Monday, October 31, 2005

Blue sky and palm trees

One of the things I like to do is have a look around at the images on flickr. This is actually a quite nice relaxing Saturday morning activity especially when I stumble across nice summery shots like this one of Kowloon.


Some folks had messed around with it and shifted the wide angle, perspective style to being more portraity. Here, have a look.


Personally I prefer the 'original' (which does look a little photoshopped) even if it does have a wonky angle on the skyscraper on the right hand side.
See what you think.

Friday, October 28, 2005

The celebrity connection

The temporary stop notice served by me and Gem one month ago expires today. The pressure is now on to do something else, and I have a pretty good idea what that is but can’t say for the time being.

However, what is starting to piss me off is that a certain C-list celebrity (on daytime TV, probably been in ‘Hello’ magazine I think but probably not on the front cover) lives near the site and the locals are now supposedly rallying the support of this aforementioned celebrity to try and get some kudos swinging for their cause. I am not amused by this tactic.

Of course if this celebrity were to ring me up in person and promise an autograph that said something along the lines of ‘big up to you Nick, thanks for the temporary stop notice, love from the aforementioned C-list celebrity’ my opinions might be a little different as that would be a trophy worth having.

I will be interested to see how today pans out…
Update:
Enforcement and Stop Notices served much to the pleasure of local residents. No police escort this time though so sadly not as dramatic as last time.

Thursday, October 27, 2005

Back to school with avengence

So do you remember those University course work questions that had you totally stumped, like the ones where you didn’t even know where to start. In my experience I managed to side step most of these as they were either one of a number of questions (so you pick the one you understand as opposed to the difficult one) or group work so could either avoid or disguise ignorance.

The ones I had to confront head on I had plenty of time to prepare for and generally could fudge my way through with a bit of rhetoric and some misquoted passages. Clearly I got away with this approach as I got my qualifications.

However, those nice folks at [withdrawn] have tasked me with giving a power point presentation on the most ridiculously hard theoretical question by next Wednesday. Between now and then I have two spare(ish) evenings (one being my birthday; yippee) and a spare morning in which to work out what I am supposed to be doing (as it is horrendously open ended), research it, put something together, re-learn how to use power point, practice and then deliver.

Sorry, this post is short. I am busy panicking.

Oh, I got a second interview with [withdrawn], in case you hadn't guessed.

Wednesday, October 26, 2005

Secrets on film

Ranging from the funny, to the thoughtful, naughty and sometimes the sad. Have a look at Postsecret.

Tuesday, October 25, 2005

Daylight

I am going to start this post by stating the obvious. It’s now dark in the morning when I wake up. Yesterday morning this struck me particularly strongly, partly because I didn’t get to bed until late the previous night and also because dawn had advanced itself about 20 minutes further into the day from the previous Friday when I last had to rouse myself at an early time.

My alarm woke me up somewhat abruptly and my first (and clearly totally irrational) instinct was ’why is my alarm clock lying to me?’ Of course it wasn’t lying to me, I was merely suffering the consequences of living at approximately 51 degrees north and just west of the Greenwich meridian in late October. Nevertheless, later in the day, I was quite pleased to find out that it wasn’t just me who initially jumped to ‘the alarm clock is lying to me theory’ as opposed to the far more logical spatial one (thanks Kate).

Anyhow del.icio.us prompted me to this blog post which seems to contain some fairly light weight and common sense advice about how to wake yourself up early in the morning. I also spotted this item, as part of the marathon John Lewis session on Saturday, which I hope would deliver similar results. Unlikely that I am going to be smart enough to adopt either of them but you might be a little brighter than me (bad pun intended).

Monday, October 24, 2005

Family stuff

In approaching this blogging thing I have deliberately not posted anything at the weekend (says he whilst sticking up this post ten minutes into Monday morning). There are several reasons for this, principally because I like the break from committing anything to text. Another is because I am fairly sure weekend posts would turn into little more than ‘this weekend I went out in *insert location* with *insert people* and got lashed and *insert random event* happened’ or ‘this weekend was boring because I didn’t get up to much.’ Accordingly weekend life is generally unblogged. This weekend just passed however I am going to write about.

