Random Thoughts

Down

2011-04-18T13:32:00.000-07:00

Last night was pretty quiet. I watched another episode of The Walking Dead, which I thought was really good. Today was another fairly dull and average day at work. It was a pretty bad day so I was very happy to get home again. I have been feeling really down today. Hopefully the week will get better.

Easter Decorations

2011-04-17T11:48:00.000-07:00

Last night was pretty quiet. I stayed in and watched TV and read some of my books. Today I went along to my parent's house for lunch. We had spicy chicken fajitas for lunch, and in the afternoon I went out with my Mum and we got a small branch, which we do every year, because my Mum likes to decorate them for Easter. I'm listening to a radio play version of Torchwood (a spin-off from Doctor Who about a group in Cardiff fighting off alien threats) in this episode they are investigating a group in India who are using alien technology to live forever in "one perfect day" (140 years ago). It bears a passing similarity to an issue of The Sandman comic. It's pretty good though, and works well on te radio. It's the second episode of The Walking Dead on TV tonight, so I'll be watching that.

Scream 4

2011-04-16T12:20:00.000-07:00

Last night I was watching a TV show called Awfully Good Ads which was about TV commercials that are so bad that they are funny. Some of them were really terrible. I fell asleep on my couch again. On Fridays I get up much earlier than usual, and I tend to stay up quite late so I often end up pretty much crashing out. Today I went out to see Scream 4, directed by Wes Craven. The movie opens on the tenth anniversary of the murders from the first film, when two teenagers recieve taunting phone calls and are then brutally stabbed to death by a "Ghostface" killer. The following day, Sidney Prescott (played by Neve Campbell) returns to town to promote a book and becomes involved in the murders. It wasn't a bad movie at all. I was kind of doubtful about it because it was coming out eleven years after the last Scream movie, but it was fun. I loved the Scream movies and I used to watch them all the time. The movie is reviewed over at Permanently Weird.

Comics Reviewed

2011-04-15T12:58:00.000-07:00

Last night was pretty quiet. I was reading some more of my new comic-books (which are reviewed over at Permanently Weird) and watching TV. I got into work for shortly after seven. There was a baguette run today and I had a panini with roast beef, crispy bacon, brie, mozarella, jalapeno peppers, onion and English mustard. I left work shortly after one and went into the city centre. I got a birthday card for my brother along with a couple of scented candles for home, and then I went along and bought a book called The Rough Guide to the Universe by John Scalzi for my brother's birthday present. On my way home I stopped for some groceries for the next week.

Making Time

2011-04-14T13:20:00.000-07:00

Last night was pretty quiet. I was reading my new comic books and I watched some of the movie Scream. I really liked Scream. It's basically about a masked killer slaughtering teenagers, but it had a lot of jokes and comments about horror movies in general, which seemed to influence pretty much every horror movie for the next ten years. The fourth movie in the series is coming out this month. It was a another quiet day at work. I was in work for about nine hours today to make up some time, but I managed to get in early so I still managed to leave earlier than I would otherwise have done. Tomorrow I am planning on getting in to work really early so I can leave at lunchtime and get a birthday present for my brother.

The Seventh Seal

2011-04-13T11:13:00.000-07:00

Last night I watched the 1957 Swedish film The Seventh Seal, directed by Ingmar Bergman, on TV. The film is set in medieval Sweden ravaged by the Black Death (bubonic plague) and concerns a knight, Antonius Block (played by Max von Sydow), and his cynical squire (Gunnar Bjornstrand) who have just returned home from the Crusades. On the shore Block meets Death (Bength Ekerot) who tells him that his time is up. However Block, who has become disillusioned following his experiences and is tormented by religious doubts, does not want to die until he has found some kind of meaning to life and so he challenges Death to a game of Chess while he searches for answers to his questions. It's a very powerful film and one of the classics of world cinema. It's reviewed over at Permanently Weird. Today I got in to work at around half past eight and was there for six hours. There was a baguette run today and I had a panini with roast beef, cajun chicken, brie, savoury cheese, jalapeno peppers, English mustard and onion. After work I went up to the comic book store and got issues of Spawn, Batman and Robin, Northlanders, Fables Are Forever, Hellboy, The Unwritten, Red Robin, Daken: Dark Wolverine, Batman: Arkham and The Li'l Depressed Boy (which is a really good series, very similar to the Scott Pilgrim comics). I got home at around four.

The Walking Dead

2011-04-11T13:59:00.000-07:00

Last night I watched the first episode of The Walking Dead, and I thought it was really good. I've only ever read one issue of the comic-book series. I'll probably check out more now and some of the collected editions. I love a good zombie story. One good zombie story that I've been reading is the iZombie comic, in which it is possible, with difficulty, for the zombies to retain their humanity. After that I saw a couple of epsiodes of Spaced and The IT Crowd. It was another pretty dull day at work today and it seemed to last forever. I got home at about half past six.

Dog

2011-04-10T12:52:00.001-07:00

Last night was pretty quiet. I spent most of the time watching TV. The weather was really good today. I went along to my parent's house today for lunch. We had roast chicken, roast potatoes, peas with ice cream for dessert. My brother and his girlfriend came over later on in the afternoon with their pet dog, a little Cavalier King Charles Spaniel called Hamish. He's a really sweet, friendly little dog but also very curious and he was running around all over the garden checking everything out. I got back home at around seven. The first episode of The Walking Dead is on TV tonight. I've never seen that show and I'm really psyched to watch it. One thing I need to do during the week is get back on track with the Script Frenzy script. I seem to have fallen badly behind.

A Day's Reading

2011-04-09T10:03:00.000-07:00

Last night I reviewed the comic-books that I bought on Wednesday on Permanently Weird. I also started reading the Swamp Thing graphic novels which I got yesterday. The series was originally about a scientist named Alec Holland who was working in a remote Lousiana swamp on a serum to promote crop growth. However his lab is sabotaged and blown up with Alex inside it. Fatally injured and covered in the serum, Alec falls into the swamp and emerges as this giant half human half plant creature - the Swamp Thing. However Alan Moore rewrote the origin as having Alex actually killed by the explosion and the plants in the swamp, reacting to the serum, absorbed Alec's conciousness from his decomposing body and, not realising that he is dead, the conciousness reforms the plants into a mobile humanoid body. He kind of has an existential crisis, when he realises that he is actually a walking tree who thought he was a man. He also discovers he is an ancient elemental spirit from a mystical plant dimension. It is a good series actually, and when it really gets going it is very powerful, with some really striking horror elements. I decided to stay in today. The weather is nice, but not as warm as it was yesterday.

Swamp Thing

2011-04-08T11:07:00.001-07:00

Last night I wrote some more of the Script Frenzy script, and I managed to get to bed fairly early. I was in work for seven and there was a baguette run. I had a panini with cajun chicken, roast beef, savoury cheese, brie, jalapeno peppers and English mustard. It was really nice. I was on a half day and left at around half past eleven. The day was really beautiful, the weather all warm and sunny so I walked along to the comic-book store, which took about forty five mnutes walking from work, and I bought a couple of graphic novels of Swamp Thing written by Alan Moore. It was the Swamp Thing series that really made Alan Moore's name and are among the most acclaimed comic series ever written. I've been wanting to read them for ages. On my way home I had a couple of drinks, since it was so hot.

Dentist Appointment

2011-04-07T13:31:00.000-07:00

Last night was pretty quiet. I wrote some more of my Script Frenzy script and read some of my new comic-books. This morning I went along to a dentist appointment. It was just a routine check-up. I have one about twice a year. I went to work after the dentist and it was another fairly quiet and dull day. There was an hour long meeting in the afternoon, and I was kind of glad when I got home. I read something on the internet about the script for a live action version of Akira, I have a horrible feeling it's genuine, but I really hope that it is fake. Based on what I read the script is absolutely terrible. They are pretty much changing everything about the story, and basically making it a conventional action movie.

Feast Day

2011-04-06T14:28:00.000-07:00

Last night was pretty quiet. I got up to 16 pages on my Script Frenzy movie script. I did a six hour day at work today. There was a Feast Day at work, which meant there were sandwiches, cake, and so on. After work i went out to the comic book store and bought the latest issues of Green Lantern, Memoir, iZombie, House of Mystery, Freedom Fighters, Sweet Tooth, Hellblazer: Bad Blood and Let Me In: Crossroads. I have a dentist appointment tomorrow morning before work.

13 Pages

2011-04-05T13:11:00.001-07:00

Last night was pretty quiet. I spent most of the time watching TV and reading. I was back at work today, and mostly it was another pretty quiet and dull day in the office. I got to 13 pages with the Script Frenzy script last night, so that was good.

Inferno

2011-04-04T08:48:00.000-07:00

Last night I was watching the 1980 movie Inferno, directed by Dario Argento. It's a sequel to his 1977 film Suspiria and was intended as the middle part of a trilogy. In this film a young poet (played by Irene Miracle) living in New York City becomes convinced that the old house that she is living in is the home of one of the Mater Tenebrarum (the Mother of Darkness) the youngest and cruelest of a trio of powerful supernatural creatures known as the "Three Mothers". She sends a letter to her brother (Leigh McCloskey), a music student studying in Rome, but by the time he arrives in New York she has vanished. Like it's predecessor, this is a very strange, dream-like film, full of weird camera angles, lurid coloured lighting, and very loud music. Along with elaborately choreographed and stylised violence. It's kind of designed almost as a fairy-tale for adults. The story doesn't really make a lot of sense, it's all about the mood that the images and sounds create. I liked it, I thought it was pretty scary. I really like the Dario Argento movies, mostly. It's reviewed over at Permanently Weird. I had the day off work today, but didn't go out anywhere. I was watching some of the documentaries on the Inferno DVD and thinking about my Script Frenzy screenplay, which I honestly believe will never make a movie because it would be way to elaborate and expensive to get made.

Mother's Day

2011-04-03T12:12:00.000-07:00

I did write some more of my Script Frenzy script last night, which means I'm now on page eight of it. The general rule of thumb for screenplays is the one page of a script equals one minute of screentime. The rest of the evening was pretty quiet. I spent most of the time watching TV and reading. This morning my Dad came round and took me to the Omni Centre shopping centre. We had coffee and a muffin at Starbucks and then went out to look at our own stuff. I got a DVD of the Dario Argento movie Inferno and a book called Ricky Gervais Presents... The World According to Karl Pilkington. Of course it was Mother's Day today. Mom was really happy with her present (a book called Something Rotten by Jasper Fforde) and her card. I'd also brought along some olives for my parents. The latest issue of Sight and Sound had arrived in the mail during the week. Among the articles this month was a feature about director Wim Wenders, an article about New Russian Cinema and a feature about the Alfred Hitchcock movie Vertigo. My mum had ordered Dad to make the lunch today, which was salmon, roast potatoes and peas. I thought it was nice, but Mum didn't seem to happy with it for some reason. I got home at around five, also I have tomorrow off work, so that should be good!

