Category: Life

For the stuff about my life

bookmark_borderHouse

Posted on

No, this is not a post about bingo. It’s a post about an American TV show – House (official site which is crap, try TV Tome instead, mind the popups though).

Hugh Laurie – yes theHugh Laurie of “Fry and..”, “Jeeves and Wooster”, and … er… something else… (a guest appearance in Friends?) – plays Dr. Gregory House, an acerbic diagnostician, an American diagnostician at that, pay attention now, that bit of information is important.

Dr. House is, the central character of the show, heads up a team of young doctors in a clinic. He’s not interested in everyday complaints or everyday patients, preferring to take on challenging problems. He’s the diamond in the rough, the rogue doctor who everyone tolerates because he’s brilliant. In a rather schmaltzy piece of production he also has a limp, presumably so you feel some sympathy with this single minded, rude and determined man.

Laurie plays it well, never coming across as aggressive, merely emotionless – when faced with an outbreak in the maternity unit, he comes to the conclusion that they’ll have to use two babies as test cases, lest the other six die – and the rest of the cast seem adept. The first couple of episodes have been laying the back stories of the main characters and other than some “why the hell do they have to SHOW the graphic detail moments” on the operating table, it’s not been too bad.

The only slight problem will be if Laurie’s A-merry-can accent will start to grate. Took me a good 15 minutes of the first episode to get past it but after that it was barely noticeable.

I guess the main competitor will be ER but so far there is no romantic interest in House and I think it’s the better for it. It is still finding it’s feet, that’s for sure but is definitely in the black humour/drama category and has offered some good viewing already.

Not sure when it’ll hit terrestrial but when it does, give it a look.

bookmark_borderHHGTTG

Posted on

Movie info from IMDB
Movie revies from Metacritic

Finally saw the movie of the book that has been twenty years in the making. Initial impressions are favourable but with room for improvement.

The casting isn’t too bad, but I don’t think any of the actors did a particularly good job, although despite my hope Marvin was reduced to a few odd lines and the voice never really seemed to fit properly. I’m guessing the decision to focus on the blossoming love between Arthur and Trillian also had something to do with the odd pacing, with scenes zipping past one minute then slowing to a crawl the next.

If I’m honest I think that they held back too much, I think they could have pushed it a bit more and made it a 15 rating (or 12a or whatever the one in between is) I mean even the TV show featured the carcass of the recently deceased sperm whale. Now I come to think of it that’s more what this reminded me of, a well produced TV movie. It just seemed lacking in punch for a “hollywood” movie.

Still, large chunks of dialogue were kept intact, and there were some funny moments if never really hilarious. I deliberately tried NOT to refer to the book and on the whole I think it’s better than I thought it would be, although it did take me about 20 minutes to warm to it, even if they did miss out one of my favourite lines from the book: “The ship hung in the air much in the same way that bricks don’t.”

There are some nice nods to the aforementioned TV show and overall it’s not a bad movie. However looking at other book to movie conversions, Potter in particular, it does feel like a bit of a let down. If you haven’t read the books then I think you’ll still enjoy it, Louise did, just don’t expect a comedy romp, it’s far too quirkily British and wry to lower itself to that level.

Ohh and for fans of the book please note that: “The producers have stated that this film is not a literal translation of the books (just as the books were not a literal translation of the original radio show), but all of the new ideas and characters came from Douglas Adams himself. The hired writer simply came aboard to improve structure and make the screenplay more coherent.” according to the imdb.

Note: Despite having had advance warning we left as the credits started. A further entry to the guide awaits if you sit tight (or you can just read it here if you’ve already seen the movie)

bookmark_borderThunderbird

Posted on

When it was released and whilst I was still flush with the joy of switching to Firefox, I thought I’d have a go at Mozilla’s new email client Thunderbird. I’ve been using it for about 3 months now, here are some of my thoughts.

PROS

Installation and import is easy
The installation is painless as is the initial setting up of your email account. Ohh and the import from Outlook (Express or the full version) is a great example of simple effective software. A few wizard settings and there were my emails from Outlook, all in the right folders.

Have more than one email account to manage?
Thunderbird will make THAT a lot easier. Each mailbox gets it’s own settings, so I can check my everyday email every 60 minutes, Scottish Blogs email every 4 hours, and my GMail account (if I wanted to) every 12 hours.

Handling new email addresses
If you receive an email from someone, and they aren’t in your contact list (address book), when you reply to the email, Thunderbird logs their email address for you. Simple idea but saves you having to remember to add email addresses as they come in.

