The Joy of the Log: Why I Love Recording Everything

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Perhaps there's something hardwired in my brain, but I genuinely enjoy recording things. It's more than just a habit; there's a satisfying click when a piece of data is logged, a feeling of order emerging from the everyday.

Whether it's writing down ideas, meticulously logging my runs on Strava (you might remember I ran the London Marathon last year and I'm gearing up for Chicago this year), or cataloging my ever-growing record collection on Discogs, there's a certain pleasure in capturing these details.

My current small obsession? Catching up on my Letterboxd account with previously watched films. It's been a fun dive into the past, sifting through old theatre receipt emails and even trawling through the archives of this very blog, blog.johncooke.info, for movies I've previously written about. It’s a bit like creating a personal archive of my experiences, one entry at a time.

Hold my hand

Last night headed to see the Top Gun Maverick. We had been awaiting the arrival of the film for years, much delayed thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic we were excited to see Tom Cruise jet off once again.

We had decided to view it at the Light Cinema in Stockport. I met up with Ian to catch the train to Stockport only to find it had been cancelled. We ended up taking a taxi meeting up with Dan and Berger at the Swan with Two necks opposite the Red Rock complex. 

I haven't been in the Swan for many years maybe even a decade, it hasn't changed much with the wood panelling and anachronistic Smoke Room. Enjoyed a pint there before heading in the the Light.

I enjoyed the film, it was similar to the New Star Wars or Star Trek films been made to mirror the scenes and characters of the original in a way to keep old fans happy but have some new younger cast brought in. Interestingly as the film goes on the planes get older. Starting out with the experimental Jet to the F18, F14 ended the film with Cruise piloting a WW2 era prop plane. The cinematography was amazing, not a complete cgi lots of live action cameras strapped in cockpits and on the wing tips. It certainly was entertaining and well worth catching on the big screen.

On the way home another train was cancelled so we had to catch the very last train, after spending the day with Thom and in the Garden I was ready for bed. Think I am missing Cruises ability to still perform at the highest level in spite of his age.

Paramount have a twitter tool to generate you Top Gun Callsign, mine was rocket!

The big short

Kath and I used Meerkat movies to got and see the big short. A film about the reasons behind the huge financial crash of 2008, and the few voices who predicted it. I though that it is a great film which manages to turn the boring financial subjects into an understandable and interesting backdrop for a film.

In short banks got rich selling bundles of loans off as Collateralized debt obligations, these bundles of loans were sold as containing good mortgages with low default rates. Unfortunately over time the banks got greedy and found ways to bundle increasingly bad loans, until they included loans for NINJAs (Not in a Job Applicants). The ratings agencies kept putting A grade on and the deals went on and on until in 2008 the liabilities started to get called in and the whole system collapsed. 

It brought me back to 2005 when I worked for a broker business in the UK. The government was bringing in the Consumer Credit Act 2006. Among other things made it included requirement for loan documentation to show the total amount that was repayable. I vividly remember one moment during the user acceptance phase, in which we showed the updated documents to some of the end users.

I went to the leader of one of the sales teams, and she asked if the figures were correct. I said of course, the calculation is simple for a fixed rate loan. You multiple the payments by the period and deduct the original borrowing, giving the total amount payable in interest. She then said, she didn't believe it, the amount looked too high. So I asked her to grab a calculator, multiply the payment by the 300 month term and deduct the original borrowing. She was very surprised by the result, bear in mind they specialised in consolidation loans which were in 2006 expensive (between 7 - 12% interest). She did sell them all day long so I was surprised how little grasp of the costs she had. What really surprised me though was as I walked away she said "Well the lenders never expect them to pay it back anyway". At the time I thought what a weird thing to say, but now in the context that these loans would probably have ended up in CDO's the market for this being bigger than the profit on the loan in fact the bank didn't care too much! An insane system no wonder it failed.

Tears in the rain

Kath and I have been having a few days of cinema. On Sunday after a lovely BBQ at Bruce's house we headed to Odeon to watch Avengers Age of Ultron.

Bruce and Nina had put on a great spread, smoked beef, chilli and other tex mex style dishes. It was great to see them and Connie, even is she did cry after Nina made me hold her. Ian and Helen turned up which was a nice surprise, Helen put Kath and I to shame by doing parkrun while we sat in bed. Joe and Holly look like they might be moving home soon which is exciting, and of course Nick and Charlotte, who didn't attend the BBQ are getting married next Saturday.

We watched Avengers on IMAX at the printworks. It was well worth spending the money on such a visual feast. I really enjoyed the film in spite of a few hammy moments, and odd pacing it was an entertaining watch.

Last night was a different sort of film altogether, one I am not sure would be made today. We went to see the Final Cut of Blade Runner. In spite of it being one of the seminal films defining the way futuristic films looked for over two decades Kath had never seen it. Its starting to get a bit dated now, the dire predictions of a future 2019 when Los Angeles is under a constant cloud and humans are colonising space using replicant slaves.

Replicants are banned on Earth and Deckard the main character played by Harrison Ford is a replicant assassin or Blade Runner. Deckard is tasked with hunting down several replicants including a Nexus 6 the newest and most powerful form played by Rutger Hauer. Along the way we meet Raphael, a Nexus 6 who doesn't realise she is not human thanks to implanted memories.

Panned in its initial release in 1982, the film has become a cult classic. While some directors cough George Lucas have steadily diluted their original vision the re-cutting of Blade runner has made it an even more enjoyable film, increasing the tension and immersion of the futuristic world.

The replicants force us to ask existential questions about ourselves, they are more real, more physical with an artificially short lifespan. what makes them less human, is it because humans designed them even though they are superior to humans in physically and in some cases mentally. Towards the end of the film Rutger Hauers' character tells Deckard he has seen things that he can only dream of, in some way the replicant being more than human.

One question I have wondered is whether Deckard is a replicant? At one point Racheal asks him if he has ever taken the test used to differentiate replicants from Humans. The police chief also refers to him as a killing machine after retiring one of the replicants.

Even if in the 1980's predicted the city of the future 2019 would have flying cars but still use payphones and photographs, it is an incredible vision which still looks unique and is one of my favourite films.

Waves

This time last week I was arriving in Poland, after an early morning wake up, a short flight and queuing for what felt like an eternity at Modlin border control I met Kath and we boarded the coach bound for Bialystok.

That afternoon Kath, Wojciech and myself headed out to the Alpha department store to watch a Gone Girl at the cinema there. I had very much enjoyed reading the book and wondered how it would transfer to film. I really enjoyed what they did with the film, it lost a few details of the book but the characters really shined, especially Neil Patrick Harris as the creepy ex and Rosamund Pike.

We were a little speechless after the film, its pretty dark and asks a lot of questions so we went for a walk through the park to  get some Sushi at Tanoshii. We had an excellent platter of Sushi and some Japanese beer.

On Sunday Kath and I decided to have a lazy morning watching TV and enjoying each others company. We don't get enough time together so it was really nice. In the afternoon we went for a walk around Bialystok from her flat to the little Zoo. The wildcats and bears were out. I really enjoyed the wildcats, one of them was stalking round the cat like an more angry, less fluffy version of Coco, with a black harry potter lightning marking on his back.

The bears were being fed as we arrived so we only saw them for a few minutes as they headed into there home for dinner.

In the evening went for drinks, starting at Sherlock Holmes pub then onto Castle, then to a few more before taking a kebab back to the flat. Originally we had planned to meet up with some people but we ended up spending the evening together.

Tuesday was my last day in Poland. We had breakfast at Kaffka bistro, it was excellent fresh eggs delicately fried with bacon sausages with salad and fresh coffee. It filled me up until the evening. After breakfast we had a wonder round the park and took some papers Kath needed to the Polish GMC. Before boarding the coach for the long drive to Modlin before the flight home. Modlin airport is tiny, its a modern building but its overstretched supporting Ryanair. The gates were too small to hold the number of passengers getting on we flowed out into the next gate. After being hurried through by dire warnings over tannoy. I stood in a mass of people waiting, first we were let outside to stand under bus shelter type contraption while watching the passengers from another flight disembark.

I was fortunate with the weather while there was a storm in the UK Poland enjoyed a gorgeous Autumn day, I must have flown over the storm as when I arrived back in the UK there was no wind left but plenty of tree branches blown off.

Falling down

Last night Bruce came round last night. We watched the classic 1980s film falling down. Starring Michael Douglas as D-Fens a man struggling to cope with what he sees as flaws 1980s society.

The film opens with D-Fens sat in his overheating car, a fly buzzing round his head. Something snaps inside and gets out of the car and starts a long walk towards his home. During the walk he passes through the latino, and affluent areas.

It is an excellent, and complex film. The main character is D-Fens, a man who thinks of himself as the hero, on his way home to his family. On the way we learn more about D-Fens life and why he ended up so angry.

Oddly its one of the first films I can remember where the central character is so much of an anti hero, even if he doesn't know it. I also liked that there were good back stories for the cop on his last day came out from behind his desk to track down the man in the suit. The final scene in which the cop confronts d-fens suggesting that he always knew that he was on his way to kill his family and then himself; point of no return.

My favourite scene is in the burger joint where, firstly he in 5 minutes late so they wont sell breakfast, then after pulling a gun on the manager the burger he is given looks nothing like that image behind the counter delivers a speech about the ills of America to the terrified diners.

The sense of place and time was palpable, the phones booths, huge mobile phones graffiti, strong colours.

I think that the depiction of gangland were naive, the 80s was a time when the city was a dark and dangerous place crumbling while people escaped to the suburbs. Over my lifetime that has changed. Cities cleaned up there acts, now the city centre is a place people want to live and work.