Source Code

2011-04-02T10:27:00.000-07:00

Last night I started writing the script for Script Frenzy. I got about three and a half pages written. It's a kind of horror, cyberpunk science-fiction script, based on a story idea I've had for years. Later on I watched the 1998 movie Halloween H20: 20 Years Later, directed by Steve Miner. It's the sixth sequel to the original Halloween film, and takes up the story of Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) twenty years after the original, where she has a 17 year old son (Josh Hartnett) and is now working as a headteacher at a prestigious boarding school. While the rest of the school are off on a camping trip over Halloween, her son and three of his friends decide to take advantage of having the deserted school to themselves. Obviously before long, Laurie's murderous, invulnerable brother, Michael Myers (Chris Durand) to indulge his favourite hobby of slicing up teenagers, and anyone else he comes across, with large kitchen knives. It's actually a lot better than most of the others in the series. It owes a lot to the Scream series (Scream writer Kevin Williamson performed an uncredited rewrite on this film and acts as executive producer), with the same blend of shocks, jokes and movie references. Today I went out to the movies and saw Source Code, directed by Duncan Jones. The movie stars Jake Gyllenhaal as a US soldier who wakes up on a train with no memory of how he got there. He also doesn't know the woman sitting opposite him (Michelle Monaghan), but she knows him even though she seems to think he is someone else entirely. When he looks in the mirror he sees someone else's reflection staring back at him. Eight minutes after he wakes up, the train is destroyed in a bomb explosion. The soldier wakes up again to discover he is part of an experiment called "Source Code", which allows the participant to relive the last eight minutes of someone else's life. The train was destroyed that morning, and he has to keep going back through those last eight minutes in order to find the bomb and discover the bomber on the crowded train, before the same bomber detonates a nuclear device in downtown Chicago. It was a good movie with a really complex, intriguing plot and some great action and twists. Both of the movies are reviewed over at Permanently Weird.

Work Drinks

2011-04-01T11:58:00.000-07:00

Last night was pretty quiet. I got to bed relatively early, by my standards, and went to work, arriving for about ten past seven. It was a really dull morning, but I was only in for six hours. I left and got some groceries for the coming week. I was home for about an hour, before I headed up to a bar for a few drinks with some people from work. I was only there for a short time and had two drinks. The bar was really crowded and noisy and I didn't really know anyone so I made my excuses and left.

Super-Noodles

2011-03-31T14:59:00.001-07:00

Last night was really quiet. I spent most of the time reading my new comic-books. I must have been really tired because I did fall asleep on my couch again. It was a really dull day at work, but it was kind of nice that the sun was still out at six when I left. My friend Chris gave me a lift back, because he was going in my direction, which was really nice of him. I got some microwave super-noodles, which I haven't had since I was a child, but when I was about 13 or 14 we used to have them at least once a week. They tasted exactly the same as I remember. The new annual leave year starts today. I have forty five days I can take off this year. I've decided to take Monday off, so it should be a nice long weekend. I've posted a review of the comic-books that I read last night over at Permanently Weird.

Reading

2011-03-30T13:47:00.000-07:00

Last night was pretty quiet. I mostly stayed in reading and watching the TV. It was a fairly quiet day at work, although there was a baguette run. I got a panini with roast beef, cajun chicken, English mustard, jalapeno peppers, brie and savoury cheese. I left work at around four and went up to the comic-book store. I got Kick-Ass 2 issue 2, The Suicide Forest issue 4, Detective Comics issue 875, American Vampire issue 13, Scalped issue 47, Daredevil Reborn issue 3, X23 issue 8 and Spawn: The Architects of Fear. There will be a Permanently Weird comic-book post coming up soon!

Akira

2011-03-29T13:45:00.000-07:00

Last night I finished reading the sixth and final volume of Akira by Katsuhiro Otomo. The story tells the story of a teenage biker gang member who finds himself developing devestating psychic powers in the futuristic world of Neo-Tokyo. As he begins to get lethally out of control, he becomes the target of both the military and violent anti-government fighters, as well as his one time best friend. However, it comes apparent that there is an even greater force in Neo-Tokyo: A mysterious super-being codenamed "Akira" who is being cryogenically stored in a top-secret subterranean stronghold and whose power is just beginning to awaken. It's basically one story told over a total of six volumes and 2,182 pages. The art-work is stunning and mostly it is a very well-written and entertaining comic. It was turned into an animated film in 1988. The books are reviewed over at Permanently Weird. It was another fairly quiet and uneventful day at work. I was really glad to get home again! It's really cold right now as well. I'm kind of looking forward to having a relaxing evening.

A Few Days to Go

2011-03-28T13:38:00.000-07:00

It was a pretty quiet evening last night. I watched repeats of Spaced and The IT Crowd. I also finished the fifth volume of Akira by Katsuhiro Otomo. It is really good and very different to the film version. Apparently they are making a live action version, which will be split into two films. Leonardo DiCaprio is apparently in line to produce it. Today was the start of another week at work and it was pretty much the same as usual. I got home at about half past six. There are only a few days to go until the Script Frenzy challenge starts. I am going to attempt it this year. I have been thinking very hard about it, but I still have no idea exactly what I'll be doing for it. I still don't know whether I'll be doing a movie script, a TV show or a comic book script.

Cartoon Exhibition

2011-03-27T12:35:00.000-07:00

Last night was pretty quiet. The clocks went forward one hour last night and then I was playing Uncharted 2: Among Thieves on the PlayStation 3 for a while. It is a really fun game. This morning my Dad came along to pick me up and we went along to the Gyle Shopping Centre. We had a coffee and a scone before going our seperate ways. I got two books: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon and Blue Blood by Edward Conlon. I also got a magazine about emigrating to Canada. We went along to my parent's house, where the new issue of Fortean Times had arrived. The main features this month were about weirdness in Victorian times. For lunch we had chicken with lemon and bay leaves along with fried potatoes, onion and red peppers. In the afternoon my Mum and I went along to the Gallery of Modern Art to see an exhibition by Jeff Koons, an American artist who uses advertising style photography, coloured mirrors in the shape of cartoon animals, and lifesize sculptures of cartoon characters. It was pretty good.

(500) Days of Summer

2011-03-26T12:36:00.000-07:00

Last night I was watching a TV movie called Christopher and His Kind which starred Matt Smith (the current Doctor in Doctor Who) as novelist Christopher Isherwood and it was about Isherwood's experiences as a gay Englishman in 1930s Berlin, as the Nazis come to power. It was quite an interesting show. I've never read any of Isherwood's books but I still thought it was good.

Today I decided to stay in. I watched a movie this afternoon called (500) Days of Summer, directed by Marc Webb. The film stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a greetings card designer, who meets and falls in love with a co-worker (Zooey Deschanel). The movie is told in a non-linear style, moving back and forth in time during the five hundred days of their relationship from the joy and exuberance of the early days if the relationship to the bitterness and heartbreak of the end. It was a good film actually. It's reviewed over at Permanently Weird.

As I've said before I'm not a huge fan of romance movies usually, and I know nothing about relationships as I've never really been in one and realistically have little to no chance of ever being in one.

Mother's Day Present

2011-03-25T11:42:00.000-07:00

Last night I got to bed fairly early last night. I got up at around half past five this morning and got into work for shortly after seven. I worked for about six hours and then went out and bought a Mother's Day card, and a book called Something Rotten by Jasper Fforde as a Mother's Day present. On my way home I bought my groceries for the next week. The advantage of getting my groceries sorted out today, is it means that I have the whole of tomorrow free. I don't know what I'll be doing though.

The Script Frenzy challenge starts at the beginning of April and runs throughtout the month. The idea is to write a complete script in a month. I'm interested in doing it, but not sure what to write about or if it will be a movie, TV show or comic.

A Tired Post

2011-03-24T15:48:00.000-07:00

Last night was quiet. I spent most of the evening reading my nw comic books.

For anyone who is interested I posted reviews of some of the comics on Permanently Weird. Today was another quiet day at work.

I am going to try and get up early again tomorrow morning and leave work early. I'll have to go and get a Mother's Day card and present. It's not until a week on Sunday, but I don't like to leave it too late.

Ricky Gervais Show

2011-03-23T13:51:00.000-07:00

Last night I was watching an episode of The Ricky Gervais Show. Basically Ricky Gervais and his friends Stephen Merchant and Karl Pilkington did an internet podcast which have now been turned into an animated series. It pretty much consists of Karl Pilkington saying various ridiculous things while Gervais laughs at him. In this one they were talking about whether seals evolved from crossbreeding fish and dogs. I also watched a double bill of The Big Bang Theory.

There was a baguette run at work today and I got a white bread panini with roast beef, onions, jalapeno peppers, brie, savoury cheese, English mustard and sliced egg. I took a half day from work today and went up to the comic book store. I got Hellblazer issue 277, Batman: Streets of Gotham issue 21, Batman: The Dark Knight issue 2, Batman Incorporated issue 4, The New York Five issue 3, Fables issue 103, Spawn issue 205, Ultimate Spider-Man issue 156, Silver Surfer issue 2, Dracula: The Company of Monsters issue 8, Neonomicon issue 4 and Hellraiser issue 1. The Hellraiser comic was co-written by Clive Barker and marks the first time he has been directly involved with the franchise since the first Hellraiser movie in 1987.

I went for a drink afterwards. I was wondering if anyone would be interested in reading weekly comic book reviews on my Permanently Weird site? Let me know if it's something you'd be interested in reading about.

Pump Up the Volume

2011-03-22T14:28:00.000-07:00

Last night I watched some of the 1990 film Pump Up the Volume, directed by Allan Moyle. The film stars Christian Slater as a shy, largely ignored high-school student, who has just recently moved into town. However, at night he hosts a pirate radio show from his bedroom which becomes a smash hit among the students, due to his anarchic, confrontational style but is widely hated by the faculty and parents. It is a good movie, with a really great soundtrack including Leonard Cohen and the Cowboy Junkies. However, watching it now it looks really dated. I think the internet and podcasts have effectively killed off traditional pirate radio stations.

After that I was watching an episode of Peep Show which I had seen several times before but was still funny. During it I felt really tired all of a sudden and came close to falling asleep on my couch, but I didn't.

It was another fairly quiet day at work, and I got back around half past six.

Dead Parrots

2011-03-21T14:34:00.000-07:00

Last night I was watching episodes of Spaced, The IT Crowd and Red Dwarf, which used to be one of my favourite shows when I was about twelve, and is still very funny.

I also watched an episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus on DVD. This episode featured the famous "Dead Parrot" sketch in which an increasingly exasperated customer (played by John Cleese) tries to persuade the owner of a pet store (Michael Palin) that his just-bought parrot is dead, despite the owner's excuses and diversions. It eventually culminates in a long rant from the customer: "The parrot is dead. It is deceased. It is a late parrot. Bereft of life, it rests in peace. It has kicked the bucket. It has snuffed it. It has pulled down the curtains, shuffled off this mortal coil and joined the choir invisible. If you hadn't nailed it to the perch it would be pushing up the daisies. This is an EX-PARROT!" Apparently it was based on a real incident that happened to Michael Palin when he took his car to be repaired, and the mechanic kept making excuses and denying there was anything wrong. When Palin pointed out that the engine was completely busted, the mechanic pointed out that the car was a very pretty colour. Palin allowed that it was but also stated that the colour didn't really matter much if the thing wouldn't move. It must be one of the most famous comedy sketches of all time.

I tried to do some drawing last night, but it turned out really badly.

I was back at work today, for the start of another week and it was pretty much another fairly dull and average day.

Alien Blancmanges

2011-03-20T12:39:00.001-07:00

Last night was pretty quiet. I was watching repeats of comedy shows on TV, and reading some of my books.

This morning I watched an episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus on DVD. This episode featured giant, intelligent alien blancmanges from the Andromeda galaxy turning the entire population of England into Scotsmen, in the belief that Scotland is the worst tennis playing nation in the world, so that the blancmanges can win at Wimbledon. They are eventually defeated when an elderly couple eat them.

I went along to my parent's house for lunch as usual. This week we had minced beef, carrots, mashed potato, spring onions and cheese baked together and some peas, with profiteroles for dessert. It was a nice lunch.

