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Sunday, January 3rd, 2010
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stainsteelrat
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I'm tempted to get Weather Display Live, which will create a web page based on the data from Weather Display.
The buggeration factor though is it uses Flash, which I don't have on Windows 7 64 bit, nor do I have on the iPhone.
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Friday, January 1st, 2010
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stainsteelrat
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Watched Big Stan (2007). Directed by Rob Schneider and written by Josh Lieb. Rob Schneider plays Stan, a con man that sells timeshare. He is arrested for fraud and sentenced to 3 years in prison, but has his sentence deferred for 6 months after bribing the judge via his corrupt lawyer. He uses the 6 months to prepare for his time in prison by hiring The Master (David Carradine) to teach him how to fight, among other things. And so the story unfolds. The proof that I'm not a film snob is that I like Rob Schneider (and Adam Sandler) films. Not all of them, but some... well one, Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo. Cerebral comedy is not the name of the game, it's just utter silliness, but in the vein of a lot of humour that's out there. Big Stan is in much the same vein, albeit with an anal rape obsession (Stan is going to prison, and purportedly this is all that happens, and what he is desperate to avoid). The story isn't really in the same silly vein as Deuce Bigalow - the theme of anal rape is one of the differentiators here - but is on a par. And although I found bits of it amusing, it wasn't really laugh a minute stuff. Carradine phones in his performance as The Master, bizarre as it is to see him in this. It's also bizarre to see Jennifer Morrison (Dr. Cameron in House) as Stan's ditzy love interest. It sustained my attention though just. For fans of Rob Schneider films, or those who really aren't fussy/snobby about their comedy. A charitable 3/5 (Average)
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Thursday, December 31st, 2009
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stainsteelrat
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Watched 88 Minutes (2007). Directed by Jon Avnet and written by Gary Scott Thompson. The film stars Al Pacino as Jack Gramm, a forensic psychologist. Some years earlier Gramm put away a serial killer who was sentenced to death. Said serial killer is now on death row and due to be put to death. Against this backdrop murders with the same MO as the serial killer startup again, and Gramm receives a mysterious phone call telling him he has 88 minutes to live. And so the story unfolds. 88 Minutes is filmed in a similar vein to the 24 series, that is from near the beginning of the film it runs pretty much in realtime. Pacino is good as Gramm, a somewhat sleazy womanising character. The other performances are a mixed bag, with a particularly poor showing from William Forsythe. The story is entertaining enough though and relatively fast paced. Recommended for fans of crime drama. 3/5 (Average)
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stainsteelrat
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So what were my favourite film, game, album and book from 2009?
Film: A tricky one to select. I had a few 5/5 films, but none really stick out as a clear favourite, unlike 2008. I'll go for Avatar though, as despite the cliché there were some magical moments within. Close seconds are Drag Me To Hell, Shoot 'Em Up (debatably doesn't count being from 2007), and District 9.
Game: Also a little tricky to select, but it has to be Left 4 Dead 2. Close seconds in the form of Borderlands, Red Faction: Guerilla and Plants vs. Zombies. Fallout 3 still featured, but was a carry over from 2008.
Album: Trickiness is again the theme here, as I had two clear favourites. I'll have to opt for Royksopp's Junior though. Despite being lukewarm about it to begin with, it grew on me lots, in combination with going to see them live. A close second is 1 Giant Leap's second album, What About Me? A great album, but not as strong as their first. Favourable mentions to The Prodigy's Invaders Must Die, Flight of the Conchords' I Told You I Was Freaky (slightly cheating, as this was music from their second TV series). 2009 was the weakest year for me yet though in music, highlighting my ability to enjoy new music, or the decline in the music industry. I unhappily suspect the latter is the case. Anecdotally I have around 60 albums in iTunes from 2008, and 20 from 2009.
Book: I'm not sure whether I read Ben Goldacre's Bad Science this year or last. Oh well, it was the only book I remember reading of late. Even so, it was a humdinger. Perhaps I shouldn't have a books category...
What were your favourites?
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Wednesday, December 30th, 2009
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stainsteelrat
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| Time: | 8:52 pm. |
| Mood: | squeeeeeeeeeeeeee!. | | Music: | Ito Okashi - Passengers. |
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My silly sunglasses arrived today. Squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
Amazingly they come in this, which is superbly compact for the erm... handbag manbag?
I can't imagine they'll stay on for a long time, nor survive a light breeze, but at least I can look a pillock IN STYLE!
