Last post of 2013

My last post of 2013. You may think me mad but I bought a new laptop a couple of days ago. My 4 year old netbook is not powerful enough to cope with the tasks I want to use it for, so in the sales I picked up a neat Hewlett Packard Pavilion 15. The graphics and sound are much better than my Netbook. I just have to get used to Windows 8 now! It will mean that 2014 will be another year of blogging and computer related activities. I also got two packs of Promarkers made by Letraset for Christmas so I hope to be doing more drawing in 2014. Maybe I will post some drawings if I like them.

So I'd like to wish everyone who reads this a Happy New Year!

Nightwish: Showtime, Storytime

A few years back I found a video of a song I really liked on the Internet and downloaded it for my PSP. The band was called After Forever and one of the things I liked most about the song was the extraordinary powerful vocals. The vocalists name was Floor Jansen, a Dutch performer whose voice has a really pure tonal quality. She could be a great soprano in classical music but has chosen to be a rock performer. I lost touch with After Forever and didn't hear anything else from the band. Then this year I was reading Metal Hammer magazine and discovered that Floor Jansen was the replacement touring vocalist for Annette Olson, who used to sing for Nightwish. I only have one Nightwish album (Dark Passion Play) but I think it's a good symphonic rock album. Nightwish and Annette parted company and Floor was asked to help them complete the tour without having to cancel their booked shows. If I were a ticket holder I know I would want the band to continue. Learning songs by a band in short time without pre-tour rehearsals must be very difficult but to replace a singer who has been with a band for 6 years or so must be doubly difficult. The fan reaction would be something anybody would be worried about.
As things turned out, Floor learned the songs and the tour continued. What was surprising was that Floor did such an excellent job that the fans overwhelmingly responded to her in a positive way. She has a huge presence on stage and she not only does justice to the songs she actually sings them so passionately that she improves on the original! Quite extraordinary.

One concert performance stands out in particular. A night at the Wacken Open Air festival in August 2013, Germany. This concert was recorded and released as a double Blu Ray DVD with the concert on one disk and a documentary about joining the band on the other disk. The pack also contains two audio CDs of the concert. Called Showtime, Storytime I bought this as my first Blu Ray. It is AWESOME!!! Thoroughly recommended. I put it on and turned up the volume, it was almost like being there!

Nightwish has also confirmed that Floor Jansen will be the vocalist on a permanent basis and not just a touring vocalist. This should be excellent news for Nightwish fans. I believe the band are taking some time out, a good thing since their world tour was so long. But in summer 2014 they will be getting together to start work on their next album. I already have something to look forward to in 2015 now! I may have to gradually complete the Nightwish back catalogue in my music collection.

Prizewinner at Christmas

I hope you all had a fantastic Christmas! Mine was great, filled with good food and good company. We ate and drank so much it was incredible. But now that the festivities are almost over my thoughts turn to blogging once more and there is something I must tell you.

The week before my final week at work I bought five raffle tickets, I don't know why but probably because I was hoping to win the first prize of a Nexus 7 tablet. I already own a Nexus 7 tablet but it's the first version rather than the latest one. I'd also said to the person coming around with the bucket earlier in the day that I'd buy one later. So these two reasons were in my mind when I bought 5 tickets. After that I completely forgot about the raffle, expecting that my money would go to the charities selected and nothing more would come of it. But I was pleasantly wrong about that. At the beginning of my last week at work I received an email to say that I should collect my prize. I wasn't told at that point what the prize was but I replied with a comment that I was amazed to win anything - expecting it to be some chocolates or something else minor. Infact it turns out that I had won the second prize, which was: OMG, a Blu Ray DVD player! Fantastic!

I still can't quite believe that I won something so good. I have it set up in our living room to replace the aging DVD player we have in their. It works great and is so cool. It was an unexpected Christmas gift come early. Before I picked it up I ordered my first Blu ray disk from Amazon. More about that in my next post.

Slava's Snow Show

Yesterday we went into London. The weather warnings were that a storm was coming in and to avoid travel if possible. We ignored the warnings and went into London anyway. The storm did come but more about that in a minute.
We went in after lunch and walked around the South Bank a bit but the weather was wet and windy. We had a nice meal in our favourite Japanese restaurant (Wagamama) and had a walk over the Golden Jubilee walk bridge.

We still had a few hours to kill so I suggested the Namco Station arcade and I wasted a bit of money on giving the kids coins to play games that they seemed to enjoy - I had a few goes joining in on air hockey, lights out and the rifle range (I was a good shot). Then we went to the Royal Festival Hall to see the show, Slava's Snow Show. It was quite incredible. A mixture of comedy mime, physical fun and story telling. We had excellent seats and were involved in the parts of the show like the giant web rolled over the audience, the giant balls, the snow and the blizzard. A great evening.

Then we had to get home. We got to Euston Station okay and in good time but the trains on the board were either cancelled or delayed due to the storm and some that were delayed changed status to cancelled. You can see photos from Euston station in this news article. But fortunately, there was a train at 21:54 that we were able to catch and we were home just after 23:00. Quite fortunate to have caught it and that it was stopping at the station we needed.

Him and Her

I've watched a sitcom series called Him & Her for a while now, I think there have been 2 series so far. It's a kind of tragi-comedy because there are some moments of excruciatingly unpleasant behaviour. The focus is on Steve and Becks who are an unmarried couple living in Steve's bedsit and claiming off the dole. Beck's sister Laura is thoroughly unpleasant and unkind to everyone yet still manages to win the devotion of an older woman called Shelly. Shelly has a son and seems to be going out with a man living upstairs from Steve called Dan. Dan is unpleasant in a different way to Laura, he literally lingers around Steve's bedsit and doesn't mind helping himself to food lying around however old or unpleasant it is. He doesn't ask though, he takes it slyly. Laura's lover is Paul, a man who seems to always be on the edge of uncontrolled anger. He is very frustrated, who wouldn't be living with Laura and he tragically thinks Steve is his best friend. Steve doesn't like him and certainly doesn't have anything in common with him. The relationships are all dysfunctional in one way or another. It is at times hard to watch but there is something about it that attracts me to it. I think but am not 100% sure that the actor playing Dan is also the writer.