My Aunt is over from Canada who I haven’t seen for five years (can’t believe it’s been that long). This weekend was thus dedicated to a series of protracted family events which well, I don’t like.

Don’t get me wrong, I like my family but they drive me nuts. We seem to have this massive inability to be able to communicate effectively (or perhaps it is just me?) and grasp where each other are coming from despite having each others interests at heart. I can generally manage family stuff in small doses and actually like spending a lunch or evening with them but more than this and I generally get fed up and/or cross with the whole situation.

This weekend was a prime example. I had the dubious pleasure of spending three hours in John Lewis with them on Saturday. Three hours! Now John Lewis has lots of nice things and I could quite happily furnish my entire life with their stuff but three hours is really far too long. But no, we had to spend ages looking at and talking (and talking and talking and talking) about sofas, lighting, televisions, DVD players, digital cameras, kitchenware, pictures, fine china, glassware, bed linen, mobile phones (John Lewis doesn’t even sell mobile phones), dining room furniture, alarm clocks, televisions again, beds, the list goes on…

Some of this time was spent with my parents fishing to find out what I wanted for my birthday (which I wasn’t prepared for, and hadn‘t ordered my thoughts on) which was, in complete fairness, really nice of them and totally unexpected. So I told them I liked the suede bean bag that I have had my eye on for about a year. But, rather than say ok that’s it then, I get the bit about how suede gets mucky easily and perhaps the corduroy one would be a wiser choice and then my Mum offered to make me a suede bean bag for ‘half the price it was on sale for.’ I am then in the position whereby I can’t have the bean bag I had been pining over for over a year ‘because it is impractical,’ (probably true but that doesn’t change my feelings about it) can’t decline my Mums really kind offer to make me one because that would be rude but end up not getting the item they offered to me in the first instance and now can‘t even get it myself because that also would be rude. So of course none of that works out satisfactorily and they ask what else I might like and I basically refuse to tell them because I am worried they’ll wreck that with kindness too and then they (understandably) get pissed off with me for being a jerk.

(I am a little worried that the above paragraph makes me look like a materialistic jerk, so for clarity I am complaining about it to highlight communication issues not whine about not getting a birthday present).

Then it’s Sunday dinner (just got back home from) and my other Aunt’s (don’t like this Aunt quite so much) ability to consume all the wine, dominate all conversation and pontificate ad infinatum about subjects of scant interest to anyone. But at least this gives me and the remainder of the family a common cause to rally against and spend some time playing the amusing but unspoken game of ‘how can I engineer this situation to get somebody else other than me to talk to this drunken bore.’

It really is baffling how I can care about these people quite so much whilst at the same time they manage to drive me absolutely mental. I wonder if they feel the same way?

Friday, October 21, 2005

I hope that f***ing hurt

In case you hadn’t guessed by now, the posts that I stick up at 7:30am etc. in the morning were (generally) not written at the same time as they were posted. Most get tweaked a little before final posting but generally the bulk of the early morning posts are created the preceding evening or afternoon whensoever the whimsy of writing takes me (can’t believe I just used the word whimsy) (see, that's the kinda crap that comes out when I start writing stuff at 7:30am). I prefer this approach as it gives me time to proof read what I have written to make sure its not total (as opposed to partial) garbage and gives a degree of consistency in posting rates.

I constructed the remainder of this post yesterday evening and reading it back now it does seem more than a little harsh but the situation as described made me get my rage on so I am going to post it anyway…

So there I am in the supermarket quietly minding my own business and all of a sudden along comes this woman with god awful uncontrolled child and smack, aforementioned god awful uncontrolled child goes head first into my hand basket and lays himself out on the floor.

