Storm Front

I finished reading Jim Butcher's first Dresden novel a couple of days ago, it was recommended by my friend Libertine and although I wasn't blown away by the book, I still enjoyed it enough to carry on reading the next in the series of eleven books.

Storm Front (The Dresden Files, Book 1)

Jim Butcher

I wont go into any details about the plot as I don't want to spoil it for other potential readers, but the gist of the story revolves around a modern day wizard who is a consultant for the police in Chicago and does a sideline in paranormal investigations.

I'm not entirely sure if I'm correct in saying this as I have not looked it up, but the book did read like a first novel to me, there was a certain naivety to it.  I'm not complaining, it just had that unsophisticated air to the writing, which made it an easy read, which was probably the reason I flew through the book in a few days; I normally take a couple of weeks over a book as I like to take my time and digest the story.

So I'm now onto the second book in the series, Fool Moon.  I've already read three chapters this afternoon and it looks like it's going to be as interesting as the previous book.  Lets hope he ups the tension and the thrills and develops the character some more.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Apple + Twitter?

The rumour mill is abound with the people in the know saying that Apple are in late stage negotiations to buy Twitter!

I for one think that both companies are well suited to each other and that the $700 million might be well spent on Apple's part as Twitter is nearly seamlessly integrated with the iPhone in my opinion, especially moreso as Apple's App Store sells many different applications for using Twitter on the iPhone and they are already making millions from the site.  So by conjoining both companies, Twitter could be making a profit at long last.

I'd much prefer a company like Apple to take over Twitter, I think both companies share the same ethos, unlike Google and Microsoft, both of whom have failed to acquire Twitter over the last few months.

As always, Apple are being tight-lipped about the possible purchase, the company is as secretive as ever, but if the deal goes ahead it is rumoured to be announced on June 8th at the WDC.

Here's hoping that my favourite company wins to purchase my current favourite social networking site.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Box Office Takings

Just a few words about the Wolverine film.  A few of you might remember a previous post of mine regarding this film and how it was leaked before its release, much to the annoyance and embarrassment of everyone involved in producing the film.

Anyhow, after three days on release it has managed to gross $87 million in box office takings, well on the way to pay for the cost of making the film, which was estimated to be around $140 million.  I'll estimate that the total takings will exceed the $300 million mark, not bad for a film that is essentially the fourth in a series and one that has been illegally downloaded millions of times.

So where does this leave the naysayer's who predicted that the movie world would grind to a halt due to the avid piracy of this film title?  Last I heard there were no terrorists making any money out of it, children have not been abused and it does look like people still went to see the film in the cinema and a huge profit will be made for the production and distribution companies involved.  I'll not even begin to mention merchandising and syndication tie-ins etc.

I will bet you anything that there will be someone from the studio that will pipe up and mention that the film could have taken more and that the leak of the film has damaged the earnings, greed does that to studio executives.  But we have now got quintessential proof that piracy does not necessarily harm a films profitability.  

I wonder if the Pirate Bay lawyers will use this in their appeal?  It certainly might help their cause and it might deflect Italy's imminent legal battle with the file sharing site.

May I just add as a footnote; why is the Pirate Bay the only file sharing site that is being pursued when there are literally thousands of sites that offer the same service?  I know it's the largest, or so they say, I always thought BT Junkie held that title, I'm just wondering why it was targeted in preference to all the others.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Hmph!

Don't you just hate it when you delve into your DVD collection looking for a particular film only to find it missing!  It seems to happen to me quite often, mainly because some ex-girlfriends help themselves to my stuff when they decide they have had enough and bugger off.  Winds me up no end it does!

A few of my films are out on loan, no worries there I know where they are and who has them because I'm quite anal about cataloguing my films.  I have two systems on the go at the moment, one is a DVD manager on my laptop and I have Pocketpedia on my iPhone for those times when I'm in a shop and can't remember if I have a particular movie on DVD or did I actually have it on VHS?!?  I used to keep a hand written index card system and a written listing as well, but since I'm a child of the digital age, they were consigned to the scrap-heap some time ago.

