JOURNAL | PROFILE | FRIENDS | MANIFESTO FOR 40 | ABOUT THE SITE | CONTACT
Thursday 20 November 2008
I'll Leap On Any Bandwagon Going
Next week, Marvel publish the first issue of Civil War, a new 'event' series which is going to radically redefine their superheroes' world. Courtesy of my connections, I've already read the scripts for all but the last issue, and I'm extremely excited about the series - far more so than the almost unreadable Infinite Crisis which DC are finishing next week.
So anyway, by way of pimping the series, Marvel has released a countdown timer for use on any site that wants it. So why not?
EDITED - To remove timer which breaks the RSS feed.
I'm Sorry?????
JOHN PRESCOTT????????
I thought I'd seen everything when The Vile Blunkett got his end away, but really, that was small potatoes compared to the horror of this. Poor Pauline.
I'm reminded of the Victoria Wood monologue in which she's discussing the Laurence Olivier biography which revealed his affair with Danny Kaye; "I'm a woman of the world - I'd expect a dalliance with John Gielguid, a romance with Ralph Richardson. But... Danny Kaye???"
I can imagine any number of people having affairs with any number of others. But... John Prescott???
Bon Voyage, Dave
Just a quick note to wish Dave a safe and fun trip to Hong Kong. This is his much-delayed holiday to see his dad, and after all the times he's had to plan it and cancel it, I should imagine he won't believe he's made it until he's got a drink in his hand and the family around him.
Speaking Of Thinking Things Through
We are finally into serious planning of our not-under-any-circumstances-to-be-called-a-wedding, and it's proving to be a nightmare.
The minute you start talking about 100-plus people in a venue that neither of us wants to be in the 'room-above-a-pub' mould, everything goes insane.
To start with, 'nice' venues capable of holding that many people are few and far between. Add to that the fact that neither of us really wants to go to some anonymous venue which we don't have any connection to (so even moving far outside of South East London is an issue), so the big hotels are out, and options become even further constrained.
And speaking of hotels, you need somewhere that's within at least a reasonable distance of a few decent ones for the people travelling to the day.
Then when you start talking to a venue you like the look of that meets the criteria, (and after you've stopped gasping at the price tag) you find that they have a 'preferred' caterer whose services you have no choice but to engage. These people will attempt to dictate your menu, the format of the event, the timing of the event, what colour suit you should wear and what kind of sex you're allowed to have to mark the occasion. (These last two *may* be an exageration.) In short, they'll try to make your event their event.
And somehow, they'll also push the price up by a factor of at least three. This is not an exageration - we've seen it happen. Imagine a venue hire cost of £2 (if only) suddenly turn into a venue plus food, equipment hire and service price of £8, and that's not including VAT or drink. Multiply these numbers by what I'll simply refer to as 'a factor', and I've got the paperwork to confirm it.
Along the way, the nature of the event in our own heads has changed somewhat too. We originally weren't going to have a 'ceremony' in any real sense of the word, just a gobsmackingly good party. Now, it seems like we actually do want a ceremony after all. Which really only means we need the venue a bit longer, but there are inevitable logistical impacts arising from that around getting a registrar out to whatever venue it is, among other things.
And in the midst of all this, I suddenly realised that in this relationship, I'm the Monica. This comes as something of a shock. I spent ten years with Chris blissfully secure in the knowledge that he was the Monica, and that I could mock him horribly for it. Now, I find myself putting checklists together and working out schedules and milestones, and worst of all, allocating tasks.
This is not who I want to be, but in this circumstance, it's a dirty job, and someone's got to do it....
A Major Error Of Judgement
Don't tell me you've never done it; taken one look into a pair of stunning blue eyes and found yourself taking someone home who you really shouldn't have. Well, that was the big Saturday mistake in our house.
In defence, I should stress that there was no big intention to introduce a stranger into the soon-to-be marital home when Saturday dawned, and nor was the stress that the whole thing would create on David and I at all foreseen. In fact, the intention was that we'd all get something out of the deal. How wrong can you be?
But seriously - could you resist this guy??????
What? What did you think I was talking about?
