Cool feedback

So, having won both auctions yesterday, I checked to see if I'd had any email from the seller and found that he'd already done my feedback. Both positive (naturally) and one actually quite funny:

Carlsberg don't make eBayers... but if they did, he'd be one

Anyone not familiar with the Carlsberg lager ads won't see the joke, but for many years they claimed to be "probably the best lager in the world", and the more recent ads are playing on that more subtly with "Carlsberg don't make [whatever], but if they did, they'd probably be the best [whatever]s in the world."

Today saw the first round of training for one of our many new systems. It didn't help that the trainer from the software company was crap, unfocussed and incredibly dull to listen to. Nor did it help that the software as it stands is not as it was described to us... The 'upgrades' have made it potentially far less user friendly for the idiot clients we want to push it to, and it has serious fundamental flaws in its 'final' output. Nothing insurmountable, when one has me on staff... but that could be said of so many things. I found myself getting quite angry at several points, not least because this rubbish was keeping me from staying on top of my magazine, which goes to press tomorrow.

If it weren't for the fact that we'd already bought it, I'd be tempted to suggest we give it a miss.

On the upside, Sleepy Cat will be appearing in the magazine.

Bidding

As in 'farewell to some money' and 'welcome to some new cool stuff courtesy of an eBay auction'.

Certain people are going to roll their eyes and point out that, in my life, this sort of thing is all too typical but, not long (16 days, to be precise) after I describe my purchase of Shadowhawk Cosmos Type thusly:

"I bought this largely because of its rarity and because it is FAR cheaper than second-hand buying the 2006 BotCon repaints as Buzzsaw and Laserbeak, so this one mitigates my feelings of terrible loss :P"

fully expecting to never see said BotCon repaints except at horribly extortionate prices, I find them and BotCon 2006 Tigatron (aka 'Unit 1') in eBay auctions.

Obviously I had to bid.

And, for most of this week, I was WAY ahead of other bidders (some of whom clearly were not serious). It was only yesterday and today that I met anything like stiff competition... And the only reason I had to increase my bids (yes, roll those eyes again, why don't you) was that I didn't follow my own advice. I didn't start out bidding the most I'd willingly pay for those models, I just bid what I expected to get away with.

As usual, the last minute snatch-and-grab bidders came along this evening (with only a couple of hours to go!) and almost stole away my prize.

But 'almost' ain't good enough. Heheh.

I must admit, I don't necessarily feel that I've been entirely sensible... They're sought-after... but perhaps not utterly necessary additions to my collection (OK, not until I can properly display the BotCon 2006 boxed set). Still... Me and limited editions... I can go a little crazy sometimes.

And, frankly, considering how fortunate I was to find them at all, considering how long I will often go without ever bothering to check eBay, it'd be daft not to put in an offer... and even more daft not to win if I can afford to. It is often observed (not always by me) how fortunate I am, in many ways. This seems to be a very tangible example.

I shall consider it my treat to me, ahead of the summer Memorabilia next weekend. I've hardly bought anything these last couple of shows (Memorabilias and the London Expos), so it probably evens out in some vast, cosmic sense.

Yeah, right.

In other toy news... My TF Movie toys list now looks a bit more like this:

Leader
Optimus Prime
Megatron
Brawl

Voyager
Blackout
Ratchet
Ironhide
Starscream
Thundercracker

The addition of Megatron should be fairly obvious, considering I've wittered on about painting him (and, having seen the similar efforts of others, I may well end up painting the whole darned thing), but Ironhide and Starscream I snagged last week on a visit to Toys'R'Us. My boss decided it'd be cool to visit three different branches after work in a three day period, which turned out to be more worthwhile than I'd expected. Still no sign of the new Deluxes... but, if all else fails, there's always Memorabilia...

In other, other news... Work isn't great. My boss is having to cover my counterpart's workload as he's off with pneumonia, so things aren't necessarily as smooth as they might be. That said, she picks up on far more potential problems with artwork than he would, so it's all swings and roundabouts. The nest of vipers is hissing as always, and far too many of them are showing what utter bastards they are. Just goes to show, it's one thing to hang out with colleagues... but utter stupidity to call them 'friends'.

One last thing before I sign off... Doctor Who.

