I toyed - briefly - today with the idea of attempting to follow the progress of my flat in more detail, with regular postings about what's happened and when... but then I realised that I haven't been blogging a great deal lately, so it'd probably just slowly fade out.
Still, there has been progress, and it's somewhat blogworthy (hell, belly button fluff is blogworthy to some...) so I may as well relate it here.
I have decided to have wood-laminate floor in the hall and bedroom, with carpet in the lounge and lino or laminate in the kitchen and bathroom. Wood-laminate flooring has been ordered (delivery expected on Monday, any time between 8am and 6.30pm). Carpet has been chosen, but not yet ordered. Bedroom furniture (bar bed) is on order (delivery expected 10th Sept). Beds have been investigated (though not exhaustively - just enough to have a vague idea that I'd like a double if possible, and preferably something with storage in the base) but nothing ordered. The gas boiler is being serviced on Friday.
Today, my folks and I tripped over to the flat to start ripping up the old (vile, orange) carpet to investigate the pits, hollow-sounding sections and occasional squeak. About three hours of that revealed that the wood board will probably make a better base for the wood-laminate flooring than the hardboard that had been laid beneath the carpet, as long as those boards that need it are more firmly secured with nails or screws.
We also discovered that whoever did the plumbing swept their mess underneath the floorboards rather than take it away (classy). There are piles of all kinds of crap that, frankly, are a bit of a fire hazard.
On which subject, it could well be that someone in the past (since the maisonettes were converted into flats) decided to pour petrol through the letterbox, as there is a large, oily stain to the wood spreading out from the doorway.
Still, some good progress was made and the more hardboard we pull up, the better idea we have of what really needs doing before the floor can be laid.
Aside from the shoddy work on the flooring, the most bizarre find today was a small plushie flying elephant, which had been stuffed behind the hallway radiator. It has a plastic hook on the end of a cord, suggesting that it was meant to be suspended on a pram or cot.
Annoyingly, we heard nothing from the window people last week until my mother paid them a visit. We had the impression that all was ready, but my unfortunate first choice of door had caused a delay. Not so. The door is on display in their window... the glass for everything else has not yet been delivered. Until that happens, I won't have anything like a firm installation date, so I won't be able to warn the neighbours and shops below that the windows are being replaced.
On a more positive note, yesterday I trotted around Harrow and Rayners Lane looking into beds, bathrooms and kitchens. A shop just down the road from the flat is putting together a couple of designs for the bathroom (one keeping everything where it is, another moving things around), and another local business will be popping by next Tuesday afternoon to look into the kitchen.
It would be very cool to use the local businesses wherever possible, because it's better to help them thrive than let the bigger chains put everyone out of business. Plus, there's the outside chance they'll actually be cheaper.
I'm going through phases, lately, where I'm either ambivalent toward the flat or just plain dreading everything to do with it. I want to choose all the decor myself (specifically avoiding anything my mother likes), and yet I'm either bewildered by choice or inspired by nothing, and would prefer someone else to make the choices. Simultaneously, I want to move in straight away, or not at all. That might seem strange, but I am full of such contradictions.
Saturday, 30 August 2008
Monday, 25 August 2008
One Hell of a Sequel
There really must be something in the rules about writers and directors working with properties they're fans of. Russel T. Davis and Doctor Who pale into insignificance when compared to Guillermo del Toro and Hellboy.
That's not to say they're bad films... just that it feels as though del Toro is so keen to show his audience how wonderful Hellboy is, he kinda forgets to make a worthwhile film to do so.
The first attempted - with some success - to introduce the cinemagoing public to Hellboy, a character created by artist Mike Mignola, and personified in the movies with great ablomb by the excellent Ron Perlman. Trouble is, the movie followed a rather dull formula. Rather than throwing the audience into Hellboy's world, it introduced a superfluous character to be our eyes and ears, to help us indentify with the characters. It killed off a major character so we'd know the bad guys were really evil (some were Nazis, but the main one was Rasputin... Most people wouldn't need much by way of hints to know they're supposed to be evil). It also had a terribly anticlimactic climactic battle, and a rather heavy-handed 'touching' moment at the end.