Dan

Steve and Becks

Pussy Riot

It was good news to hear about the release of the remaining members of Pussy Riot, however they should not have been imprisoned in the first place. I don't know what the general impression of the band and their sexuality or politics is within Russia but I suspect they don't get much sympathy there. I hope that any further expressions from them don't result in other punishments.
The timing was deeply cynical with the winter Olympics coming up but I'm glad they will be out of prison for Christmas.

Advent calendars

When I was a young boy the advent calendars were very different from today. I didn't have chocolate in mine. Mine were flat and sometimes it was hard to tell where the window to open was because the number was printed in black against a colourful background. Once the 'find the number' puzzle was done it was time to open the window and I enjoyed seeing what was behind it. It didn't have to be anything very special but I enjoyed it. For my children my wife bought big advent calendars and fills them with chocolate and Lego. Here they are, I find them a bit too ostentatious but my kids love them.

Christmas is coming

We're into the final days of normality until the Christmas holidays. It's not quite normality though is it? There are awards shows, Christmas parties and there's an air of Christmas goodwill and sentiment around that makes attempts at normality seem somehow mean-spirited or slightly unpleasant. I've been to a Christmas pantomime, I've got a Carol concert this evening to go to, a Christmas party on Sunday and an event on Monday in London. It is a non-stop rollercoaster ride. There is also the Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day to get through as well. Plus all of the food we have to buy for those events. I forgot to mention a meal we're cooking for friends this Friday and I think my wife may have invited some other friends over on another evening. My working week ends on Friday but I'm going to need a holiday by the end of Christmas!
Here is that photo of our Christmas tree that I promised to post. I will post another picture soon of the children's advent calendars.

Nigella week

There are not many TV cooks that I like but Nigella Lawson is one of them. I don't think that she always has her feet on the ground in her cooking but in a way the madness of what she sometime cooks is one of the nice things about her programmes. I like the idea of her slipping down to the kitchen after all her guests have left to indulge herself by going to the fridge and gorging on the leftover pudding! The trial this week was about some employees stealing from her and her husband (I'm not quite sure of their marital status because they seem to be having a war of attrition). If you didn't know that it would like she was on trial herself by some of the tabloid headlines. Her first husband died of cancer relatively young and she admitted to taking some cocaine with him, as he used it for pain relief. I'm not saying I condone drug use but I think there are sometimes prevailing circumstances that should be taken into consideration. I think she's been given a treatment as though she was on trial, which under the circumstances is just plain unfair.

Nelson Mandela RIP

Sad news about Nelson Mandela passing away this week, not altogether unexpected as he has been ill for some time. I've always been impressed by his aura of human warmth. He was a truly inspirational man and the world is a much richer place for his having lived in it. I believe in marking the occasion of his death with a celebration of his life and all its achievements. A true hero of our time.

Early Christmas Tree

Last Saturday I was asked to fetch the Advent calendars down from the loft, so while I was there I also got the Christmas tree down along with the decorations. Last year we bought a new artificial tree. We don't normally put the tree up so early but my wife and I spent last Sunday afternoon putting it up. She wasn't going to decorate it but then decided she might as well. It looks great, I should have taken a picture, maybe I'll post one later.
I like the smell of a real Christmas tree in the house but I must admit an artificial one is probably much better economically and so much less messy. I might buy a pine air freshener for the room!

Capital Punishment

I am normally quite fair minded but something happened in England in May this year that was quite shocking. An army fusilier called Lee Rigby was walking on the street near his barracks when two men drove a car at him from behind and then as he lay injured attacked him with knives, attempting to decapitate him. They had had no prior disagreement and were strangers. Michael Adebolago and Michael Adebolawe are standing trial for Lee Rigby's murder. It all happened in broad daylight near a primary school. A class of schoolchildren were returning from a visit to the library and had to be taken into a nearby building to prevent them seeing the men with their hands soaked in blood and traffic stopped. The two Michael's were shot by police marksmen, but not fatally, as they threatened to attack other members of the police.
The severe nature of the barbaric death of the unfortunate victim and the attitude of the killers in their justification of his murder has led me to think that in some cases capital punishment might be justified.
Not quite on this level but equally shocking was the news this week that the Lost Prophets singer Ian Watkins pleaded guilty to conspiring to sexually abuse a baby and 10 other charges. I see news stories like this and I think its disgraceful. When the figure is famous and the idol of young people it is more shocking. I hope his eventual punishment is just and harsh but I suspect he has changed his plea to guilty in the hope that his sentence is lighter.
Two horrible evils when we really should be celebrating the beginning of the festive season. It hasn't been the best of starts to the season, especially with the news from Glasgow's helicopter crash on Friday as well.

Tribute for Bodie

When I was young I enjoyed a TV series called The Professionals. It was about a paramilitary police unit called CI5 who got involved with preventing domestic and international terrorism. There were fights and guns involved. It was certainly hard hitting in a way 70s crThe theme music was good too. The acting was great, the lead characters were Bodie and Doyle. Bodie was my favourite. He was more of an ex-military man than Doyle. He was played by the actor Lewis Collins. Sadly Lewis died this week after suffering a long battle with cancer. So very sad.

Lost musicians

I am listening to an album by the band Heaven & Hell called The Devil You Know. It is an album by members of Black Sabbath the singer is Ronnie James Dio, who is very sadly no longer alive. We lost Lou Reed recently, I'm not a huge fan but I have the album Transformer on vinyl disk somewhere. My two favourite musicians no longer with us are John Martyn and Robert Palmer. I was just thinking about Palmer's album Pressure Drop. It contains songs like Give Me An Inch Girl, Work To Make It Work and Pressure Drop: all fine songs. It was released in 1975 and didn't really do anything chart wise. I don't know if the cover was controversial at the time but I suspect it might have been because it features a woman in the background naked with her back to Palmer, who is wearing a suit and is apparently uninterested. I wonder which other of my musical idols are going to go next?

