Smart People

Last night I was watching a live astronomy show called Stargazing Live, which I thought was pretty interesting. There was a section where they were debunking the science of science-fiction movies. I really doubt many people would be surprised to learn that Star Wars is not scientifically accurate.

Later on I was watching the 2008 movie Smart People, directed by Noam Murro, which was about a literature professor (played by Dennis Quaid) who is constantly bitter and rude towards everyone, and is consequently disliked by both his colleagues and students. After an accident he meets and falls for a former student who is now a doctor (Sarah Jessica Parker). Aside from this the professor has to deal with a visit from his lazy, irresponsible, adopted brother (Thomas Haden Church) who comes to borrow money and stays to help unwind the professor's lonely, uptight, intellectual daughter (Ellen Page). It's not a bad movie, and quite funny in places. To be honest, the best thing about it was Thomas Haden Church and Ellen Page. The movie is reviewed over at Permanently Weird.

Today I went out and bought some comic-books. On my way home I got a Whopper meal from Burger King. One of my favourite bookstores has closed down now, which I'm not happy about.

Today is the last day of the Christmas/New Year break, and so this evening I'll be taking down my decorations.

New Year

Well, it's been a busy couple of days. On Friday I was up at half past five in the morning and got into work at quarter past seven. The place was pretty quiet, but then New Year's Eve is a really big day Scotland (where it's called Hogmanay). There wasn't really much to do and I left at about five past midday. Back home I got ready for when my Dad was scheduled to pick me up at half past three and take me to my parent's house. There, there were Christmas and birthday presents from my brother and his girlfriend. I got a Film Posters of the '50s 2011 calendar, a bottle of Ampleforth Abbey cider, a Budweiser gift set and a couple of boxes of chocolates and mints. It was a nice New Year. We just rang in 2011 with the family.

On January 1st, we had another fairly quiet day. In the afternoon we watched Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, which I thought was a really fun movie despite the overwhelmingly bad reaction it seemed to get form the internet.

This morning I went out with my Dad and we went to the Gyle shopping centre and had a scone and coffee. We split up and had a look around. I got a book called How to Teach Quantum Physics to Your Dog by Chad Orzel. After that I went back to my parent's house and after lunch Dad took me back home. I've just been changing over my calendars and journals.

Birthday and Christmas 2010

On Thursday it was my 32nd birthday. I went along to my parent's house and in the evening we had a Chinese meal. For my birthday I got the graphic novel Batman: Year One by Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli, the graphic novel Local by Brian Wood and Ryan Kelly, the novel Pattern Recognition by William Gibson, the DVDs of Inception and Alfred Hitchcock Presents season two.

I stayed with my parents over the Christmas period. On Christmas Eve we didn't really do much at all. We did the traditional Christmas thing of watching Carols From Kings which is like an annual carol service from King's College Cambridge, which my Mum loves. We watch it every year. Later on I was watching the Peep Show night. A whole evening of programming devoted to the show.

On Christmas Day the heating stopped working, which was difficult because the temperature was below freezing. We had to get small heaters out to keep the place fairly warm. I got a graphic novel called The Comical Tragedy or Tragical Comedy of Mr. Punch by Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean, a book called Live & Work in Canada by Frances Lemon, a DVD of An Idiot Abroad, the game Gods of War III for the PlayStation 3, a 2011 paper diary, an issue of SFX magazine and some chocolate and candy. My parents seemed to be happy with their presents. Their neighbours came through in the late morning and had a drink. They were there for about an hour. We had the traditional Christmas dinner of turkey, rolled up bacon, cocktail sausages, peas with onions, brussels srpouts, roast poatoes and stuffing. It was really good. Later on we watched the Christmas Doctor Who special.

I went back home today after lunch.

I really hope that everyone had a great Christmas!

Wrapping Presents

Last night I was watching the first part of the Red Riding trilogy on TV. They are a series of made for TV films based on the crime novels by David Peace. The first episode was based on the novel 1974 and starred Andrew Garfield as a young journalist who is drawn into a web of violence and police corruption when a child goes missing. It also starred Sean Bean, Warren Clarke and Rebecca Hall. It's good but unrelentingly grim and depressing. Not as depressing as the book, though.