Now, I count myself among the many fans who are glad the series is back, and being taken seriously by those who work on it... but, let's face it, John Simm just isn't the Master. Just as David Tennant's Doctor is just 'Mr Shouty Indignant', Simm's Master is... well... a clown. He's Doctor Evil from the Austin Powers movies. I was so thrilled at the prospect of Derek Jacobi playing the Master that I didn't consider the possibility that he might only be playing it as a bridge to a newer, younger Master to go up against the newer, younger Doctor. Who would? If you cast someone like Derek Jacobi, why would you ever want to kill him off and regenerate him into someone else?

And then there's this season's 2-part finale... Am I alone in feeling a tad cheated that, after a Dalek Season 1 Finale, and a Daleks vs Cybermen Season 2 Finale, Season 3 ends with millions of small robotic spheres decimating the planet? I mean, really, part of me just doesn't give a toss what happens in the last episode... I'd rather just skip to the next series and, hopefully, some decent stories.

Rain, rain, go away...

There's something decidedly odd about summer rain.

Not that it's unusual in any way... Not in this country, anyway. It's just odd that, during what should be the days of clear skies and sunshine, we're overcast by dark broody cloud that suddenly lets loose a pelting rain.

Glad I wasn't out in it.

Kind of a depressing weekend, even without the rain. I'm having one of those funny turns where I have things I should be doing - getting my hair cut, doing some writing or sketching (photography is out because the weather has messed up the light) or even just reading - but whenever I try to do something, I get drowsy... and the moment I start feeling drowsy, I can't do anything.

And when I can't do anything, I get listless.

And when I get listless, I start eating when I'm not hungry.

That's one really bizarre thing about me: As long as I have something keeping me occupied, I can easily forget about eating because I don't feel the hunger. As soon as I get bored, I start shovelling food (OK, I mean biscuits, jaffa cakes, sweets, whatever I can get my hands on that isn't really 'food') into my gob like it's going out of fashion, whether I feel any hunger or not.

On the upside, my computer seems to have settled down now that automatic updates are off, I've found a couple of cool auctions on eBay that seem to be going my way (so far - both end tomorrow evening), and I've found a website that has episodes of Beast Wars for download. I only ever caught a couple of episodes of the original Mainframe BW TV series and it's still not available on DVD, so this is particularly fortuitous. While it was clearly aimed at kids, what I've seen of it so far is not condescending in the least. Fun, not entirely serious, but it doesn't talk down to its audience. Hell, one of the good guys is openly and frequently insubordinate... and yet still likable. One can only hope the live action movie fares as well...

Back to work

And was pretty fed up with it within a couple of hours, frankly.

Small magazine, but took till 7.15pm yesterday to get it finished. Designer says "Blame last week's mammoth magazine", but then it turned out he'd redesigned half of this magazine against Group Production Manager's instruction and despite the Editor's assurance that the redesign wouldn't be as extensive as it actually was.

They're a frustrating bunch. Always trying to get one over on you, one way or another.

In the Good News column, though, my boss has been treating me to an after-work tour of London's branches of Toys'R'Us, in search of TF Movie toys. Yesterday was Hayes (nothing new), tonight was Watford, where I snagged Wave 2 Voyagers Ironhide and Starscream. Too late to go into detail on these... Probably going to wait till the weekend.

The short version is: They're cool.

I'm also being treated to a week of small, extra birthday presents, the first being a small, easily portable kite. Perfect for safely channelling out those feelings of frustration and murderous rage brought on by the rampant stupidity of others.

Ahem.

33 and a day

First things first: The Birthday Haul...

From my folks, I got the TF Micron Legend (aka Armada) Scourge, based on the deluxe-sized Optimus Prime mold, so now I have that same model in black (Scourge) and white (Universe Ultra Magnus). As with UM, he has exactly the same Mini-Con as deluxe Prime, but it's such a poseable model, I don't mind. Plus, there were so many Mini-Con repaints, it hardly notices.

From Helen & Mark, I got Art Speigelman's 'In the Shadow of No Towers', his unique documentary on 9/11, along with reproductions of cartoons, political and otherwise, from the early days of comics. The version I have is a much smaller format to the one I saw in the States when it first came out, but it's still printed on board rather than paper, making it a weighty book in more ways than one.

From my old mate Paul, I got a really cool Flash Gordon t-shirt which I have been instructed to wear to work...

And from my boss, I got a day's course in stonecarving, which resulted in 'Sleepy Cat':

This started its life as a much simpler idea - basically a blob with ears, a couple of paws and a tail sticking out, which I would have called 'Blobby Cat'... but, as I chipped away, lots of details started popping out. The strange thing is that I finished this earlier than anyone else finished theirs... but then, I'm probably the only one who has blisters.