Les Diaboliques

2011-03-19T16:35:00.000-07:00

Last night I was watching the movie Kick Ass, directed by Matthew Vaughn, on TV. It's based on a comic-book by Mark Miller and John Romita, Jr. and tells the story of a New York City teenaged comic-book fan (played by Aaron Johnson) who, despite having no powers and no training, decides to become a superhero named "Kick-Ass". Despite the abysmal failure of his initial attempt he soon becomes an internet celebrity and attracts the attention of vengeful ex-cop turned superhero "Big Daddy" (Nicolas Cage) and his murderous 11 year old daughter "Hit Girl" (Chloe Grace Moretz). It is a really entertaining movie with plenty of humour and action.

Today I got some more of the Akira graphic novels by Katshiro Otomo delivered in the mail. Mostly I had a really quiet morning watching TV. In the afternoon I went out to the Filmhouse cinema to see the 1955 movie Les Diaboliques, directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot, with the Horror Group. The movie is based on a novel by Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac, who also wrote the novel that inspired Alfred Hitchcock's film Vertigo. The film deals with the brutal and cruel headmaster of a second-rate boy's boarding school (Paul Meurisse) who is married to a fragile young teacher, Christina (Vera Clouzot), who has a weak heart, while openly carrying on an affair with another teacher, Nicole Horner (Simone Signoret). Tiring of his ill treatment of them both, Christina and Nicole decide to murder the headteacher. However, after the murder, the body goes missing and a succession of strange and disturbing events begin to occur. It is a really good suspense film, and features a memorable twist. Apparently it was one of the influences for Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho, and Robert Bloch (who wrote the original novel Psycho) named it as his favourite horror film. After the movie we went out and had a couple of drinks. The movie is reviewed over at Permanently Weird.

Quatermass Baguettes

2011-03-18T12:06:00.000-07:00

Last night I watched an episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus on DVD. This epsiode featured a dangerous gang of criminals who are so paranoid about getting caught that their plans never actually involve them doing anything illegal (their elaborate jewellery store heist is basically just one of them buying a watch, followed by a complicated getaway).

I got up at half past five this morning and was in work shortly after seven. There was a baguette run today. I had a white bread panini with roast beef, jalapeno peppers, savoury cheese, brie, sliced egg and English mustard. The resulting sandwich might have looked like something from The Quatermass Experiment but it did actually taste nice.

I took a half day and left shortly after eleven. I went out to the comic-book store and got Batman issue 708, Xombi issue 1, Northlanders issue 38 and DMZ issue 62. After that I went up to the stationary store and got some sketching pencils, erasers, pencil sharpener and a marker pen. I got my groceries for next week on my way home.

St. Patrick's Day

2011-03-17T14:46:00.000-07:00

Last night was pretty quiet. I managed to do some more writing so that was pretty good.

Today was pretty quiet. It was another pretty dull and quiet day at work.

Of course, it's St. Patrick's Day today. I remember being at the bar in an airport on St. Patrick's Day and someone went up and ordered a green beer. The woman behind the bar didn't have a clue what he was on about and the guy said he meant beer which had been dyed green. The woman offered him some beer in a green bottle, but said that they didn't have any green beer. The guy refused and said that if it wasn't green dyed beer he wasn't interested and wandered away. I have never had green beer. I would have thought a Guinness would have been more authentically Irish.

It's Friday tomorrow so I'll be trying to get up and out early in the morning so I can leave work early.

Writing and Comedy

2011-03-16T14:22:00.000-07:00

I was reading the Akira graphic novels last night and I have been really enjoying it so far. The storyline is a lot more coherent than the movie (apparently Katsuhiro Otomo who wrote and drew the comic and also wrote and directed the film said in an interview that he assumed that anyone who would watch the movie would already be familiar with the comics, and that is why there is a lot that never gets explained in the film).

I did manage to do some writing as well last night so that was good, and I watched an epsidoe of Monty Python's Flying Circus which featured an organisation dedicated to confusing cats, and an episode of The Ricky Gervais Show.

It was another quiet and dull day at work. There was a baguette run today and I had a panini with roast beef, savoury cheese, jalapeno peppers and English mustard.

New Schedule

2011-03-15T14:03:00.001-07:00

Last night I tried a kind of new schedule: Coming back from work and taking an hour to get some food, going on-line to reply to messages and do my blogging and so on for an hour and a half or so, then switching off the computer for a couple of hours or so to read and watch TV and write in my journal, and then go back on to the computer for an hour or so without going on the internet so I can get some writing done (or take an hour to try drawing or something), then have half an hour or an hour chilling out before bed. I tried it last night and I managed to write about 1000 words, which was quite good.

The Akira graphic novels which I ordered arrived in the mail today. It was really good. They arrived before I left for work.

Drawing

2011-03-14T13:48:00.000-07:00

Last night was fairly quiet. I did try some drawing, but it didn't turn out to well. In fact it kind of sucked. I don't know whether it's because I'm out of practice, having not done any drawing in years, or if I just have absolutely no talent at drawing. I hope the latter isn't the case, because it sometimes feels like I can't actually do anything, at least not well. I do like drawing. I'm going to try and maybe get some better pens and inks to see if maybe if I experiment a bit it might help.

I was back at work again today and it was another really quiet day. I got home at around quarter past six.

Bad Cheese

2011-03-13T13:08:00.001-07:00

Last night I didn't really do much! I got a piece of cheese yesterday for a snack and as I was munching away at it, I noticed that it was starting to go bad at the far end, so I threw it out. Ugh. Gross cheese!

I was listening to an episode of The Man in Black on the radio. It was about a guy waiting for a bus late at night in a city where a lot of people have recently gone missing, and who meets a strange girl. It was quite predictible towards the end, but it was effective. Also cities are pretty creepy late at night.

Today I went along to my parents house for lunch. We had tacos which were really nice. I've decided I am going to try drawing in my sketch books. What I am really worried about is if I discover that I can't draw at all.

The Adjustment Bureau

2011-03-12T11:34:00.000-08:00

Last night I was watching a movie on television called Book of Blood, directed by John Hamilton. It's based on two short stories by Clive Barker ("The Book of Blood" and "On Jerusalem Street") which were the frame story for Clive Barker's six volume Books of Blood short story collection. The film is set in Edinburgh and concerns a professor of parapsychology (Sophie Ward) who is investigating a house that is supposed to be haunted and has been the scene of several violent deaths. With the aid of a supposedly psychic student (Jonas Armstrong), she sets out to investigate. It turns out that the house is an intersection on the highways of the dead, and that they don't take kindly to what they percieve as mockery and before long the experiment spirals violently out of control. The movie is actually pretty dull. It follows the plot of the Clive Barker stories fairly closely, but there isn't enough there for a feature length movie, so it's fairly obvious that they were trying to pad out the run time. Also the stories are fine in print, wehre they are like the frame for a collection of short stories, but on their own they don't work as well. The movie was obviously made on a very low-budget, and is shot so murkily it's difficult to see what is going on at times, and there are some really bad computer special effects. Also the opening scenes give away a lot of what happens in the end.

Today I headed out to the Cineworld cinema to see The Adjustment Bureau, directed by George Nolfi, and very loosely based on the short story "Adjustment Team" by Philip K. Dick. It's about a New York political candidate (Matt Damon) who falls for a ballerina (Emily Blunt). However, it turns out they were never intended to fall in love, and a sinister organisation known as the Adjustment Bureau, who control and manipulate the course of individual lives and human destiny according to a pre-determined plan, are determined to keep them apart. It was as much a romance movie as it was a science-fiction fantasy thriller, but it never really managed to blend the different genres together. It's still quite enjoyable in places though, and Matt Damon and Emily Blunt are very good in it. Both of the movies are reviewed over at Permanently Weird.

I stopped off for some groceries on my way home. I have to say that I am really not a fan of romantic movies. Some I like, though (some of my favourite movies are Before Sunrise, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Juno and Garden State). I have never really experienced romance myself, and it never really seems to make a lot of sense to me, and I have ruled out dating and romance and whatever until I've emigrated and become successful.

I've ordered the first couple of volumes of the graphic novel series Akira by Katsuhiro Otomo. I've wanted to read them for years, since I first saw the movie in 1994, but the books were very expensive but I found out they were available on Amazon and so decided to get a couple of them.

All sympathies and best wishes, of course, to the people in Japan after the earthquake and tsunami.

Psycho

2011-03-11T10:52:00.000-08:00

Last night I was watching the 1960 Alfred Hitchcock movie Psycho. The movie tells the story of a real estate secretary, Marion Crane (played by Janet Leigh), who steals $40,000 from her employer and sets off to drive from Phoenix, Arizona to California to meet her boyfriend. On the way she stops off at the remote Bates Motel and meets the shy, slightly odd owner and manager Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) who tells her that he lives with his elderly mother in the creepy old house overlooking the motel. Marion decides to relax by having a shower before bed, however that proves to be a big mistake when Mother pays a visit... It's a really good movie, and is probably one of the most famous and influential ever made. It's been imitated, parodied, spoofed, remade, discussed and commented upon endlessly since it's release, but it is still powerful and striking and also at times very funny. It's reviewed over at Permanently Weird.

I had a pretty quiet day today. I went out and got some milk and a couple of magazines (a TV listings magazine and a copy of Total Film). I also saw a bit of a 1994 comedy called Airheads, directed by Michael Lehman, about a bunch of metalheads who hold a radio station hostage in order to get their band's single on the air. It really does not seem like such a long time since 1994 when that kind of music was so popular. It was pretty funny, even if it seems pretty dated now.

The African Queen

2011-03-10T14:16:00.000-08:00

Last night was pretty quiet. I was reading my new comic-books that I bought yesterday afternoon. One that was interesting that I had got kind of at random was Li'l Depressed Boy, about a human-sized living ragdoll who behaves like a kind of teenage hipster and his attempts to date a kind of punk girl (all the other characters in the book are human, and the act that the main character is a living ragdoll is never commented on and seems to be seen as neither unusual or surprising). The humour and style is very similar to the Scott Pilgrim books.

Today I had a quiet morning, and in the afternoon I went out to see a re-release of the 1951 movie The African Queen, directed by John Huston. The film is set in German East Africa in 1914, at the outbreak of the First World War, and involves an English missionary (played by Katherine Hepburn) whose brother died after a German raid on the village where they were working. The very prim and proper missionary teams up with a tough, rough-and-ready captain (played by Humphrey Bogart), who captains a small run-down boat called the "African Queen". She demands that they sail down a long and extremely dangerous river in order to sabotage an enemy gunboat. It's a really fun film and very entertaining. It was one of my Gran's favourite movies. She pretty much loved anything to do with Humphrey Bogart. The movie is reviewed over at Permanently Weird.

The national census forms came this evening, so I filled them out on the internet. It saves time that way.

Dental Institute

2011-03-09T12:36:00.000-08:00

Last night I went out with my parents to Pizza Express. To start with I had garlic bread with mozarella cheese, and then I had a Four Seasons pizza (a pizza with a different topping on each quarter: mushrooms, pepperoni, plain cheese and tomato, and anchovies and capers), and for dessert I had a Chocolate Glory gelato (basically ice-cream covered with chocolate sauce and squares of chocolate fudge cake). It was really nice.