Me of course being the perfect gentleman says sorry and make to go check shitty child is ok (setting aside it wasn’t my fucking fault in the first place) to be greeted by this stare from this woman as if she had just scraped me off her shoe and found me to be a giant steaming turd. Fucking cheek. So I walked off whilst trying to give her the look of ‘you are an awful mother, and your child is awful, and ugly, and so are you, and you are a vile parasite upon society and I hope you get mangled on the bull-horns of your own SUV’ (I don’t think I managed to convey all that in one look but at least I tried).

Here’s a list of the clever (or just plain mean) things I thought of to say on the way home and wish that I was smart enough slash had the balls to be able to tell her to her face there and then:

‘A couple more hits in the face and he (the child) might not end up with your ugly face.’

‘That’ll fucking learn him to look where he’s going.’

‘All that gin you’ve been drinking must be coming out in the breast milk.’

‘Hahahahahahaha, your child’s a retard.’

‘I ain’t beyond swinging this hand basket to make it connect with your face too.’

‘Do you know who I am? I could get your house knocked down.’

Thursday, October 20, 2005

It's horribly, horribly early (again)

So, another morning of getting up early today. If you asked my boss, this is because ‘I have to be at home for the boiler repair man who is coming this morning.’ The real reason being that I have a job interview near Liverpool Street at 9am this morning.

Getting up early, or more accurately going out early, used to really irritate me but for various reasons I have had to do it seemingly more and more frequently of late. I still don’t like actually having to get out of bed in the morning but living by myself at least I can superheat my flat in the morning to the extent that I think most folks would probably find uncomfortable, but which makes me cosy and emerging from a bed a little more bearable. One thing I do like is once you are up and actually out early how nice and quiet it is, especially when it is slightly wintery slash autumnish like it is at the moment in the morning and I get to wrap up in a jacket and scarf. At the moment I am actually looking forward to getting my cup of coffee from the train station and catching the train down to London.

The interview I am going for is actually interview one for the [withdrawn] job that I said I wasn’t going to go for on the basis of their slightly shitty approach and cruddy application forms. However, following some sweet talking from their recruitment consultant where the guy explained that they really couldn’t care less about the application forms (possibly hence their crap format, see Stupid Questions) and just wanted a copy of my CV, I was a little more amenable to playing ball.

I am not too sure how the interview is going to go or even what it is all about. As I am meeting the recruitment consultants as opposed to my potential employer. I am sure this stage is to weed out the wheat from the chaff but am not too sure how these recruitment consultants will determine me to be either wheat or chaff. I am very conscious that the position I am applying for is possibly a little bold I think, but if you don’t ask you don’t get.

Anyway, it’s something different for a change and I recon I should be done by half ten at the latest so I have grand designs on getting a nice late leisurely breakfast somewhere in London and that should be nice even if I get nothing out of the rest of the day.

Wednesday, October 19, 2005

Happy birthday to…

Nick’s brother actually who has a birthday just two days before my own which is irritating for several reasons.

One; seriously were my parents thinking something along the lines of, I know what would be rather fun, lets have two kids separated by four years in age and try to give them the same birthday, that’s the kind of stuff that gets you on TV? Either that or February was a historically boring month for them? (Any chance of my telling my parents about my blog has just gone completely out of the window).

Two, the end of October is all about me (oh, and Halloween, and in recent years my friend Elenor who shares my birthday) and having to sort out a card and gift and arrange for my brother is always a hassle as we barely know each other. This time of year generally causes family strife aswell as both me and my brother want to go have fun with the kids our age and not have to put up with accommodating our parents who generally get ditched on the premise that between us we can never find a free weekend and generally end up having some weak joint birthday celebration in Pizza Express in Aylesbury or somewhere else similarly generically crappy on a weekday evening and nobody is ever really happy.

Anyhow, this year I have resolved to try and sort things out a little earlier this year (ten days in advance, well done Nick) family wise so am presently musing on the birthday present for my brother (at least to begin with). Thus far I have short listed it to the feonic sound bug (gimic), £20 voucher from HMV (or other similar store) and erm, that's it. Anyone got any better sugestions?