Email filtering
If you have a filter which moves incoming emails from a certain address to a specific folder, and then decide to move that folder, Thunderbird will automatically update the filter for you. Simple touch but it’s that kind of attention to detail which impresses.

CONS

RSS Reader
Thunderbird includes an RSS reader, and my initial thoughts were that that might just be a good place for one… maybe… except you can’t import an OPML file so have to add every single feed by hand. Not clever.

Close that window!
Replying to emails leaves the original email open. This particularly ‘feature’ is driving me nuts!

Labelling emails
I’ll happily concede that Outlook 2003 handles this MUCH better than Thunderbird. I use Outlook at work and have become used to “flagging” labels to make sure they don’t slip out of view, a simple click of the mouse and it’s done. Outlook then offers a filtered view in a specific folder which only shows those flagged emails. Thunderbird allows labelling but it takes three clicks as you need to select the label from a drop down menu. It also doesn’t have an automatic filtered view.

What date is it?
By design Thunderbird has no built-in calendar (Sunbird being the suggested offering). I can understand that decision but for many people like myself, who are used to having both email (incoming actions) and calendar (holds date driven actions) in one application, it does feel like a bit of a loss. At the moment I have Outlook set to open to the calendar page but that’s not very elegant. Fine for everyday use though.

In summary

For the home user I think it’s an excellent client. The settings are much easier to understand and use than Outlook yet it remains familiar enough that a switch isn’t daunting, in fact it’s surprisingly easy to achieve. If you are a “power user” or rely heavily on your calendar/email/task list combination then it’s not for you. I’m currently using Thunderbird at home as my main email application, and have it at work for checking MY email, whilst Outlook handles my work email.

So if you are fed up cursing your email application, why not give Thunderbird a try.

bookmark_borderIn my place

Posted on

Oh crap, it’s Monday morning. Already.

Today will be an exercise in self-control. Having had only about 4 hours sleep I’ll be attempting NOT to make sarcastic comments to any of my co-workers, and to stay awake at least until lunchtime.

I had planned to discuss Derren Brown and whether his latest tv show is starting to break the boundaries of responsible programming, but I’ve not done any research into any possibly long term effects of his methods so that’ll have to wait.

I had also planned to comment on a recent comment left here, but even generalising will be transparent and I can’t be bothered with the hassle. I’ll file that under “one more chance” I think and let it pass.

And with that cryptic piece of non-blogging I’m off to get another coffee. Back later if I’m still awake.

bookmark_borderMental

Posted on

Even if you don’t agree with his methods, if you’ve caught any of episodes of Derren Brown’s show Trick of the Mind, you’ll have to admit that he is very talented at what he does. Some of the results are remarkable. If you caught any of his first series you can see he is building on the foundations of the methods he developed back then but it’s one thing having a rough idea of how something is done, quite another to do it.

I’m not a fan of his more grandiose projects, the live Russian roulette was in a little poor taste, and think the series showcases his talents much better. Watching him bemuse a scouser into handing over his watch, wallet, keys and mobile phone, TWICE in quick succession was both hilarious and fascinating. If you are really interested, he reveals some secrets from the last series on his Channel Four website (including how those people in the phone boxes ended up slumped on the floor after a thirty second phonecall).

Tonights show, has him guess what object someone is thinking of as they stare into space, get slapped by Jo Whiley (lucky devil) and the finale is quite creepy, nasty and possibly a little sick, you are warned of this before the segment starts. I’m not going to spoil it for you, suffice to say that I was uttering various swearwords as the reveal slowly took place. “Twisted fucker” being one of the more choice phrases.

So tune in tonight, 9.30pm on Channel Four.

bookmark_borderSith is good?

Posted on

Apparently the new Star Wars movie (out in 14 days and counting) is a bloodbath.

The movie has been given a PG-13 rating due to its “sci-fi violence and some intense images”, which warns parents that it could be inappropriate for viewers younger than 13.

I say GOOD! Is it possible that Mr. Lucas may be very aware that the last two movies he has released have been a little TOO kiddie friendly?

And I wonder what rating the first movie would get these days. What with the smouldering skeletons of Luke’s Aunt Beru and Uncle Owen and Ponda Baba’s dismembered arm in the Mos Eisley Cantina I can still remember being, well not shocked and repulsed, I was boy after all, but decidely unsure if I should be seeing these images.