In many ways, Hellboy 2: The Golden Army follows the same formula, but with more and greater spectacle thrown in. It opens with a scene from Hellboy's early days on Earth (allowing for a brief return for John Hurt as Professor Broom, and a quite clumsy setup for the story, though the puppet effects are cool), then cuts to the present day. The main bad guy in this film kills his own father - rather than someone else's - to prove the depths of his evil. There's lots of running around, shooting and big fights. The climactic battle is far more impressive (less CGI), and yet it's pretty much ruined because the result has been made blindingly obvious from the very beginning. Worse still, the 'touching' scene towards the end directly mirrors the equivalent scene in the first film.
There are also far too many brief scenes which seem to exist for no purpose - they don't advance the plot, they're not dealt with in any depth, and they're not returned to later.
It's far better than the first film, but it just seems as though del Toro wants to show everyone why (he thinks) Hellboy is so darned cool.
Still, Luke Goss was pretty good, and Ron Perlman was brilliant as always.
Before the film, I popped into Argos and took advantage of their 25% off TransFormers Animated figures, and picked up Leader Class Bulkhead. I really don't get why he's warming shelves at Toys'R'Us. For £40 (or £30 from Argos) you get a decent-sized, quite poseable figure that's full of character and has a decent collection of light and sound effects. His three spoken phrases are well-chosen and, while the lights in robot mode just do the usual (boring, pointless) flashing, in vehicle mode, they're cleverly arranged to set off his roof-mounted lightbar as his siren sounds.
Transformation is, I'd imagine, quite close to the Voyager Class version, but with a few extra bits here and there. The Headmaster gimmick is quite interesting, but adds only one spoken phrase to his repertoire.
Much as I dislike the design aesthetic of the TV show (though I'm beginning to think I'd like to watch more of it, and will be trying to find the pilot DVD), the toys have turned out to be very well-designed. Quality Control has been rather poor, and most of the models are lacking in the paint department, but they're cool nonetheless.
That's not to say they're bad films... just that it feels as though del Toro is so keen to show his audience how wonderful Hellboy is, he kinda forgets to make a worthwhile film to do so.
The first attempted - with some success - to introduce the cinemagoing public to Hellboy, a character created by artist Mike Mignola, and personified in the movies with great ablomb by the excellent Ron Perlman. Trouble is, the movie followed a rather dull formula. Rather than throwing the audience into Hellboy's world, it introduced a superfluous character to be our eyes and ears, to help us indentify with the characters. It killed off a major character so we'd know the bad guys were really evil (some were Nazis, but the main one was Rasputin... Most people wouldn't need much by way of hints to know they're supposed to be evil). It also had a terribly anticlimactic climactic battle, and a rather heavy-handed 'touching' moment at the end.
In many ways, Hellboy 2: The Golden Army follows the same formula, but with more and greater spectacle thrown in. It opens with a scene from Hellboy's early days on Earth (allowing for a brief return for John Hurt as Professor Broom, and a quite clumsy setup for the story, though the puppet effects are cool), then cuts to the present day. The main bad guy in this film kills his own father - rather than someone else's - to prove the depths of his evil. There's lots of running around, shooting and big fights. The climactic battle is far more impressive (less CGI), and yet it's pretty much ruined because the result has been made blindingly obvious from the very beginning. Worse still, the 'touching' scene towards the end directly mirrors the equivalent scene in the first film.
There are also far too many brief scenes which seem to exist for no purpose - they don't advance the plot, they're not dealt with in any depth, and they're not returned to later.
It's far better than the first film, but it just seems as though del Toro wants to show everyone why (he thinks) Hellboy is so darned cool.
Still, Luke Goss was pretty good, and Ron Perlman was brilliant as always.
Before the film, I popped into Argos and took advantage of their 25% off TransFormers Animated figures, and picked up Leader Class Bulkhead. I really don't get why he's warming shelves at Toys'R'Us. For £40 (or £30 from Argos) you get a decent-sized, quite poseable figure that's full of character and has a decent collection of light and sound effects. His three spoken phrases are well-chosen and, while the lights in robot mode just do the usual (boring, pointless) flashing, in vehicle mode, they're cleverly arranged to set off his roof-mounted lightbar as his siren sounds.
Transformation is, I'd imagine, quite close to the Voyager Class version, but with a few extra bits here and there. The Headmaster gimmick is quite interesting, but adds only one spoken phrase to his repertoire.
Much as I dislike the design aesthetic of the TV show (though I'm beginning to think I'd like to watch more of it, and will be trying to find the pilot DVD), the toys have turned out to be very well-designed. Quality Control has been rather poor, and most of the models are lacking in the paint department, but they're cool nonetheless.