Tuesday, October 18, 2005

How popular are you

Well, the end of last week saw visits to Nick101 fall through the floor from a fairly consistent 15-17ish viewers for the preceding two weeks to a rather dismal 8-9 at the end of the week. So in order to try and revive flagging viewer figures I have been attempting to work out what folks are actually interested in and what prompts the most feedback.

Thus far, based on comment feedback alone, English Riviera and The hotel of evil seem to have prompted the most interest in terms of comments posted although the two are totally different in terms of content matter. This really baffles me as I thought Pikeys was one of the more interesting topics which generated little feedback whilst The hotel of evil was very similar in terms of style to Sealand which also prompted limited feedback.

Thus far I am still struggling to establish what people are interested in and what prompts higher viewings as I can find no logic to it, perhaps there is none?

Anyhow, as I can’t seem, for the time being at least, to pin down what keeps people interested, I am going to go off at a complete tangent and say follow this link which I have been meaning to do a post about for some time but could never come up with any kind of decent pretence to do so. It’s a gently amusing short story which made me smile. I think it’s worth a read but then again what you choose to read and what you don’t choose to read is entirely up to you as my viewer statistics show.

Monday, October 17, 2005

Stirling work

So The Scottish Parliament Building in Edinburgh won the RIBA Stirling Prize this year. At least the £20,000 prize should offset the £400 million overspend on it.

Not the one I wanted to win as I thought Wil Alsop’s ridiculous sense of creative fun in the Fawood Children’s Centre in Harlesden was sufficiently thoughtful and crazy at the same time to warrant recognition but there we go. Norman Foster didn’t win it either with the admittedly very cool McLaren Technology Centre. Then again, at least the prize went to somebody other than Alsop or Foster who seem to have a habit of winning everything architectural these days.

I didn’t get to watch the unveiling live as I was at a quiz evening in a village down the road which was a surprising bit of fun. Even if the team I was on had a combined age of about half of any other teams. Still, made me feel younger than the standard Saturday evening fare of standing around in a crowded bar with a bunch of stinky teenagers.

Friday, October 14, 2005

Millions of things buzzing round my head

One thing I have little trouble in coming up with is ideas on stuff to post about. I have loads of things buzzing round my head that I could quite happily put into some form of reasonably well structured sentence to make some vague point about.

Coming up with things to say was one of my initial concerns when I started doing this blog but as it transpires it is by far and away not the biggest obstacle. The most difficult thing I find is being in the right mood and frame of mind to be able to write about what I would like (and also fitting in everything else I have to do around that).

At the moment I am feeling particularly irritable and uncommunicative and don’t feel like writing about any of the things I have on the ‘to blog’ list. However, nor do I feel like complaining about all of the little, little things that have ticked me of this week (and there have been a fair few) as (1) I think folks would probably be somewhat disinterested in all the stuff that has irked me and (2) in committing them to text it becomes apparent how small and petty they actually are.

Conversely, actually just writing this (or any other post) in the first place is often helpful as it focuses my mind on the task and generally improves my mood to the extent where (in this case) I am actually a little more content than I was when writing the first paragraph.

Anyhow, it is Friday and hopefully I will be heading down to join Elia for her birthday do in London this evening. I say hopefully, I am acutely aware that the London Underground train drivers, specifically those on the requisite Northern Line, (who earn about 32K for driving a frickin train) are striking again such that I may not be able to get there without considerable difficulty and multiple changes. Just another one of those little, little things that really ticks me off.

Thursday, October 13, 2005

You’re getting enforced

In no particular order, a list of some of the more bizarre things I have had to say recently (with a little artistic license and some specific details changed to avoid recognition):

“Yes Mr Police Man Sir,… an abandoned gypsy rave… No, I’m sorry I don’t know why they wanted the electric wheelchair.”

“Your home for 40 years you say,… not any more.”

“Another stroke,… oh dear.”

“Only 125,000 tonnes of inert waste,… that’s ok then.”

“Yes, you can put it back up again,… you just have to take it down first.”