Back home I watched an episode of How TV Ruined Your Life which this week dealt with "Knowledge" and discussed how TV dealt with news and factual programming, from the early days of the TV news (when it was just still images, occasional diagrams and voice-over narration, because the powers that be felt like film footage and announcers would trivialise current events) and very soberly presented academic documentaries to the current docu-soaps and celebrity presenters and flashy rolling news, that try to make it really exciting and dynamic. It also managed to take in the moralising on 80s kid's cartoon shows like He-Man and Thundercats, and a bizarre "mocumentary" from 1992 called GhostWatch which was basically a fictional horror drama for Halloween about a haunted house, but was presented as a non-fiction documentary hosted by well-known presenters. People at the time didn't realise it was make-believe and were genuinely terrified and angry about the show. Seen today it's pretty much a forerunner of The Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity. The episode itself managed to be genuinely informative and also extremely funny.

Later on I watched a documentary called The Return of A Clockwork Orange, which was made in 2000 to commemorate the re-release of A Clockwork Orange in Britain. Stanley Kubrick, who directed A Clockwork Orange, withdrew the film from Britain and it was not available to view legally in Britain until after Kubrick's death in 1999. The movie was incredibly controversial in Britain when it was first released due to the violence. For three decades it was the most high-profile banned movie in Britain and was trotted out in endless magazine and newspaper articles, documentaries and so on about violent movies. It's now readily available in Britain though and is frequently shown in TV there. I remember a few months after Kubrick's death I arranged a tribute evening in the Student Union at college and me and another guy promoted and showed The Shining, Full Metal Jacket and A Clockwork Orange. By the time the last movie came on it was literally standing room only. The place was packed out. That was a great night.

Today I went up to the Dental Institute. The bus broke down on the way, so I had to run up to the Institute and then I got lost in the building, but I maanged to get there in the nick of time. In the end they were running late anyway so it didn't really matter. I had my right wisdom tooth taken out in November 2009 and this was basically a review appointment to see how it had been in the meantime and whether I needed my other tooth taken out. In the end the extraction had completely healed up and the other wisdom tooth, while coming in at an angle wasn't causing any trouble to the tooth in front. For now at least I don't need it taken out. The dentist who was dealing with me was this really cute Spanish woman which helped.

I went along to the comic-book store afterwards and got: Lil Depressed Boy issues 1 and 2, Batman Incorporated issue 3, Batman and Robin issue 20, Fables are Forever issue 2, Spawn issue 204, X23 issue 7, Spider-Man issue 155, iZombie issue 11 and Venom issue 1.

Darkman

2011-03-08T09:21:00.000-08:00

Last night I watched a 2009 movie called Henri-Georges Clouzot's Inferno, directed by Serge Bromberg and Ruxandra Medrea. It's a documentary about the production of acclaimed director Henri-Georges Clouzot's unfinished and unreleased 1964 film Inferno. The documentary was triggered by the discovery of 185 film canisters (totalling 15 hours of footage) and some 30 hours worth of soundtrack. The movie comprises of footage from the unfinished film, a couple of actors performong scenes from the script on a blank stage and talking-head interviews with the film crew who worked on the movie telling the story of the production and it's eventual collapse. The movie Inferno was intended to be about a man who is driven insane by jealousy when he suspects his wife is having an affair, and they shot hours of test footage for the hallucinatory dream sequences. According to the documentary, Clouzot didn't endear himself to the crew. He was an insomniac who thought everyone else should sleep as little as he did, and was in the habit of phoning people up at all hours of the night whenever an idea came to him. He also didn't like people taking time off and on Sundays, when the crew had the day off, he would hang around in the lobby of the hotel where they were staying and grab the first crewmembers he saw and tell them to go out with him and shoot test footage. One of the camera crew apparently took to coming and going through the ground floor bathroom window in order to avoid Clouzot. It was a very interesting documentary and well worth seeing for movie fans and especially aspiring film-makers. It shows just how difficult film-production can be and how easily everything can just fall apart.

Later on I watched the 1990 movie Darkman, directed by Sam Raimi. It stars Liam Neeson as a scientist who is working on a synthetic skin, which always becomes unstable and melts after about an hour and a half. However one night he is attacked by gangsters and his lab is blown up with him inside it. He survives, but is horribly burnt. The medical treatment that he undergoes renders him unable to feel pain and gives him sudden bursts of superhuman strength and flashes of violent rage. He escapes from the hospital and uses his synthetic skin to visit his girlfriend (Frances McDormand) and take violent revenge on his attackers. It is a really fun movie which moves along at a good fast pace. Both of the movies are reviewed over at Permanently Weird.

Today I went out to a stationary store and got some cardboard magazine storage boxes for my comic-book collection, two packs of Sharpie pens, and two A4 size sketch-pad journals (which were in a "buy one get one free" offer). They'll be really good for drawing comic books and other stuff.

My parents are going to see True Grit this afternoon, and I'm meeting them once their movie is finished to go to Pizza Express for dinner. Tomorrow lunchtime I'm going to the Dental Institute, and then I'll probably get some lunch and go to the comic-book store or somewhere.

Monty Python

2011-03-07T11:18:00.000-08:00

Last night I was watching a few episodes of Monty Python's Flying Circus. If you've never seen it, it's a sketch comedy series that started in 1969 and finished in 1974 and was written and performed by John Cleese, Michael Palin, Eric Idle, Graham Chapman, Terry Jones and Terry Gilliam (who also did the bizarre animation sequences that became a trademark of the show). Sketch shows tend to be very uneven, and in my opinion a sketch show that makes me laugh about fifty per cent of the time is doing pretty well, but with the Monty Python episodes I found about sixty percent of the show funny. When you see the full episodes, as opposed to edited highlights, you get to see how well the sketches work together, also a lot of the less well-known sketches are really funny as well. I really enjoy Monty Python comedy in general, although I know that a lot of people really don't find them funny at all.

Today was my first day of my week off work, and I didn't really do much of anything. I spent the day on the computer, trying to do some writing but not really succeeding much. Although it is a nice feeling that I have got pretty much the whole week to do more or less whatever I want.

Pancakes

2011-03-06T11:46:00.000-08:00

Last night was pretty quiet. I was watchng some TV and reading. I fell asleep on my couch while watchng the movie All the Boys Love Mandy Lane, which for what I saw was an okay horror movie, but for some reason I wasjust feeling really tired.

Today my Dad came to collect me and take me over to my parent's house. The new issue of Sight and Sound magazine had arrived, which this month had a big feature article about the latest Woody Allen movie. I'm often surprised about how prolific Woody Allen is, considering that he releases at least one film a year. For lunch we had some sausage cassarole and some pancakes (diue to it being Pancake Day on Tuesday). I really like pancakes but I very rarely have them, so it was really nice.

After lunch I had a walk to a supermarket with my Mum and I got a DVD set of the complete Monty Python's Flying Circus TV series, which was in the sales. That should be really interesting to watch. Monty Python seems to be one of those shows where you don't often get to see the full episodes, more isolated clips and edited compilations.

The Human Centipede

2011-03-05T10:36:00.000-08:00

Last night I was watching an episode of Spaced on TV, which I really enjoyed. Later on I watched a frankly bizarre 2010 Dutch horror movie on TV called The Human Centipede (First Sequence), directed by Tom Six. It's basically about two American tourists in Germany who find themselves at the house of a demented surgeon who plans to surgically attach three people together to form a "human centipede". Despite the horrific premise, it really isn't a particularly gruesome movie. Pretty much all of the horror is in the concept and the resulting creation, and it all loses it's impact long before the movie is over. Although there are some pretty good suspenseful and scary scenes. It's reviewed over at Permanently Weird.

I got to bed at about half past five last night and was awake at eleven this morning. The gas bill came today, and it was a lot, so that was pretty annoying. I went along to get my groceries for the coming week, which were four microwave ready meals, some bread, some potato chips, some flavoured milk, some chocolate and a bottle of wine, along with a TV listings magazine.

Back home I had some lunch and watched a couple of episode of The Big Bang Theory.

Week Off

2011-03-04T13:11:00.000-08:00

Last night was pretty quiet. I was watching a few TV comedy shows, and I managed to get to bed before one o'clock in the morning, which for me is really, really early! I was up at half past five and headed off to work, arriving at about quarter past seven. There was a baguette run today and I ordered a white bread panini with roast beef, brie, savoury cheese, jalapeno peppers and English mustard. It was really nice. I was kind of rushing to get everything done before having my week off work. I didn't manage to get everything finished but I did get as much as possible done.

I went up to the comic-book store after work and got Wolverine: The Best There Is issues 1 to 4, Silver Surfer issue 1, X-Men issue 8, Freedom Fighters issue 7, Amazing Spider-Man issue 651, Sweet Tooth issue 19 and House of Mystery issue 35 (I really like that comic-book, it's set in a house in another dimension where people end up trapped and they pay for their food and drink by telling stories in the bar, and so in each issue alongside the main story there is always a really short self-contained story). On my way home I stopped off for a drink

Poltergeist

2011-03-03T14:37:00.001-08:00

Last night I was watching the 1982 movie Poltergeist, directed by Tobe Hooper. It's set in a fairly bland, but pleasant, Californian suburb, and centers around the seemingly average Freeling family: an estate agent (Craig T. Nelson), his wife (JoBeth Williams), and their three children (Dominique Dunne, Oliver Robins and Heather O'Rourke). However, the youngest daughter seems to see strange things in the static of the family's TV sets. Before long, the family are being tormented by a barrage of supernatural forces, that whisk the youngest daughter away into another dimension through a portal in her closet. It's basically a ghost train ride of a movie. It's fun, entertaining and has a few good chills and thrills in it. Although Tobe Hooper (director of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre) is credited as director, the film was co-written, co-produced and many believe co-directed by Steven Spielberg. Certainly Spielberg's influence is everywhere in the movie. Even if he didn't actually direct it certainly it is a Steven Spielberg movie. The movie is reviewed over at Permanently Weird.

It was a fairly average and quiet day at work, but I was pretty busy. Hopefully tomorrow I'll be in work for about seven in the morning and hopefully be able to do a six hour day and then head up to the comic-book store. Then I'll be off work for all of next week.

Blake's Seventh Seal

2011-03-02T14:04:00.000-08:00

Last night I was watching an episode of How TV Ruined Your Life, hosted by writer, comedian and TV critic Charlie Brooker. This episode was about technology and how TV had influenced people's views on it. It had a lot of clips from old TV shows, particularly some weird ones from the fifties which basically said that by the 1990s everyone would be living on the Moon with their own personal robot servant. It also had a few clips from a 1970s British show called Blakes 7, which Brooker described as being so downbeat it was as if the "lenses were crafted from frozen widow's tears". I've seen a lot of Blakes 7 and it was a good show and it was pretty much usual adventures in outer space with mosters, aliens, and so on. Part of what was interesting about the show was the unremitting bleakness of it all. The main characters pretty much spent all their time arguing and fighting with other and being alternately insulted and patronised by a super-computer that looked like a glass box full of old Christmas tree lights. It was a little like if Ingmar Bergman had directed Star Wars and it's still kind of notorious for ending the series with all the main characters being killed. The show continued with clips of David Hasselhoff flirting with his car in Knight Rider and clips form a show about text messaging, which seemed to be all the fun of watching a lot of people texting, i.e. not any fun at all.

I also started writing a new thing last night It's basically set on another planet and the idea is that it's going to be a really big thing from when people first arrive and start settling down there to the establishment of it's own kind of civilisation.

It was another quiet day at work. However one good thing was that I did get a lot of praise for the way I'd been working. The boss said that my work has been "excellent", which was really nice to hear.

Reading and TV

2011-03-01T14:04:00.000-08:00

Last night was pretty quiet. I spent most of my time reading and watching TV. There wasn't really much on, though.