For the last few minutes, as I write, I have been observing something rather odd. Over the road, a small child dressed in a tiger costume (well, tigerskin hoodie with ears and a tail) has been hiding behind a garage at the back of the garden my bedroom overlooks. Just goes to show that some children haven't forgotten how to play...

When I started writing, I'm sure there was much else to relate... but likkle tiger kiddy has distracted me and I can't remember any of it. Oh well...

Not troublesome... just plain weird

Things went a bit weird for a while this afternoon.

My folks have been talking about getting my phone line transferred into my name for months now, and today we finally got that sorted out. The process needed my father and I to be in the same room, so he could explain what was required, and I could hand over my bank details.

I was advised by the BT representative to call my ISP to let them know the transfer was happening. When I did so, I was told that this was because BT would be cancelling my Broadband, and I'd have to order it all over again, and pay another installation fee... not to mention wait for them to set it up.

Considering I already have broadband, this seemed ludicrous. What's a guy to do but... cancel.

Except, of course, by the time I got through to BT again, the transfer had already happened (I was advised to call back "as soon as possible" if I decided to cancel) and so 'cancelling' would not merely transfer the line back to my parents, but completely cancel the account - phone and broadband - and cost me 3 months line rental into the bargain.

Of course, by this point, I'd noticed that my broadband was still working.

I queried this with the BT representative (cancellations seem to get you transferred to a call centre in India, while merely transferring it from one name to another was dealt with in the UK) who, once he'd understood that I already have a line, seemed to tell me that, yes, I already have functioning broadband as well.

Thanking him profusely (and telling him I was absolutely satisfied with the way he dealt with my call), I hung up and phoned my ISP again...

...Who, once I'd explained the situation, were able to confirm that yes, I have functioning Broadband, and that nothing had obviously changed.

The guy I spoke to expressed some incredulity that "there is such a procedure" where the line is transferred to a new account with no interruption to service, but there we go...

Perhaps it's a mistake, or perhaps there was some confusion at my ISP over what I was telling them earlier.

Or maybe the service interruption hasn't caught up with me yet...

Troublesome

So my laptop spectacularly failed to start up this morning.

No obvious reason, just black screen and no hard disk activity after Windows had started to load.

Thankfully, as Windows has improved, so has its crash recovery. Switching off the machine, then switching it on again kicked it into Safe Mode and offered me a system recovery, which I gladly accepted.

Because, naturally, the machine spectacularly failed to start up after applying a Windows Update.

Funnily enough, these are disabled on all the office machines, and I can see why. While it's useful to have the most up to date software running one's machine, if the most up to date software isn't compatible with one's machine, one is liable run into some difficulty.

So, Automatic Updates are disabled now. Tsk.

Rated R, for being Really, really long...

So, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. Not so much the third film as the end of the second. It's long. Really, really long. So long, in fact, that the cinema decided to insert an intermission (is this true everywhere, or just where I saw it?). I haven't seen a bloody intermission since I was knee high to a grasshopper...

It's good enough as a film in its own right (or it would be, if it was). Special effects are awesome, though occasionally a bit too busy - the fight/sea battle scenes in particular are very choppy and difficult to follow - and the script shows some flashes of brilliance...

...but it also wastes most of its cast, makes a mockery of so much in the previous two (the Kraken, for example, is rendered obsolete) and, being the end of part two rather than a story in its own right, you end up feeling like you've sat through over five hours of film that could easily have been edited down to one 2 hour movie if only they'd passed it by an editor after the initial brainstorming session.

As a 'final part of a trilogy', it's way better than The Matrix Revolutions (not hard) but one is left with the abiding impression that it's paving the way for Pirates of the Caribbean 4 (technically 3): The Fountain of Youth.

Hasn't Tomb Raider already done that?

Anyway... In the meantime, can we put an end to this silly argument over whether it's pronounced 'Ka-Rib-Ian' or 'Karra-Bee-An'. It's either, depending on where you're from. Say either. Anyone from the Caribbean will know where you're talking about.

Raised voices

One thing that should be remembered at all times is that my father is always right. Even when, as far as every scrap of empirical evidence is concerned, he is wrong.

I refer, specifically, to the night vision CCTV camera my mother recently purchased via eBay. Forget, for a moment, that she started out convinced that she'd been sent the wrong thing because the 'wireless' CCTV camera came with cable attachments (in case, y'know, you don't want to run it wireless) and a power supply rather than a battery compartment (how long would batteries last running the camera, the light sensor and the large bank of IR LEDs? And how hefty a battery, or how many would be needed to power it - for the sake of argument - overnight?)

She bought the camera, ostensibly, to watch our garden wildlife during the wee hours. I don't think it will be long before she's using it to spy on our rowdy neighbours and their street parties. But that's just me.

At some point, my father decided to investigate these wonderous bits of electronic trickery, as is his wont. He decided, based on a small piece of paper referring to a 12v power supply and an 8v power supply, that we'd been sent the wrong power supply for the camera. What it actually says is "If you have a camera with one of these model numbers, you should have an 8v power supply, while cameras with either of these model numbers require a 12v power supply".

Guess who hadn't bothered to check the model number of the camera, and so assumed that one set of model numbers was the camera, while the other set was the receiver.

Even after I explained the true meaning of the instructions, he still couldn't see why there wasn't an 8v power supply in the package.

For a smart guy, he has huge problems with logical progression.

I've been repainting Movie Megatron some more... and finding that the more I paint, the more I see that "could use a lick of paint to make it stand out a bit more". At this rate, I'll end up painting the whole bloody thing.

On another note, earlier today I had to smile when I heard the screams of many little girls from the school down the road (my old school, as it happens... all those many years ago). From the volume of the screams, and the overall sound of them, one could be forgiven for thinking some terrible nightmarish monster had sprung from the ground and started eating them... But, no. The reason for their screams was far more mundane.

It was raining.

Getting into gear

As is the way of things when I take time off, I go through four stages of thought:

1) "I haven't quite realised I'm on holiday yet" (Saturday/Sunday)
2) "Hell's bells... A whole week away from work? What am I going to do with all this time" (Monday/Tuesday)
3) "Uh-oh... I'm halfway through my holiday, and I haven't done anything yet" (Wednesday)
4) "Oh, nuts... Holiday's over. Back to work, then..." (Friday/Saturday/Sunday)

It's almost amusing to see myself go through this each and every time. I really should put together some kind of itinerary for all time off work, so I've got things to do, or goals to achieve. Something.

OK, Monday wasn't a total waste, but I only went toy shopping. The fact that I also came back with my mother's Christmas present for this year and a few more DVDs is neither here nor there. I could have bought some new clothes, but it seems that some of the more interesting shirts I own already are too distracting for work, so I was a little reluctant. Some of my older clothes are in desperate need of retirement, though...

Yesterday, boredom and frustration hit, so I did nothing but bum around on the internet, wondering why there's never any toy news on a Tuesday, why the webcomics never update on a Tuesday, and why everything I did find seemed so very boring.

Today... Something clicked and, while I wasted the entire morning, and a good couple of hours of the afternoon, I did eventually start doing things. OK, nothing of Earth-shattering import, but I was doing things.

I dragged out the Saturn and fired up Panzer Dragoon Saga again, reaching my first encounter with Atolm and Azel (and dying, largely because every time I fired up the Vengence Orbs, Atolm warped behind me, and hit me with his lasers BEFORE Azel commanded him to use Berzerker Rage, thus utterly wasting the effects of my Orbs. The git). Then, realising that the light was fading, I put my white boards on my chair and photographed my newest acquisitions. Finally, after dinner, and as the sun disappeared below the horizon, I decided to add some paintwork to my Movie Megatron, bringing it a little closer to the pictures on the packaging.

My folks went off to Regents Park Zoo this morning, took loads of photos, and then found themselves unable to retrieve them because the cameras they took - little 'spy' cameras - won't switch on, even when connected to their computer. Awful luck, considering they reckoned on about 70 photos, if I remember correctly.

Not a good sign

It's the second day of my week off work, and already I'm so bored I wish I was at work. I'm sure that's another sign that I'm a workaholic.

Grrr.

It's not that I haven't tried to do anything. Tried some photography, but in a very half-arsed way (when I first started in the morning, the camera's battery was all but discharged, so I had to wait till it recharged to do anything constructive). I've tried to sit down and work on my website. I've tried sketching a new picture for my website, possibly as a lead-in to the TF Collection part.

I'm feeling very restless, and yet quite tired... and oh, so very bored.

Or had I mentioned that already?

And as an aside...

...If anyone's wondering what really happened to Saddam Hussein after that big trial of his, he seems to be alive and well, living somewhere near Uxbridge, and getting around on one of those electric cart things.

Seriously, though, the guy I saw looked eerily like the deposed despot. Hair died black (beard not) looking haunted and disheveled. Very strange.

