Vaccinating the population

 Everyday life is still under the shadow of the Covid-19 virus, we're living under lockdown measures that restrict movement and how many people we can mix with from different households. I'm still the only member of the family doing food shopping regularly. There is light at the end of the tunnel though. Vaccine development has been extraordinary and there are now several vaccines that are being administered to the most vulnerable groups in society. I read just this week that people aged between 56 and 60 without underlying problems would be able to book an appointment for the first dose of vaccine from Monday this week. I'm not in that category yet but it is heartening to know that my age group would be the next after this one, so it does seem at the moment as though the phenomenal efforts of the NHS mean that they are getting through the population. It is some sign of hope that larger percentages of the population will be vaccinated by the date intimated in the government's lockdown exit strategy. That is, as long as people abide by the restrictions and don't all forego the measures that will continue to be necessary even after having the vaccine.

Deep Star Six

 This is an underwater monster movie and I watched it for a while and then fell asleep for several minutes and when I woke up it was no better. The monster was difficult to believe and I just felt no real sense of suspense. I didn't really care for any of the characters so when they did get killed it was just ticking them off of a list and I couldn't care less really. I usually like the premise of underwater thrillers but this was just no fun to sit through.

Outpost (2008)

This film felt like it was too long to me! It concerns a bunch of mercenary soldiers sent to cover a scientist while he tries to establish the true nature of an experiment in an old German bunker. I didn't really get where it was set, I assumed it was in some kind of battleground due to the need for the soldiers to maintain some kind of perimeter defence. It's one of those films that has zombie Nazi's brought to life in it. It's all very silly and not really that entertaining.

Amazon Echo (4th generation with Zigbee hub) and Philips Hue Go Light

From the money/vouchers I got at Christmas I bought myself a thermal bodysuit and a Hue Go Light, which is a standalone rechargeable lamp. I like the idea of being able to control my environment using my voice. I thought that the set-up would be easy but it wasn't as smooth as I thought it would be. I had the Hue app on my phone and updated the light's software. I managed to add the light to the Alexa app on my phone but it wasn't a simple one step thing. I had some routines set-up so that I could string together some commands that involved playing music and setting the light to come on with a colour to create a mood. But then I did something, can't remember exactly what but the connection between the Echo and the light got lost and I could not get it back despite trying numerous different combinations of things. 

For anyone who might be having the same problems, I'll document what I did and how I eventually fixed it.

1. I downloaded the wrong Hue app for my phone. The Go light is a Bluetooth lamp and you need the Hue BT app (BT stands for Bluetooth I guess)
2. I downloaded the correct app by using the QR code in the Hue instruction pamphlet that came in the box
3. I plugged the light in and turned it on and tried to pair it with the app but it wasn't working
4. I eventually read and followed the instructions and held the power button in for 10 seconds until it flashed a couple of times and turned off
5. I tuned it back on and tried pairing it and it eventually paired
6. Once I got the light working with the Hue app I found a setting to update the light software, so I updated it
7. Then I tried to add the light to my Alexa app
8. I went to add devices and saw the Hue logo so I clicked that
9. That route took me to signing in on the Hue website, which then wanted to search for a Hue bridge. I haven't bought a Hue bridge because the Echo includes a smart home hub. So I didn't want to go that route
10. In the Alexa app I went back to the devices page and went to add an individual light, which then asks what make and I chose Philips Hue from the list
11. It then wanted to scan for the device, saying it could take up to 45 seconds
12. So first couple of times it didn't find it but then I read about turning the light off and on, so I did this (the 10 seconds off)
13. It must have worked first time, not sure why but it did, it called the light First Light and I just accepted this
14. I was able to set up some routines in the Alexa app involving the light and music
15. I don't remember what I did wrong next but something happened so that the light was controllable by the Hue BT app but not via the Echo's voice control

I spent a lot of time going through what I thought was the process to get Alexa to scan and discover devices, re-starting the light many times using the 10 second restart. I looked up some suggestions about going to Settings > Apps > Alexa > Clear Cache and same for the Hue app. But that didn't work, the light was still not discoverable. I started to wonder whether the Echo and the light had to pair exclusively? I had the Hue app working and was a bit reluctant to fiddle with that but the next day I deleted the light from the Hue app. I then tried to add the light as a new device in the Alexa app but again that didn't work. I could pair it again with the Hue app, so that was something at least. I didn't find anything much online from official sources other than telling me that setup was simple and that adding the Alexa skill to control the light requires the Hue bridge. I tried adding it via the Hue Light app, where it asks if you want to control it with voice commands and then gives you the option for Alexa.

I even reset the light, this performs a factory reset on the light (the software update remains in place, so you don't need to download it again) and then re-paired it with the Hue light. After that I tried to again to discover the light in the Alexa app but no joy, not even after clicking the button in the app to make the light discoverable.

Getting close to giving up I continued Googling and found this suggestion on Reddit: "go to the light in your Hue BT app and hit reset and give it about a minute and simply ask Alexa to discover your devices again". So I reset the light again, which removes it from the hue app. But instead of pairing it first with the Hue app I tried to discover it from the Echo, the light blinked and I knew it had worked. I could control the light using my voice commands and the Alexa app.

I then added it to the Hue BT app and can now control it with either, so it is not exclusive but the order in which you pair the devices seems to be the thing to get right: after a reset, pair with the Alexa app first and then you can pair it with the Hue Light app.

Now I can either use voice commands or either of the apps to control the Go Light and it's great. There is one light effect I can't find in either app though - the candle effect is not an option. And the blinking light alarm doesn't seem to be an option in the Alexa app. I will have to search Google to see if I can find those options. 

New Year's Day 2021

Page one of a new year and I had a great breakfast of a sesame bagel with bacon and cheese, which was accompanied by an excellent coffee I made myself from filter coffee provided by a local coffee bean shop called The House Of Coffee. It was a great start to the day. My wife and I then took the dog out for a long walk to the woods that he loves. We met another dog walker who walked with us, he has the same breed of dog and our dogs love to play together. So it was nice for the dogs to be able to play together.

Back at home I finished off a cinnamon toffee swirl I'd bought the previous day. I watched a film in the afternoon. Read a bit and also sorted out how my Christmas presents can work together, more on that in my next post.

That was my New Year's Day. The weather has been cold but it hasn't rained or snowed. It did start out a bit dark and dreary and I did have a bit of trouble getting up, partly because it was dark but also because it was a fairly late night last night and I'd drunk a few beers and some 43 liqueur.

There were some fireworks that went off locally but it didn't last too long. Then I caught a bit of the fireworks from London, I didn't know whether they were having any this year and was surprised that they did to be honest, given how they didn't want crowds and were telling people to stay home.

Glad that the news didn't have any awful disaster on it.

Christmas 2020

 Here in Britain the news today is that the Brexit deal bartered with the EU has been approved unanimously by Parliament. I'm glad that there has at least been a deal reached even if it is at the eleventh hour, it was uncertain only a few days ago. There was enough will to want to make the relationship work and so it should.

Other news includes approval of another vaccine for Covid-19, this time it is the Oxford developed vaccine that doesn't have as many storage limitations as the Pfizer vaccine. So this one might actually be used in more parts of the world.

Due to the large programme that is needed to deploy vaccines it will be some time before the population at large is vaccinated. I've seen reports of timelines such as Easter but I think that's optimistic. Just remember this vaccine is for the whole population, at least as many as those who don't actually refuse to have it. There are some people who will refuse and for the life of me I don't understand what their argument is. There are uncertainties sure but they are about how long the vaccine will work and the extent of the resistance not about whether it works or not. I feel it will be the autumn of 2021 before most people have been vaccinated. Unfortunately, for the entertainment and hospitality industries I feel any events being planned before September may need to be rescheduled. But I will be happily proved wrong.

Christmas has certainly been a tame affair this year. No events have been allowed. So it's been a Christmas at home without even being able to have family over with us or visit them. At least we are safe and have not had the virus. I am very grateful for that and will accept the isolation to keep everyone safe.

The state of life has not changed since I last commented on it back in May. It's been a continuation and this New Years Eve many many people will be very glad to see the back of 2020. It certainly has been the year that was unlike any other in my lifetime.

