Easter Decorations

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.

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.

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.

Samaritan

Last night was pretty quiet. I finished reading the book Samaritan by Richard Price. The book is set in a tough inner-city area of New Jersey in the present day, and tells the story of Ray Mitchell, who grew up in the tough housing projects but now in his forties he is a moderately successful screenwriter on a popular TV show. Returning to the projects and with an almost coompulsive urge to do good, he decides to take a creative writing class at the local high school. However one night he is brutally beaten in his apartment and hospitalised. The only cop who is in any way interested in the case is Nerese "Tweetie" Ammons, who grew up with Ray and owes him a favour from when they were children. However Ray knows who attacked him but for some reason refuses to give a name or help in any way and Tweetie becomes determined to find the truth. It was a pretty interesting book which moves between the events leading up to the attack and the events after the attack. It's well-written, interesting and witty, however the ending is kind of spoiled when it becomes a bit preachy, but mostly it is worth reading.

Today I went to the shops to get a new battery installed in my watch, which stopped working on Christmas Eve. I also got a DVD set called Box of the Dead, which collects all five of the Dead films written and directed by George A. Romero (Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead, Day of the Dead, Land of the Dead and Diary of the Dead). I also got a couple of desk calendars one of which I was planning to put up at home and the other of which I was planning on putting up in my office at work. The calendars were called The Book-Lovers Calendar 2010 and Urban Dictionary Calendar 2010. Heading back I stopped off at Burger King and had a Whopper Meal (basically a Whopper hamburger, large fries and a large coke).

Today is really the last day of the holidays. Work starts up properly tomorrow and this evening I'll be taking down my Christmas decorations and putting them all away in storage. It's always kind of sad, but there's not really much you can do about it. One good thing is that I do have about three weeks worth of holiday days to use up before the end of March, which means that I should have another two week holiday coming up in the next three months.

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.

Holidays Arranged

Last night I was watching the third episode of Pennies From Heaven, which was pretty good. It's a pretty interesting show, and really dark, in which the characters escape from their depressing lives in 1930s Britain through their imaginations fired by the popular songs of the period. The characters lip-syncing the songs rather than actually singing works pretty well for the show, and adds a really surreal fantasy element to it. Following that I saw the latest episode of True Blood, that is a really fun show, which I really enjoy a lot.

Today was another dull day at work. All the Christmas decorations are going up at work now. I've got my days off work booked up for Christmas. I'm off work for pretty much two weeks from the 21st, but I do have to go in to work for one day on Tuesday the 29th.

Finished for Another Year

Last night I finially finished NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). My novel, Vampire City, has a total word count of 50,270 (the total by the end of November had to be at least 50,000 words). Sometime during Christmas I'll probably go back to it and try and edit it and improve it.

Last night I watched the final two episodes of Karaoke which were really good. Although, I have never seen a Dennis Potter play which wasn't at the very least interesting.

My Dad came over to collect me fairly early this morning and we went to a shopping mall for a look around. Then I went back to my parent's house and we had lunch. In the afternoon I helped my Dad get the Christmas decorations down from the loft, although we haven't put them up yet, and then I listened to the first of a three part radio adaptation of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, based on the John le Carre novel.

To celebrate getting the novel finished I'm taking tomorrow off work, which should be really fun.

Back to Work

Last night I took down my Christmas decorations and put them away for another year.

Today was my first day back at work after the holidays. It wasn't really a bad day, just very average. It felt almost as if I'd never been away. The worst thing about coming back from the holidays is there isn't really anything to look forward to for months. Hopefully I'll be able to figure out some way to make this year better than the last few.

On my way home I bought some clingfilm to wrap my sandwiches in for work and the latest issue of Total Film magazine which this month were running a special edition to celebrate their 150th issue.

Decorating

Last night was pretty quiet. I fell asleep on the sofa again, and woke up at around three o'clock and then headed to bed.

Today I went along to my parent's house for my lunch, as usual. The latest issue of Fortean Times ("The Journal of Strange Phenomena") had arrived during the week, with the main headline this month being about the popularity of UFOs and aliens in rock music, especially during the 1970s. In the afternoon I helped my mum decorate their Christmas tree, so that was pretty good.