Saturday, 16 August 2008
Making Room(s)
Having popped down the road this morning to get my new passport photos sorted, this afternoon, I ventured to MFI with my mother to start checking out furniture in person and getting the rooms planned out.
While the first port of call was the kitchen display (I walked in, looked at the one right in the entrance, loved it, pointed at it, and said "That one!"... but later changed my mind having seen some of the others), we looked at the bathrooms (I have a very roomy bathroom, so I can probably do quite a lot there) and bedrooms before settling to order some bedroom furniture (minus bed). I'm having some nice sliding-door wardrobes with lots of space-saving gadgetry, but we ordered 2 sets of wardrobes (frankly, quite excessive except as extra storage space) and it turned out when my mother rechecked her measurements that there's only room for one wardrobe. She'll be heading back to MFI during the week to cancel one of them... Good old 7-day cool-off period.
She feels it's a waste of space to have nothing there, but we shall see. I'm sure I'll figure out what I really need there.
So, I have one wardrobe, a chest of drawers, a bedside table (minus bed) and a spinny storage unit/mirror on their way... Due to arrive just after my 2-week holiday (spinny thing sometime after, due to delays with stock), but I'm sure I can take time off if necessary.
We need to get the floors sorted out before that stuff arrives, or it'll be rather pointless setting it all up, but my folks reckon they can make a start on that during the coming week. I'm intending to have wood flooring in the hall and bedroom, laminate in the bathroom and kitchen, and carpet in the lounge.
Of course, it's not all going to happen immediately... Quite the opposite, even though the furniture I ordered today worked out at about a third of its list price thanks to a sale. My guess is it'll be one room at a time, over the course of a few months, once the windows are sorted.
Fine by me.
While the first port of call was the kitchen display (I walked in, looked at the one right in the entrance, loved it, pointed at it, and said "That one!"... but later changed my mind having seen some of the others), we looked at the bathrooms (I have a very roomy bathroom, so I can probably do quite a lot there) and bedrooms before settling to order some bedroom furniture (minus bed). I'm having some nice sliding-door wardrobes with lots of space-saving gadgetry, but we ordered 2 sets of wardrobes (frankly, quite excessive except as extra storage space) and it turned out when my mother rechecked her measurements that there's only room for one wardrobe. She'll be heading back to MFI during the week to cancel one of them... Good old 7-day cool-off period.
She feels it's a waste of space to have nothing there, but we shall see. I'm sure I'll figure out what I really need there.
So, I have one wardrobe, a chest of drawers, a bedside table (minus bed) and a spinny storage unit/mirror on their way... Due to arrive just after my 2-week holiday (spinny thing sometime after, due to delays with stock), but I'm sure I can take time off if necessary.
We need to get the floors sorted out before that stuff arrives, or it'll be rather pointless setting it all up, but my folks reckon they can make a start on that during the coming week. I'm intending to have wood flooring in the hall and bedroom, laminate in the bathroom and kitchen, and carpet in the lounge.
Of course, it's not all going to happen immediately... Quite the opposite, even though the furniture I ordered today worked out at about a third of its list price thanks to a sale. My guess is it'll be one room at a time, over the course of a few months, once the windows are sorted.
Fine by me.
Monday, 4 August 2008
Now we're cooking with gas!
I'd booked the day off work today because my gas supplier was sending an engineer out to fit me a new meter - credit rather than pre-pay - 'sometime between 8am and 8pm', and my mother had arranged for the damp people to pay the flat a visit at 8am.
The damp guy was nice and prompt... unfortunately it hadn't occurred to me that, to fit the vent to the kitchen, he'd have to make a new hole in the wall... using very loud tools... at eight in the morning.
Did I mention the tools were loud? My neighbours probably hate me already.
Once made, the hole was quickly filled with a vent, and the gaps around the edges were filled in to make it nice and snug. All in all, the process took about two hours. And while he was doing that, I was marking out the lounge with masking tape, to see where I could put display cabinets, TV, etc.
I then started to settle in to wait for the gas engineer, half expecting him to turn up at 8pm. As it happens, though, he arrived not that long after the damp guy left. I'd basically had time to determine that my laptop was working better at the flat than it tends to at home (how long will it take for me to refer to the flat as "home" and my parents' place as "my parents' place"?), and I'm thinking it's because I had less plugged in.