Today was another fairly quiet day at work. There is apparently going to be some building work going on in the office over the next few weeks, so that will probably be a real headache. I got home at around quarter past six and had a microwave spaghetti bolognese meal. It wasn't bad.

I'm looking forward to having next week off! I really don't know what I'll be doing, except on the Wednesday when I'm going to the Dental Institute. Still, it should be fun and I usually manage to find something to do!

The Dharma Bums

2011-02-28T13:52:00.000-08:00

Last night I finished reading the book The Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac, which was first published in 1958. The novel opens in October 1955 and concerns aspiring writer Ray Smith who makes his way to San Francisco where he meets poet and Zen Buddhist Japhy Ryder. Enthused by Ryder's beliefs and philosophies, Smith joins him on his mountain-climbing expeditions in the High Sierras. However, Ray soon finds his devotions to the simple life sorely tested by the marathon poetry readings, wine-fuelled orgies and wild, three-day parties that make up bohemian life in San Francisco. It is an autobiographical book. All the characters are loosely disguised real people. Kerouac himself is Ray Smith and Japhy Ryder is poet Gary Snyder. Kerouac's friend and fellow "Beat Generation" luminary Allen Ginsberg appears as Alvah Goldbook, and an early scene describes the famous Six Gallery poetry reading at which Ginsberg first performed his classic poem Howl (which is named "Wail" in the book). There's not much of a story to it but the book does contain some truely beautiful writing, and there are some amusing anecdotes of Kerouac's adventures hitch-hiking across America. The book is reviewed at Permanently Weird.

I was back at work today, and it was pretty much an average dull day. I was doing an "Environmental Awareness" test that apparently everyone has to do at work, and I got 92%. It really wasn't a difficult test at all. I also have all of next week off work! I've got a lot of annual leave left and I'll lose a lot of it if I don't use it by the end of March, so that should be fun.

I got home at around quarter past six and had a microwaved chicken and bacon pasta bake ready meal, which was quite nice. I've seen the main Oscar results. The King's Speech got four awards. I've not seen that movie. Although I was glad that Natalie Portman got the Best Actress nomination for Black Swan. I think she deserved it.

Natural Born Killers

2011-02-27T12:26:00.000-08:00

Last night I was watching the 1994 movie Natural Born Killers, directed by Oliver Stone and based on a story by Quentin Tarantino. The movie deals with a couple of serial killers, Mickey and Mallory Knox (played by Woody Harrelson and Juliette Lewis) who go on a three week killing spree through the southern USA leaving fifty-two people dead, until they are caught and arrested. With the pair now a media sensation and international cult heroes, Mickey is approached in jail by sleazy TV producer Wayne Gale (Robert Downey, Jr.) to do a live on-air interview in prison. The movie throws pretty much everything at the screen with the film stock changing (seemingly at random), constant switches from colour to black-and-white, tinted scenes, weird filters, bizarre camera angles, on-screen captions, distorted images, stock footage, strange back projection, frenzied editing and even sequences shot like a 1950s sitcom. It was hugely controversial in it's day, and was a big sensation. The first time I saw it it gave me a massive headache, but I have seen it many times now, partly because, once you get used to the style it's one of those things where you see something different every time. There is a lot in it that is really good, and a lot that is absolutely terrible. I thought it was way too weird in places and I'm not a big fan of the second half of the film, once they get inside the jail, but there are great bits in it, although you do have to be in the right mood for it. It did seem to annoy a lot of people when it came out. I sometimes wonder whether Oliver Stone is on a personal mission to irritate as many groups of people as possible. Although it seems to have been a long time since there was a really controversial Oliver Stone movie. Still, there's time for him yet.

Today I went out with my Dad to the Ocean Terminal shopping centre. We had something to eat at the Costa Coffe there (I had a chocolate muffin and a mocha coffee) before we went to look at our own things. I got some books in a three for two offer: Money by Martin Amis, True Grit by Charles Portis and A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin, the first volume of a fantasy series which I don't think has been finished yet.

After that we went to my parent's house. The new issue of Fortean Times (the Journal of Strange Phenomena) had arrived in the mail so that was pretty good to read. We had spicy fajitas for lunch.

That's another thing that is quite interesting about the Oscars that I just thought about: The look on the faces of the people who don't win, trying to smile for the cameras but so obviously fuming that they lost. It's kind of cruel in a way the way they keep the cameras on the faces of the losers. I won't be watching it tonight, because it is on too late, but it will be interesting to learn the results tomorrow.

The Fear Machine

2011-02-26T10:55:00.000-08:00

Last night I was watching an episode of Spaced which I thought was really funny. I also finished reading the graphic novel John Constantine, Hellblazer: The Fear Machine written by Jamie Delano and illustrated by Mark Buckingham, Richard Piers Rayner, Mike Hoffman and Alfredo Alcala. The story was originally published in nine monthly installments in the Hellblazer comic-book between 1988 and 1989. In the book occult detective and amateur magician John Constantine is on the run in the English countryside after being falsely accused of murder and joins up with a group of New Age travellers. However, before long he finds himself caught up in a bizarre conspiracy involving a sinister corporation who intend to use ancient magic and a psychic little girl in a devestating new weapon called "The Fear Machine". However this itself is part of an even greater conspiracy which reaches to the upper echelons of power. As an ancient and evil supernatural force awakens, even Constantine believes that it is too late to stop them. It was a good story, perhaps not the best Hellblazer story, but not bad at all. The artwork is slightly crude by the standards of modern comics but it isn't bad at all. I've reviewed it over at Permanently Weird. Fans of The Sandman would also recognise a very brief appearance from Morpheus, the main character in Sandman.

Today has been fairly quiet. I went out to get my groceries for the coming week and watched a couple of episodes of The Big Bang Theory, and also part of a show called Into the West (mainly because Rachael Leigh Cook was in it). I've started reading a book called The Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac which so far looks like it should be pretty good.

I think it's the Oscars tomorrow night. I've never understood why there's so much attention paid to what the people are wearing on the red carpet, because it's not a fashion show it's a movie awards show. Also it must be stressful enough for people being nominated without the worry that if you pick the wrong outfit it would be all over newspapers magazines, the internet and TV shows. One of the things that I like about the Oscars is that there are certain things which are completely inevitable. For example at several points there will be shots of Jack Nicholson in the audience with a massive grin on his face wearing his shades indoors.

True Grit

2011-02-25T13:58:00.000-08:00

Last night I was modtly reading my new comic-books. I really liked all of them. I'll have to buy some boxes or something to put them in so they don't get damaged or faded or anything.

Today I went out to the Cineworld cinema and saw the new movie of True Grit, written and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen. The film is set in Arkansas in 1878 and tells the story of a fourteen year old girl (played by Hailee Steinfeld) whose father was murdered. She decides to hire a US Marshall to help her track down her father's killer. She selects a grizzled old drunk called Rueben "Rooster" Cogburn (played by Jeff Bridges), who has a reputation for being the most ruthless Marshall around and who the girl believes has "true grit". I really enjoyed it. It was a really fun Western. I remember the older version with John Wayne. I've not seen it in years but I remember really liking it. This one is slightly more intense and violent then the earlier movie, but it is still good.

After the movie I went and had a bottle of beer and a plate of fish and French fries with peas which was nice.

Then I went back to the movies and saw Paul, directed by Greg Mottola. The movie involves two British science-fiction fans (played by Simon Pegg and Nick Frost) who are on holiday at the San Diego Comic-Con and decide to make a road-trip across the US, visiting famous UFO crash sites. Along the way they meet a wise-cracking, foul-mouthed alien named Paul (voiced by Seth Rogen), who is on the run from the Government. Soon the three of them are being chased across the US by a trio of "Men in Black"-style agents (headed by Jason Bateman). It is a really fun movie, full of references to science-fiction films and TV shows. It's aimed very much at science-fiction fans, but there is enough there to appeal to broader audiences. I thought it was really funny. Both of them are reviewed over at Permanently Weird. I've got a card for the Cineworld so I can basically see any number of movies as and when I like without paying at the box-office.

Rio Bravo

2011-02-24T12:56:00.000-08:00

Last night I was watching the 1959 movie Rio Bravo, directed by Howard Hawks, on TV. The movie is set in a small Texan border town during the Old West and involved a murderer who is locked up in the town jail by the local sheriff (played by John Wayne), who has to keep the killer locked up and out of trouble for at least a week until a US Marshall can show up and take him, away. Meanwhile the killer's wealthy brother has employed a large gang of ruthless hired killers to bust him out of jail, while all the sheriff has to help him is the town drunk (played by Dean Martin), a garrolous trigger-happy old jailer (Walter Brennan) and a young gunslinger (Ricky Nelson). It's a really good Western, which was very influential on future action movies. It's got some good, witty dialogue and some great action scenes. Also, if you're a fan, Dean Martin and Ricky Nelson sing a couple of songs. It's reviewed over at Permanently Weird.

Watching it I really thought about my Gran, who died about four years ago, and I don't know if she ever saw it, although I assume she did because she loved movies and watched a lot of them, but this would probably have been one of her favourite movies, due to it being a Western and having John Wayne and Dean Martin in it. I remember watching a lot of the old Westerns when I was down at her place or when she came up here.

Today I had another day off work and went up to the comic book store, where I did get a lot of stuff: Batman: Conspiracy (which was basically a one-off compendium of a three part story from the '90s in which Batman investigates a series of bizarre ritual murders which leads him into a sinister and pervasive conspiracy), Detective Comics Classics (which had three bizarre Batman stories from the '60s and '70s, including one in which Robin and Batgirl had to fight the ghost of Benedict Arnold who had teamed up with the Devil), X23 issues 4 to 6 (which I've never read before and I kind of got on impulse), American Vampire issue 12, Dracula: The Company of Monsters issue 7, X-Men: Legacy issue 245 (which seems to be starting a big new storyline), Scalped issue 46, Detective Comics issue 874, Spawn issue 203, Ultimate Spider-Man issue 154, Morning Glories issue 7 (which I got because I'd heard a lot of really good stuff about it on the internet) and The New York Five issue 2 (which has had an interesting story so far and is by the author and artist responsible for one of my favourite graphic novels, Local). I also got a graphic novel called John Constantine, Hellblazer: The Fear Machine written by Jamie Delano, with art by Mark Buckingham, Richard Piers Rayner, Mike Hoffman and Alfredo Alcala. On my way home I stopped off and had a quick drink. I just figured that I'm having a few days off, it's like a short holiday so I might as well treat myself by splurging money on comics! Besides I'm very happy with what I got. When I got back home I had some microwaved chicken chow mein for my dinner which was really nice.

Tomorrow I'm off work as well and I think I might go along to the movies.

Lazy Day

2011-02-23T13:22:00.000-08:00

I was off work today, and didn't go out at all. I got a letter from the Dental Institute about a review appointment, presumably about the wisdom tooth which I got taken out in November 2009. I know that I will probably be getting the other tooth taken out at some point soon, which I am not looking forward to at all.

It was kind of a nice day just chilling out at home. I slept late and kind of hung around for the day. I was also coming up with some new ideas for my comic-book, so I did do some stuff today. Later on in the week I'll be going up to the comic-book store and going along to the movies to see Paul and True Grit.

I had a microwaved braised steak with mashed potato, carrots and onion gravy for my dinner. It was really nice.

A Very Short Week

2011-02-21T13:25:00.000-08:00

Last night I wasn't really doing much except watching repeats of comedy shows on TV (namely Spaced and The IT Crowd) and thumbing through my copy of Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, which I have read before.