Today I went out to the post office to pay a bill and get some more stamps and on the way home I got a sandwich, some sugar and the latest issue of Total Film magazine. This afternoon I spent my time wrapping Christmas presents.

It's my birthday tomorrow and so I probably won't be on much over the next few days because I will be very busy. It should all be good though, hopefully.

If I don't update befire then, Happy Christmas to anyone who is celebrating it.

The Beach of Agnes

Last night I was watching a Timeshift documentary called Nordic Noir: The Story of Scandinavian Crime Fiction which was very interesting, about the recent popularity of Scandinavian crime and thriller novels after the success of the Steig Larsson books and Henning Mankell's Wallander books.

I was also watching the 2008 documentary The Beaches of Agnes, directed by Agnes Varda. The film basically tells the story of Varda's life as she travels to the various places where she lived and uses performance art, art installations, archive footage, still photographs and extracts form her movies to tell her stories, including her time in Hollywood where she shot the first test footage of Harrison Ford (who the studios rejected saying that he had no future in the film industry), her involvement in the sixties counterculture and friendships with Andy Warhol, Jean-Luc Godard and Jim Morrison among others. It was pretty interesting.

Today I went out to the German Christmas market to meet Mom. We started off at the art gallery and had a coffee and chocolate cupcake. Then we walked around for a bit and had a bratwurst sausage with sauerkraut and mustard and ketchup with a cup of mulled wine, which was nice. I bought an ankh pendent and also a couple of candles, just to make my home smell a bit nicer.

Wrapping Paper

Last night I watched the latest episode of Peep Show, which was really funny, and started watching The Descent: Part 2 but fell asleep in the middle of it.

Today I went out to the comic book store and got an issue of Night of the Living Dead, the latest issues of Batman, Batman and Robin, Batman: Birds of Prey and The Amazing Spiderman, as well as a special edition Hellblazer comic and a graphic novel of House of Mystery: Room and Boredom. After that I went and got some wrapping paper and gift tags. It was really freezing cold, but at least there wasn't any snow. On my way home I stopped off and got some groceries.

Nearly the Break

Last night I watched an episode of The Apprentice, which was really funny, and a couple of episodes of the US series of The Office.

Today was another fairly dull day at work. At least there isn't long to go now until my Christmas break. A lot of people seemed to be away on Christmas work lunches and so on today.

Assassin's Creed II

Last night I decorated my Christmas tree, and it does look pretty nice. I'll try and remember and take a picture at some time. I also played about an hour of Assassin's Creed II which is a really fun game, with an interesting storyline.

It was another very quiet and dull day at work. Not much happened. Most of the ice and snow has melted now, although when I left work it was really freezing cold. On my way home I got a steak pie supper to eat.

Decorating

Last night I had a shot on my new games. Bayonetta seems like a fun shooting and beat-up game and Assassin's Creed II looks like it will be a really good game, with an interesting storyline. I also listened to the first part of The Honourable Schoolboy CD. The story is set after the British Secret Service has been ravaged by a traitor and spymaster George Smiley has been set in charge of repairing the damage, when he discovers that his arch-enemy, a Soviet spymaster code-named Karla is being financed by a Hong Kong gangster. In order to expose the link, Smiley sends a disreputable journalist and sometime spy into the Hong Kong underworld to investigate. It is pretty good. I also watched an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents about an alcoholic woman who wakes up in hospital with a badly injured hand and a bad hangover and tries to remember how she got there.

This morning my Dad called round and we went to the Gyle shopping centre. I had a cheese scone and a mocha coffee at the food court and then we went our seperate ways. I got a couple of books: Shoedog by George Pelecanos and Shame the Devil by George Pelecanos. Pelecanos is a crime author who sets all his books in and around Washington DC, he also had a lot of attention for writing several episodes of The Wire TV series.

We went along to my parent's house where the latest issue of Fortean Times had arrived. The main story this month concerned the idea that ancient mythology and religion could be explained by alien encounters. It was an idea that was very popular for awhile in the 1970s. We had roast chicken, stuffing, peas and diced roast potatoes in garlic butter for lunch followed by apple pie, which was really nice. In the afternoon I helped my Mom decorate their Christmas tree.