Just a word about Christmas presents this year. I have received an Amazon Echo speaker and started a trial of Amazon Music Unlimited. Also got F1 2020, a videogame with a lot of content included in the package - unlike some of the other versions. I have not succumbed and bought a PS5, I shall wait on that front until next year some time.

My other main news that I haven't reported is that I have been volunteering for a local radio station for a few months now. This has at least been something of a distraction from the Covid-19.

Presidential Election 2020

The US presidential election happened on 3rd November. Incumbent President Trump to this date and to the best of my knowledge has still not conceded victory to president-elect Joe Biden. Well lets not forget that Hilary Clinton won the popular people's vote in the last election and Trump only got in due to the electoral college system. This time however, the electoral college system didn't vote in his favour and Joe Biden won more electoral college seats. These results have been certified. President Trump's pursuit of legal cases to change the results have not succeeded mainly because everyone else can see through them for what they are: "trumped up" is a very appropriate term under the circumstances. I don't know what trickery and machinations are left for Trump but I think he will do all he can to subvert the results, so it is not all over. In the meantime, he continues to be obstructive and only allow the cogs of government to conduct the most legally basic forms of transition. This is actually damaging the US and will affect the ability of Biden's government to get started tackling all of the many and extensive problems his administration will unfortunately inherit from the failure and frankly, the joke that has been the Trump presidency. Not least actually addressing the Covid-19 pandemic response instead of denying and obfuscating it.

Wrong Turn 6: The Last Resort

I have a note that I watched this film. That's it. That's all I can remember. It was a few weeks ago I know but really this was a film that made absolutely no lasting impression on me. I've just read a Wikipedia article about it and it vaguely sounds familiar but that's about all. Dredging now but I recall a few sparse details, there seem to be too many deaths to be really believable and they are too frequent. It's one of those films that I think are made for fans of a franchise who find something appealing in having more films in the franchise, however I personally wish that in these situations they would just stop producing more films. I read a few reviews that suggested it wasn't the worst in the franchise but just remember the bar is set pretty low.

Embrace of the vampire (2013)

 Pretty much as usual I started to watch this film with no expectations. I wasn't enthralled right from the get go due finding the acting pretty wooden. Sharon Hinnendael plays the central character called Charlotte and she is very pretty, so you'd imagine watching her should be a pleasure. However, in this mixed up movie that can't decide what it wants to be she is just under-utilised in a criminal way. The better scenes are where other girls in the university are bullying her but even these suck. I didn't enjoy this film much at all and I can't see why anybody would really, it certainly doesn't repay any time spent watching it. Not recommended, not even for fans of vampire films.

Beneath (2014)

 There are several films with this title, this one is directed by Ben Ketai. It concerns a young female student back home for a while to celebrate her father retiring from his job as a miner. Celebrations are going on in a bar with his workmates and in the banter it is suggested she is against workers being exploited. So, one thing leads to another and she is challenged to spend a few hours in the mine on her fathers last working day and she is only too happy to pick up the challenge.

So the next morning, hangover burning a hole in her head, she is taken down into the mine. She is given a shovel and has to shovel coal into a bin. While she is getting used to the work, at the mine head the drilling stops as the driller finds a hard bit of rock. He's encouraged to continue and breaks through into another tunnel but this causes a collapse and they become trapped down in the mine. Calling up to the surface determines it will take 72 hours to get down to rescue them. They have a metal cabin which provides fresh oxygen via tanks and can keep them alive when the air becomes toxic in the mine.

It turns out that there was a disaster in the past, where nineteen miner's lives were lost because they could not be rescued. So, things start to go supernatural now and something starts turning the men against each other. The young female student starts seeing weird things and the men are disappearing and getting killed in increasingly gruesome ways.

This film is a watchable B movie, if you are bored and have some time to spare.

Open House (2010)

 What was surprising about this film was that even though the plot was sort of ridiculous, the execution, acting and direction were of good quality. The fact that it was so well-made actually made up for holes in the story and it turned out to be a good thriller.