Shopping

It was kind of worth visiting Uxbridge...

TF Movie Leader Class
Optimus Prime
Megatron
Brawl

Yes, that's one more figure scratched off my shopping list. Leader class Megatron is... Strange. Not the most posable, not the best looking and, in comparison to Leader class Optimus Prime, all-round not very good. But as an exercise in transferring the movie's CGI model into three dimensional toy form, it's not terrible. The electronic lights and sounds add next to nothing and, had they not been included, the toy might have been marginally better.

Almost sounds like I already regret buying it...

The Entertainer had a much smaller arrangement of movie stuff. They had a good proportion of what was available at Toys'R'Us, but on a much smaller scale - no more than the usual shelf space has been devoted to TransFormers, and the crappy knock-offs are still pegged in there with the movie stuff and the few remaining Cybertron models. It's tempting to pop down to Kingston sometime this week, as their branch of The Entertainer is larger... and right next door to Shakeaway...

Dust

One tends to think of dust as a passive thing. It just sits there, doesn't do anything, and simply waits to be vacuumed up or brushed away.

This is, of course, not the case. Dust gathers. Any kind of disturbance is met with the same response - it lifts up into the air and makes its attacker sneeze.

I discovered this earlier today while vacuuming my room. The sneezing has now, by and large, stopped, but I still have the nagging distrust of the flat surfaces around me...

I also ended up giving my desk something approaching a proper clean, wiping away the odd sticky patches (which turn dust into grime) and, by chance, discovering an exploded battery. I knew the battery was there and, in fact, I'd picked up the exploded end cap a couple of weeks ago (wondering what on earth it could be - a small blunt metal pin with a comparatively large flat head, covered in grey, vaguely crystalline gunk), but only figured out what had happened when I moved the cardboard battery pack out from under my printer. The bottom of the last remaining battery was missing, and inside was a lump of grey, vaguely crystalline gunk. The underside of the printer is coated with the same grey, vaguely crystalline gunk.

No idea when it exploded, but I'm pretty sure it would have made some kind of popping sound, not to mention the metallic skittering of the end cap as it bounced underneath the printer and out toward the window.

Strange... Not least because I don't understand why that would happen. Sure, batteries aren't perfectly inert while in storage... but this thing had just been sitting around unused... You don't tend to see them explode on the shelves, do you?

I shall be popping off to Uxbridge a little later than originally hoped. I suspect I shall grab myself a sandwich or two before I go, considering it's now close to 1pm...

There goes the neighbourhood

I don't know what's happened to this neighbourhood...

Actually, that's not true, I just don't want to sound racist or anti-European by ranting about the bloody rowdy Polish morons down the road.

Right, well... We have some noisy neighbours. Not just the Poles, it has to be said. Some nights, I can hear some very English arguments going on - very loudly - along the road. Varying stages of drunkenness in the voices, as is to be expected. Over this weekend, though - and I genuinely haven't noticed it before, so hopefully it's some kind of specific celebration, rather than a taste of what's to come every night from now on - a certain household of Eastern European origin has been out in the streets being loud long into the morning and, this evening, playing guitar (quite well, as it happens) and singing (not so well) in their back garden.

I'm glad this isn't a work night for me... then again, perhaps it is for them... they seem to have stopped, finally.

Flee! Flea!

I suppose it's a peril of owning a pet...

There I was, minding my own business, surfing the internet on a lazy Sunday afternoon, contemplating Pimms (though not drinking any... bizarrely, we seem only to have Pimms Winter, which clearly cannot be drunk during summer... it just wouldn't be proper), watching movie trailers, and feeling generally quite good for having sorted my display shelves to accommodate the TF Movie toys I shall inevitable accrue...

...When I felt a little tickle on my neck. I reached up to scratch it and felt something small and mobile. I've seen flies dancing around my room all day because (gasp) I've had my bedroom window open since yesterday (even slept on top of my bed, starkers, because it's been so warm. Steady on, gentle reader, that's as explicit as it gets). When I looked at my hand, I had a brief glimpse of small, dark insect-y thing before it jumped away, landing on my trousers. I caught it (loosely speaking) and tried to grab it to (ahem) dispose of it, but the bloody thing bounced away again... and, despite spraying my room with household flea killer, I'm still getting those strange prickly itches that my body does when it's aware of biting insects. The flea is probably dead somewhere... but you try telling my nerve endings that.