( +2 )
Of course Lu hates 'em!
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stainsteelrat
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So there's the option of the Merc C180K Sports Coupe Panorama. 0-60 in 9.4s.
Or there's the option of the C350 Sports Coupe Panorama. 0-60 in 6.2s.
MWUHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Assuming I don't get over it.
(And it's all ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) kuzanagi_'s fault)
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Tuesday, December 29th, 2009
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stainsteelrat
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So I rang up the broker about claiming Lu's car damage as a write off.
Lu currently pays £400 for fully comprehensive insurance on the Escort - arguably a waste of time having comprehensive insurance seeing as the car is now worth £1,000 tops, but that'll become even more obvious in a second.
The excess is £400.
If she makes a claim her premium will go up, due to claims history, and she'll lose her 2 years no claims bonus.
An estimated quote for the insurance premium, if she goes ahead and makes the claim, will be around £1,000 a year.
I'm sure you can do the maths, but in one year she'll pay an extra £600 on the insurance. If she makes the claim she'll get AT MOST £600 back.
And that's just based on one year's insurance.
Bottom line: claim-ee no worth-ee.
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Monday, December 28th, 2009
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stainsteelrat
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| Time: | 9:38 am. |
| Mood: | curious. |
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Out of curiosity, for those that know* me, do you think my (lengthy) profile is a fair reflection?
*Whether we know each other in real life, or are longstanding LJ friends.
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Sunday, December 27th, 2009
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stainsteelrat
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| Time: | 11:51 pm. |
| Mood: | okay. |
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Beg me the indulgence of pimping stegzy's Find New Chumz post.
A beacon of light in an otherwise too quiet LiveJournal.
Please pass on the pimpage!
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stainsteelrat
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Watched Amélie (2001). Directed and co-written by Jean-Pierre Jeunet. The film starts with an introduction to the title character from birth to early adulthood. This is done in a unique style by Jeunet, who tells us about Amélie and a number of characters in terms of their likes and dislikes. Amélie's mother was killed by someone committing suicide from Notre Dame Cathedral, while Amélie was only a few years old. So this, and an over compensating father, mean an unusual childhood. The rest of the film is spent with Amélie as a somewhat lonely but very caring young woman. She falls in love with a man she sees rifling through bins next to a train station photo booth, although he doesn't return it and runs off. Amélie then becomes obsessed with finding him, as well as righting wrongs done against the people in her life. And so the story unfolds. This is another of my retrospective reviews, as I first saw Amélie in the cinema, with some friends, back in 2001/2002. I hadn't really wanted to go and see it, but was bullied into it by one of the friends (thanks Tanja!). From the first moment of the film though I knew this was something different, with Jeunet's wonderful approach to characterisation and story telling. The story is told almost like a fairy tale in a modern setting, with odds 'n' sods of fantasy. It's also important to emphasise that Amélie is not a wholly serious story, there are moments of brilliant comedy as well as times that it tugs hard at your heart strings, like the best comedies do. Although it seems wrong to class the film as a comedy... fantasy... or anything else. It is its own thing, as most if not all of Jeunet's films are. Audrey Tautou is simply charming as the adult Amélie Poulain, in a role she has yet to equal in other films, and arguably the role she was made for. A wonderful soundtrack by Yann Tiersen accompanies the visuals. If there were to be any complaints about Amélie, it would probably be along the lines of it being twee and unrealistic. Although I'm sure most people don't go to the cinema wanting realism. Jeunet has not matched Amélie, neither before or after, for me. The City of Lost Children (1995) is a spectacular film though, and Jeunet's second best so far for me. A Very Long Engagement (2004) is a far tougher watch - a serious romantic tale again starring Tautou - but I enjoyed it. Delicatessen (1991) left me a little cold, no pun intended, but was still entertaining. Alien Resurrection (1997) was a bigger departure for Jeunet - the only film he hasn't written - and partly against popular opinion I enjoyed it (but didn't love it). Micmacs, Jeunet's most recent film, was released this year but doesn't hit UK cinemas until Jan 2010. I'll definitely be going to see it, by hook or by crook. Anyway, Amélie: Recommended for those who can cope with and enjoy both foreign and something other than mainstream cinema. 5/5 (Excellent)
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stainsteelrat
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| Time: | 7:22 pm. |
| Mood: | headache-y. |
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Watched Jennifer's Body (2009). Directed by Karyn Kusama and written by Diablo Cody. The film stars Amanda Seyfried and !!MEGAN FOX!! as Anita and Jennifer, childhood friends. As teenagers though their friendship is a little strained, with Anita leaning towards wallflower, and Jennifer leaning towards head cheerleader. Jennifer's crush on the lead singer of a band leads them both to a concert at a bar, where Jennifer is then inexplicably abducted by the band following a fire. And so the story unfolds. Jennifer's Body treads a fairly fine line of black comedy, with the emphasis on the black. Seyfried is good as the foil to Fox, and it's good to see Fox not taking herself too seriously. There's not a lot else to say really, other than it's good to see a couple of strong female leads in a film. Recommended for fans of relatively simple horror, who don't have picky taste. 3/5 (Average)
In other news...
