Blurring the edges…

Ever been playing your favourite first-person-shooter game, laughing around with your mates about what you can do and who you can kill etc…?  Well, can you imagine if THIS happened….(watch it all)

The Alamo flashback!

Clicked on the telly this morning and saw that the movie ’The Alamo’ was on ITV1!

I’m referring to the John Wayne 1960 original of course.  I haven’t seen the remake and have no intention of doing so.  Anyway, I just wanted to mention that The Alamo is the ONLY film I’ve ever cried at.  I do have to clarify a point, however… I was only around 8 year old and it was when John Wayne died at the end.  Ahem… it’s another true story…

Multi-storey Carpark wonderings…

This is just something I thought of the other day whilst out Christmas shopping.

Many cities have multi-storey car parking areas where you collect a ticket when you arrive. You then park your car, go do your thing and pay when you return based on how long you’ve been there. All fine and well you’d think. Well, maybe I’m missing something glaringly obvious here.  When I came back the other day, I was fully armed with sandwiches and a drink. I didn’t want to eat ‘on the move’ and planned to quickly munch them in the car before driving off. This led me to wonder if you can pay for your ticket, then sit for an indefinite amount of time in your car at no extra cost before you leave the car park.

The logical progression of that thought is ‘can I just clock in, clock out, pay the minimum fee then leave the car there as long as I need’?  I’m guessing there must be a time limit, but couldn’t immediately find any information in the carpark or on the ticket machine about it.

Lend me your ears.

This post is simply to draw people’s attention to a RPG on the XBox 360 called The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion.  You may interact and chat with virtually all the game’s NPC’s but my favourite is whenever I speak with the guards of whichever city or town I happen to be in.  They sometimes begin their conversations with you by saying:-

“You have my ears, citizen”

But no matter how much I check my inventory list, this is certainly not the case!

Sofa, so good

Well  I fully intended to post this yesterday, since that’s when it happened, but I didn’t, so there!

I decided to buy a 2-seater leather sofa from IKEA.  Truth be told, I already have the same sofa in 3-seater but I felt that my front room just wasn’t complete without the second sofa.  So in a moment of bravery, I parted with a big chunka-change to have the sofa delivered around about mid January.  It’s chocolate brown and I like it a lot.  Means chucking out the coffee table but I think, since my flat isn’t the biggest in the world, that isn’t a bad thing.  It also means that the positioning of the LCD TV will need to be at an angle again.  Anyway, looking forward to mid Jan…

Size DOES matter!

Just a quick example of the daily daftness I must endure at the behest of my friend Mark.  Our phone conversation this afternoon included such choice topics as ‘which word is bigger:-

surreptitiously (my word)

or

indubitably (his word)

need I say more?  I think you’ll find mines is bigger

Bike Hike Nike – Psyche!

Woop-de-doo and other such proclamations of jubilation! I managed to muster up enough ‘oomph’ to venture out once more on my bike. This time I was out from 1:35pm until 2:15, so by my calculations, that’s 40 mins again. But this time the crucial thing is that I was considerably less out of breath (this has to be a good thing). The sheer fact that I got past day two of this is proof to myself that I’m actually up for this. I’m currently all hot n sweaty, but you really didn’t need to know that!

I just realised that I’m wearing a mish-mash of clothing when oot n aboot. My Nike sweater and woolly hat, Adidas joggers and Reebok trainers (unless you’re a Yank, in which case they’ll be sneakers – which makes them sound inappropriate for running with).

Wish I had some method of calorie loss measurement. I know you can get those ‘how far I’ve travelled’ thingymajigs but that is not what I’m after – although, I can see the value in having one.

Anyway – I’m chuffed by my own dedication (I know, I know – 2 days, come on!)

ReCycling

No no no, I’m not talking about bottle-banks or stuff like that! I just wanted to note that I went out for a cycle on my bike for the first time in a year or two and I’m really glad I did (considering I’d drank a half bottle of Bacardi last night!). I haven’t researched how much or how long is the ‘proper’ amount to start with but I went for a 35 minute cycle along relatively flat coastal roads nearby where I live. It is my goal to hopefully shed a stone in weight and I won’t do that sat on my arse indoors! My legs feel like rocks right now – that can only be a good sign. I remember that when I cycled before, I could travel longer and longer distances with each time I ventured out and felt better for it. The only real obstacle likely to spoil any routine I get into will be my job. Anyone who knows me, knows that it eats up a lot of my time. Hopefully I’ll find a happy compromise, but only time will tell. I do have to say that the whole experience is further enhanced when wearing my i-Pod.

Merry Christmas

Just a quick note to wish everyone reading this a very merry Christmas!  One of the things I got this year was a new Digital Camera, so I’ve got a new toy to play with…

Pass me a humbug, someone…

Movie – Deja Vu

Thought I’d post to say that I saw this movie the other day at my local cinema – actually, I might catalog the movies I watch during 2007 on this site – seems a good place to cement my opinions as any.

I chose to watch this film mainly cos I was bored that evening and because I’m a bit of a Denzel fan – usually because he makes good quality thrillers (by and large).  On the whole, this film was what my dear old mum would describe as ‘watchable nonsense’. It’s basically a ‘terrorist blows people and things up then Denzel tries to catch and arrest him’ type of story. But it does have a somewhat interesting twist. Without getting all scientific and boring, suffice it to say that the guys in the movie have an ability to view the past (exactly 4 days and 6 hours ago) using satellites and hi-tech jiggery-pokery that initially sounds plausible enough for your sense of suspended disbelief to accept. It then lurches a little clumsily into a combination of the theories of Event Horizon and the Back To The Future series when it goes on about Einstein-Rosen bridges and bending spacetime. Essentially, the whole thrust of this film is that Denzel can view & influence the past to varying degrees and he gets the notion that if he changes the past before it happens, then the bad stuff that happened will then NOT happen. Bit muddled logic and paradoxically confusing here, cos if you change the past before it happens to avoid something bad happening, then the bad thing won’t happen – so then why would you want to go back at all? It would create a different NOW than the current one. But then the film tries to stumble around that by claiming that the past is always pre-determined and anything that we do NOW to the past will already have happened. It’s not the easiest thing to explain in type – but I grasp the concept. I’m just not sure its popcorn fodder material, although there are perhaps plenty other people that strangely enjoy this blend of high-octane nonsense.

All in all, a fairly standard yet quite engrossing movie at times. Certain people may also find a second viewing beneficial – since there are lots of bits of the film where Denzel discovers things he can’t explain only to actually go back in time later in the film and actually cause those things to happen…

I’d give it 7 out of 10.