Shave your eyebrows and draw on some new ones

My wife was talking to me about a trend she has noticed recently. It is a trend of teenage girls. They are apparently drawing their eyebrows on. Not every teenage girl obviously but if my wife has noticed it there must be a trend out there for it. A very strange trend if you ask me.

Console launches

The next generation of videogame consoles have been released now. Sony's PS4 and Microsoft's Xbox One. They are almost as expensive as a new computer but not a new gaming computer. I have enjoyed playing on the Xbox360 since I got one but I didn't buy it when it first came out and I haven't bought one of the new consoles. I still enjoy playing the games I have and there are some games I haven't finished that I'd like to finish before picking up new games. If I was to get one, it would probably be the Xbox One at this point but only because I already have an Xbox, I might give it some more time before I decide.

Dr Who's 50th Anniversary

On Saturday night I watched the super anniversary episode of Dr Who broadcast almost all over the globe apparently. It was a really great episode. We all enjoyed it in my family. I also watched a really good dramatization of the story of the beginning of the Dr Who TV series which was also really good. I didn't appreciate before how much a young female producer called Verity Lambert did for the show when it first started. I also didn't know that it was some of the fans of the show who brought it back to the screen. It has a very special relationship with its fans. I love Dr Who.

Weekend dental work

I had a dental check-up on Tuesday. Earlier this year a piece of one of my molars broke off. It felt like a big bit and left the back of the tooth feeling all jaggedy. I wasn't surprised when I had my check-up that the dentist suggested some work on it. I could have gone for a repair that might not have been very strong or a replacement of the filling that was already there. I did the latter. The next available appointment was Saturday, so that's what I did on Saturday morning. It is never much fun having work done at the dentist. I had several metallic fillings as a child and never enjoyed the process. I hated the sound of the drill. The sound of the drill hasn't changed much but the fillings have certainly improved. I have a nice white filling there now, so my teeth look much nice than before. My face ached though from having to stay open so wide with various metal tools in place. I couldn't hold the mouth rinse in my mouth because one side of it was so numb. When I got back to my car I tried to form a kiss with my lips but the left side of my mouth wasn't playing ball and it looked like I had had some kind of a stroke.
After a couple of hours the feeling of numbness wore off. I hope it's a long while before having to have any more treatment.

Boiler trouble

This week we have had to have our boiler fixed. It is quite an important device in the house, as it supplies the hot water and heating. Now that the weather is getting colder outside it's important to keep warm inside. The engineer came last Saturday and replaced several parts for us, thinking it would solve the problem. However, after about a day and a half we realised the problem had not been fixed. The water was cold in the mornings and the heating wasn't coming on. So next time he came the same engineer was a bit puzzled at first but then eventually found the culprit - a small loose resistor on the ignition circuit board. Thankfully he was able to fix and be on his way in less than an hour. So, the house is warmer than it's been for a while - I'm not sure that it was working as it should last year you know, it might have been something that has progressively been getting worse. Our house is now toastie warm. It's great! It's just a shame that the energy companies have all put their prices up :-(

Monsters University

Okay, lets get this over with first - I am 45 years old. I'm not the audience for this film. I accept that. My 11 year old son and his friend (also 11) enjoyed the film and that's what matters. I liked Monsters Inc. I thought it was an interesting twist on being scared as a child. Monsters Uni is a prequel to the first film. For me, I didn't think it was as good as the first film in the series. There were some moments that were good but just not enough of them. This isn't to say it's a terrible film, it is an okay film but don't expect to see anything you haven't already seen from Monsters Inc. Also expect a lot of moments that try and illustrate why working as part of a team is a better thing than being selfish and doing it all yourself. I felt the film laboured this message, to the detriment of humour.
It's the story of two monsters who attend the Scare school at Monsters University, one who is naturally scary but doesn't work hard and another who is not scary but does work hard. They start out as rivals and through the course of events earn each others respect.

Trick Or Treat: the Grabbers

Last Thursday I had the day off from work, which was great and I was really glad I took some time off. Anyway, it was also Halloween. I took my son and his friend, who was sleeping over, out in the afternoon to see a film (more about that in another post). When we got back my wife helped the boys carve some pumpkins and after that we went out to MacDonalds for a slap up meal and back home to play some multi-player Call of Duty. I'd not played with three people sharing the same screen before and I found it difficult because I kept getting distracted by the other screens - so I died a lot in that game! I also put the candles in the pumpkins, lit them and put them in our bit of front garden (it's literally just a bit of front garden - not big at all).

During the playing of the game the other distraction was Trick or Treaters. My son was the nominated one to open the door and offer a bowl of sweeties to the children. Now, I don't want to sound mean but some of the kids calling were so rude and grabby that I imagined inventing a hidden grabber of my own that would be hidden in the sweet bowl to teach the kids who just rudely grabbed handfuls of sweets a lesson by grabbing their hand (making them release the sweets) and giving them an electric shock - just powerful enough to teach them a lesson! It wasn't all the children who called, most were lovely and polite but some (without adults to supervise) were just horrid young teenagers. The last callers came just after 9pm, which I thought was too late but I hadn't moved the pumpkins to the back garden at that point. I'm not sure they were legitimate trick or treaters - they drove up in a car and left that way, maybe they were setting up their own sweetshop on the back of their industrial scale operation to harvest as many sweets as possible? I found them loathsome enough to take the pumpkins away at that point, I still think it's too late for trick or treating, even if they had been the nicest of the night.

I Hate Seagulls by Kate Nash

I like this song very much, it's not a new song and it was one my iPod shuffled through this evening. I thought I'd share it with you.

Prepare for Halloween

It will be Halloween this week. How do you prepare? Last year my wife took our children to the theatre in town, which was showing Paranorman and they had a great time. I was working away. This year though, I'll be home. Not sure what we'll do yet. It would be nice to do something special for it.
On Saturday, we're having some friends over again to have some food and go see a fireworks display at my son's school. The display is usually very good, so I'll be looking forward to that. We bought some glow-sticks from B&M today too, we traditionally wear glow-sticks around our necks and have ones that are also whistles that you blow to make a noise. I'm planning on making a chilli for the food, my wife enjoyed it the last time I did this and we made baked potatoes so for the kids that don't like chilli they can have cheese, coleslaw or beans.
I like this time of year. The clocks have gone back today, which means the mornings are lighter and the nights are darker but at least today we got an extra hour. I really needed it after the boys day out yesterday, it was great but very tiring on the legs! I feel so old!

Parents Visit

My mom and dad are visiting us later this week. It's only for a very short visit but it stresses my wife out and I don't really know why. Her stress affects me too. My children will enjoy the visit though. We've other house guests this week too. Both my daughter and my son have friends staying with us overnight. It's half term and my wife and children will be at home while I work Monday to Wednesday. It's a bit of a bummer that I'm working but such is life. We need the money. I'm going to be working away for two nights, like I did last week, which is why I haven't posted many things on my blog for a while. I'll be glad to get back to more of a normal routine after this week. I'm already looking forward to my two days holiday after Wednesday.
The picture below describes pretty much how we feel about my parents staying with us.

B&M shopping trip

I don't really know very much about B&M Home stores but they seem to be springing up a lot. They seem to me like "buy in bulk and sell it cheap" merchants. The stuff they sell is a mix of brands you've heard of and brands you haven't. It's a good mix though. My wife and I popped in to one today and I picked up a good pair of get this:Sennheiser headphones! I was amazed to find a pair of HD201s in there and needed to replace a pair, so I picked those up. I also picked up a gadget called the Belkin LiveAction camera grip for my iPhone, with a free app installed on my iPhone now I can attach my camera phone to a mini-tripod and take stable non-shaky photos and videos. It seems to work well, I just need to work out what I'm going to do with it!

Haven

I've started watching a new TV series called Haven. It is on the LoveFilm service I subscribe to and was originally on the SyFy channel I think. It's about a place that is set somewhere in Maine and on the coast, the people of the town have supernatural powers that an FBI agent and a local detective investigate and try to help with. It is based loosely on a Stephen King book called The Colorado Kid. I thought the first episode was interesting enough to watch some more.

Boys Day Out

This Saturday, I took my son to Comic Con again. I invited my son's friend and his dad too, they accepted the offer and we picked them up in my car early on Saturday morning. I bought the early bird tickets, which meant it was slightly less packed when we got in - at about 9.20am. I'd been up for 4 hours at that point.
The journey was okay. The only slight downside was that the Docklands Light Railway wasn't running. We had a choice of bus or walk and there were so many heading to the venue it would have been an uncomfortable bus ride, we decided to walk. It didn't take us more than 10 minutes, fortunately it didn't rain (much).
It was good to see all the stalls again, some interesting new things like a new British horror film called Young High and Dead (I watched the trailer and spoke to the director). I bought my son a cuddly Pokemon character from Tokyo Toys and he bought an original painting of a Pokemon from an artist. I think it's nice that an 11 year old boy still likes cuddly toys. The venue started to get really busy after 11am and after a little bit more time we decided we couldn't take any more.
During a tea break, I'd arranged with the other boy's dad that we'd take the boys to the Namco Station after the Comic Con, it's an arcade on 4 floors. I'd never been before and the boys were in their element playing various Air Hockey table games. My son had never tried Bumper Cars before and he loved it. So it was a great success.
Next up, we visited Forbidden Planet, a great superhero/cult TV comic, toys, games, books etc. store and I bought a first book in a new Manga series I haven't tried before.
On the way home, for supper we stopped by a traditional 50's style American diner and I had a lovely burger, chips, onion rings and coleslaw meal with a nice hot cup of tea.
All in all, it was a great boys day out.

The Resident

Again through the LoveFilm Instant service, this was another film I've seen recently. It tells the story of an ER doctor by the name of Juliette Devereau who is played by Hilary Swank, an actress I've heard of but I can't remember anything she's been in, without looking it up. She has split from her boyfriend and is looking for an apartment but they are all too expensive or undesirable. That is until an agent rings her about an apartment, I'm a little bit unclear about how she was contacted about it, suffice to say that it was "engineered", but more about that in a bit. So she goes to see the apartment and is completely blown off her feet by the size, location and price. It is being worked on, the landlord's family has owned the building for years. The landlord, Max, is an attractive guy with a kind nature and a smooth way with words, played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan. He first appears for Juliette in a facemask as he's sanding the floor. His father is played by Christopher Lee, bless him he must have been in his late eighties, who lends an air of threat and mystery just by his presence alone (he isn't in it for very long). Juliette moves in and she sort of entertains the idea of a relationship with the kind landlord but she realises she is not over her boyfriend and kindly cools it. Thinking that Max is cool with Juliette's decision not to proceed because, after all he's her landlord, she picks up again with her ex-boyfriend. Well, it then gets creepy. The film cleverly rewinds to show us some details we weren't aware of, we see from Max's viewpoint how his obsession with Juliette began at the hospital where she works and also how he engineered her visit to his apartment.
This is a good film but yes there are some holes in story, however these don't detract from this classy thriller. Hilary Swank is very good as the doctor but I think I was most impressed, if that's the right word for such a creepy guy, by Max played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan. This is another film about obsession but unlike The Roommate this one is actually creepy and leaves you feeling unsettled because someone seemingly good turns out to be horrible. The violence is not on the high side of the register but there is some, it's more creepy than scary. The finale is again fairly predictable but the pacing is good and you end up feeling that you haven't wasted your time watching this at the end of it.