More specifically, no USB hub running a couple of other peripherals.
So it looks like it's a power drain issue. See, for whatever reason, I've got this USB hub with its own power supply... which I never plug in. Silly really. Letting a laptop power a whole bunch of USB peripherals is a sure fire way to put too much load on the laptop and thereby reduce and eventually ruin its performance.
Anyway... The engineer came, fitted the new meter (pointing out that there was just under £15 on the meter, which should be credited to me - not the story I got from the gas people when I phoned asking for a new meter!), then checked that the boiler was properly up and running (which took a few attempts). That done, he hurried on to the next job.
I headed out for lunch (KFC, just down the road, as I wasn't in the mood for anything fancy), then did a bit of extra shopping - now the power is on and the fridge is running, I might as well have it refridgerating things - before deciding what to do with the rest of my day off.
I started out on Plan A: Writing... but that didn't work out (my brain wouldn't settle), so then I switched to Plan B: Taking a Bus Trip to Toys'R'Us Watford. In brief (because I'm tired, and want to go to bed now), the trip out there was simple enough, the store was disappointingly short of anything new (Brent Cross seems to have a better selection), and the trip back was complicated by the revelation that I needed to take a different bus for the second part of the journey.
The damp guy was nice and prompt... unfortunately it hadn't occurred to me that, to fit the vent to the kitchen, he'd have to make a new hole in the wall... using very loud tools... at eight in the morning.
Did I mention the tools were loud? My neighbours probably hate me already.
Once made, the hole was quickly filled with a vent, and the gaps around the edges were filled in to make it nice and snug. All in all, the process took about two hours. And while he was doing that, I was marking out the lounge with masking tape, to see where I could put display cabinets, TV, etc.
I then started to settle in to wait for the gas engineer, half expecting him to turn up at 8pm. As it happens, though, he arrived not that long after the damp guy left. I'd basically had time to determine that my laptop was working better at the flat than it tends to at home (how long will it take for me to refer to the flat as "home" and my parents' place as "my parents' place"?), and I'm thinking it's because I had less plugged in.
More specifically, no USB hub running a couple of other peripherals.
So it looks like it's a power drain issue. See, for whatever reason, I've got this USB hub with its own power supply... which I never plug in. Silly really. Letting a laptop power a whole bunch of USB peripherals is a sure fire way to put too much load on the laptop and thereby reduce and eventually ruin its performance.
Anyway... The engineer came, fitted the new meter (pointing out that there was just under £15 on the meter, which should be credited to me - not the story I got from the gas people when I phoned asking for a new meter!), then checked that the boiler was properly up and running (which took a few attempts). That done, he hurried on to the next job.
I headed out for lunch (KFC, just down the road, as I wasn't in the mood for anything fancy), then did a bit of extra shopping - now the power is on and the fridge is running, I might as well have it refridgerating things - before deciding what to do with the rest of my day off.
I started out on Plan A: Writing... but that didn't work out (my brain wouldn't settle), so then I switched to Plan B: Taking a Bus Trip to Toys'R'Us Watford. In brief (because I'm tired, and want to go to bed now), the trip out there was simple enough, the store was disappointingly short of anything new (Brent Cross seems to have a better selection), and the trip back was complicated by the revelation that I needed to take a different bus for the second part of the journey.
Saturday, 2 August 2008
Sequels
Having just sat through Alien vs Predator Requiem, it occurs to me that I've seen a couple of sequels lately.
The Dark Knight, seen at London's IMAX cinema, turned out to be a film which, while undoubtedly excellent, pretty much fell into the same trap as the Tim Burton and Joel Schumaker entries. Too many villains, too much going on, not enough Batman.
It does better than any of the earlier films but, upon reflection, it's nowhere near as good as Batman Begins. Heath Ledger played this version of The Joker very well... but I'm not sure I liked what they did with the character. It's good that they didn't kill him off (shame about what happened to the actor, of course) but, towards the end, it becomes clear that The Joker was just a means to an end - that end being the introduction (and possibly elimination - his fate is ambiguous at best) of another villain.
I read a complaint somewhere that, of the three female roles with speaking parts, all exist merely to get into peril. This is not true.
Two are eyecandy (admittedly, one presents an interesting philosophical argument in favour of the masked vigilante), one exists largely to get into peril.