I was in the mood to watch a certain Will Smith film this evening, don't ask me why, I must be in need of sentimental humour or a quick helping of jug ears, but I searched through my collection and couldn't find it.  I looked in my DVD catalogue and there it was, bold as brass, but I didn't have the actual DVD.  Grr!  No names next to the film as a loan entry, so this only means that someone with light fingers has permanently borrowed it.

I have a fair idea where it went to, but since it's only worth a couple of quid and that it is a Will Smith film, I shan't bother doing anything about it.

I suppose it's my own fault for having a high turnover of relationships.  There's a lot to be said about being single, nobody makes a mess in your house, you never get disturbed when you want a lie-in, you don't have to put up with whinging, but most importantly, nobody fucks about with your film collection!

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Trek Yourself Widget

Well, I dunno about you, but I got very fed up with Mr.Vulcan talking every time I came onto my blog, so I had to edit this post.  Plus it was eating up my bandwidth which I don't like and I'm sure you lot don't like it either.

So if you want to Trekify yourself, please visit this link to do so.

It was quite clever how it all works, but I couldn't get my picture to embed on my blog, also I couldn't be bothered to try and work it out.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Numerology

In my boredom today I looked up numerology and taught myself how to work it all out.  It seems that my Life-path number is 5 and after surfing many sites as to the meaning of this, it seems that the following blurb is meant to be me, and since most of them were very similar, I'll take this as a standard.  

A Life Path 5 person is usually very versatile, adventurous, and progressive. With a 5 life path, you are one of those people who is always striving to find answers to the many questions that life poses. You want to be totally unrestrained, as this is the sign of freedom and independence. You abhor routine and boring work, and you are not very good at staying with everyday tasks that must be finished on time. You are, however, a good communicator, and you know how to motivate people around you, perhaps inclining you to be a teacher of some sort. A love of adventure may dominate your life. This may take the form of mental or physical manifestation, but in either case, you thrill to the chance for exploration and blazing new trails. You are apt to be multi-talented, but just as likely to suffer from some lack of direction, and there is often some confusion surrounding your ambition.

Positive Traits : The number 5 personality is rather happy-go-lucky; living for today, and not worrying too much about tomorrow. It is important for you to mix with people of a like mind, and try to avoid those that are too serious and demanding. It is also important for you to find a job that provides thought-provoking tasks rather than routine and redundant responsibilities. You do best dealing with people, but the important thing is that you have the freedom to express yourself at all times. You have an innate ability to think through complex matters and analyze them quickly, but then be off to something new.

Negative Traits : In the most negative application or use of the 5 energies, you could become very irresponsible in tasks and decisions concerning your home and business life. The total pursuit of sensation and adventure can result in your becoming self-indulgent and totally unaware of the feelings of those around you. In the worse case situations negative 5's are very undependable and self-serving.

Does anybody believe in this stuff?  

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Blergh!

I can barely lift my arms and I'm unable to type properly.  Why? I finally got fed up looking at my garden so I decided to do something about it.  After an hour of strimming and mowing, raking and getting rid of weeds and grass, I can't even lift my arms to my face, which is a bit of a problem as I'm starving!!!  Nothing like a bit of fresh air and some good honest work to build up an appetite!

I knew I was a little out of shape, but this is ridiculous.  I have the shakes from the strimmer, it actually looks like I've got Parkinson's or something.  It's no joke, I wanted to go down into town to fetch some shopping, but I doubt very much I could carry a bag back home….

So, I have decided that enough is enough and that I'm going to go on a fitness drive.  Exercise every day, including at least ten miles on the bike.  I'm not happy that an hours work has rendered me incapacitated, especially after all the hard work I used to be able to achieve only a few months ago.

Just to set me off on a good way, I'm now going to go and sit in the garden and rest, reading the first of the Dresden series by Jim Butcher in the sunshine, because we all know, this will be the only Summer Britain will get.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Resign Brown!