“That’s right, it’s ok for your neighbours to do that,... it’s just you we have a problem with.”

“If you don’t let me in, I am going to break in and you can’t stop me.”

“These things are here for the village charity fete you say, how nice... I am going to prosecute you for it.”

“Your dead husband is buried there, well looks like he’s going to have to get exhumed when the deck gets torn down.”

and my personal favourite:

“Naked women you say,… yes I would be happy to do a site visit.”

Wednesday, October 12, 2005

Stupid Questions

So I was attempting to fill out the application forms for the [withdrawn] job which I ended up not applying to for various reasons and the contents of this post is in part symptomatic of why I didn’t.

The application forms were supposed to completed electronically which I don’t have a problem with and actually support in principle. This is a screenshot of part of it (don't even start me on the text not displaying correctly): [Sorry, image withdrawn]

How far are you willing to travel for work? Well, that depends, how far and how often do you plan on sending me places? I am happy to go to Torquay (sorry, did say I wouldn't mention that again) and back on occasion but probably not too keen on this being a daily occurrence. I wouldn’t be expecting to leave the Borough that often but that you are asking me that question makes me suspicious that your recruitment consultants are actually fishing for more details from me for their own nefarious purposes. You have given me too little information to be able to answer this question. Also, you haven’t left any room in the box for me to insert my answer. Am I supposed to delete the bit that says distance or squeeze in it afterwards?

Means of travel? Well, again that’s up to you. What do you want me to do, list modes of transport? Is this a trick question? I mean, you can go by car or train or bus or taxi. I’d probably cycle if you asked nicely and am happy to walk as long as its not too far or you can combine all these different modes of travel. Hell, we can go on a boat if you like or even a helicopter.

License type? Look, you’re fishing again, yes I have a car and can use it for work purposes if needed. You can just ask that you know, its not like you’re crossing some social taboo.

And it goes on, with this bit: [Sorry, image withdrawn].

Ok, so I can slot in two of my professional qualifications. I have more than that though and your job spec actually specifies that you want someone with more than two qualifications so why only two boxes? Continue on a separate sheet if necessary, ok fine but how do you want me to do that if I am submitting this to you electronically? (This was not the only time on this form that this issue arose).

And what’s a CSCS card? I had to look this up on the internet, answer here. I hardly think its relevant to a planning job. Sure if I wanted to go erect scaffolding or do some ad hoc strip mining it might be a nice idea but I’m not planning on doing either.

And the award date is dumb too. I have to fill out one digit in each box. Fine if it’s a paper form but it isn’t.

Basically, I think this whole form has just been robbed from a paper system and no thought has been given to its content or the implications of it or the shitty formatting which wouldn’t have been a problem if it was printed out but this just looks really weak electronically.

Tuesday, October 11, 2005

A curious incident

Yes, I am still going on about my little Torquay excursion (it was eventful). Last post about it I promise.

The book I finally picked to read on the journey there and back was the curious incident of the dog in the night time (thanks to K8 (lives up north, engaged to Bng), Kate (doesn’t live up north, not engaged to Bng) and Laura for recommending it and Kate for lending it to me) and it was one of the best books I have read in a long time. I’m not going to tell you all about it because that would spoil it, just go and read it, it’s very good and doesn’t take long. I recon I managed it in about four to five hoursish.

One of things most curious about this book and my personal connection to it is how whilst reading the events taking place to the lead character within it, at one point the same (well similar, I don’t see the world in numbers of course) events were actually happening to me. I hate to be all cryptic about this but don’t want to spoil it for those who haven’t read it.

It was interesting as the main character in the book’s similar activities caught up with and subsequently overtook mine. It is also the only time when reading a work of literature has had the direct effect of instantly making my life better through, in this case, the reproduction of an extract of the Bakerloo line within the book itself which prompted me to realise it was a better idea to get on the Bakerloo line to Marylebone from Paddington than the Circle line to Baker Street for connecting trains home. And indeed it returned me to my flat approximately 20 minutes faster, I think, than if had stuck to the original plan to go to Baker Street.

So now if you haven’t read the book, you are going to have to if you want to understand what the hell I am talking about.

(Also, if you change twice there is a better chance you will get a car rather than a goat).

Monday, October 10, 2005

The paperless office (now with 46% more paper)

This post is about the event which I had been worrying about a lot for a long time but I am now fairly confident is never going to occur (which, amoungst other things, I promised to elucidate further on last Thursday) (possibly not as exciting as I made it sound).

As eluded to in a number of previous posts and as work friends will already know, my employer has decided to embrace the 21st century and is moving towards e-planning and the paperless office. Which is fine. In theory. (Usual inevitable caveats here about parts getting withdrawn depending on events).

Now lots of people are involved but pretty much me and Andy have been tasked with the roll out of this thing on the floor - so how it works and how it gets customised and it gets used.

I was nervous about this to start off with and the more and more I have worked on it, the more and more I have worried that it is going to go horribly wrong. This is on account of planning being a quasi-legal paper based system and removing the paper makes it a logistical nightmare as you have to map out all the different types of paper that come through and the bizarre and crazy things these bits of paper say and what you do with them. Which takes time. However I am also rather worried that woefully insufficient cash has been thrown at this to make it work.

As time has gone on the faster and faster we have had to develop this thing and the longer and longer it appears it is going to take to do so. Supposedly we were going to have had the draft system in place to test in about 1 months time from now. Which is a terrifyingly short time scale knowing that (1) I still have to learn what I am doing (take about 2 months) and (2) I am going to have to actually do it (say about 4 months).

However, I have now seen the best of the best (with the same operating system), care of our friends down in Torquay. And well, lets just say that their e-planning paperless office generates 46% more paperwork. Yes that’s right folks, more paperwork (but now with a jazzy statistic so you can monitor it). So the best of the best have had a net increase in paper after developing it for six months whilst we have to go totally paperless in one month!

Suffice to say that with this as a comparison there is absolutely no chance whatsoever that the truly paperless office is going to be achieved quite so soon regardless of what instructions from the management are. It just ain't going to happen. Which makes me a hell of a lot more relaxed about it as now, however it pans out, I should have some room to think, and make sure it gets done right and might maybe work, perhaps.

Also I don’t have to worry so much about this curious process, which for various reasons was turning out to be the simplest (?) way of doing things:

Receive an email > print the email > scan the email back into the computer > print acknowledgement letter and send it by post.

Friday, October 07, 2005

Linkin

Right, stll tired after yesterday. Woke myself up early after sleeping in a bizarre position on my arm and couldn't get back to sleep. Thankfully I took the day off work so I don't have to think too hard about too much (and specifically not have to deal with the implications of yesterdays work related activities).
So I am working on blog links (not that that takes long). I have ditched the BBC and Google links because they were too functional (like I haven't ever linked to Yellow Pages or Multimap or the RAC route planner) and recently added New Naw and Random Acts of Reality because they are interesting slash amusing.
I'm also thinking of altering the big banner that says Nick101 at the top, I think it looks a bit washed out and pale. I like the guy from Random Acts of Reality's main banner in terms of visual impact and colour and having a little 'hook line' aswell (but probably not something quite so dramatic).

Thursday, October 06, 2005

I am too tired to come up with a decent title

Today has been a very tiring but interesting day for these reasons:

I got up at just after 04:30.
I spent the hours between around 05:50 and 11:20 and 15:40 and 21:50 travelling.
I realised that an event which I had been worrying about a lot for a long time is never going to occur.
I saw a car crash through a shop window.
I read a book (from cover to cover) which made me want to laugh and cry at the same time.

I will probably elucidate further on some of these but for now have decided I am going to watch what’s left of Paris and Nicole on E4 before curling up in bed.