The Roommate

I was browsing films on the LoveFilm Instant service and this one only had a couple of days before being removed, so I thought I'd start watching it. It's an American college film about a girl called Sara who moves into a room on campus, where she is joined by another girl (Rebecca) who moves in as a roommate. Sara is a beautiful, talented fashion designer and has a very sweet personality, mixing with both shy people like Rebecca and more outgoing types like her friend Tracy. What first seems like a sweet natured relationship changes when during the course of the term Rebecca develops a dangerous obsession with Sara. Tracy is scared away from her own friendship with Sara and the lecherous college tutor, played by Billy Zane (the only actor I recognised), is taught a lesson by Rebecca in her obsession's one saving grace! A series of events like these lead up to the film's predictably bloody finale.
I thought the film was well made but to my mind it was a TV movie rather than a blockbuster film. So the level of violence was quite mild but enough to convey some threat without going over the top. Nothing about the film leaves you with any intrigue. There were some gaping holes in the story but these were professionally glossed over in favour of the films momentum. All of the people were pretty good looking, so it is a film easy on the eye and I'd have to say it's an easy one on the brain too: you don't have to think hard to watch and "get" what's happening. It won't win any favours from people who know someone struggling with their mental health, it doesn't even attempt to address Rebecca's problems as anything but "crazy and psychotic". So in summary, this is a watchable TV movie if you aren't choosy about what you see but don't expect it to be anything other than a mildly enjoyable way to pass an hour and a half (preferably somewhere warm and cosy) that you can instantly forget.

Best of John Barry

Last Friday evening, we went into London to see a show at the Royal Albert Hall. The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra were performing some classic compositions by John Barry including his version of the Monty Norman James Bond score from Dr No, Dances with Wolves, Zulu, Disney's The Black Hole, Goldfinger, Moonraker, Diamonds Are Forever, A View To A Kill and The Living Daylights. There were others but my memory fails me. The orchestra was wonderful. My wife bought the tickets as an anniversary gift, we had a box to ourselves and we took a few small bottles of wine in with us. This proved to be a good idea because wine at the bar is very expensive. We had a great evening, it was a good start to a good weekend.

Tom Clancy RIP

Tom Clancy passed away last week on the 1st October, aged 66. It's a loss to the world of a great writer. I've read a lot of the books he wrote himself and I've read some of the books written by ghost writers using his brand name. I've also been a fan of the videogames that he endorsed with his brand name. I've recently finished his book Teeth of the Tiger. I've only got one more of the novels he wrote himself to read, it's called Without Remorse. I'm not going to read this one just yet, I'm taking a little break from Clancy. I do own copies of three books written since 2010, beginning with Dead Or Alive, but although they bear his name they are ghost written. I'm not sure whether I'll get around to reading them or not. I'm not in a rush to read them., they don't tend to be as good as the ones he penned himself.
There are a few other authors I'd like to try in the same genre as Clancy, like Stephen Coonts and Dale Brown. I've read a Dale Brown but don't think I've tried Coonts.

Feeling Flat

Monday morning felt extraordinarily flat to me this week. I don't know why that should be really. Something about the seemingly endless trudge through work and life. I've been feeling more than a bit worn down lately. I was out all day on Saturday so the weekend felt a little bit shorter for me, I guess I might just have been feeling grumpy because I didn't feel like I had much time for resting this weekend. Work has been a bit grinding as well. Probably the combination of these things.

Splintered

As it will soon be the month when Halloween happens by way of looking forward to that event, I thought I would watch a horror film. I didn't have one in mind when I started browsing LoveFilm's catalogue but I settled on one.
It was called Splintered and was a fairly small budget British film. A group of young adults out in the woods hoping to trace a beast that has been reported in the area. Familiar horror territory. The film's main character is Sophie. The group gets split up by an argument, some remain at the camp while Sophie and John go off by themselves at night. They find a building, I think it was an old school, and despite all of the safety advice they could ever have been given, they enter it. Not surprisingly bad things happen after that. I thought it was reasonably well done without being too clichéd, even though it has a lot of the obvious genre setups there were surprisingly good touches that enable it to rise above other similar films. There is blood and gore but it's not quite as overdone as you might think from the promo material.

Oblivion

After having bought this film on DVD a couple of weeks ago I finally made time to start it on Sunday evening it and finished it yesterday evening. The film is set on a post-apocalyptic Earth after a battle with alien invaders, the human race was victorious but at a cost. The moon was partially destroyed, resulting in tidal devastation and lightning storms and much of the planet is radioactive and a no go area. The remaining population has relocated to Titan, the moon of Jupiter, save for Jack and Victoria, who are the last humans left. Their job is to safeguard the vast water energy converters over the oceans that are used in the creation of fusion batteries to power the population on Titan. The land that is still radiation free is patrolled by flying robots controlled by an enormous orbiting space station, who Jack and Victoria are in constant communication with. Victoria is something like a work manager and communications operative and Jack is a technician who flies around fixing robots who from time to time are attacked by the dwindling remnants of the alien invaders. However, as is usually the case all is not as it seems and Jack's world starts to fall apart when he is captured by the aliens. No spoilers here. I enjoyed the film but probably would have enjoyed it better if Tom Cruise wasn't in it, it's a prejudice I have against seeing actors again and again in different movies. The story was well plotted and well executed and had a good twist. It's a film, I think, that is worthy of attention and one that is certainly watchable more than a few times.

The Dark Tower series

I had a pretty hectic week at work last week, hence lack of blog activity. However, at the weekend I had a chance to unwind a bit and do some reading, watching and listening of various things. More to come about that later in the week. I was visiting the various charity shops we have in town on Saturday and I had the opportunity to pick up the first book in the Dark Tower series by Stephen King. And then in another of the shops I saw the second book in the series. So I managed to get the first two books in a series by an author whose body of work is amazing. I'm looking forward to reading the series. I am almost at the end of my current book and after that I have another to read but then I'm into the King. I haven't read a Stephen King since Firestarter, a long long time ago and as far as I can remember the only book by him that I've read. It seems amazing that I haven't read others but I truly can't remember reading any of them - in this I include Christine, Cujo, Salem's Lot, The Shining, Pet Sematary, Carrie and The Dead Zone (basically all the ones associated with giant box office films).

Weekend over...a new week begins

We put a lot of score in the two days that are our weekends. I'm not satisfied that I've had enough rest. I was busy at an event on Saturday and Sunday was a bit of a non-day. So I'm feeling a bit cheated that it's Monday morning already. I would prefer not to have to work but I've got to catch the gravy train and earn money so that I can pay the mortgage. Those big wheels keep on turnin'.