Today was the start of another week at work, but I have taken Wednesday, Thursday and Friday off, so it will be a really short week! I had been intending originally just to take Wednesday off, because I'm going out tomorrow to see The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari with the Horror Group, and it means that if people are going out afterwards, I can go along and have a few drinks without worrying about being okay for work the next day. I figured I'd take the rest of the week off, because I'd saved up quite a few days of annual leave, which I need to take by the end of March anyway, or I'll lose them. I haven't any plans for the days off but I'll probably go to movies, buy comics and do some much needed work on my own writing and artwork for my comic. So it's all good.

When I got home from work I had a microwave Thai green chicken curry with jasmine rice, which was really nice.

Posters

2011-02-20T13:31:00.000-08:00

Last night I was watching the 2009 Swedish movie version of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, directed by Niels Arden Oplov, based on the novel by Stieg Larsson. The movie tells the story of a disgraced journalist, Mykael Blomkvist (played by Michael Nyqvist), who works for the controversial Millennium magazine. He accepts an assignment from an extremely wealthy and powerful industrialist to investigate the mysterious disappearance of his beloved neice over forty years earlier. The industrialist is convinced that she was murdered by a member of his family, and he wants Blomkvist to go over the evidence to see if anything was missed in the previous investigations. For help, Blomkvist turns to expert computer hacker and investigator, Lisbeth Salander (played by Noomi Rapace). However, as they get deeper into the investigation, it becomes clear that someone will stop at nothing to prevent them getting to the truth. I thought it was a really good movie. I really liked the Stieg Larsson books, and the movie was pretty faithful to the source. It's reviewed over at Permanently Weird. There is an English language version of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo starring Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara due for release in December this year.

Usually I go over to my parent's house on Sundays for my lunch, but I went yesterday. The reason for the change was that my parents were going out for lunch with some of their friends today. I went out and got a few posters. One of them was a painting of Batman, taken form the comics rather than the movies, the other was a kind of gothic style painting of a vampire woman, and the third was a "How to Identify a Zombie" poster. I've got them on the walls now and they look really good.

Back home I had a Tex-Mex Platter for my dinner, which I had got yesterday. It's basically pieces of chicken, ribs in barbecue sauce, potato skins filled with cheese and mushrooms in breadcrumbs with a little pot of garlic sauce. It was really good!

Carrie

2011-02-19T13:12:00.000-08:00

Last night I went along with the Horror Group to see the movie 1976 movie Carrie, directed by Brian De Palma and based on the novel by Stephen King. The movie tells the story of shy, unpopular high school senior Carrie White (played by Sissy Spacek) who is constantly the target of bullies at school and abused at home by her fanatically religious mother (Piper Laurie). However, after a particularly traumatic experience at school, Carrie discovers a previously hidden power of telekinesis (the ability to move or cause changes in objects with the power of the mind). It's a very stylish and very disturbing movie. It's reviewed over at Permanently Weird, which is my movie and book review journal.

After the movie I had a drink and a chat with a couple of other people from the group and got home at around one in the morning. It was a really nice evening.

Today my Mum came around to pick me up and we went out grocery shopping and then we went back to my parent's house. I had some sushi for lunch, watched a couple of episodes of The Big Bang Theory, and read some of the comic-books that I got yesterday, which were all really good, by the way. I also listened to a radio adaptation of the novel Farewell, My Lovely by Raymond Chandler.

Back home I listened to a radio episode of The Man in Black, which this week was presenting a story about an unsuccessful writer who owns a failing print shop and whose wife died several months earlier. One day a mysterious man appears who offers the shopkeeper a contract by which the old printer will produce hugely successful novels. Obviously it goes without saying that there turns out to be a very heavy price to pay. It was good. personally I love horror on the radio. It can be really effective, because you don't have the visual element you have to rely entirely on your imagination, which can produce things far more disturbing than anything in a movie!

Comics and Bills

2011-02-18T08:32:00.000-08:00

Last night was pretty quiet. I was watching repeats of comedy shows on TV and doing a bit of reading.

I was up at half past five in the morning today and got into work at five to seven. It was a pretty quiet day although there weren't many people in and most people seemed slightly hyper due to the fact that it was Friday. We had some blueberry muffins brought in which were really nice and there was a baguette run. I had a panini with roast beef, English mustard, brie, savoury cheese, jalapeno peppers and onions. It was a really nice sandwich.

I left work at one today and went up to the comic-book store, where I got a pretty big haul this week: Hellblazer issue 276, Night of the Living Dead issue 3, Memoir issue 2, Fables issue 102, Daredevil Reborn issue 2, Superman and Batman issue 81, Wolverine issue 5.1, Wolverine issue 1000, X-Men: Legacy issue 244, The Suicide Forest issue 3, Let Me In: Crossroads issue 3, DMZ issue 62 and Batman issue 707. So, yeah, it looks like a good set.

There was an electricity bill waiting for me when I got home, which was slightly more than I had been expecting, but not by too much. Bills always seem to come at the wrong time, but then there isn't really a right time for bills.

This evening I'm off to see Carrie at the movies with the Horror Group, so that should be fun. This is only the second time I've been out with them, but so far it has been really good.

I've been thinking about my holdiay for this year. I had been thinking of taking few days in Amsterdam next month, but I haven't got round to booking it, and I'm not sure if I'm really all that hot to go. I've been to Amsterdam before and really liked it, but I feel like waiting and maybe doing something like I did last year when I was travelling around the US and Canada, but going to different places. Anyway, if everything works out I shoud be doing a lot of travelling this year.

Horror and Offices

2011-02-17T13:01:00.000-08:00

Last night I booked a ticket for a special one-off screening of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari on Tuesday. It's a silent movie from 1919 and is being shown with live musical accompaniment so that should be really good. I'm going with the Horror Group. Mostly it was a fairly quiet evening I watched an episode of the US version of The Office, which I think is a really funny show. It's very different to the original Ricky Gervais version, but they are both good in their own ways.

This morning at work I had a meeting with the boss about my on-going training and developemnt and whatnot. It went pretty well. I'd been working hard and they seemed happy enough with my progress. The fire alarm went as well this morning, which meant standing around for about half an hour in the freezing cold. I think the alarm had gone off by mistake. The problem with the fire alarms is that we all have to congregate in the car park and we're only allowed back into the office though the main entrance and the only way to get there from the car park is up a narrow staircase which always becomes completely jammed with people and there's a big crush.

Anyway, I got home at about half past six and had a microwave king prawn, tomato and pasta ready meal. Tonight I'll be getting to bed early so I can get into work for seven in the morning. That means that I can do a six hour day and leave at one, go up to the comic-book store to get my comics for the week and then head back home. In the evening I'm off to the movies to watch Carrie with the Horror Group, so it should hopefully be a good day.I always find it really difficult getting up so early on Fridays, but it is definitely worth it when it means I can leave work at lunchtime.

Superhero Valentine's Cards

2011-02-16T13:27:00.000-08:00

Last night was pretty quiet yet again. I was watching an episode of a show called How TV Ruined Your Life which involves writer and presenter Charlie Brooker (who is known for writing very savage and very funny reviews and essays on TV and other subjects) complaining about how love is portrayed on TV. It was a very funny show.

Today was another dull day at work. There was a baguette run this morning and I got a panini with roast beef, brie, savoury cheese, jalapeno peppers and English mustard, which was really nice.

I also saw a thing on the internet about some frankly bizarre superhero themed Valentine's Day cards. I suppose nothing says "I love you" like comparing your beloved to a psychotic mass-mudering clown, or The Penguin.

Meh

2011-02-15T13:30:00.000-08:00

Last night was yet another quiet one. Mostly I was watching TV and reading. There really wasn't much on that was worth watching.

It was a really dull day at work today. It's not really been a great week so far, but I should be going out to the movies on Friday night anyway, with the Vampire/Zombie/Horror Group to see Carrie, which should be good.

Dracula's Guest

2011-02-14T12:37:00.000-08:00

Last night I was listening to the first episode of a new radio series called A Short History of Vampires. The first episode was a reading of the story "Dracula's Guest" by Bram Stoker. Apparently it was originally written as part of the novel Dracula but was cut at some point from the main text.

Today was the start of another week at work, and was pretty much the same as usual. It was very quiet in the office today, with a lot of people being either off work or working in different rooms.

Radio and Movies

2011-02-13T10:42:00.000-08:00

Last night was fairly quiet. I was listening to the first episode of a new series of The Man in Black on the radio which was presenting the story of a student helpline operator who finds herself plagued by a mysterious and persistent caller who seems to have a connection with traumatic events from her past. It was pretty good. The rest of the evening was pretty uneventful. I watched some of The Rocky Horror Picture Show and National Lampoon's Vacation.

Today I went along to my parent's house for lunch, which was nice. The missing issue of Sight and Sound had arrived so that was good.

The Faculty

2011-02-12T10:35:00.000-08:00

Last night I went up to the Vampire/Zombie/Horror Group. The movie that we saw was a 1998 movie called The Faculty, directed by Robert Rodriguez and written by Kevin Williamson (who wrote Scream and Scream 2 and created the TV series Dawson's Creek). It stars Josh Hartnett, Elijah Wood, Jordana Brewster, Robert Patrick and Famke Janssen and is about a group of Ohio teenagers who discover that the staff and most of the students of their high school have been infected by mind controlling alien parasites. It's a pretty good movie. I remember watching it when it was first released. The group itself was really good. We had a few drinks afterwards and I got home at around two in the morning.

Today has been fairly quiet. I stayed in most of the time. Aside from going out to get some groceries for the coming week.

A Not-So-Early Start

2011-02-11T09:59:00.000-08:00

I actually didn't manage to get up at five o'clock this morning like I had intended and instead woke up at around half past six and almost panicked. I got straight in the shower, dressed grabbed my bag and headed out for work as fast as I could, and ended up arrivng at twenty past seven (and it's about a half hour walk there).

There was a baguette run this morning and I had roast beef, brie, savoury cheese, jalapeno peppers, onions and English mustard. It was nice. I was only working a six hour day so after work I went up to the comic book store and got my weekly comics haul: Northlanders issue 37, Batman and Robin issue 20, Spawn issue 202, X-Men issue 7, Spider-Man issue 153, Death of Spider-Man issue 1, Daredevil: Reborn issue 1 and Fables Are Forever issue 1.

This evening I am going out with the Vampire/Zombie/Horror Group to the movies. We'll be seeing the movie The Faculty, so hopefully it should be good.

Still Hanging Around

2011-02-10T13:12:00.000-08:00

Last night was really quiet again, and I spent the time watching TV and reading my books.

My cold is still around but it is getting a lot better now. I had a fairly dull day at work, but tomorrow should be pretty eventful. I'm planning on getting into work for 7AM and doing a six hour day. Then I'm planning on going up to the comic book store and in the evening I'm going to the Vampire/Zombie/Horror group, which should be interesting.

Clearing Up

2011-02-09T13:46:00.000-08:00

Last night was pretty quiet. I spent most of my time watching TV and reading my books. I was feeling pretty tired and dropped off on the couch a couple of times.

Today was another fairly dull day at work. My cold is still around, but it does seem to be starting to clear up now, which is good. I just really hope that it all clears up by Friday.

Youth in Revolt

2011-02-08T14:04:00.000-08:00

Last night I was watching the 2009 movie Youth in Revolt, directed by Miguel Artega. The movie stars Michael Cera as a quiet, likeable, Californian nerd who is completely unsucessful with women, until he creates an alternate "bad-boy" persona for himself to win over the girl of his dreams (Portia Doubleday). At first I found it irritatingly quirky, but after a while I actually got won over by the movie and ended up enjoying it. I thought it was fun. It's very much a typical Michael Cera film in many ways. The movie is reviewed over at Permanently Weird.