A Nightmare on Elm Street 4

Last night I was watching a 1988 film called A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master, directed by Renny Harlin, on DVD. The hugely popular series concerns the vengeful spirit of the evil Freddy Krueger (played by Robert Englund) who has the ability to haunt people in their dreams and manipulate their dreamworld in order to attack them, also when he kills people in their dreams they die in reality as well. In this installment Krueger once again is brought back to life to attack another batch of teenagers, with the help of rubbery special effects and bad jokes. The film is quite lavish and filled with special effects, most of which have inevitably dated. The problem with special effects heavy movies is that they don't age well at all. Another thing about is that while it's not the worst in the series there really is very little new. Also by this time the series villain, Freddy Krueger, with his hideously burned face, red and green striped sweater, hat and glove with razor-sharp knives on the fingers, had become a horror icon, appearing in comics, books, music videos, toys, posters, T-shirts and even a short-lived TV series called Freddy's Nightmares. It's one of those movies that, despite being pretty bad, is still fun enough to be enjoyable.

This morning I went along and got my groceries for the week. This afternoon I have been pretty busy putting up my Christmas decorations. I have one larger tree that goes in my front room and one small one that I put up in my bedroom. I have had the small tree for as long as I can remember and I keep it mainly for sentimental reasons. I was decorating them while watching the 1991 film of The Addams Family on TV.

Time at Work

Last night I was watching a show where various TV comedians reminisced about their school days. It was pretty funny.

This morning I went out early and picked up the latest copy of Total Film magazine. The main story this month was a profile of the new Frank Miller adaptation The Spirit, along with a countdown of the 150 greatest movie performances, an article on screenwriter Charlie Kaufman and an interview with Clint Eastwood. It also came with a 2009 calendar featuring iconic movie posters. I got into work for half past eight, which is an hour earlier than usual. The upshot was I got to leave an hour earlier. We have flexitime at work and the way it basically works is that the office opens at seven and closes at nine and we can more or less come in and leave whenever we like during those hours. However, when you start you get a time credit of zero and if you work late you have time automatically added to the credit and if you leave early you lose time from your credit. We're allowed to be no more than fourteen hours above the basic level at any one time and no more than fourteen hours under the basic level. If you work the basic eight hours for the day with a half hour lunch, then you don't make or lose any time. There are other elements to it, for example at a certain point every month you can be bo more than seven hours below the time limit. I'm hoping to make a couple of hours over the next week so I can leave early next Friday, seing as it's my last work day before my two week holiday. If I go on the way that I have been for the past couple of days I should easily make a couple of hours for next Friday. Also I am having a half day on annual leave on Wednesday anyway because I'm going out for lunch.

I got home at around five today and had a microwave spaghetti carbonara meal. It's the weekend now and at some point I'll be putting up my Christmas decorations.

Masters of the Universe

Yesterday evening I was watching a 1987 film called Masters of the Universe, directed by Gary Goddard, based on the popular 1980s toys and cartoon series. It revolves around the evil Skeletor (played by Frank Langella) who takes control of the planet Eternia, however there is a resistance movement led by the heroic He-Man (Dolph Lundgren). Skeletor discovers a "cosmic key" which will allow it's owner to become Master of the Universe, however He-Man manages to take it and use it to escape to 1980s Earth. It's actually really funny, looking at it now, because it is very much a product of it's time. With the special effects especially having aged quite badly.

The people in the flat next door were having some kind of party and singing along to various pop songs, so I could barely hear myself think. I ended up falling asleep on the couch.

I woke up quite sharp today because my Dad was coming over to go along to the Gyle shopping centre. When we went to the Gyle we stopped off as usual for a mocha coffee and a scone, which took about half an hour for us to get served, and they actually had to pour out Dad's coffee, because they had let it get cold, and pour him another one. After that we had a look around the centre and I bought a biography of Albert Einstein called Einstein: His Life and Universe by Walter Isaacson. When we had finished we went back to my parent's house for lunch and I helped my Dad get the Christmas decorations down from the loft. They'll be put up probably next weekend.

Office Decorations

Last night was pretty quiet. I was watching a couple of the comedy panel shows on TV, namely Never Mind the Buzzcocks, which is about music, and Annually Retentive which is like a parody of comedy panel shows starring comedian Rob Brydon, as a version of himself, hosting a low rent panel show. It alternates between the panel show and behind the scenes segements.

It was a very quiet day at work again, as it always is on Friday, because most people either take the day off or leave early. I usually just work a normal day on Friday, it gives me more time to use when I need it. In the afternoon some people were decorating the office. I was reading a pretty good book during my break periods at work called Martian Time-Slip by Philip K. Dick. I was pretty tired today, and quite glad to get back home.

I'll probably put up my decorations next weekend. I usually put them up about two weeks before the day.

TV Comedy

It was a pretty quiet evening last night. I watched an episode of Mock the Week on TV. It's a popular comedy panel show that pokes fun at people and events in the news, and can be very funny. The episode I was watching was a repeat, though. I also watched a series of repeats of episodes of South Park, which was pretty funny.

