed. Not only has Ron Thornton's team outdone themselves in terms of the CG work (way beyond even the best of Babylon 5), but the stories are - by and large - grittier and more interesting, with fewer condescensions to the 'kiddie' audience. The opening episode has some moments that are not for the squeamish. There are a couple of episodes that - for no obvious reason - lacked the 'back-and-forth scene cuts with dramatic percussion', which I'm guessing was an oversight at the editing stage. I quite liked season one, but this new season is bloody amazing. Roll on season 3... and more CG re-imaginings of Gerry Anderson's puppet shows.