I'm planning on decorating my Christmas tree this evening.

Birthday and Christmas

It has been a really busy few days! On Wednesday the 23rd it was my 31st birthday and my Dad came around to take me to my parent's house. For my birthday presents I got the Blu-Ray DVD of True Blood season one, the DVD of Peep Show season six, the graphic novel of The Sandman Volume Ten: The Wake written by Neil Gaiman, a New England tee-shirt, a portable Trivial Pursuit pack with all the questions focussing on Entertainment (i.e. film, music, books and sport), a magnetic dart board and some gift vouchers. My brother and his girlfriend, Katherine, were due to come up the day before to spend Christmas at my parents but, due to the really bad weather, they weren't able to come up then, and they came on my brithday so instead of going to Hard Rock Cafe for lunch as we had planned, we decided to have a Chinese take-away meal instead.

On Christmas Eve I stayed in and watched Peep Show. In the afternoon I played a few games of darts and Trivial Pursuit with the family. In the evening I was watching a horror movie from 1974 on TV called Black Christmas, directed by Bob Clark, in which a mysterious killer stalks a group of college students who are staying in a sorority house over Christmas.

On Christmas Day itself We all opened up our presents together. I got a DVD of Doctor Who: The War Games, the graphic novel of The Sandman Volume Nine: The Kindly Ones written by Neil Gaiman, a video game called Bioshock for the PlayStation 3, a book called The Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks, a book called Quantum: Einstein, Bohr and the Great Debate About the Nature of Reality by Manjit Kumar, a 2010 diary, a Doctor Who calendar, and some chocolate. We had a great Christmas lunch with the usual turkey, miniature sausages, stuffing, rolls of bacon, roast potatoes, peas and gravy with crackers that all had musical instruments in them and basically one person acted as conducter and the rest of us had to try to play a tune with the instruments. In the evening I watched the Christmas special of Doctor Who, which was the first of a two part story which marks the final story that David Tennant plays the role of the Doctor.

Yesterday I went back home and watched the TV broadcast of Hamlet, which is probably the most famous of the plays by William Shakespeare. The story revolves around Hamlet, the Prince of Denmark, who is extremely upset by his mother marrying his uncle, Claudius, less than two months after the mysterious death of his father. One night, Hamlet encounters the ghost of his father who informs Hamlet that he was murdered by Claudius, and orders Hamlet to avenge his death. The TV broadcast was a version of the very highly acclaimed recent Royal Shakespeare Company production and starred David Tennant as Hamlet and Patrick Stewart as Claudius.

Today I stayed in and listened to a radio show called On the Outside it Looked like an Old-Fashioned Police Box, which was a documentary, hosted by Mark Gatiss, about the Target Books novelisations of Doctor Who stories which were very popular in the 1970s and 80s. I remember those books really well, because I read loads of them when I was a kid. They were really good and they were pretty much the first novels that I ever really read kind of on my own. In my High School they had a wide selection of them in the school library and they used to let us spend two lunchtimes a week in the library, if we wanted to, and every time I got the chance I used to go over there and read a Doctor Who book. Only the Doctor Who books for about five years. So even today if I watch an old episode of the show on DVD that I have never seen before I still have a weird sense of deja vu, and I remember it was because I read the novelisation of the show about twenty times when I was thirteen. Later on I watched a 1966 Doctor Who story on DVD called "The War Machines" in which a powerful new supercomputer has been installed in the then-newly constructed Post Office Tower in London. Of course the computer then decides to take over the world by brainwashing people to build robot "War Machines" (which kind of look like miniature tanks). It was pretty good.

It has been a really good few days.

The Mist

I had another quiet night last night, which was nice.

Today I stayed in, because it was pretty cold outside. I watched a movie on TV in the afternoon called The Mist, directed by Frank Darabont, and based on a novella by Stephen King which was first published in his collection of short stories Skeleton Crew. The movie is set in a small town in Maine where a group of people are trapped in the local supermarket after a violent storm when a strange mist descends. In the mist are lurking an assortment of bizarre blood-thirsty monsters ready and waiting to make off with anyone who ventures outside. It's a pretty effective movie, the main thrust of which is not so much the monsters in the mist but more how ordinary people would react in the strange and terrifying circumstances. The movie is not very scary, but it is pretty supenseful.

I might not be on-line much if at all for the next couple of days because I am going to be very busy what with Christmas, and also it's my birthday tomorrow (23rd December)! I'll be 31 years old which is a depressing thought.

Anyway, if I don't get the chance to go on-line, Happy Holidays to everyone!

Finished Shopping

Yesterday evening was very quiet and really cold. This morning I went out to the shops to finish off the Christmas shopping. I got my brother a book about walking holidays in the Lake District, which was what he asked for. I was also told to buy a book on King Charles Spaniels for his girlfriend, but I couldn't find any books about them and so I bought a book on general dog training, which according to the cover is suitable for all breeds, so that should suffice. For myself I bought a book called Fevre Dream by George R. R. Martin. The shops were absolutely packed today, which is natural enough considering it's only a week until Christmas. I usually like getting my shopping done a few weeks before, but it is done now anyway.

On my way home I stopped off at the supermarket to get some groceries and the latest copy of Total Film magazine. On my way back there was a very sudden, very heavy, but also very brief snow shower which was a real surprise.

Feast Day

Last night I watched another episode from the second season of The Wire on DVD and a couple of episodes of South Park. I also collected a bunch of old DVDs and PC games and put them in the sack for the charity collection today.

I went along to work today and this time, luckily, the journey was without incident. They were having the annual "feast day" at work where the Team Leaders brought in food for everyone, and there was a lot of stuff. It was good, they had a selection of sandwiches, crisps, soft drinks, cakes, miniature sausages, sausage rolls, slices of pizza and various other bite size Chinese and Indian food. Despite a steady stream of people, there was still food left at the end of the day. lso on Friday it's the main office Christmas party. I'm not going to the party, but my friend Joe, who I have not seen in about seven months, is meeting some of his friends for a couple of hours before they go on to it, and so I should be going there. It should make a nice change.

My brother finally got in touch with me about what he wants for his Christmas. Apparently he wants either a book about King Charles spaniels or a book about the Lake District.

Cold Fading

It was a really quiet evening last night and I spent a while watching repeats of comedy shows on TV, most of which I had seen before.

I went along to work, which was pretty quiet today. We've all got an additional three and a half hours credited to our flexitime as a kind of Christmas bonus, so that is pretty good.

My cold is still hanging on, but it's not as bad as it was. The main thing that's lingering now is the cough, which is really annoying.

The Shawshank Redemption

Last night I was watching The Shawshank Redemption, directed by Frank Darabont, and based on the novella "Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption" by Stephen King. Opening in the 1940s, the film stars Tim Robbins as Andy Dufresne, a banker who is accused of a double murder and sentenced to serve two life sentences at Shawshank State Prison. While he gets used to the prison's regime Andy befriends the prison's "fixer", Red (Morgan Freeman). I first saw the movie at a preview screening in February 1995 and I've always thought it was a great movie. It was not successful at all in it's cinema release, but it really found it's audience on video and then on TV, and now it routinely tops polls of the greatest movie ever made. I think when it was out at the cinema they had trouble with marketing it: it had a strange title, no big stars, no prominent female characters, it's set mostly in prison and it was based on a Stephen King story but it wasn't a horror movie (although I did see one advertising slogan for the film which played up the Stephen King connection and went something like "A Fiendishly Perfect Partnership and a Horror that Goes Beyond Homicide", which makes you wonder whether they actually saw the movie). It is a great movie about the possibility of hope in even the worse circumstances. It's one of really only two movies that have ever genuinely made me tear up (the other being It's a Wonderful Life).

I still wasn't feeling good at all today. My Dad came around to look at my washing machine. We eventually did get it fixed, apparently. The problem was that the draining hose had come loose and that was what was causing the leaks. However it should work now. I went along to my parent's house as usual for my lunch, which was tacos today. The latest issue of Fortean Times had arrived during the week, which this month had a large feature on Dracula, tracing the history of the Bram Stoker novel and exploring it's phenomenal popularity. Pretty much everyone has at least heard of Dracula, even if they've never read the book or seen any of the movies. The cover promised "20 Things You Never Knew About Dracula" and one surprising thing was that apparently Ingmar Bergman had planned to do a Dracula adaptation, but never got round to it. Maybe one where Dracula discusses the futility of existance and the search for the meaning of life in a meaningless universe. Later on I was listening to the third and final part of the radio adaptation of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy based on the John le Carre thriller. It's been really good and very close to the original book.