The theme of the film, in a nutshell, was 'the difference between the heroes we need, and the heroes we deserve'. New crusading District Attorney Harvey Dent is 'The Hero Gotham Needs/White Knight', Batman is 'The Hero Gotham Deserves/Dark Knight', and the film wastes no opportunity to remind the audience of that. Honestly, it was all very laboured and had me grinding my teeth by the end.
So it's sad that I'm less disappointed by AvPR.
True, it could be described as Alien vs Predator vs Dawson's Creek (not that I ever watched that, but I understand it's some kind of 'teen' drama), and it is populated entirely by TV actors (the woman who plays Dale Arden in the Flash Gordon - Stargate rip-off - TV series has a brief and messy role, several staff from 24's CTU crop up, as does the new mortician from CSI:NY), but it's actually reasonably well done.
The problem is what it does to the franchises involved. While the Aliens are certainly amoral enough to use children and pregnant women as hosts (which they do - very gorily), the Predator has been shown to have a strange kind of code of honor - don't attack the unarmed, don't kill children, that kind of thing. The Predator in this one - obviously a veteran of many encounters with the Alien - manages to shrug off 'accidentally' slicing a girl in half with one of its razor-star things, and basically goes round slaughtering everything it can. Perhaps this is the Predator race's idea of 'containment procedure'.
There's basically too much of everything. Too many Aliens, too many gory deaths, too many gadgets in the Predator's arsenal (though he still strips them away to go hand-to-hand with the hybrid), it's just an overload of special effects and gore, with a very dull towny backdrop and too many two-dimensional characters introduced purely to get killed in a variety of colourful ways.
And when I say 'colourful', I mean red.
Blood red.
The everyday, small-town America thing only serves to make the situation even less believeable.
What really bugged me was the end, though. It seems to be clumsily setting up an even more far-fetched third AvP movie... where, having reverse-engineered the Predator's weaponry, the newly-amalgamated 'Weyland-Yutani Corporation' goes after either the Alien or the Predator... or both... in space.
Oh well... In Space, No One Can Hear You Scream That They've Ruined The Continuity Of The Franchise.
I thought for a moment that AvPR was trying to present the Predator as the Pilot from the very first Alien movie... the 'navigation chair' thing looks very similar... but that may have been either coincidence or intentional misdirection (or perhaps just an ill-advised reference).
But how, pray tell, does an Alien/Predator hybrid suddenly develop the ability to use its telescopic inner jaw to impregnate its victims with multiple baby Aliens?
Seriously, the writers needed to think about this stuff more seriously before they stick it in a movie.
Gotham Knight is quite a strange collection. The differences in art style between each 'chapter' are quite jarring. More so than the similarly-presented Animatrix collection, where one would expect things to look a little odd. It's even more jarring because Batman's voice remains the same all the way through (mixed blessing - Kevin Conroy is pretty good, but to have that same voice coming out of six very different Batmen is very distracting). Still, David McCallum does a decent turn as Alfred (more traditional that Michael Cane's approach), and Gary Dourdan is excellent with what little he does (basically going from "I don't trust the Batman" to "Yo, Bats, my man... You're the only one who can protect Gordon").
Time to go now... and put an end to this terrible day.
The Dark Knight, seen at London's IMAX cinema, turned out to be a film which, while undoubtedly excellent, pretty much fell into the same trap as the Tim Burton and Joel Schumaker entries. Too many villains, too much going on, not enough Batman.
It does better than any of the earlier films but, upon reflection, it's nowhere near as good as Batman Begins. Heath Ledger played this version of The Joker very well... but I'm not sure I liked what they did with the character. It's good that they didn't kill him off (shame about what happened to the actor, of course) but, towards the end, it becomes clear that The Joker was just a means to an end - that end being the introduction (and possibly elimination - his fate is ambiguous at best) of another villain.
I read a complaint somewhere that, of the three female roles with speaking parts, all exist merely to get into peril. This is not true.
Two are eyecandy (admittedly, one presents an interesting philosophical argument in favour of the masked vigilante), one exists largely to get into peril.
The theme of the film, in a nutshell, was 'the difference between the heroes we need, and the heroes we deserve'. New crusading District Attorney Harvey Dent is 'The Hero Gotham Needs/White Knight', Batman is 'The Hero Gotham Deserves/Dark Knight', and the film wastes no opportunity to remind the audience of that. Honestly, it was all very laboured and had me grinding my teeth by the end.