So, while I'd planned to visit Uxbridge tomorrow, my first order of business will be vacuuming my room. God knows, it needs to be done. There are scone fragments scattered about under my desk that are at least a week old because I'm so bloody lazy about cleaning. It's not as if it's much effort, thanks to the wood tile floor, but for whatever reason, I always leave vacuuming too long... Partly, I suppose, because my mother occasionally claims to have vacuumed (carefully not mentioning that she's only done the couple of square metres of visible floor when the bed is down and the door is open), and it would feel rude to do it 'again' only a day or so later.

There's the plan, then. Wake up, shower, have breakfast, vacuum, go to Uxbridge. Possibly eat out... though it always feels rather pathetic to be eating out on my own.

Parallels... or Déjà Who

You've got to wonder about the team behind the new Doctor Who when, towards the end of the third series, they've already recycled several ideas from series two.

First, they treated us to 42, very nearly a heavily condensed, blow by blow rehash of The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit minus the big scary CGI monster. Now we have been presented with Blink, effectively very similar to Love & Monsters in premise and because The Doctor is hardly in it.

Let's look at that part first.

The Doctor isn't in Blink until the final few minutes, apart from his fleeting appearance on TV screens. The Doctor isn't in Love & Monsters until the final couple of minutes apart from fleeting appearances in chase scenes. The reason for this? Are the writers becoming daring, and coming up with interesting stories in which The Doctor can safely become a minor character? Well, in the case of Blink, they could use that excuse, but it's actually down to something far more practical: Scheduling conflicts.

Somehow, they've managed to schedule the filming of series two and three so that David Tennant has to be filming elsewhere while one whole episode is being put together, so he only has time for a brief appearance. Isn't that a bit... sloppy? Especially when the two episodes that he's in so little have so much in common?

A quick breakdown:
Series 2, Love & Monsters
Features the Abzorbaloff, a monster which feeds on life and is after The Doctor because a Time Lord's many lives would make a great meal, and a main character searching for The Doctor. The Doctor, meanwhile, is just going about business as usual, having adventures with Rose, making only fleeting appearances until the end, when he meets the main character. Everyone around the main character starts to fall victim to the Abzorbaloff.

Series 3, Blink
Features 'The Weeping Angels', a group of monsters which feed on life ('potential energy' - they send their victims back in time, then take the energy of what would have been their remaining days in the present... Eh?) which are after the Tardis, as it would make a great meal. The main character, meanwhile, stumbles upon them while photographing a 'haunted house', and happens upon a message written by The Doctor, to her, back in 1969, where he's trapped because of an encounter with The Weeping Angels. Several people around the main character fall victim to the Angels, only to leave her messages to help her on her quest. The Doctor makes fleeting appearances on TV screens until the end, when he meets the main character.

Um. Yeah.

Blink is far better than Love & Monsters, and in so many ways... Not least because it features neither Peter Kay, nor the suggestion of a man having a love life with a sentient paving slab. Blink is cleverly written - the writer adapted a short story he wrote for a Doctor Who annual - while Love & Monsters was a farce. The Abzorbaloff wasn't remotely scary and, aside from being smaller than intended, was an accurate representation of the creature which won the Blue Peter competition. The Weeping Angels, meanwhile, are a cleverly thought out race of creatures, whose premise is designed to scare and unsettle the viewer: While they are being observed, they are stone statues... as soon as you look away or blink, they come to life and move with impossible speed. There was a very clever sequence toward the end of the episode where one of them made a light bulb flicker, meaning they couldn't be seen while it was out, leading to a sequence of flickering images of them approaching the episode's protagonists as they tried to get into the Tardis. They were defeated because they ended up looking at each other.

Even so, I feel somewhat cheated. That it was a great episode in its own right does not make up for the fact that it's the second time series three has rehashed ideas from series two. That said, I'd be perfectly happy (in so many ways) if the series two episode Love & Monsters had never happened. Conversely, given the choice between series two's double bill of The Impossible Planet and The Satan Pit versus series three's tired, clichéd and clumsy 42, I'd go for the older offering every time.

You know, I'd quite like to write an episode of Doctor Who one of these days... Hum.

Cosmic!

My two latest TransFormers acquisitions arrived on Friday, and both are pretty darned cool. For whatever reason (sudden burst of creativity?) I'm thinking a bit more seriously about updating my website or, at least, the collections section. There must be a way of doing what I'd really like to do... It's just a matter of learning how to do it.