I sent my brother an e-mail a week ago to find out what he wants for his Christmas present and he still hasn't replied. I have absolutely no idea of what he wants, because he lives in London and we don't really communicate much. Basically if he doesn't let me know by the end of the week then he's getting a book token.

Christmas Shopping

I really wasn't feeling good last night. I have a really bad cold, which I do seem to get almost every year at this time. Add to that my washing machine was leaking last night. I called my dad this afternoon and he resckoned that it might be the waste water pipe had got moved or loosened somehow.

I wasn't feeling much better this morning but I did have a lot to do. I went out to the shops and bought a book called Flying Under Bridges by Sandi Toksvig for my Mum's Christmas present, and a Christmas card for my brother and his girlfriend. I also got a couple of books for myself (Soul Circus by George Pelecanos and Samaritan by Richard Price). I got my groceries for the week on my way home and spent the afternoon cleaning the kitchen and putting up and decorating my Christmas tree.

New Boots

Last night I was watching an episode of the second season of The Wire on DVD and followed it up with an episode of True Blood on TV. I've been really enjoying True Blood, and I really hope that they show the second season sometime. I think it's been pretty popular so they probably will.

It was another quiet day at work. I was wearing my new Dr Martens boots for the first time. They fit okay but they are kind of stiff, as always with new footwear, and hopefully it won't be long before they're broken in. On my way home I bought the Christmas and New Year double issue of Radio Times magazine. I remember when I was a kid, when my parents bought that magazine it was a sure time that Christmas was on the way. We'd look through and see if there were any good movies on, my Mum would get out the decorations and start giving Dad his orders and my Dad would pretend to fall asleep in front of the TV.

German Market

I had the day off work today and went along to the German Market in the city centre. They have one every Christmas, and it sells food, drink, and homemade ornaments and crafts. They also have a fun fair next to it with a large ice-skating rink. I was there to meet my Mum and we started off by going to the art gallery next to the market and had a cappuccino and a cheese scone, which was really nice. While we were looking around the market it suddenly started pouring with rain and so we went along to some of the shops and I got a new pair of Dr Marten boots. I did need them because my previous boots, which I have had for two and a half years and starting to fall apart.

After that we went along to the art gallery again to hear a half hour lunchtime concert of some Christmas carols which was really nice. After that we got some lunch, which for me was a roll with bratwurst and sauerkraut and a glass of mulled wine, which was really nice.

Before we went our seperate ways I bought a kind of pendant thing from one of the stalls. It's the Egyptian ankh symbol on a leather strap you ca put round your neck.

Decorating

Last night I watched the final two episodes of Pennies from Heaven, which were really good. The mini-series was made into a movie in 1981 in which the setting was transferred to 1930s America and starring Steve Martin, Bernadette Peters and Christopher Walken (much to the annoyance of Bob Hoskins and Cheryl Campbell who starred in the TV series). I've never seen the movie but it didn't do very well at all. To be honest, the TV series lasts eight hours altogether, which is a lot to compress into a two hour movie. The show itself was really good, if not Dennis Potter's best work (which is probably The Singing Detective).

Today my Mum collected me early and we went to get some groceries for me for the week, and then went back to my parent's house. I had some sushi for lunch wihich was really nice. Afterwards I helped my Mum decorate the family Christmas tree. It did look really great when it was all finished. I'll be putting up my Christmas tree probably next weekend.

More Quiet

Last night was really quiet again. I was watching an episode of Pennies From Heaven, one of the first episodes of Doctor Who from 1963 in which the first Doctor (played by William Hartnell) travels back to the Stone Age, and an episode of the original Twilight Zone series in which an ageing movie actress tries to enter the world depicted in her old films.

It was another very quiet day at work, even for a Friday. I think the next couple of Fridays will be pretty much deserted at work due to office Christmas parties and so on.