My cold is still hanging in there. I hope it's gone by Friday. Otherwise, it was another fairly quiet and dull day at work. I left at about quarter past six this evening.

Trying to Get Over the Cold

2011-02-07T13:06:00.000-08:00

I watched a bit of the Superbowl last night, not much because it was on very late at night over here, and I pretty much switched over during the half-time show. What I saw of it, it looked like a good game.

Today I still had the cold, but it wasn't as bad as it had been. I've been taking paracetamol tablets and also these really disgusting throat pastilles.

It was another fairly dull and ordinary day off work to start the week. One thing I''ll have to do this week is put in for my couple of weeks off next month. I've still got a couple of weeks of annual leave left and if I don't use it by the end of March then I won't be able to use it all.

Missing Issue

2011-02-06T11:29:00.000-08:00

Last night was pretty quiet. I still had a really bad cold and pretty much slept for most of the time.

This morning I was feeling a bit better, although the cold still hasn't gone away. My Dad called around for me this morning and we went along to the Gyle shopping centre. We had some coffee and I had a cheese scone and a mocha coffee, then split up to look around on our own. I got a couple of books: Hell's Angels by Hunter S. Thompson and The Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac.

After that we went to my parent's house where the latest issues of Fortean Times and Sight and Sound. Actually the previous issue of Sight and Sound never came so I've e-mailed them to get them to send another copy.

Daybreakers

2011-02-05T10:53:00.000-08:00

Last night I watched the 2009 movie Daybreakers, which starred Ethan Hawke, Willem Dafoe and Sam Neill and was about a near future world where most of the population has become a vampire and the human race is practically extinct, forcing the vampires to come up with a solution before they lose their source of food. It wasn't bad and it had some pretty good action scenes in it.

I also watched They Shoot Horses, Don't They?, a 1969 Sydney Pollack film set in the 1930s about a dance marathon where dancers are forced to carry on for weeks in the hope of winning a cash prize. It was a pretty good movie and very intense. They are both reviewed over at Permanently Weird.

I have a really bad cold today, so the only time that I went out was to get my groceries for the week. In the afternoon I listened to a radio adaptation of The Big Sleep based on the Raymond Chandler novel.

A Day Off Work

2011-02-04T11:10:00.000-08:00

I had the day off work today and went up to the comic-book store. I bought The Suicide Forest issues 1 and 2, Batman: Odyssey issue 6, Freedom Fighters issue 6, Dracula: Company of Monsters issue 6, Hellboy: The Sleeping and the Dead issue 2, House of Mystery issue 34 and iZombie issue 10.

After that I went and had a Big King meal at Burger King and had a drink on my way home. The wind and rain were really bad again. I didn't wear my hat at all today, pretty much the first time I've not worn it out since I left North America last March.

They were some pretty good comics that I got today.

Wind and Rain

2011-02-03T12:15:00.000-08:00

Last night was pretty quiet again. I was watching TV and reading pretty much most of the time.

Today was another slow day at work. The wind was really heavy on the way home and the rain was bad as well. It was actually difficult to stand upright and I had to walk with my hat in my hand so it didn't blow away.

On the way home I stopped off and bought a copy of Empire magazine. The main features this month were about the upcoming Captain America movie, a rumoured Alien prequel, movies that copied Star Wars and the behind the scenes story of the Michael Jackson movie Moonwalker.

I've got the day off tomorrow, and I'll be going up to get some new comic-books, but aside from that I don't know what I'll be doing.

Food at Work

2011-02-02T13:20:00.000-08:00

Last night was pretty quiet again, pretty much the same as usual.

There was food provided at work today, which was really nice. There was a lot of pizza, sushi, sandwiches, and so on. It made a really nice change. Also I have the day off on Friday, but I've not really got any plans yet.

Not Much, Really

2011-02-01T13:38:00.001-08:00

Yesterday evening was really quiet yet again. I was watching television for most of the time.

It was another pretty quiet day at work yet again. I got home shortly after six today.

It's been one of those days where there is really nothing to write about.

More Stuff

2011-01-31T13:23:00.000-08:00

Last night was fairly quiet. I spent most of the time watching TV and reading my book.

Today was the start of another week at work, and it was fairly quiet. As usual. There seems to be quite a few people off today. There must be something going round.

I was on the Meetup.com site and joined a group called "Vampires, Zombies and Horror Movies/Literature". Which I thought might be quite fun.

Pattern Recognition

2011-01-30T12:03:00.000-08:00

Last night I was watching the 2005 movie Sin City directed by Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller with "Special Guest Director" Quentin Tarantino. The movie is based on a series of graphic novels by Frank Miller and tells four connected stories set in a violent city. It's all hugely stylised film-noir shot in black and white with occasional flashes of colour. It is a really good movie.

I went along to my parent's house today for lunch and in the afternoon I finished reading the novel Pattern Recognition by William Gibson. The book was published in 2003 and tells the story of Cayce Pollard, a woman who has a bizarre allergy to certain corporate logos and symbols and who earns money by testing the effectiveness of company's new logos. She is hired by an advertising agency to investigate the origin of a series of strangely addictive film clips which are being released onto the internet. It is a really good book and very well written.

Both Sin City and Pattern Recognition are reviewed on Permanently Weird.

Eye Test

2011-01-29T10:39:00.000-08:00

Today I was up fairly sharp because I had to go and meet my Mum in the city centre. We had some coffee and I had a raspberry and white chocolate muffin, and then I had to go and have my eyes tested. I get them tested every two years to see if I need new glasses. The testing went fine except for when they tried to take photographs of the backs of my eyes and I couldn't stop blinking due to the bright flash they used. I literally couldn't not blink, not matter how hard I tried. My eyes were fine though, and they slightly modified the prescription, but I just decided to get a new frame to replace one that had broken.

After the eye test I went and had a look around the shops. I got a Tchaikovsky CD and a book called A Dark Matter by Peter Straub. I noticed there was a quote from Stephen King on the cover of the Straub book saying how great it was, and I just thought it was quite amusing because it's well known that Stephen King and Peter Straub are really good friends and so King is not likely to have a particularly objective opinion. I'm sure it's a good book or I wouldn't have got it, and you can hardly blame famous writers for wanting to promote their friend's books it just means you kind of have to take it with a pinch of salt.

Black Swan

2011-01-28T14:02:00.000-08:00

I was up at five today and was into work at seven. I was working a half day and left at about eleven. I went up to the Cineworld cinema and saw Black Swan, directed by Darren Aronofsky. The film stars Natalie Portman as Nina, a devoted and innocent young ballerina, who is determined to win the lead role of the Swan Queen in the company's production of "Swan Lake". However, while she is perfect for the part of the sweet, innocent and virginal White Swan, Nina is less well suited for the part of the evil twin, the seductive, cruel, manipulative Black Swan. In order to win the role of a lifetime, Nina has to delve into the darkest parts of her own nature. It's a very dark, and very powerful film. The movie is reviewed at Permanently Weird.

I stopped off at the comic books store and bought Spawn issue 201, Scalped issue 45, New York Five issue 1, Hellblazer issue 275, Fables issue 101, American Vampire issue 11 and Detective Comics issue 873.

Writing Stories

2011-01-27T12:27:00.000-08:00

Last night was pretty quiet. I started writing a short prose story set in the Lonely Cities universe. I was kind of thinking of including it as an extra feature with the first issue of the comic or whatever.

It was another fairly dull day at work today. Tomorrow I'm planning on getting into work early again and leaving early so I can go to the comic-book store and I'm also planning on heading up to see Black Swan.

First Script Finished

2011-01-26T12:37:00.001-08:00

Last night I finally finished the script for the first issue of my Lonely Cities comic-book. I'm hoping to write some more scripts for later issues and at the weeknd to work on doing test drawings for the artwork and trying to plan out the pages. When the writing is going well than it is the best feeling in the world.

It was another pretty dull day at work.

Life During Wartime

2011-01-25T12:37:00.000-08:00

Last night I did some more work on the Lonely Cities comic. I think it's coming along pretty well. I do find that when it is going well I feel better than I have felt in a long time.

In the evening I watched most of a movie called Life During Wartime, directed by Todd Solondz. It's a kind of sequel to his movie Happiness, but the same characters are all played by different actors. It wasn't bad but it was really depressing. The movie is kind of a dark comedy about a disfunctional family.

Today was another dull day at work. I got home at around six again.

More Lonely Cities

2011-01-24T12:31:00.000-08:00

Last night I wrote a review of EmiTown by Emi Lenox on Permanently Weird, wrote some more on my comic and watched an episode of The Wire and Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

It was another dull day at work. I got back at around six.

I actually think that I have nearly finished the script for the first issue of my comic. I know the look I want to go for on it. I'm going to try and write a few more issues this week and then at the weekend do some test drawings for the artwork.

EmiTown

2011-01-23T11:01:00.000-08:00

Last night I was watching a few episodes of Red Dwarf from 1991. I could remember watching them when they were first broadcast. I can hardly believe that it was twenty years ago now.

I finished reading the book EmiTown by Emi Lenox. It's described as a "sketch diary" and basically covers a year in Emi Lenox's life, from May 2009 until April 2010, through text, comic strips, random song lyrics and sketches. It's a really fun book with some really enaging artwork.

Today I went along with my Dad to the Ocean Terminal shopping mall. We had a coffee at Starbucks and I bought some books: Gone Baby Gone by Dennis Lehane, Kraken by China Mieville and Black Hills by Dan Simmons. Then we went along to my parent's house where we had whiskey, and then a Burn's Supper of haggis, potatoes and peas. Burns Suppers are celebrations of the life and work of Robert Burns, the national poet of Scotland, and are traditionally held on or near the 25 January, Burns' birthday. Traditionally, Burns Suppers include a recitation of some of his poems, and the haggis is cermonially brought in while someone plays the bagpipes and recites the poem "To a Haggis".I'm thinking of maybe stopping writing on here every single day, to give myself more time to do my own writing and so on. I'll still be on several times a week, but just maybe not every single day.

Return of the Fly

2011-01-22T11:33:00.000-08:00

Last night was pretty quiet. I watched some of the movie Mary Shelley's Frankenstein which starred Kenneth Branagh as Frankenstein and Robert De Niro as the Creature. I remember watching it when it first came out in 1994. It's not a bad movie but kind of overblown. It's not as good as the Boris Karloff ones.

Today I went out to get my groceries for the week and in the afternoon I was watching the 1959 movie Return of the Fly. In the movie, the son of the scientist from the original movie decides to resume his father's experiments, despite the objections of his uncle (played by Vincent Price). Of course, before long there is another fly-monster on the loose. It wasn't really very good, but it does have it's moments (such as a part-human part-guinea-pig creature). It's reviewed over at Permanently Weird.

Early Rise

2011-01-21T12:42:00.000-08:00

Last night I wrote a bit more of the Lonely Cities comic. I got up at about five o'clock this morning and was in work for seven. There was a baguette run today. I ordered a panini with honey chilli chicken, onions, barbeque sauce, jalapeno peppers and savoury cheese. It wasn't bad but for some reason they had put sweetcorn in it, which I really don't like it, but the rest of the flavours managed to drown them out.

I left work at about one. While I was waiting for the bus some random drunk guy told me that I looked like a serial killer. I didn't know what the hell he was talking about. I had never seen this guy before in my life.