I went along to work and it was a really quiet day again. Somebody had already started putting up Christmas decorations around their desk. My gas bill arrived in the mail today, it was kind of high because it has been freezing cold for the past few months.

Office Decorations

I had a message from Michele last night, and she was asking me if I would like to go to the cinema with her next week, so that's good. It will be great to see her again, and hopefully straighten everything out.

I watched a few more episodes of The Twilight Zone last night. I saw "The Last Rites of Jeff Myrtlebank" set in the Midwest in the 1920s in which the guest of honour at a funeral sits up in his coffin and seems to be perfectly alright, although the townspeople notice some disturbing differences about him. "The Fugitive" in which an elderly man, who has incredible powers (including shapeshifting) is chased by two mysterious 'policemen'. "Little Girl Lost" in which a young girl vanishes from her bed into another dimension. The story was a big influence on the Tobe Hooper film Poltergeist, and was also parodied in an episode of The Simpsons where Homer Simpson falls into a dimension where he becomes three dimensional (and muses: "it's like something from that twilighty show about that zone"). Aparently the inspiration for the story came when the author Richard Matheson's daughter went missing in the house one night, and although he and his wife could hear the girl calling they couldn't find her (although they did find her soon, she had fallen out of her bed and rolled against a wall). The last episode was "Of Person Or Persons Unknown" a creepy story in which a banker wakes up after a night of drinking, only to find that it is as if he never existed.

The decorations had gone up at work today and the place actually looks a lot brighter now. They are actually better then they have been in previous years. Of course for the next couple of days things will be quite chaotic, probably, because of all the work nights out, and Christmas lunches. I have to say I am really looking forward to my holidays.

Watership Down

Last night I was watching some episodes of The Twilight Zone: "The Hunt" about an old man and his faithful dog who are out hunting raccoons when they both fall in a river. Waking up the next day, they discover that they are, in fact, dead. "Showdown with Rance McGrew" a very funny episode about an actor, who is famous for starring as a heroic Marshall in a Western TV series, when in real-life his is the worst cowboy imaginable (being clumsy, cowardly and lazy) until the spirit of Jesse James comes to show him what the West was really like. "Kick the Can", a very sentimental episode about a group of old people in a retirement home, who discover the secret of youth by playing children's games, and a "Paino in the House" about a sadistic theatre critic who buys a player piano for his young wife's birthday, only to discover that the piano has the ability to force people to reveal their secret inner selves, and uncomfortable truths soon emerge.

Today has been mostly a quiet day at work. Pretty much the same as usual. They took out the Christmas decorations, but were unable to put them up because they are almost all too old or damaged, and so a collection went round to buy some new ones. There's a kind of feeling of restlessness at work at the moment, which only seems to happen in the run-up to Christmas, presumably because everyone is busy and most people take quite a long time off.

At the moment I'm watching the animated film of Watership Down, a 1978 film directed by Martin Rosen and based on the novel by Richard Adams. The film is about a group of rabbits who escape the destruction of their warren and head off to find a new home. It's a surprisingly dark and quite violent film. To this day I vividly remember being terrified by the film when I was about six and having nightmares about the ghostly death rabbit in the film.

Trekkies

Last night I was watching a film on television called Trekkies, directed by Roger Nygard. It was a documentary about Star Trek fans. The tone of it was pretty affectionate, but they have some of the really hard-core fans like a dentist who decorates his surgery like the Starship Enterprise and a woman who turned up for jury duty wearing a Star Trek uniform. A lot of it was quite funny. I used to be a big Star Trek fan when I was younger, and I went to a couple of conventions and I used to belong to a fan club, so I could recognise a few things in the film. I also watched a couple of episodes of The Twilight Zone: The first episode was "Once Upon a Time" which starred silent-movie legend Buster Keaton as an 1890s janitor who, unhappy with the busy pace of small-town life in the 1890s, finds a time helmet which transports him to 1960, in search of peace and quiet. The episode opens with a hilarious take on silent comedy, complete with slightly speede up action and no dialogue (silent-movie-style title-cards are used instead). The other one was called "Five Characters In Search of an Exit" about a disparate group of five people who find themselves in a featureless metal cylindar with no idea how they got there or why.

My dad came around this morning to continue painting the sills and frames around my windows. It managed quite well, but there will probably need to be another coat of paint added next week. I went round to my parents house for lunch (which this week was pieces of beef in a kind of spicy tomato sauce with peppers and onions in it, along with mashed potato and peas, followed by raspberry and gooseberry crumble), which was really nice. In the afternoon I helped my dad take the Christmas decorations down from the loft and wrap my brother's present. My dad had also found a box of some of my books, which I must have packed up before I moved out, and so I took those back with me.