I've watched six episodes of 10 Minute Tales; currently flowing and ebbing on Sky Anytime. Not only are they very good, it reminds me how much I used to enjoy silent films as a kid e.g. Harold Lloyd. Good to see Sky doing some drama as well, albeit short drama. And doing something different.
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stainsteelrat
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| Time: | 12:42 pm. |
| Mood: | headache-y. |
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Watched Clive Barker's Book of Blood (2008). Based on two short stories by Barker, and directed by John Harrison. Set in the UK, the film starts with the capture of a mysterious scarred character by a bounty hunter. The bounty hunter says he will kill the character quickly if he can tell him a good story, or slowly if he can't. And so he tells a story which then forms the bulk of the film. Book of Blood will feel familiar to those who have seen other Barker adaptations. It has that same somewhat dreamlike quality, mixed with a ghost story for adults. At times it feels like a made-for-TV film, but the gore aspects set it apart. It doesn't reach the heights and imagination of Night Breed or Hellraiser (1), but is still a just-about-entertaining watch for fans of both Barker and horror. 3/5 (Average)
Watched Planet 51 (2009). Co-directed by Jorge Blanco, Javier Abad, and Marcos Martinez. Written by Joe Stillman. The CG animated film starts with the arrival of astronaut Captain Charles T. Baker (voiced by Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson) on an alien planet. Unlike your traditional alien planet though this is populated by a human-like species, having BBQs and being rather middle class, who are somewhat stunned to see this "alien" among them. Baker seeks out help from the locals, while trying to get back to his spaceship, and so the story unfolds. The basic problem with Planet 51 is that it's a one joke story, that is the role reversal of a human being among the aliens. On the face of it a joke with plenty of potential, but it does get stretched thin fairly quickly. There are still some amusing aspects though e.g. the Giger-alien style dog that urinates acid for blood. Even so, despite the setting and spartan jokes it wasn't enough to lift it above barely entertaining for me. I suspect 5-10 year olds will enjoy it though. 3/5 (Average)
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Saturday, December 26th, 2009
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stainsteelrat
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| Time: | 6:14 pm. |
| Mood: | blah. | | Music: | Kung Fu - Ash - 1977. |
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Watched The Cove (2009). Directed by Louie Psihoyos, this is a feature length documentary about the killing of dolphins, primarily in Taiji, Wakayama, Japan. The film centres around three issues. Firstly, that although there is a lot of focus on the killing of whales (hundreds per year) there is little if any focus on the (inhumane) killing of dolphins (20,000+ per year). Secondly, that dolphin (and whale) meat is purportedly laden with mercury at toxic levels. Thirdly, the story of Ric O'Barry, the dolphin trainer from the 60s US TV programme Flipper, who is now a campaigner against dolphin capture and killing. I found The Cove interesting, albeit it covers emotive topics. It uses a little of the Michael Moore school of journalism, that is playing on the emotions of the viewer by showing shots of dolphins swimming through the ocean, then contrasting with their slaughter and the oceans running red with blood. Running backwards through the aforementioned issues, it is inevitably ironic to see O'Barry having turned from a person who worked with captured dolphins through to now working on their release. I don't doubt his morals, and I have nothing but kudos for those who were doing similar in the film. That potentially toxic dolphin and whale meat is being sold as food, with a blind eye turned by the Japanese government, is obviously of great cause for concern. Particularly when dolphin meat was being given to schoolchildren, a practice that was stopped thankfully. And finally, the killing of animals that suffer during the slaughter process is something I could never support. I am an omnivore, and hope that the meat and poultry I eat comes from animals that are killed but don't suffer - although I suspect a lot of us turn a blind eye to the process. Everything dies though to support life, which is why I'm not a vegetarian. Anyway, enough of my views on the issues raised. I found the documentary itself both interesting and well put together. Recommended for those who like to see alternate cultural viewpoints and Michael Moore films. 4/5 (Good)
Read more about it at TakePart.com/TheCove.