Which may, as it happens, turn out to be a dangerous thing to do, because my employers are/were looking for an in-house technical person, proficient in HTML, CSS, etc. to take over the technical side of administering our myriad websites. Frankly, I don't want that person to be me... And having the required skills and knowledge may tempt me to change my mind having turned it down already. The company seems to have a talent for treating its assets shabbily. At the Annual Report presentation last week, much was made of the wonderful profits made by the company as a whole, and particularly by our little branch... No mention was made of the fact that these wonderful profits came at the expense of our payrises.

But anyway. New toys.

Energon Slugslinger is the same hopelessly overcomplicated mold as the TFCC exclusive Airazor. All the photos I've seen of this model made it look pretty garish. In person, his white is actually light grey, and the violent green is actually quite sludgy and vaguely translucent. Overall, bizarrely, his colourscheme seems quite balanced. Transformation, as one would expect, is identical to Airazor, with all the same quirks and bits that don't quite fit. Nevertheless, Slugslinger is one of the more imaginative models to come out of the Energon line... It's just a shame he never officially made it to the UK.

Superlink Shadowhawk Cosmic Type is essentially a blue repaint of Shadowhawk/Divebomb, exclusive to Japan. Despite its simplicity and quite obvious 'Robot Head Is Bird Form's Tail' syndrome, I'm rather fond of this model. It's very well articulated considering how it transforms and, aside from a very strange-looking robot head, looks great in either mode. I bought this largely because of its rarity and because it is FAR cheaper than second-hand buying the 2006 Botcon repaints as Buzzsaw and Laserbeak, so this one mitigates my feelings of terrible loss :P

Now I'm off work for a week, I'm trying to figure out what to do with the time. Normally, when I book holiday, I'm at a loss for things to do unless I'm actually going away. I really don't want to waste this holiday loafing around at home. I know I want to get my hair trimmed, and I'd also quite like to pop up to Uxbridge one day in the week to see what The Entertainer has by way of TF Movie toys (Deluxes, I'm hoping, and possibly Leader class Megatron). With the news that there will be Gen 1-inspired repaints of some characters (if not all!), I'm going to have to plan my purchases a bit more thoroughly, and not go in for impulse buying. To this end, my (current) shopping list is:

Leader
Optimus Prime
Megatron
Brawl

Voyager
Blackout
Ratchet
Ironhide
Starscream
Thundercracker

Deluxe
Jazz
2008 Bumblebee
Scorponok
Wreckage
Barricade
Bonecrusher
Arcee

Real Gear
Spy Shot 6
Power Up VT6
Longview
Speed Dial 800
Zoom Out 25X
Booster X10

Gen 1 Repaints
Jazz
Ratchet

Other things may get added as they're announced. I'd love to see a Leader class Blackout (with or without Scorponok), and I'm keeping my options open on the Ultimate Bumblebee model... but that should do me for the moment.

There are plenty of other things I could do. My folks have invited me on one of their little day trips on the Wednesday, assuming the weather holds. I may take them up on that, or I may try to find other things to do 'outside'.

If nothing else, I'm now very behind in my collection photography, and need to think about reorganizing my shelves (again) to incorporate the movie toys. It's possible that we'll be doing a bit of cupboard clearance in the spare room... We shall see.

A kind of restraint

Well, actually some might say it was very restrained of me to wait two whole days before splurging on TransFormers movie toys. Street date - global, by the sounds of things - was 2nd June, and I waited till today before visiting Brent Cross Toys'R'Us and grabbing an armful.

Admittedly, I only really waited because my boss asked me over the weekend if I fancied popping down there (largely because, at the time, she was considering visiting some nearby shops to get a new party frock for the upcoming celebration of the 100th issue of one of our magazines). Much better to get a lift down there and back home with my haul, than to get the bus down there and carry an oversize plastic bag all the way home.

The trip was almost called off at the end of the day because I developed a headache. While I blustered that "no force on Earth could keep me from TF Movie Toys!", had the headache not been on the improve, I would have opted to head straight home.

I'm glad that wasn't necessary as, while the selection on offer was oddly stilted (Ratchet and Blackout were the only Voyager-class figures on offer, and Optimus Prime was the only Leader-class, with no deluxes at all, but pegs full of Real Gears, Legends, 3" Titaniums and Fast Action Battlers), the display was awesome. The TF display has taken the place of the Doctor Who selection right at the front of the store, with a massive 3D display on the wall above the racks of products. Along with the toys are oddities like the dinner set, lunch bag, bath fizz and transforming tooth brush(!), not to mention a selection of stuff from the older Cybertron range, and even some Classics.