So it's sad that I'm less disappointed by AvPR.
True, it could be described as Alien vs Predator vs Dawson's Creek (not that I ever watched that, but I understand it's some kind of 'teen' drama), and it is populated entirely by TV actors (the woman who plays Dale Arden in the Flash Gordon - Stargate rip-off - TV series has a brief and messy role, several staff from 24's CTU crop up, as does the new mortician from CSI:NY), but it's actually reasonably well done.
The problem is what it does to the franchises involved. While the Aliens are certainly amoral enough to use children and pregnant women as hosts (which they do - very gorily), the Predator has been shown to have a strange kind of code of honor - don't attack the unarmed, don't kill children, that kind of thing. The Predator in this one - obviously a veteran of many encounters with the Alien - manages to shrug off 'accidentally' slicing a girl in half with one of its razor-star things, and basically goes round slaughtering everything it can. Perhaps this is the Predator race's idea of 'containment procedure'.
There's basically too much of everything. Too many Aliens, too many gory deaths, too many gadgets in the Predator's arsenal (though he still strips them away to go hand-to-hand with the hybrid), it's just an overload of special effects and gore, with a very dull towny backdrop and too many two-dimensional characters introduced purely to get killed in a variety of colourful ways.
And when I say 'colourful', I mean red.
Blood red.
The everyday, small-town America thing only serves to make the situation even less believeable.
What really bugged me was the end, though. It seems to be clumsily setting up an even more far-fetched third AvP movie... where, having reverse-engineered the Predator's weaponry, the newly-amalgamated 'Weyland-Yutani Corporation' goes after either the Alien or the Predator... or both... in space.
Oh well... In Space, No One Can Hear You Scream That They've Ruined The Continuity Of The Franchise.
I thought for a moment that AvPR was trying to present the Predator as the Pilot from the very first Alien movie... the 'navigation chair' thing looks very similar... but that may have been either coincidence or intentional misdirection (or perhaps just an ill-advised reference).
But how, pray tell, does an Alien/Predator hybrid suddenly develop the ability to use its telescopic inner jaw to impregnate its victims with multiple baby Aliens?
Seriously, the writers needed to think about this stuff more seriously before they stick it in a movie.
Gotham Knight is quite a strange collection. The differences in art style between each 'chapter' are quite jarring. More so than the similarly-presented Animatrix collection, where one would expect things to look a little odd. It's even more jarring because Batman's voice remains the same all the way through (mixed blessing - Kevin Conroy is pretty good, but to have that same voice coming out of six very different Batmen is very distracting). Still, David McCallum does a decent turn as Alfred (more traditional that Michael Cane's approach), and Gary Dourdan is excellent with what little he does (basically going from "I don't trust the Batman" to "Yo, Bats, my man... You're the only one who can protect Gordon").
Time to go now... and put an end to this terrible day.
417
http://phlog.net/user/the-hub
And now it appears to be working.
Not so much 'as it happens' as 'after it's all over, but kinda in chronological order'.
Assuming the attendance number is correct, it's beaten the previous European record by 10 people (or is it 8? Must fact-check). Well done, Sven and Simon.
Looks like it must have gone pretty well, and Hasbro's display was actually quite interesting. Maybe next year, they'll be able to present hand-made resin models of something that hasn't been all over the interwebs for, like, six months :P
I'm kidding, Hasbro. Showing an interest is a Good Thing. Shame it took you so long.
Definitely looking forward to AA2009.
And now it appears to be working.
Not so much 'as it happens' as 'after it's all over, but kinda in chronological order'.
Assuming the attendance number is correct, it's beaten the previous European record by 10 people (or is it 8? Must fact-check). Well done, Sven and Simon.
Looks like it must have gone pretty well, and Hasbro's display was actually quite interesting. Maybe next year, they'll be able to present hand-made resin models of something that hasn't been all over the interwebs for, like, six months :P
I'm kidding, Hasbro. Showing an interest is a Good Thing. Shame it took you so long.
Definitely looking forward to AA2009.
Well, gosh darnit
http://phlog.net/user/the-hub
The above is a link to a photo-blog thing that's meant to be covering Auto Assembly 2008 'live and as it happens', so to speak...
...Something must have gone wrong, as it was last updated yesterday.