(Thanks to Kevin for the recommendation)
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stainsteelrat
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| Time: | 4:01 pm. |
| Mood: |  blah. |
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Facebook. eithnepdb has had a few bits to say about Facebook of late which I agree with. I am a frequent user of the site, from the standpoint of status updates (and commenting). In fact I have few if any friends that update their status as much as me, which I'm partly embarrassed about. But by the same token I also update (and tweet) when I feel like it, much like I've always been with blogging. I don't think I should feel limited to a socially acceptable number of posts a day, if there is such a thing.
I'm fortunate in a sense that I have a bunch of Internet friends that I'm connected with, that I share a lot with, who are also on Facebook. So for me it's like any forum or social site where I am with a group of like-minded people. Just like LiveJournal I enjoy "socially networking" with that group of friends, who are spread across the world and I couldn't socialise with in any other way. Facebook is rarely as deep as LiveJournal, but I am connected with a lot more people - almost a quality vs. quantity argument, but more so perhaps a depth vs. shallowness argument.
Anyway, I was going to say what irks me about Facebook, based on my experience. The first thing is that not many people seem to use it for "social networking", and by social networking I mean actual 2-way interaction in terms of posts (status updates) and comments. A lot of people use it for games. A lot of people use it to post what they're up to. But a lot less people use it to interact with each other in a 2-way sense. I was a bit surprised about that to begin with, and although I am used to it I'm still irked by it.
The second thing is the lurking, which has an overlap with the social networking aspect. Unlike LiveJournal you can tell which people are online (sort of). So you can see that a lot of people are on the site, but short of playing games and using the chat function they don't appear to be doing anything else e.g. posting or commenting. So assuming they aren't actually playing games or chatting then there must be a degree of lurking, that is just watching what other people are doing. I guess I don't understand lurking full stop, but I remember reading a while back that for every Internet forum out there on average there are 10 times as many lurkers as posters.
As intimated, the issue here is that it is a behaviour, or a set of behaviours, I don't understand. I prefer to post and comment. I wouldn't go onto a forum just to sit and watch what everyone else is doing.
A curious side topic here is that I'm not exactly an extrovert in real life, nor am I that chatty, but I seem to be one of those annoying chatty extroverts on the Internet ;-) Curious how this different method of communication brings out a side I can't or don't want to present in real life.
Edit: I forgot to add the third irk. That of the LJ > Facebook defectors! ;-)
Edit 2: And a fourth irk. Out of context status updates! Take pity on those who read your status updates. We don't all know what is going on in your life, or are you trying to force comments?
Also, along with the big drop in LJ usage, it feels like a similar thing is happening on Facebook. I guess the novelty is wearing off.
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Friday, December 25th, 2009
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stainsteelrat
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| Time: | 10:19 pm. |
| Mood: | good. |
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Twas a lovely day today.
We popped in to see Nan on the way to Jo's, and Nan was in fine fettle.
The rest of the day was spent consuming food and having a lovely time with family.
^Sam at the dinner table.
( And a few more... )
The plan is still to go to Guildford tomorrow, briefly, coat and shoe shopping.
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Thursday, December 24th, 2009
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stainsteelrat
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The plan for tomorrow is to head to my sister's late morning.
My sister's parents-in-law live close by, and my sister and co. are the only close family they have, hence her parents-in-law always go to her. This means that my sister can't have Christmas anywhere else, hence we all go to her as well. Kids really liven up Christmas though, so I'm looking forward lots to building Lego with my lovely nephews.
Mum always stays with my Nan over Christmas lunch, which is very early (on the dot of 12pm) at the nursing home, so we won't be eating at my sister's until 3-4pm. This isn't a great problem though.
Lu hasn't been able to get me a Christmas present - partly due to writing her car off, and partly due to me not really needing/wanting anything. She has bought various bits for the house though, and has promised to fund me a new coat and shoes, probably when we hit the sales from the 26th onwards. Not that I'm going to do a lot of shopping, I plan to head straight for the House of Fraser in Guildford.
And that's about it.
Assuming I don't update again, a Merry Christmas to all my lovely LJ friends! :-)
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contemplative.