Wednesday, October 05, 2005

The hotel of evil

The memepool directed me towards the Ryugyong Hotel located in the North Korean capital of Pyongyang a while ago which I have been fascinated by ever since. Much of this interest is actually prompted by the abject lack of any information on it on account of the building being located in possibly one of the most secretive and quietly scary countries on the planet (am scared they may come and get me for linking to this page with these comments).

Work started on it in 1987 but ceased in 1992 for reasons unknown but presumed to be due to a lack of cash on behalf of the North Korean government. Since then it has towered over the city like a massive and slightly satanic looking concrete corpse (seriously, take a look at this link if you don't any others, espeically the bottom picture).


This thing has been like this since 1992 and it just looks well, evil.

Tuesday, October 04, 2005

The great journey

So the date of my little excursion to Torquay (Thursday) is rapidly approaching and I am starting to worry more and more about what I am actually going to do for nearly ten hours of just sitting around on the train. To put this into perspective I get bored on the train journey into London which takes a scant 40 minutes and usually think, upon arrival, something along the lines ‘bloody hell, what took so bloody long to get here.’

Clearly I am going to need something to keep me entertained and as nice as the English countryside is I am not going to be dazzled by it for ten hours. I have decided not to get a PSP for the journey as whilst I would still like one there are more important items to be bought first and I can’t use this trip to make an exception to justify it. So I intend on getting a copy of GQ magazine (which I think is a little classier then the average boy magazine) and some form of book.

The problem with this is that I really need to get something which is going to entertain and keep me interested for a long time and can’t get it wrong as I would then be majorly bored (as opposed to just slightly bored) for the whole trip. Thus far I have considered (hey look at that, play.com does books too) The world according to Clarkson by the aforementioned, The curious incident of the dog in the night time by Mark Haddon, Children of Dune by Frank Herbert and A long way down by Nick Hornby.

Merits and dismerits of each:

Clarkson: Lowest common denominator stuff likely to keep me entertained longest but hardly intellectually engaing and probably won't look at it ever again after the trip. Also I will look like a Sun reading chav on the train and would have to hide the cover somehow (perhaps daub 'theories of existentialism and other musings of Decartes' on the front?).

The dog thingy: Rave reviews, a couple of people have said its good but it looks a bit odd and the kind of thing that you either really like or really don't. If its the former thats not a problem. It is if its the latter.

Dune: Been meaning to read this for like literally years (pre-Uni I think). The preceding books I have read and they were entertaining with plots within plots within plots within plots but could be a bit heavy for reading all in one go.

Hornby's: Know I like him as I've read his stuff before and it was very readable. Looks appropriately light but reasonably engaging.

Monday, October 03, 2005

Pitch Black

This weekend I had the dubious pleasure of watching the sequel to the film Pitch Black, namely the Chronicles of Riddick.

Pitch Black is one of my favourite movies and were I to sit down and actually think about it, it would probably make it into my top 20. The storyline is brilliant, the performances are (mostly) well acted and the delivery and believeability is very convincing which a difficult thing to achieve, I think, in a sci-fi movie.


I was aware that reviews of the Chronicles of Riddick were less than favourable before watching it however felt I wanted to find out what it was all about on the back of my liking of Pitch Black. And well I can say that the Chronicles of Riddick is nothing short of absolute garbage. I would do a summary of what the plot and storyline was but it didn’t appear to have one. Just a collection of ill-conceived flashy visuals and Vin Diesel hanging around issuing weak one-liners in between.

Go watch Pitch Black people, its good. Don’t watch the Chronicles of Riddick, it’s not worth your time.

And now with a linking line as weak as Vin Diesel’s in the Chronicles of Riddick, to take everyone out of the dark regarding my previous post and the withdrawal of paragraph two just three hours after it being posted.

The events prophesied in it became rather high profile, very fast and could potentially have been prejudicial if in the (albeit unlikely) event that they were found before the event to which they referred occurred. For those that read the post in the small window when paragraph two was available; a temporary stop notice was served by me and Gem, with a police escort, which was actually rather fun after all the stressing I did about it.
Of course I now have to deal with the consequences of last Fridays events which I am presently avoiding.