We saw that little fella, and having been vaguely contemplating getting a playmate for Gramsci for a while, we fell into that thing we do too often, which is not think through the consequences of what we're doing. As soon as we got him home and realised how badly Gramsci was taking to the new arrival, things started to get tense. David was actually getting quite upset about the whole situation. The realisation was also dawning that really, our flat is too small to have two house-cats in it. Maybe when we've moved to somewhere bigger, but then ideally we'll have access to a garden and the whole situation will be different anyway.
But then there was the dilemma - Do we take him back? Do we try to find another family to take him? And how quickly could we do the latter?
By Sunday morning things were a little less tense between big cat and little cat, but the space issues remained, and neither of us was much enjoying our long weekend. Fortunately, help was on the horizon in the form of Chris and Brian, who have clearly given up on ever retrieving Dillon from Liz's care, and were thinking about a new cat anyway. One Sunday afternoon visit and a swift falling-in-love later, kitten, food, toys and all related paraphenalia were heading off into the sunset.
He (he's called Chip, by the way), is reportedly settling in well.
And we're firmly committed to stopping this thing that we do of jumping into things before we've really thought through and planned the consequences.
Really Simple
In connection with helping David get his podcast online, I finally kicked myself sufficiently to make the RSS feed of this place officially live. I say officially, because there's been a page there for a while that's one of the standard Movable Type templates and it's been updated every time I've posted. Checking Bloglines, I've even discovered that a few people who use that service are in fact already subscribed to the feed, which freaks me out somewhat.
Anyway, I've tidied up the template, and set it to display a whole posting rather than just an extract, which it was doing by default. You can find it at http://www.moreawayoflife.org/journal/index.xml
Help! I'm Dating A Pod Person
The Object Of My Affection has been talking about podcasting of late, specifically in relation to creating a series of podcasts about Oblivion (see postings passim), and has invested in some good quality recording equipment and software with that aim in mind.
After some deliberation on his subjects and structure, he got around to recording, mixing and publishing it yesterday, so on the off-chance you're intrested in hearing a bit about Oblivion and possibly getting a few hints and tips, check out his site for it, The Rough Guide To Cyrodiil.
Strictly Speaking
It's as I said last week - I'm going to be gripped by Strictly Dance Fever. The final auditions last night were great - lots of tears, lots of great reactions (to both good and bad news), and a few personality clashes that should make for entertaining weeks ahead.
Huge cheers in our house for Paul and Aravon, through as a couple.
And huge boos for the other Paul, of Paul and Pamela. What an arrogant tosser. And how great was it that she was visibly distraught at being partnered with him when he'd identified her as one of his ideal partners? If only it had even slightly dented his ego.
More On Oblivion
So - been playing it on and off since the weekend now, and I'm really enjoying it. It offers supposedly completely freeform gameplay, in that you can go anywhere on the map, follow the main quest, unconnected quests, or no quests at all, and essentially the challenges you face will get harder as you get better, rather than there being areas that are designated as being suitable for certain levels of character.
(This 'level balancing' is something that is causing controversy among some commenters online though.)
I miss the ability to interact with other real people that something like World of Warcraft offers, but that said, they're different types of game, so it's not really fair to compare them.
It's fun to dip in and out of, and it's helping kill a bit of time until the Warcraft Expansion is out in a few months' time.
Trailer Park
Seen the new Doctor Who trailers? Looking pretty nifty. That werewolf alone looks better than almost any monster effect I can think of from last year. Of course, the trick will be in making the bits between the highlight clips hang together, but based on last year, the Christmas Special, and everything I've been hearing from the production of this year's and from people who've read scripts/seen footage, I'm quietly confident.
Roll on the 15th.
You Dancin'? You Askin'?
Ah yes, here we go with this year's Strictly Dance Fever, and it's interesting to see the way they've modified the audition process from last year. The stages seem pretty different from what I remember, and also the 'call-back' to be told the judges' decision seems a lot more formal.
As with last year, there's already a sense of some people who you'd root for to win even though you know they probably shouldn't (if Paul and Aravon aren't in the live shows there's no justice), and those who probably should win because they could move on to that professional career.
Regardless, between this and series 2 of Doctor Who on the horizon, that's our Saturday nights sewn up for the next few months...