Looper

I watched the film Looper this weekend. I haven't read any reviews of it but a friend of mine had said he watched it and wasn't very enthusiastic about it. I don't know how it did at the box office but it has Bruce Willis in it and you'd think he is big enough to pull in a significant audience, on just the strength of his name if nothing else. The lead character in the film is played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt with whom I confess a distinct lack of recognition and knowledge.
I don't think the story is very clear, it seems that the story is set in the future because there are hover cars and hover bikes. The lead character works for a criminal organisation and is a drug addict. He is paid in silver bars for killing criminals who are sent back in time from the future. He sets up a sheet in a field at the back of a roadside cafe and waits for the criminal to materialise: kneeling, handcuffed and with a sheet covering their face. When they appear he shoots them with blunderbus as in the picture below. His life all goes to pot when the person sent back in time is himself, played by Bruce Willis.
It's not a bad premise for a story, if a little complicated. However, I didn't connect with the actor playing the lead role. I couldn't see him as a hero and so I was conflicted or indifferent to his plight. I don't really feel I can strongly recommend this film but if you want to watch something that's not entirely dreadful with a half interesting story this might be worth a try - that doesn't sound like a film I'd want to see but on a rainy weekend with nothing better to watch it might be okay!

Saturday Market

I was in my local High Street on Saturday. I had visited most of the shops I usually like to browse in and because it was a day when the market was on I thought I'd get a photo, I suddenly noticed what a great cloud formation had appeared and I had to get this shot. This hasn't been altered in any way. The shadow in the foreground is from a tree.

Coffee

I like proper coffee. However, I am the only coffee drinker in my household. It's my first drink of the day and I look forward to that first cup in a morning. My liking of proper ground coffee beans has to give way to the practicalities of life when I'm the only drinker of coffee. So, mostly I drink freeze dried instant coffee in granulated form. It's not the same, it doesn't have the same richness even though I go for the blends with higher strength. I would drink only ground coffee if I could but making it is a bit of a faff. Here is my trusty one cup filter coffee maker. It makes one cup, which isn't usually big enough but it's still an opportunity for me to have proper coffee whenever I feel like it - at least once it is clean and washed and ready to be used.

Dune

Dune is a classic sci-fi saga fiction by Frank Herbert. I've read the first novel in the series but haven't gone further into the world than that. It's been a long time since I read this but I remember I quite enjoyed it at the time. This is the cover of the version I read. I love the artwork of this cover.

DVD v Blu Ray

My wife has several times expressed to me lately a desire to watch LoveFilm from our bedroom but there we have an older Sony Bravia tv connected to a Sony dvd player/recorder. So we've had to watch films and tv series on the laptop if we wanted to use LoveFilm. Downstairs it is possible to watch LoveFilm straight on the tv, after connecting the tv to the router with a cable but the cable trails on the floor and it isn't ideal. So I was trying to figure out what would work best for us. Up until this weekend I didn't realise that the latest Blu Ray players connected to the Internet directly via wifi and could access online services. I had assumed they were just dumb players, like dvd players or vhs players used to be. I guess this truly does mean the Internet is an entertainment medium, it sounds so obvious and I feel a bit obsolete for not thinking of this before. My wife thought we needed a smart tv like we have in the sitting room but I was worried about the cost and comparing the cost of a new tv to a new Blu Ray player, the latter was certainly cheaper. So that's what we bought on Sunday. I connected it up and we were able to watch an episode of Dexter last night before falling asleep.
We don't have any Blu Ray disks and are not intending to replace any of our existing dvds with Blu Rays but I guess we might find one or two Blu Rays end up in our collection eventually. The dvd output is supposed to be upscaled via more modern Blu Ray players, so using the film Hackers (which I bought on dvd from a charity shop this weekend) I decided to try a little comparison. Here are the results but which do you think is our usual dvd player and which is the Blu Ray, or is the difference so subtle you can't tell? I used the same camera and paused the dvd in almost exactly the same place and tried to stand the same distance from the tv but there will be slight differences between the two shots because I wasn't doing the test under scientific conditions!

Man of Steel

I took my son to see the film Man of Steel on Friday night. We both enjoyed it, the film score was especially good. The music was composed by Hans Zimmer, one of my son's favourite composers.
I read a review of the film that said something like it took itself too seriously. Well, yes there was that side to it perhaps. Especially in comparison to the Christopher Reeves versions. However, I still thought it was a good film, very exciting in the final battle. There were a few plot glitches that I was surprised about, so it wasn't perfect. On the whole though, it was enjoyable entertainment.
I'm looking forward to seeing a few sci-fi films that have come out recently but I think I'll have to watch those on DVD when they come out.

September once again

The Back To School month has arrived. The academic year begins again. I wonder what this year will be like? My football team hasn't had the best start to the season so far, they haven't won a match yet so are firmly in the bottom half of the league table. Plenty of matches to go though, so no cause for being too downhearted at the moment.

I like this time of year. There are good things to look forward to. The nights are drawing in sooner now. The temperature is starting to come down but it is still warm enough to wear a T shirt outside. The leaves on the trees are still green but this will all change pretty soon.

I've enjoyed the hot weather we've had over the summer and now I don't feel so down about the prospect of the cooler weather.