I just hope it's 'something wrong with the blogger's computer', or that he's too busy enjoying the damned show, rather than the whole thing going wrong.
Particularly if BBC Midlands were there to film it.
The above is a link to a photo-blog thing that's meant to be covering Auto Assembly 2008 'live and as it happens', so to speak...
...Something must have gone wrong, as it was last updated yesterday.
I just hope it's 'something wrong with the blogger's computer', or that he's too busy enjoying the damned show, rather than the whole thing going wrong.
Particularly if BBC Midlands were there to film it.
62,482/250,000
Being a complete sucker for limited edition things, it should come as no surprise to learn that, while I've bought the download of Nine Inch Nails' new album The Slip, I've also now bought the 'real life' edition, limited to 250,000 worldwide. The album didn't really impress me the first time I listened to it... or the second... or the third... but it's one of those that slowly grows on you. Largely, I think the problem for me was that it's very much more Rock'n'Roll than most of NIN's previous output (then again, most of With Teeth could be described as Pop), so it felt underdeveloped... or just plain unfinished.
Listening to it as a new album, without filtering it through my impression of their previous stuff, it actually turned out to be a really good album, with some very infectious tunes (Discipline) and some quite beautiful music (Corona Radiata), and the rest slowly lets the NIN hallmarks blister to the surface as you listen more.
I also got Ghosts I-IV, mainly on the strength of the snippets available on the website, and Trent Reznor's awesome, forboding ambient soundtrack to Quake. Haven't listened to that yet... I have to be in the right mood for instrumental stuff.
While in HMV (yes, I went out for practical shopping and got a little sidetracked, OK? I was supposed to be buying loads of TransFormers stuff this weekend), I took advantage of their 3 for £20 offer and snagged AvP Requiem, 300 and Beowulf, as well as the Batman animated short collection, Gotham Knight.
In the practical shopping column, I picked up some towels (important bathroom furniture I only remembered I was missing every time I washed my hands at the flat), some mugs and glasses, low-energy lightbulbs, a kettle, tea and sugar. Cutlery is in ample supply from my folks, as is china, so I won't need to worry about that for the time being.
My little sojourn today started in Harrow (my bus ride made less pleasant by the large guy who sat next to me and seemed to expect me to occupy only half my seat so he could spread out. I declined), then drifted to Uxbridge (with a rather large temptation to go the other route and seek out Watford Toys'R'Us) before returning to the flat to deposit most of my shopping. Then, since the day was still relatively young (though some shops were closing down for the day), I explored the area a little, popping in on the local confectionary (how cool, to be living near a traditional confectionary!) and a few other shops to complete the practical side of things for the time being.
It appears that the bailiffs have taken note that I am the new owner/occupier, as I have had no further letters addressed to the previous occupant. All well and good.
While I was out and about - having left my cellphone at the flat in my jacket pocket - I had a call from my boss to say that Jake - who was Commercial Manager South before being diagnosed with a rather aggressive brain cancer - had died this morning.
2008 really has been that kind of year... My flat is about the only positive so far.
Listening to it as a new album, without filtering it through my impression of their previous stuff, it actually turned out to be a really good album, with some very infectious tunes (Discipline) and some quite beautiful music (Corona Radiata), and the rest slowly lets the NIN hallmarks blister to the surface as you listen more.
I also got Ghosts I-IV, mainly on the strength of the snippets available on the website, and Trent Reznor's awesome, forboding ambient soundtrack to Quake. Haven't listened to that yet... I have to be in the right mood for instrumental stuff.
While in HMV (yes, I went out for practical shopping and got a little sidetracked, OK? I was supposed to be buying loads of TransFormers stuff this weekend), I took advantage of their 3 for £20 offer and snagged AvP Requiem, 300 and Beowulf, as well as the Batman animated short collection, Gotham Knight.
In the practical shopping column, I picked up some towels (important bathroom furniture I only remembered I was missing every time I washed my hands at the flat), some mugs and glasses, low-energy lightbulbs, a kettle, tea and sugar. Cutlery is in ample supply from my folks, as is china, so I won't need to worry about that for the time being.
My little sojourn today started in Harrow (my bus ride made less pleasant by the large guy who sat next to me and seemed to expect me to occupy only half my seat so he could spread out. I declined), then drifted to Uxbridge (with a rather large temptation to go the other route and seek out Watford Toys'R'Us) before returning to the flat to deposit most of my shopping. Then, since the day was still relatively young (though some shops were closing down for the day), I explored the area a little, popping in on the local confectionary (how cool, to be living near a traditional confectionary!) and a few other shops to complete the practical side of things for the time being.