My haul this evening was as follows: Leader-class Optimus Prime, Real Gears Longview, Spyshot, Speed Dial and Highscore, and Cybertron Swindle. They are running a "buy one, get one half price" offer largely, it would seem, because every other bugger is. It's rumoured to have started with Argos, whose computerised ordering system just couldn't understand people buying two of the same thing (perhaps because their daft ordering system has one order number for an entire size class, regardless of how many models there are in that class). Who knows, and who cares? The end result is that you kind of wonder why they don't just reduce the prices across the board. Of course, "buy one, get one half price" easily explains why they only had the one Leader-class toy.

I'll get some photos up soon (I'm off work next week!), but in the meantime, I offer a brief overview. Of the Real Gears, Longview is the only disappointment because I expected him to be slightly larger. He turns into binoculars barely large enough for a child. OK, fine, these are intended for children, but you'd need a very young 'un for Longview to be the right size. Spyshot is a very convincing camera and, while his viewfinder is useless, he does have a satisfying click to his shutter button. It doesn't to anything but click, but it's still pretty cool. Speed Dial is a fairly convincing replica cellphone, even down to the little ring on which one can hang charms, though he's easily the weakest in robot mode. Highscore is a very well executed handheld game system on which the thumb pad and buttons all move - not entirely convincing as the thumb pad is essentially one big button and doesn't move quite right, but cool nonetheless.

Leader-class Optimus Prime is quite awesome in his complexity. Bits fold over, under and around each other, and the gimmicks are actually very well thought out and very well executed. Literally the only letdown is the sparse paintwork on the robot, and the complete lack of chrome effect on things like the truck's grille and the petrol tanks. Even if these were the only chromed parts, that would make all the difference... Still, it's an excellent action figure and a very well-designed truck... with electronic lights and sounds, thanks to the very well-planned addition of two battery compartments on either side of the truck/robot. Easily worth the cash.

I'll sign off now, but more will follow on these fabby toys.

Blissful Suburbia

When the first thing you see when you wake up is a Police car outside your house, you could be forgiven for thinking that the day had got off to a bad start.

Turns out 'something' happened overnight in a house down the road (known for being 'rowdy') and the Police came a-calling today. One car (that I saw) followed by one van, which parked itself right outside the 'rowdy' house. It would seem not for the first time.

By all accounts, we have neighbours from hell that I was not in any way aware of. Not sure whether or not I feel better for knowing that. I'm told the young daughter in that house (guesstimate age of about 10) dresses like something out of the Bratz toy range (which should be banned, but that's another rant).

Not a terrible day, as it turned out, though admittedly I slept through a great chunk of it. A welcome break after a crappy week at work. Rather than do anything (apart from nap), I spent the day quite lazily. The most proactive thing I did was visit the Dell technical support website, to see if I could uncover the source of the performance problem with my laptop.

In one sense, I think I did... I have the machine propped up on a ring binder, so the keyboard is at a more comfortable angle. When I lifted it up so I could enter a code from a label on the underside of the machine, I discovered the venting fan... and it's very blocked grating. No wonder it's been sounding so laboured - I thought it vented at the side.

Once I cleaned it up and shifted the computer so the vent is more exposed, the fan has been running quieter. That hasn't solved the problem... and neither has the video driver update I downloaded... So I'm guessing something else is adrift. Could just be that some other software updates are expecting better performance than this two year old Pentium 4 can offer (hah!). Apparently that happens a lot when Windows is allowed to automatically update itself.

In other news, on a brief sojourn through eBay, I snagged not only the limited edition 'Cosmos Type' Superlink Shadowhawk and the extremely-hard-to-find Energon Slugslinger. I'd been looking for the latter for quite a while, and actually hesitated when I found him today. After all, I've now got the TFCC exclusive Airazor, based on the same model (but with a far better head)... Do I really need Slugslinger anymore?

Silly question.

Played a bit of Panzer Dragoon Saga today, bringing my new, second hand, unconverted Saturn out of the cupboard for the second time since I bought it. I wanted to remind myself how spiffy the game is... but didn't count on noticing how crappy the full motion video is. It's not even just the low resolution of the video... the overall quality of it is so far behind today's stuff... but then, the game is nine years old.

As it turned out, I played it exactly as well as I did the first time - got as far as Arachnoth, then got well and truly creamed. I remembered his Charge attack, but completely forgot about Tentacle (which ain't that dangerous) and Devour (which... er... is). It's still a brilliant game, though... Wish I could say the same for the rest of my collection of UK games.