Metal music

I like to listen to a wide variety of music, including sometimes a healthy craving for metal. My cravings for metal come and go. I have such a craving at the moment. Some of the albums that I'm devouring are:

• Amon Amarth' album Surtur Rising
• Trivium's album Shogun
• In Flames' album Come Clarity
• Killswitch Engage's album Alive Or Just Breathing
• Metallica's album ...And Justice For All
• Machine Heads's album Through The Ashes Of Empires
• Mastodon's album Crack The Skye
• Atreyu's album A Death-Grip On Yesterday
• Avenged Sevenfold's album Nightmare
• Bring Me The Horizon's album There Is A Hell Believe Me I've Seen It. There Is A Heaven Let's Keep It A Secret
• Children Of Bodon's album Blooddrunk
• Lamb Of God's album Ashes Of The Wake
• Five Finger Death Punch's album War Is The Answer
• Hatebreed's album The Rise Of Brutality
• DevilDriver's album Pray For Villains
• Cradle Of Filth's album Godspeed On The Devil's Thunder
• Bleeding Through's album Declaration
• Arch Enemy's album Doomsday Machine
• Chimaira's album The Impossibility Of Reason
• The Defiled's album Grave Times
• Korn's album Korn III: Remember Who You Are
• Megadeth's album Endgame
• Opeth's album Watershed
• Pantera's album Far Beyond Driven
• Slayer's album World Painted Blood 
• Slipknot's album All Hope Is Gone
• Still Remain's album The Serpent
• System Of A Down's album Mezmerise
• Wolf's album The Black Flame
• Walls Of Jericho's album The American Dream

There seem to be lots of sub-genres of metal, too many for me to attempt to spell out. Wikipedia (or Encyclopaedia Metallum) might be a good guide if you want to know more, I've just tried here to pull out the harder material I like. I have left out many bands whose music I like but who I feel are a lot softer than the lot above - that's not to say the bands above only put out hard and fast material, a lot of it is melodic and there are quieter moments in some of the albums above. I hate classifying metal into sub-genres anyway. My simple mind can't take it.

The Hobbit

Well I finally watched The Hobbit this evening, what a film! It was one of those rare times when a film is long but you don't feel that it was unnecessarily long. No point did I think it dragged on. It held my attention for the whole of the film. I hope the other two films in the series are similarly paced.
Whilst I haven't read The Lord of the Rings, I have read The Hobbit. I believe the story is fantastic, I enjoyed it when I read it for myself and I've enjoyed reading it to my children. It is often known as a children's bestseller but I think it's part of that slim collection of books that are equally enjoyable to children and adults. The book cover of the version I first read is depicted below. The version my children have is different, the second cover below is the one my brother had  - the first cover of the story I saw.
Back to the film, I liked it and thought the casting was as excellent as that of the LOFTR films. If you haven't seen the film, it is one I would recommend but I would say if you have no interest in any of the Tolkien stories then firstly why are you reading my blog and secondly you probably have no intention of seeing the film and I don't think it's for you. That said, for everyone else, I say it's a great film.

Football Season Starts 17 August

I like the start of sporting seasons, like the start of the Premiership football competition in England, which starts on Saturday. I don't know why I like the start of the season, it's not like I continue through the rest of the season. I tend to give up following teams by Christmas. I guess there is something comforting about the start of the new season. New players. A fresh beginning with the hope before us that this might be the year that my team actually does well. Actually, last year's season was a pretty good one for my team - probably the best year since some time during the seventies infact, so I shouldn't allow this year's expectations to run away with me. My team is West Brom and they face Southampton on Saturday at 3pm. I'm hoping for a win to start the season on good terms. Our great midfielder Zoltan Gera has been released from his contract, which is a big downer. For an upper we have Frenchman Nicolas Anelka playing for us, he played for Juventas recently and was top scorer in the 2008-9 season. He is 34 now, so lets hope he has the legs because it's not experience he lacks. Team page at the BBC.

Reading comics again

Over the course of several months this year I've been getting in to a bit of comic reading. I've liked the X-Men for a while and have started reading a title called All New X-Men since issue 1. I've done the same for a sister title called Uncanny X-Men. They are both Marvel comics and the good thing with them is that you get a digital edition code so you can redeem a digital copy free from Marvel.com if you purchase the print version, I think this is a good deal because the digital version gives you a different perspective and sometimes you notice things you didn't spot in the print version. I've also started reading a DC Comics series called Superman Unchained from issue 1.

It's been years since I read any comics, I used to read quite a few in my youth but they were mostly British comics when circulations were very healthy. It's a shame that the circulation of British comics fell drastically. I found a few comics from the 1980s that I picked up at my mom and dad's house earlier this year, these were DC Comics but to be honest I don't think they're worth anything because I understand DC printed too many and weren't really recouping the money they needed. So I hope I'm contributing to a revival of the comic medium.

Star Trek Into Darkness

August began in good form when I took my son to see the last Star Trek movie Into Darkness. We had watched the first movie a couple of days before and he enjoyed it (which was something of a relief as I had already bought the tickets). The new film didn't disappoint, it was really great that they had the same cast as crew members - it really helps us to understand why the characters like each other and empathise with them. The action was thick and fast and the special effects were amazing. I really enjoyed the movie and would recommend it even to non-Star Trek fans.
It has been at big cinemas a while and is not new any more but our most local cinema is in a council run library/theatre building. So it is typically later when movies are shown locally and even then there are no guarantees that all the films I'd like to see are shown. But the cinema goers tend to be quieter and more mature than those going to multiplex ones, certainly for evening showings. I've got tickets to see Man of Steel next. 

Standby switch

I've been on holiday for two lovely weeks. I didn't do the blogging I thought I would or any catching up for work. It's like I've been on standby. It's what I've needed though, that's the point of holidays in my opinion. Just because I've been at home it doesn't mean I can't switch off. Well, it's not quite a total switch off. As my wife is a teacher, she has to use the time I'm at home to catch up with her work for the new term, instead of entertaining our kids. So I've watched films, played video games with the kids and done a fair amount of leisure reading. We didn't do the day trips thing, partially because of feeling a bit broke after ordering a new fridge for the kitchen and a new bed for my son but also the kids were happy just to potter about going swimming and stuff. Tomorrow my standby switch gets hit and I go back to work and the real world.

Radioactive

I stumbled upon this song this week and really enjoyed it, so thought it was worth sharing with you. I love Lindsay's violin, it really adds something special and the vocals by Pentatonix are just delicious. I believe it is a cover but don't know who the original artist was. This version is cool though.