It concerns a woman who is trying to sell her house after the break-up of a relationship, I think with her husband but whether they are married or not I'm not sure. A man somehow gets in the house and traps her in a sort of crawl space between floors in the basement, handy since it has a door he can lock. He commits several murders with a knife and is joined by a woman. At first you might believe they are romantically involved but it turns out she is as murderous as he is, infact probably more so since he has to cover up after her murders. She seduces the woman's partner and kills him. Turns out that the killers are actually brother and sister.

The woman thinks the owner of the house has been killed but instead the man is keeping her downstairs and bringing her up during the day while his sister is out.

Murdering people is easy in this film, there are no police involved at all. No difficult questions and no detectives sniffing around. Despite they are occupying a house that is not theirs and on the property market. Someone from the company she works for leaves a message on her answerphone. The house cleaners turn up. The female owner tries to get rid of them, slipping a piece of paper into one of the cleaners hands that reads "call police". He reads this and recognises the situation and starts to ask his wife to leave but at this point the male murderer suspects something is wrong and kills both cleaners. He then beats the woman with his belt.

The female owner tries a different approach and tries to convince the man to leave his sister and run away with her. While they are upstairs discussing this, the sister unexpectedly comes back with the estate agent. The female hides in a wardrobe. The sister allows the estate agent to show her the house, she insists on seeing the bedrooms. While in the same bedroom as the female owner the sister tries to seduce the estate agent. The brother comes out of the bedroom and slashes the estate agents throat to the annoyance of his sister, she's concerned about blood seeping through the floorboards.

In the evening they invite guests over. People we've seen before who are friends of the owners. Well, it's not the type of house party I would want to go to, lets leave it there! Overall,this film shows that even with a script that has lots of holes in it, you can make a decent thriller.

Honeymoon (2014)

 A young newly wedded couple arrive at a remote house in the woods belonging to the girl's family. What can possibly go wrong? Well, quite a lot actually but it is done bit by bit and the suspense really does build up well. I shared the man's frustration with not understanding why his wife was becoming more remote from him. This is another film that contains a good twist to the story. It's not what you think in the end and to be kept in suspense for the length of the film is a great achievement from the director Leigh Janiak whose first film this was. One of the stars (Rose Leslie) is in the hit TV series Game of Thrones. It was a lot better than the average film on the Horror Channel.

Road Games (2015)

 This film was quite an interesting take on a familiar theme. An Englishman hitch-hiking in France meets a young French woman and they hitch-hike together. A French house owner passerby stops and gives them a lift. At first it seemed as though the killer on the loose that's in the news is the Englishman. However, all is not as it seems. There are some good twists in the film that will keep you watching, I quite enjoyed this from a plot point of view, despite not particularly liking the actors involved.

The Possession of Michael King (2014)

I wasn't really sure what to make of this movie. A young man is spiritually lost, he has lost his wife and she believed in the supernatural world. He wants to prove there is nothing in it and chooses to make a film of his experiences trying to connect with the afterlife. He is a film maker by trade, so the film plays out in the style of found footage. A trope that is overdone in my opinion, especially in horror films.

So he visits a variety of fraudsters who make claims that they can summon demons or talk to the dead. After a few he starts to develop a ringing in his ears and strange things start to happen. His sidekick abandons the project, he doesn't like what is going on. It turns out that there is some entity trying to take charge of Michael.

This isn't an enjoyable film to watch, there are some unpleasant scenes (for example, he enters his sisters bedroom while she is sleeping and lifts the duvet to feel the top of her thighs) and I found it a bit on the long side. He does indeed seem to be possessed by the close of the film, so he got what he wanted I guess. I didn't like the character of Michael and that's quite important with a film like this. Perhaps others would like his character but I couldn't muster up any sympathy for him, if you go looking for trouble and then find it where you didn't expect to, more fool you.

Static (2012)

I was pleasantly surprised by this film. It manages to keep its surprise until the end, at least it did for me. A couple are seeking to get over the death of a child and have moved out to the sticks. A young woman knocks their door one night claiming to have broken down and that there are a gang of people after her. They bring her into their home and the husband immediately trusts her but his wife is more suspicious. They do indeed see the people who are tying to find them in their home, they are wearing strange masks.
The twist in the story is the same as The Sixth Sense from 1999. This 2012 film didn't get very positive reviews when it was released but it's not a terrible film, its just not a classic either.