Feel like you have been led up the garden path by Gordon Brown?  The visit 10 Downing Street's website and sign this petition to get the prat to resign!  Hopefully we as a nation can find a leader who knows what communication is, not an insular control freak with delusions of tyranny.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Movie Marathons

Yesterday I did something I have never done before, I actually sat down and watched all six Star Wars films back to back.  Thirteen and a half hours of pure Sci-fi.  My only regret was starting at such a late hour, I ended up watching Return of the Jedi at 11am this morning.

A few comments on Bookface and it got me thinking about other potential film marathons. Ones that were mentioned were the extended Lord of the Rings trilogy, I think that totals at just over nine hours, which I did just before Christmas; another good call was the entire collection of Star Trek films, without including the new one, that would take me 19 hours. Others could include Indiana Jones, Harry Potter, Pirates of the Caribbean, Superman, Batman, the list could go on and on.

So I got thinking about what is the most lengthy movie marathon possible?

We have the Friday 13th horror series to think about, with ironically only 12 films.

Or if you're into porn, how about Debbie Does Dallas, a whole 20 orgytastic films.

Could it be James Bond? If you include the non-franchise films that would total 25 films so far.

The Japanese franchise of Godzilla films. To date, 28 of them. Could be quite boring though, men dressed up in costumes and fake looking scenery…

Could it be the Carry On films? A total of 31 films! Now there's a bum number if I ever saw one, plus I don't think I could put up with two whole days of double entendres…

More porn in the Emanuelle series, a whopping 56 of them, I don't think I could masturbate for that long!

There have been 89 films with Tarzan in the title since 1918, but the longest series with a single actor is only 33, so that's quite easy really.

So who is the winner?

Well, depending on where you take your information from, the longest running franchise of films belongs to Wong Fei Hung, the Chinese martial arts hero, currently the title holder at 99 films between 1949-2004. So if you're into your Kung Fu, you are in for a treat.  Let's just say for arguments sake that each film is 90 mins long, it would take you 148 hours, or just over six days of continuous watching to endure this franchise!

Anybody got a good supply of popcorn?

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

e-books

Today I took it upon myself to sort out my e-book collection.  I didn't realise how much of a mess it was and just how many duplicates I had.  It basically took me around ten hours of filing and sub-filing to put it all in order.  I am now the proud owner of a catalogued e-book collection of 1,565 authors, which is around 15,000 book titles, mainly in the sci-fi and fantasy genre with a few classics and horrors thrown in.

I don't think I'll be able to work myself through them in my lifetime and I'm sure that I'll be adding to it as new books are written.

But e-books I hear you bemoan, they're not the same as 'real' books! Well no they aren't, I much prefer to settle down with a real book, but you can't carry 15,000 books around with you very easily, in fact I don't find it easy to carry one book with me at all times as I don't carry a bag with me.

Ever since I found Stanza for the iPhone I have been reading much more, simply because whenever I'm bored I just whip out my current read from my pocket, wherever I am.  Plus it's much more handy at night, you don't have to have a light on in your room as the reader is back-lit and it's easy on the eyes too as you can dim the screen to your comfort.

If I was sufficiently loaded I might have forked out for Amazon's Kindle, but from what I've heard it's not worth it, anyway I'm very happy with Stanza.

So at the moment I'm re-reading Isaac Asimov's Robots series and enjoying it immensely, I have about a couple of hundred pages to go so that should last me a couple of days, depending what I'm up to.  But now that I have so much choice as to what my next read will be, I am at a bit of a loss as to which to choose.  

Any recommendations in the sci-fi/fantasy genre? 

I'm almost sure that I have a copy of nearly everything that has ever been written since the dawn of time, plus it will be a good test to see if anybody can catch me out.  Just you watch, now that I've said that, any and all recommendations will result in me not having a copy….

Suggestions please, within reason, I won't have any new books, but any that are over a year old I'm confident I'll have.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend