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.

Friday the 13th Part III

Last night I was watching the fifth part of Lipstick on Your Collar. After that I was watching the 1981 film Friday the 13th Part III, directed by Steve Miner. Escaping after the conclusion of the second film, serial killer Jason Voorhees (Raymond Brooker) soon sets out on another killing spree. This time around his main targets are a group of teenagers sending a weekend at an isolated farm. Mostly it's exactly the same as all the other films in the series as Jason hacks, slashes, stabs, and crushes his way through the fairly anonymous teens. It's probably most remembered now for being the film in which Jason acquires his trademark hockey mask for the first time. It was made in 3-D, which accounts for the amount of objects being thrust or thrown at the camera. The version I saw was in 3-D. It was being shown as part of a special 3-D season that is on all week. It was actually kind of fun in 3-D.

Today was really quiet. It was pouring with rain and so I only went out to get my groceries for the week, and the latest issue of Total Film magazine. When I got home I cleaned up in the kitchen a bit and watched the second part of The Singing Detective on DVD.

Sitcoms

Last night was pretty quiet. I was watching a really funny episode of The Big Bang Theory, and later on I watched a couple of episodes of Peep Show and The Mighty Boosh on DVD.

On my way in to work I picked up a copy of the Radio Times magazine. It was a really dull and quiet day at work. As usual with a Friday there was barely anyone in at all. I managed to get a day off on the 22 June, which is when the tickets for the Book Festival go on sale, so that's good. I was feeling pretty tired today, so I left earlier than I planned and picked up a sausage supper on my way home as well as a brochure for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. I haven't looked through it yet.

Film Festival Bookings

Last night I stayed up pretty late writing on my story and listening to a Paula Cole CD. She seemed to be quite popular for awhile in the late 1990s (she did the theme song to Dawson's Creek) but I've not heard much from her since.

Today I went on to the internet and booked my tickets for the Film Festival. I've booked to see the films Adventureland (described in the brochure as a hilarious '80s set comedy about a high school dropout who works in an amusement park) and The Maiden Heist (which stars Morgan Freeman, Christopher Walken and William H. Macy as museum caretakers who decide to steal their favourite works of art) and I'm also going to be going to the audience talks with filmmakers Darren Aronofsky and Roger Corman. I still have to go up and collect my tickets, but their all booked up, and I can go and get them when I want. The Film Festival itself takes place in June.

This afternoon I went out to get some money from the bank, and buy some milk, a tuna sandwich and the latest copy of Radio Times. Tonight I should be going out to hang out with my friend Joe for a while.

At the moment I'm watching the original 1951 version of The Day the Earth Stood Still, which is about an alien who comes to Earth with his powerful robot, and threatens to destroy the Earth unless humanity stops using nuclear weapons (the aliens are frightened that with humanity's rapidly advancing spaceflight technology and nuclear weapons they could pose a threat to other planets). It is a good film and is widely regarded as one of the classic science-fiction films.

Dracula

Last night I was watching an episode of The Big Bang Theory, which I thought was really funny, and a repeat of an episode from the latest episode of Peep Show. After that I listened to the first of a seven part radio adaptation of Dracula, based on the popular novel by Bram Stoker published in 1897. The story involves a young solicitor's clerk who travels to Transylvania in order to negotiate with the mysterious nobleman Count Dracula, who wishes to buy properties in England. However, before long he discovers that Dracula is not what he seems.

I got up later than I had intended, mainly because I really didn't want to get out of bed and start the day. The whole place was absolutely freezing, because my heating (which is on a timer) had already switched itself off. I usually have porridge for breakfast, but I was too late for that, and even too late to wolf down a quick emergency apple, so I had a cup of coffee to warm myself up and wake myself up. I didn't even have time to let it get properly cool enough to drink, so I almost had a burned mouth. I hate getting up in the morning on week days, when you're rushed and there seem like a million things to do, and you've got to get to work.

On my way into work I did at least find time to buy the new issue of Radio Times and the latest issue of Empire magazine, which featured a large article on the planned film of The Hobbit and a feature about the history and background of the Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th series.

It was another really quiet day at work. I was told that I will probably still be staying in the current department for at least another week. Which is fine for me because the work is pretty easy and I can just listen to my iPod.

Hollywood

Last night I finished reading the novel Hollywood by Charles Bukowski. The story revolves around Henry Chinaski, a hard-drinking author and poet with a fondness for betting on horse-racing. Hired to write a screenplay for a movie, he soon finds himself caught up in the sometimes bizarre and often hilarious world of the Hollywood film industry. Like most of Bukowski's novels, this one is semi-autobiographical concerning his experiences of writing the screenplay for the 1987 film Barfly. The book is very well-written and often very funny.

Later on I was listening to the first of a six part radio adaptation of Guards! Guards!, a comedy fantasy novel by Terry Pratchett. It's one of his Discworld novels and involves the City Watch, kind of the Discworld police force, trying to stop an evil plan to unleash hordes of dragons. It was very entertaining. I also heard the first of a two part reading of The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe, which was very good. I've really go into listening to the radio, since I got the digital system.

Today I bought the latest copy of Radio Times on my way into work. It was another very quiet and slow day. As always on a Friday the place was almost deserted, especially by the afternoon. On my way home I got a sausage in batter and some chips for a bit of a change.

Late Night Documentary

Last night I was watching a documentary about the notorious "Black Dahlia" murder case from 1947. It was quite interesting. I remember reading a book about the case written by James Ellroy. It was turned into a film a couple of years ago. I don't watch many of the true crime documentaries, but I do sometimes and some of them are quite good.

On my way into work I bought the latest issue of Radio Times. It was another fairly quiet day again today, and from Monday I'm being moved to another department for four weeks. It's the department that I was working in when I first started at the company nearly six long years ago. I suppose it'll be a change. It's felt like a long week today, but then the first week back after a holiday always seems long.

I left work at around four and when I got home I had a microwaved cottage pie meal with a glass of apple juice. Later on I was listening to a reading of a short story by Mary Shelley (author of Frankenstein) called "The Mortal Immortal" on the radio, which was pretty interesting.

Peep Show

Last night was really quiet. I was watching an episode of Peep Show on DVD. If you've never seen the show, it's a sit-com about two friends who share a flat in London. Mark (played by David Mitchell) is a loan manager whose completely neurotic and over-analysis everything. His main interest in life are work and history. Jeremy (Robert Webb) is an unsuccessful musician, who is convinced he is an undiscovered musical genius, despite the fact that his music is terrible. The main thing in the show is that all the action is filmed from the character's points of view and the thoughts of the two main characters are revealed to the viewer in voice-over. The show is very rude a lot of the time, and quite dark, but it is really funny. I've got every episode of it on DVD, and the book of the original scripts.

I also saw the latest episode of Little Dorrit. It finishes next week, which is kind of a pity, because I've been enjoying that show.

I also started writing a kind of science-fiction story last night, which deals with experiments being carried out on a mysterious object.

It was another busy day at work. At least it will be the weekend soon (when I'll have to get started on my Christmas shopping).

On my way home I picked up the next couple of issues of Radio Times.

Quantum of Solace

Last night I finished reading the novel Smiley's People by John le Carre. The book was first published in 1979 and forms the final part of a trilogy (the other two books in the series being Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and The Honourable Schoolboy). When a Soviet ex-spy turned defector is found dead in a London park, world-weary George Smiley, one time head of the British Secret Service comes out of retirement to investigate. He soon realises that it was a professional assassination, and that the ex-spy was on his way to meet Smiley with some secret documents, which have are now missing, relating to Smiley's arch-enemy, the enigmatic Soviet spymaster code-named Karla, who engineered the devestation of Smiley's personal and professional lives. Obsessed with destroying his nemesis, Smiley sets out across Europe on a personal mission of revenge. It's a very well-written book, and probably the best in the series. Away from the glamour and action of James Bond-style spies, the novel depicts a bleak, murky, paranoid world of moral ambiguity, where literally no-one can be trusted.

I was off work today and headed up to the cinema to see Quantum of Solace, the latest James Bond film. The journey took ages because of road-works and even at the time I went, twenty past twelve, the cinema was packed. The film is a direct sequel to the previous Bond film Casino Royale, and takes up pretty much straight after that one ends. As James Bond (played by Daniel Craig), agent 007 of the British Secret Service, embarks on a dangerous, personal mission of revenge, he finds himself up against a powerful international criminal organsation. Like Casino Royale, it's a much darker kind of Bond film, with few of the trademark quips and gadgets. However, there is non-stop action, exotic locations and beautiful women (in this case Olga Kurylenko and Gemma Arterton). The movie is named after a 1960 Ian Fleming short story, but has absolutely nothing to do with the story at all, aside from the name (the story is a domestic drama of marital infidelity which is told to Bond at a party).

After the film I went to the shops to get my mum a birthday present (I bought her a book called Lollipop Shoes by Joanne Harris, it's the sequel to Chocolat, which I know mum liked, and it's pretty new, so hopefully she's not had a chance to get it out of the library yet). There was a sale on so I got a couple of John le Carre books for myself (A Perfect Spy and The Russia House). I also got a birthday card for mum and some wrapping paper. On the way home I picked up some milk and the latest issues of Radio Times and Empire.

I've just got the card written and birthday present wrapped, so that's all ready for Sunday. Also, of course, NaNoWriMo starts tomorrow!

Happy Halloween!

The Meeting

Last night was fairly quiet again. I was watching a couple of the comedy shows on TV, along with some of the deleted scenes and commentaries on The Office DVD set. The commentaries were fun, and the deleted scenes were really good. I assume they must have been cut for timing reasons rather than anything else, because a lot of the stuff was as good as the stuff that made it into the episodes.

It was a quiet day at work again today. I had the meeting about the office video news thing this morning. It was held in the main boardroom, which I had never been in before. It was on the top floor of the building with a great view, with a large widescreen plasma TV screen and very comfortable leather seats. The plan for the news thing was that they were installing plasma screen TV sets throughout the company and they were going to be making weekly news bulletins about office events and business news to be shown on the TV sets. We were, apparently, brought in to gather news from our particular sections that would be put into the show. It sounded like it might be quite fun, but I really want to actually present the thing, when I got back to the office I e-mailed them to say that I would like to present the thing, and also I could be involved in filming, editing and scripting the thing. It's just a kind of office thing but I am interested in film-making and it would be good experience. Also it would be something for my resume and would look good at the next performance review (God knows, it needs it).

The rest of the day was pretty quiet, as it always is on a Friday. From my window I could see people in the outdoor smoking area of the pub next to my office, although not for long because it started to rain really heavily, and continued, off and on, throughout the afternoon.

I picked up the latest copy of Radio Times, for next week's TV listings, and the latets issue of Total Film, which had a brief story about Chuck Palahniuk due to the release of the film Choke, based on one of his novels. I've heard some bad things about the movie, but the book was very good, and I really like Palahniuk, so I'll probably check it out anyway.

Red Dwarf

Last night was pretty quiet. I was watching an episode of Red Dwarf, which was pretty funny. Red Dwarf is a British science-fiction sit-com that was quite popular throughout the 1990s. I'd seen it several times before, but it was still pretty entertaining. It was an episode from the sixth season in which the unpleasant Rimmer (Chris Barrie) leaves the rest of the crew trapped on a desintegrating spaceship with a killer robot by running off in the only remaining escape pod. However, he pays the price when he winds up stranded on a remote uninhabited planet, which Rimmer populates with clones of himself who proceed to torment him.

It was another quiet day at work today. I stopped off on my way in to buy the latest copy of Radio Times, which I bought on the way in because I needed some change for the vending machines. I had a phone call from my friend Joe this afternoon asking me if I wanted to go out with him and his brother, Sean, tomorrow evening. Apparently it's the birthday of someone Joe used to work with at a pizza restaurant, where Joe worked part-time a few months ago, and Sean and myself have been invited to tag along. Except for Joe and his brother I don't know anyone who is going, but I am definitely into the idea of going along. I've barely been out much at all the past few months. Going out at night has always been something I've been extremely nervous about, but a couple of years ago I started hanging out with people more and going out, but since I was mugged last November I was really put off going out. Also after a great deal of unpleasantness about six months ago, I really pretty much stopped going out at all. I am extremely nervous because I am seriously out of the habit of socialising, and hanging out. However, I shall attempt it again and hopefully there won't be any drama and I'll get home in one piece.

I had been planning to get some takeout fish and chips for my dinner this evening, but I decided to save my money for tomorrow, and just had a microwave lasagne when I got home.

End of the Course

Last night was pretty quiet. I was reading another story in American Supernatural Tales, this one was called "The Vaults of Yoh-Vombis" by Clark Ashton Smith, which wasn't really a ghost story it was a surprisingly gruesome 1932 science-fiction story set on Mars where archeologists discover strange ancient ruins, in which lurk mind-controlling alien leeches which drink blood and eat brains. It was quite fun actually.

Today was my last day on the course, so that was kind of a shame. Although technically I sould still be on training when I go back to work on Monday. I got home early again so that was good and, on the way back, bought the latest copy of Radio Times magazine.

Tomorrow I should be going up to see author Chuck Palahniuk at the Book Festival and hopefully get some books signed.

The Dark Knight

Last night was fairly quiet again. I made a late night snack of strawberry jam on white bread with a chunk of cheese and a packet of crisps which I ate while watching a repeat of Dragon's Den (which is a show where would-be entreprenears and inventors have a chance to pitch their creations and business ideas to a panel of multi-millionaire potential investors). It can actually be really funny at times with some of the more ridiculous ideas that people come up with.

I had a day off today so I got up pretty late and headed up to the Cineworld cinema in order to see The Dark Knight, directed by Christopher Nolan. The showing I went to was at 12:30PM but there was already a long queue and the cinema was more full than I can ever remember seeing it for a day-time week-day performance. A lot of the other showings today were completely sold out. I won't say too much about the film (because I don't want to spoil it for people who haven't seen it) but I thought it was really great. I think it was possibly the best superhero movie I've seen. After the film I went out and had a drink at the bar next to the cinema. I sat there with my beer and read some of the book that I had brought with me (Survivor by Chuck Palahniuk) and wrote a bit in my notebook.

On the way home I stopped off and bought a bottle of Coke and a copy of Radio Times.

Magazines

Today was yet another fairly uneventful day. On my way in to work I bought the latest issues of Radio Times and Total Film, which featured a double-sided poster advertising The Dark Knight and Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

Work was really quit today, as it almost always is on a Friday, and, as usual, by afternoon there was barely anyone around. I had a sore throat all day as well. I got back home at around half past five.

Kubrick Archives

Today at work was really quiet. In fact the whole office seemed to be in pretty much complete silence. Possibly because it's a Friday and a lot of people were off, but even by those standards it was pretty dead.

I left at around half past four, so it was good to get away early, and I bought the latest copy of Radio Times on my way home.

Apparently there's a Stanley Kubrick season starting on TV next week featuring ten of his films and a new documentary. Apparently the reason for this is that Kubrick's extensive archive of props from his films are going on public display at a museum in London.

End of the Week

I was watching another couple of episodes of Torchwood on DVD last night. Last night's episodes were "They Keep Killing Suzie" and "Random Shoes". I'll have to get the second season set at some point. They're only doing five episodes of Torchwood next year, broadcast over the course of one week. Hopefully, at some point, they will do another full length season.

It was another quiet day at work, as it always is on Friday. On my way in I bought the latest copy of Radio Times. My friend Owen in the office lent me a DVD of The Sarah Jane Adventures (which is another Doctor Who spin-off show), which I haven't seen before. I stayed in work about half an hour later than I had intended, which wasn't too bad because at least it meant that I managed to make up some time.

The Meeting

Last night I was flicking through my new Ray Harryhausen book while half-watching repeats of comedy shows on the television.

I got into work at around nine o'clock again this morning, and at around ten to eleven I joined the crowd trooping along to a union meeting. The meeting was held in a sports centre almost right next to the office. The meeting was held in a basketball court, which meant sitting on hard narrow benches where you could barely move for fear of someone accidentally kicking you and I soon felt my feet going numb. Also it was draughty and lit by this horrible orange light, which reminded me of high-school exams (which were always held in the school basketball court and lit by the same orange light). The meeting itself was to do with the endless pay dispute that has been going on for years. It was hard to hear what was being said because the PA system was so bad. It was nothing really new, and I think most people just went along to get some time away from the office. Apparently they are talking about holding another strike, which nobody really wants because obviously you don't get paid for the days you're out on strike.

On my way home I got another carton of milk (which wasn't leaking this time) and the new copy of Radio Times. My next Film Festival film is tomorrow and will be Dreams With Sharp Teeth, a documentary about the controversial science-fiction author Harlan Ellison.

The Apprentice

Last night was fairly quiet. I was watching the latest episode of The Apprentice on TV. I just think that shows extremely funny. The contestants in it are all so full of themselves it can be really entertaining to see them getting shouted at at the end of each episode.

Today was pretty much the same as usual at work. It was all pretty quiet. Although they are updating the systems tomorrow afternoon, so with any luck we might get to leave early. On my way home I stopped off and bought some milk and the latest issues of Radio Times and Total Film magazines.

Restaurant

Last night I was reading more of the Fragile Things collection by Neil Gaiman. They were more really good stories, including one about a man who impersonates an anthropology professor at a conference in New Orleans, a decision which he very soon comes to regret, and a selection of very short stories that were originally written for a Tori Amos album.

As I headed out for work today I bought the latest copy of Radio Times magazine. I had run out of sandwich spread yesterday and so I had to buy a pre-packaged one for my lunch.

Work was really quiet again and afterwards I went out for a drink with my friend Joe. We had one drink and then headed up to a restaurant called Frankie & Benny's (which is kind of a New York Italian-American theme restaurant). I had an eight ounce sirloin steak, covered with garlic butter, with fries, obion rings, a large mushroom and a fried tomato, followed by a slice of chocolate cheesecake with ice cream. The food was really good. It was an idea of Joe's actually, every month the weekend after we get paid, to go out to a different restaurant every month, instead of just going out drinking, which I personally think is a really good idea.

End of the Week

I set off for work early again today. On the way I stopped off for the latest issue of Radio Times and The Guardian for the Great Poets of the 20th Century booklet (which today focussed on Philip Larkin).

Work was pretty much the same as usual, and as usual for a Friday there was hardly anyone in. One good thing is that I have next Friday and the following Monday off. So I'll have a four day weekend next week.

As I was walking home I had only got half way there when it started to rain really heavily, so I ended up getting pretty wet.