I went up to the comic book store and bought Batman issue 706, The Amazing Spider-Man issue 651, King City issue 12, Spawn issue 200, DMZ issue 61, Batman: Streets of Gotham issue 19 and Memoir issue 1. Afterwards I went and had a couple of drinks.

Comics Work

2011-01-20T12:39:00.001-08:00

I was really busy yesterday evening. In fact I was on the computer from about half past six until eleven and wrote the script for the first six pages of the Lonely Cities comic. I am hoping that by the end of the week I will have finished the script for the first issue.

It was another fairly dull day at work. I'm hoping to do what I did last week and get in really early tomorrow so that I can leave around lunchtime.

The Wrestler

2011-01-19T13:34:00.000-08:00

Last night I did start working on a comic-book. So far it's called Lonely Cities. It opens with someone arriving in a strange town looking for something that they've lost, but they don't really know what it is. The feeling I'm kind of going for in it is that feeling you get when it's 3AM and you're completely alone in a strange part of a strange city and you can't find your way home again.

I watched the 2008 movie The Wrestler, directed by Darren Aronofsky. The movie stars Mickey Rourke as a one-time professional wrestler who was at the top of his career twenty years earlier but is now pretty much forgotten and spends much of his time wrestling at the weekend on the independent circuit trying to recapture his glory days. It also stars Marisa Tomei as the stripper with whom he strikes up a tentative relationship, and Evan Rachel Wood as his estranged daughter. It was a really good movie. It's reviewed over at Permanently Weird.

This morning someone came to my door at quarter to eight while I was having my breakfast (or at least a cup of coffee, I never seem to have time for a proper breakfast). It turned out it was the book that I ordered on Friday. The book is EmiTown by Emi Lenox. It's described as a "Sketch Diary", and is pretty much an autobiographical comic-book, along the lines of American Splendor.

It was another fairly dull day at work, but there was a baguette run that was good. I had cajun chicken, onions, savoury cheese, jalapeno peppers and chilli sauce. It was really nice.I was listening to Mary Chapin Carpenter songs on my iPod on my way to and from work this morning (I walk, so if takes about twenty five minutes each way).

More Quiet

2011-01-18T12:59:00.000-08:00

Last night was pretty quiet. Mostly I was watching TV. I also started reading the book Pattern Recongition by William Gibson, which I got for my birthday. I didn't get as much done as I would have liked.

It was another fairly slow day at work. I got home at around six. On my way I stopped off and bought myself a meat pie for my dinner, which was quite nice.

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest

2011-01-17T12:49:00.000-08:00

Last night I finished reading The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest by Stieg Larsson, which concludes his Millennium Trilogy (the other volumes being The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and The Girl Who Played with Fire). The book takes off directly from the end of the second one, and contines a compex and involving conspiracy thriller. I really enjoyed the whole series and I thought that the second and third books were a lot better than the first, which was still good. They do have to be read in sequence though. I'd like to see the Swedish movie versions of the series that were out last year. Also there is an English-language version of Girl with the Dragon Tattoo coming out at the end of this year. Stieg Larsson died in November 2004 shortly after delivering the manuscripts of the three books to his publisher, however an unfinished manuscript for a further book is apparently still on his computer so it wouldn't surprise me if someone tried to completel it at some point. The book is reviewed over at Permanently Weird.

It was the start of another week at work and pretty much it was the same as usual. In the afternoon I had a meeting with the team leader about how I've been getting on with the training period and I was told I was actually doing very well so that was good. I alwasy get really nervous about these meeting things because I always expect to be told that I'm screwing up.

I had an idea for a comic book, actually about three comic books. One a kind of cyberpunk thing, another a kind of horror thing and the third something about someone wandering around a strange city looking for something they lost. They probably won't happen though.

Yesterday my parents were telling me to try on-line dating again, but to be honest I'm totally out of the whole dating thing and kind of see it as a bit of a waste of time. Maybe if I emigrate I'll get into the whole dating thing again, but not until then. I got fed up of it awhile ago and I just think that there are other things to do. Would I like a girlfriend? Of course I would, ideally, but I would also like to be a superhero living in a mansion in Beverley Hills, and one is about as likely to happen as the other.

Dangerous Habits

2011-01-16T10:52:00.000-08:00

Last night was pretty quiet. I read the two Hellblazer graphic novels that I got on Friday. The first book, Original Sins, collected the first nine issues of the monthly comic-book from 1988, in which cynical, chain-smoking magician John Constantine faces off against a grotesque hunger demon, yuppies from Hell, the ghosts of a lost platoon from the Vietnam war, bizarre and deadly religious cults and life in 1980s Britain. It was a very good collection. In the second volume, Dangerous Habits, Constantine's smoking habit has given him terminal lung cancer. With time and options rapidly running out, Constantine has to make peace with his life and play one final desperate game against the Devil himself. That was a very good book and often genuinely affecting and moving. They are both reviewed over at Permanently Weird.

Today I went along to my parent's house for lunch. We had a kind of sausage bake with potatoes, onions and cherry tomatoes, followed by apple pie. After lunch we had a walk to a supermarket but I didn't buy anything. I got home at around half past five.

Ordered Book

2011-01-15T10:59:00.000-08:00

Last night I ordered a graphic novel called EmiTown by Emi Lenox, which is like an autobiographical comic-book (a bit like American Splendor).

Today I went out and got my groceries for the week. I decided to spend the rest of the day at home reading and watching TV.

Early to Work

2011-01-14T13:05:00.000-08:00

Last night I spent most of the time reading. This morning I was up at five in the morning and got into work around seven. There was a baguette run at work and I got a panini with cajun chicken, savoury cheese, onions, chilli sauce and jalapeno peppers. I was only working for six hours today so I left at about one and went up to the comic book store. I bought Batman and Robin issue 19, Dracula: Company of Monsters issue 5, Freedom Fighters issue 5, iZombie issue 9, Let Me In: Crossroads issue 2, The Walking Dead issue 81 and House of Mystery issue 33, along with the graphic novels John Constantine, Hellblazer: Original Sins by Jamie Delano, John Ridgway and Alfredo Alcala and John Constantine, Hellblazer: Dangerous Habits by Garth Ennis and William Simpson (incidentally the Dangerous Habits storyline was one of the main basis for the Hellblazer movie version, Constantine). I went out for a few drinks afterwards.

A Long Week

2011-01-13T12:26:00.000-08:00

Last night was pretty quiet again. I was watching another episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, which was pretty good. This was the final episode of the first season.

Today was another pretty average day at work. It's felt like kind of a long week this week. Tomorrow I'm hoping to get in really early so I can leave early. Hopefully I'll be able to have time to go up to the comic-book store.

The Creeper

2011-01-12T12:13:00.000-08:00

Last night I watched an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents called "The Creeper", which was about a blue-collar New York neighbourhood which is plagued by a serial killer, called The Creeper, who targets women who are home alone while their husbands work nights. The story focuses on a woman left alone who spends a nightmarish evening dealing with her unsympathetic husband, sadistic ex-boyfriend, strange janitor and the completely evil woman next door, along with her own increasing paranoia about The Creeper. Despite containing no violence at all it was probably the scariest thing I have ever seen on TV, with a memorable shock ending. It had that feeling that the best episodes of The Twilight Zone had that anything could happen at any time.

It was another pretty quiet day at work. I got in at nine and left at half past five. Back home I had a microwave spaghetti and meatballs ready meal.

Decoy

2011-01-11T12:49:00.001-08:00

Last night I was watching an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents called "Decoy", in which a man heads put to confront his girlfriend's abusive husband, but as soon as the man comes face to face with the husband, he is hit from behind and knocked out. When he wakes up he has a gun in his hand and the husband has been shot dead. It was a really good noir-style story. Aside from that I spent the evening reading.

It was another pretty dull day at work. I got home at around six and microwaved a ham and mushroom tagliatelle ready meal.

Shame the Devil

2011-01-10T12:22:00.000-08:00

Last night I finished reading the book Shame the Devil by George Pelecanos, who is probably best known as one of the writers on the TV show The Wire. The book was published in 2000 and tells the story of the botched robbery of a pizza parlour which leaves several people dead, and the robber's return two and a half years later to get revenge on the cop who shot dead his brother. Like all of Pelecanos' books it is set in and around Washington D.C. and deals with themes of violence, betrayal, loyalty, family, friendship and the difficulty of doing the right thing in a violent world, as well as classic American cars, basketball and soul and funk music of the seventies. It's a good book and recommended for fans of crime novels and thrillers. There's a review on Permanently Weird.

It was the start of another week at work today. It was a pretty dull day. On the way home I stopped off and got a mince pie with fries for my dinner.

The Vault of Horror

2011-01-09T10:53:00.000-08:00

Last night I was watching the 1973 movie The Vault of Horror, directed by Roy Ward Baker. The movie stars Terry-Thomas, Denholm Elliot, Curt Jurgens, Tom Baker and Michael Craig, and revolves around five men who find themselves trapped in a mysterious sub-basement in a high rise building. To pass the time they tell each other stories of their recurring nightmares and deepest fears. The movie consists of five self-contained stories and a framing story linking them together. It was a pretty good film. I really like those anthology type films, because you always knew that if one story was bad there would soon be another one along. It's reviewed at Permanently Weird.

I went along to my parent's house today. The new issue of Fortean Times had arrived, the main feature this month being the theory that reports of the Chupacabras creature may have been influenced by the alien from the movie Species. We had some lasagne for lunch, and then walked along to the zoo for a bit. It was cheap to get in today due to the snow and cold. We saw sealions, penguins, rheas, parrots, tapirs, koalas, sun bears, chimpanzees, rhinos, pygmy hippos, gibbons and various monkeys. It was a nice trip and we managed to see a lot despite the fact that we didn't have much time and there was a lot of snow and ice.

I got back home at around half past five.

Season of the Witch

2011-01-08T12:22:00.000-08:00

Last night I was watching a few of the extra features on the Scott Pilgrim vs. The World DVD set. I also watched an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents on DVD, which was a pretty good episode.

There was a lot of snow on the ground again today. I went along to get my groceries for the coming week. Then I went up to the movies to see Season of the Witch, directed by Dominic Sena. The movie is set in the 14th century and tells the story of two knights (played by Nicolas Cage and Ron Perlman) who return from the Crusades to find their home ravaged by the Black Death. Arriving in a town, they are ordered to help transport a young woman (Claire Foy) accused of witchcraft, who is believed to have brought down the plague by sorcery, to a remote monestary. Mostly it was a pretty bad movie, but it did have it's moments. It will probably become a cult film in the future. It's reviewed over at Permanently Weird.

The Hidden Thing

2011-01-07T11:15:00.000-08:00

Last night I saw Scott Pilgrim vs. The World on DVD. I saw the movie last year when it was first out, and I really liked it a lot. The movie was directed by Edgar Wright and based on a series of graphic novels by Bryan Lee O'Malley. Set in Toronto, the film tells the story of 22 year old Scott Pilgrim (played by Michael Cera) who plays in a garage band and is dating 17 year old Knives Chau (Ellen Wong). However,he immediantely becomes infatuated with mysterious American delivery girl Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), but in order to date her he must defeat her seven evil exes. The movie is really stylised with endless references to comic books and video games and so on. I think it's a great movie, with an awesome soundtrack. It's actually one of my favourite movies.

After the movie I watched an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents called "The Hidden Thing", about a man who struggles to remember key details after he witnesses his girlfirend being killed by a hit and run driver.

I was up at five o'clock this morning and in work for seven. The place was absolutely snowed under at work, so it was a really busy day. There was a baguette run though and I had a panini with roast beef, brie, jalapeno peppers and English mustard on it. I left work at three.