Finding cash on the street

I'm on holiday. It is now the morning of day 3 or day 5 if you count the first weekend as part of my holiday. Yesterday we visited the big town near us and spent a lot of money. The 1st item on our shopping list was a new bed for my son. The bed he's got now was a godsend, it was given to us by friends but is one of those with a ladder and a desk. Making the bed takes a real effort because there is one corner that is really difficult to get to, against the wall with not much ceiling clearance. The 2nd item was a replacement fridge. Our current fridge was inherited when we moved into this house in 2011. Although it still works, there is a problem with the thermostat. We've had to cycle blue plastic picnic chiller box  blocks between the freezer section and the fridge for over a year now. The glass shelves have pools of water we have to wipe because of the thin layer of ice melting on the surface of the blocks. We have to regularly throw food away that hasn't lasted in the fridge. Milk goes off quickly. The trouble with a fridge replacement for us was that the choice was limited to one make and model. It has to fit into a cupboard that's integrated with the rest of the kitchen. So we had to spend a lot of money. I think it will be worth it though. It has the highest energy efficiency rating and it is a frost free model, so we won't ever need to defrost it. It was a lot of money though, however, we need a fridge that works and we have the money because we didn't book a summer holiday this year. A fridge is more vital than a holiday.
Anyway, now I'm on to the main subject of this post, what would you do if you found some money on the street? My wife and I went to the big town in the morning but had to go back in the afternoon with some measurements of the doors of the cupboard the fridge lives in. On our first visit we parked easily, another car was just leaving as we arrived and I could drive into the space. It was in the cheaper parking zone. Now, on our second visit I could not find a space in the cheaper zone, so I carried on round to the higher rate zone and parked close to one of the parking meters. We were exchanging some DVDs and videogames as well, so the shorter distance to the shopping centre actually was a good thing. As I walked to the parking meter I spotted a folded 20 pound note on the floor. The area near the meter had only 2 or 3 cars nearby and they looked like they were there some time. Without any idea of whose money it was and no way to find out, my wife and I decided to pick it up and keep it. I think our behaviour was dictated by the ridiculously slim chances of finding the person who lost it and also the value being small enough to be welcome but nowhere near life changing. If we'd found a whole wad of cash I'm not sure what we'd have done. I think I would have felt the need to take it to the shopping centre information desk. Maybe they could make an announcement but how would they know that the person making a claim for it was the rightful owner? How would the police know, if we took it there? Apparently, if you find cash on the street and hand it in to the police, you have 6 weeks before you can claim it as finders keepers.

Rest In Peace - JJ Cale

One of my heroes passed away from a heart condition today, JJ Cale. I first came across the artist when I heard the song Shanghaied in the early 1990s, I think it was. I haven't collected a lot of music by this guy but I have two or three albums and they're fantastic records. The thing about JJ Cale was that he wasn't a typical frontman but he had a lovely voice, very soft, very musical. I have Really and Okie on CD and at my parents house on vinyl I have Travel Log.  He also recorded an album with Eric Clapton that I have. JJ Cale was a great blues singer songwriter, I thought he wrote some awesome songs and so must a lot of the top artists because you might be more familiar with his songs as covered by other artists, such as Eric Clapton's version of Cocaine. I'm very sad he's gone, his music made me feel happy and always will.

New music - Spotify

A while back when I first converted my little netbook to Ubuntu Linux, I wasn't sure I could get it working but I installed some Spotify beta software and to my surprise it did work. I find Spotify quite a good service, although I don't subscribe to it as I don't quite have the listening time to make it worthwhile.  The adverts are a little bit annoying but are bearable. I particularly like the top lists, where I've come across up-to-the-minute music that I've liked for six months or more before they form part of my wife's consciousness - she's very conservative when it comes to music.
There are no shortages of internet radio stations or music services but if you are interested in discovering new music, I'd recommend Spotify. The free version includes adverts and there is a limit to how much per month you can listen to but I've never hit that limit. As I write the limit is 10 hours per month, which is 2.5 hours a week, easily within my limits.

I did scan a few lines recently that some respectable artists, such as Radiohead, had pulled tracks from Spotify because of some rights policy or other. Without knowing the full facts I can't say much about this.

Journey to the Centre of the Earth

I've bought an album that my dad used to play a lot when I was young. Rick Wakeman's Journey to the Centre of the Earth. My son now enjoys it when I put it on in the car. I'm reading the Jules Verne novel to him at bedtime too. We're both enjoying it. I had never read the story before. The album was very magical to me, it is a kind of overture with excellent narration of excerpts of the book, slightly altered for more drama to convey the story with just a few lines. The music brings the story to life I feel, one of the most pleasing combinations of music and storytelling, all the more remarkable given the age gap between them. 

I was a big fan of Yes, especially the Rick Wakeman era. He wore capes and had long blonde hair and was mysterious to me because I never heard his voice. But his synthesisers and keyboards were very very distinctive. He played on Black Sabbath's Sabbath Bloody Sabbath album to great effect. When he started appearing on TV later in life he was just a nice bloke, not the aloof and intriguing character I had imagined of him at all!

News or not news?

I was looking at the BBC News page yesterday and saw a photo and headine Beyonce's hair stuck in a fan. The photo was of a large metal bladed fan, not the human type. That might be interesting on some level to a few people but really? Really? Is that news? Come on!

Staycation coming up

At the end of this week I have got two weeks of leave booked. I haven't made any plans but I hope we do lots of things as a family. We didn't go away last year either but we have two cats who will love the fact that we're at home with them. It's kind of nice just to be home, chilling out. It's not as exciting as going away somewhere new and different but at the same time we can actually get things that we need sorted out like a new bed for  my son and a new fridge. We can do those important and lasting things for less than the cost of a holiday.

This fine weather

For the last few weeks it has been really hot here in the UK. It has really felt like being in the Mediterranean. The plus side is that when leaving the house I don't have to think about what to wear. I feel good and enjoy being outside. The downside is that it can feel very clammy, at night it is hard to sleep and it saps the energy out of me. This may sound like a complaint but really it isn't. I enjoy the good weather but I know that soon it will break and we'll be back to normal, whatever that is. Normal is good too. My son said he loves the winter because he likes hunkering down in his bed, under his duvet where it is warm with his own body heat. I know exactly what he means.