It appears that the bailiffs have taken note that I am the new owner/occupier, as I have had no further letters addressed to the previous occupant. All well and good.
While I was out and about - having left my cellphone at the flat in my jacket pocket - I had a call from my boss to say that Jake - who was Commercial Manager South before being diagnosed with a rather aggressive brain cancer - had died this morning.
2008 really has been that kind of year... My flat is about the only positive so far.
It's Auto Assembly Weekend, And I'm Not In Birmingham
It would appear that I'm making a habit, this year, of not being at TransFormers conventions.
Granted, BotCon was by choice.
This one, Auto Assembly 2008... I'd registered myself and a friend, the friend arranged the accommodation and was going to be driving.
Then she came down with 'flu. And I mean real, proper influenza, not 'man flu' or any kind of exaggerated sniffle. She went to work sporadically during the week, and seemed to be slowly improving by Wednesday but by Thursday (having spent most of the day in the office on something she'd hoped to complete in a couple of hours) she was relapsing, and didn't go to work at all on Friday.
So. Bugger.
The shame of it is that the pair behind AA weren't able to put on the show last year - when the movie came out and interest would have been astronomical - so it was predicated to be a pretty massive affair (possibly European record-breaking attendance), and Hasbro themselves were bringing along a special display. That's Hasbro, makers of TransFormers toys, and previously uninterested in Auto Assembly.
Guest of honour is Dan Gilvezan - the voice of G1 Bumblebee - and there was to be a special display of every Bumblebee ever... Or should that be "3very 8umb13b33 EVAR!!!!11!!1!".
I'd been really looking forward to this weekend but, frankly, 3 hours plus of driving each way would have been torturous for someone recovering from flu.
As an alternative/distraction, I'm intending to go out today and do a bit of shopping (loosely speaking, for the flat), then pop over to the flat and switch the power on so that, by Monday, I'll be able to store things in the fridge.
Monday is when the damp is being treated, and when I get a proper, grown-up gas meter, rather than the expensive pre-pay card meter that's already there.
I should probably also measure up my display cabinets and mark out where I could put them (or something similar) in the lounge/bedroom, as necessary. I'll ideally need to find a home for enough display space for my entire collection (bar the parts I'm considering flogging) with some room to expand, and a nook or cranny to place a desk, because I'd rather not have my computer in my bedroom at the flat.
Granted, BotCon was by choice.
This one, Auto Assembly 2008... I'd registered myself and a friend, the friend arranged the accommodation and was going to be driving.
Then she came down with 'flu. And I mean real, proper influenza, not 'man flu' or any kind of exaggerated sniffle. She went to work sporadically during the week, and seemed to be slowly improving by Wednesday but by Thursday (having spent most of the day in the office on something she'd hoped to complete in a couple of hours) she was relapsing, and didn't go to work at all on Friday.
So. Bugger.
The shame of it is that the pair behind AA weren't able to put on the show last year - when the movie came out and interest would have been astronomical - so it was predicated to be a pretty massive affair (possibly European record-breaking attendance), and Hasbro themselves were bringing along a special display. That's Hasbro, makers of TransFormers toys, and previously uninterested in Auto Assembly.
Guest of honour is Dan Gilvezan - the voice of G1 Bumblebee - and there was to be a special display of every Bumblebee ever... Or should that be "3very 8umb13b33 EVAR!!!!11!!1!".
I'd been really looking forward to this weekend but, frankly, 3 hours plus of driving each way would have been torturous for someone recovering from flu.
As an alternative/distraction, I'm intending to go out today and do a bit of shopping (loosely speaking, for the flat), then pop over to the flat and switch the power on so that, by Monday, I'll be able to store things in the fridge.
Monday is when the damp is being treated, and when I get a proper, grown-up gas meter, rather than the expensive pre-pay card meter that's already there.
I should probably also measure up my display cabinets and mark out where I could put them (or something similar) in the lounge/bedroom, as necessary. I'll ideally need to find a home for enough display space for my entire collection (bar the parts I'm considering flogging) with some room to expand, and a nook or cranny to place a desk, because I'd rather not have my computer in my bedroom at the flat.
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