Grave Halloween (2013)

I watched this film in two parts and hoped the second part would be better than the first, it wasn't. It is set in a Japanese forest known locally as Suicide Forest for the sheer number of people who commit suicide there.

Some American students are making a documentary for one of them whose birth mother committed suicide in the forest. They meet up with some other American students who are also in the forest but seem to be there for a good old laugh. These jokers find an abandoned tent and find an expensive Rolex watch, that one of them takes hoping to sell and split the profits.

It doesn't end well for any of our students but the story and the journey to get to the end are not told in an interesting way. The make-up effects are pretty good but the dialogue and story are weak. It could have been a lot better because there is probably a more interesting way to tell the same story.

When A Stranger Calls (2006)

The Horror Channel has a season called Sunday Thrillers and this film was the one from last week. I wasn't going to watch it but in the end it was on TV and I just continued to watch it. I guess it says something about the film that I continued to watch but quite what that is I'm not sure. I did enjoy the performance by Camilla Belle who plays a young girl who is baby sitting for a wealthy couple who live in the middle of nowhere.

The film is a psychological thriller about her receiving a series of phone calls through the night that eventually transform into a very real physical threat to her life and the lives of the other inhabitants of the house. This is a remake of a film that I can't remember if I've seen. Is it better than the original? I don't know because I can't remember the original, the original is apparently famous for having a very scary first 20 minutes. Probably not the same class on show here but I thought Camilla's performance as the main character was strong.

Girl House (2014)

A female student who is struggling financially joins an online porn website called Girl House run from somewhere in the middle of nowhere. The USP of this place is that there are surveillance cameras all ove the house to watch the girls going about stuff around the house like playing pool and taking a shower.

She moves in and gets a chauffeur driven car to university lectures. At other times she performs striptease and chats to paying web guests. One of the paying guests is an obese man who seems to have some form of psychological damage due to being humiliated sexually by a couple of young girls during a flashback. He threw one of the girls who he had pushed off her bike over the edge of a bridge. Well, he forms an attachment to the new striptease girl and he shares his photo with her, the other girls in the house somehow find it and pin it to the noticeboard in the house with a nasty comment. Somehow he sees this and he sees red. He goes on the rampage and because he is into computers he is somehow able to tap into the cameras and find out the location. There is a sub-plot about another student at the same university who was in love with the girl from the past and now watches her and realises who she is.

This is a silly film but nonetheless it is quite enjoyable to watch. The porn is totally turned down for a polite audience, so I guess the film will appeal to a wide audience and not just men. There are plenty of gruesome murders, so if you like gore you'll probably like this.

The Apparition (2012)

This film was one that apparently bombed at the box office and I can see why, having barely watched it a few days ago there was nothing memorable about it I could remember. I needed to read the plot synopsis again on Wikipedia. The film ends in a camping section of Costco. Need I say more?
It's very loosely based on something called the Philip Experiment that was conducted in 1972 in Canada. That doesn't make it any better, by the way.
There are some nice looking actors in the film, Ashley Greene is the female lead. As a result of a séance conducted at a university several years before an entity has been let out from "the other side" and is haunting one of the students who took part. He lost his first girlfriend in the experiment. He now has a new girlfriend and they are moving into a house together. So thinks start happening around the house and a strange fungus appears. The new girlfriend finds a box of stuff belonging to the student and realises she might end up in the same fate. One of the students who conducted the experiemental séance originally gets back in touch (the actor who plays Draco Malfoy in Harry Potter) and they try to perform some kind of exorcism - with electronics involved, though frankly at this stage things were so ridiculous I was past caring.
Not a film I can recommend to you.

Deadline (2009)

This is one of those haunted house films that get made a lot. There is a hint of a lesbian relationship between the two female characters in this film but it is never made obvious. A writer who has gone through a mental trauma needs peace and quiet to finish a book. She starts to hear strange noises and gets caught up in watching DV tapes of the previous owner who was a man who got obsessed that his pregnant wife was cheating on him. It turns out that there are a lot of similarities between her and the previous owner's wife. Not a scary film really, I sort of lost interest during the film but stuck with it.