Overall its a classic, well acted well shot and despite what be modern standard (think the wire ) has a naive portrayal of the Latin Americans is a great watch.

C.L.U.

I went to see Tron:Legacy last night with Bruce and Phil. Initially I had gone round to Bruce's house to get the server ready for the Lan party next weekend. We managed to pool a lot of spare part that we had lying around to make quite a reasonable server, things are looking good.

Tron:Legacy was interesting, it has been many years since I saw the original so much so I barely remembered the plot. Only the light cycle racing stuck out in my memory. Clearly technology has moved on significantly since the first film. Legacy was a 3D, film which meant the entrance price was £9.80 (plus the cost of 3D glasses if you didn't already have them). I am still unconvinced by 3D. It looked spectacular of course, but after several hours I was glad to take the glasses off. I still see 3D as a bit of a gimmick rather than something which really adds to film. Only Avatar has really impressed me with its depth and ability to immerse the viewer in a 3D landscape. 3D did make the Grid look spectacular, but it would still look impressive in 2D.

beware maybe spoilers

The Grid is an imagining of the world inside the computer. The story starts out with Kevin Flynn explaining the story of the first film to his young son sam, before disappearing. Years later Alan designer of Tron spoke receives a page from Flynn apparently sent from a long closed arcade. Young Sam Flynn goes to investigate only to discover his fathers hidden workshop, where he is sucked into the matrix the grid.

He finds a world where his father is an outlaw living in the nether regions resigned not to fight anymore after his own program C.L.U. a digital copy of him turned against him. Kevin has spent years meditating on his failure to create a virtual world with Quorra. Quorra is the last of a digital race which manifested inside the grid, Kevin saw them as a miracle C.L.U. as a perversion of the perfect world and destroyed them in the great purge.

I think had we have gone to the Imax I might have been slightly snow blind by the end of the film with all the strong colours from the grid!

Throughout the film I kept thinking of Inception. Especially they are both films explore the power of the mind to create alternative realities. In Inception the reality are the dreamworlds, Tron has has digital world of the Grid. Both explore the nature of creating a world, and that our own minds can work against us. In Inception Cobs subconscious works against him, whereas Flynn's obsession with creating a "perfect" world ended up causing genocide.

Both are good films, and both have exception sound tracks. Trons was privider by Daft Punk who arranged an exceptional score. Han Zimmer made the haunting Inception sound track, which added so much to the film. Overall I think inception was a little smarter and more slickly put together. Inception also wins points for being more original, rather than another rehashing of an 80's era film. Tron:Legacy is a very entertaining spectacle film, which managed to have a little more depth than the average action film.

isn't that worth fighting for, isn't that worth dying for

I had a night of films this evening. Starting with a release from last year I watched Pandorum. It is a tense psychological thriller set on board a spaceship. I liked the idea, of the characters waking up with no memories. The cinematography was brilliant, but the pacing was a bit off the characters running to save the ship from nuclear disaster.

Next up was the 2003 release, Matrix Reloaded. Rather like the Phantom Menace, I couldn't wait to see it when I did though I walked out disappointed. I forgot how ridiculous the Freeway scene was. It is amazing was so over the top, I cant imagine even David Cameron would actually build several miles of Freeway at several million per mile just to create a scene.

I remember reading a review after the Matrix said the directors saw Charlies Angels. They believed that it copied the Matrix so much, it made them wan to make a film which couldn't be copied. Which they did really no one has tried to do bullet time on such a scale as say the scene where Neo does battle with the Frenchman's henchmen. I guess it was that overambition that lets the Matrix sequels down. There were so many ideas and they tried to explore so many of them that ultimately you end up with unintelligible scenes like Neo meeting the Architect.

The final film of the evening was from the end of the 90's ExistenZ. One thing I really notice now when I see a film from the 90 is that unlike today the actors look a bit more like people rather than looking like the spend their lives in the gym. ExistenZ explores the ideas of alternate realities, how our reality is defined by our mind. The Matrix tried the same thing but I think David Cronenberg takes it to the depths.

Avatar

I went to see Avatar tonight with Bruce. It is a visually stunning film, the first I have seen in 3D. It really wowed me, the alien landscape of the planet Pandora, the forests were incredible eery and simply stunning. Certainly Avatar brings CGI to a totally new level, in a way George Lucas tried [and failed] with the Star Wars prequels.

Unfortunately I found the plot somewhat formulaic, basically it seemed to me to be the last Samurai set in an alien landscape with added themes of love and the typical Hollywood ending. Why is it no matter what the weapons, or creatures every battle has to end mano-a-mano? As soon as I saw the Colonel I knew it had to end up in a showdown between them.

The movie opens at the funeral of the brother of the main protagonist who is recruited by a company to go in his brothers place. His brother was an Avatar pilot, basically he controls an alien creature in an effort to learn more about them. The aliens the Na'vi are humanoid, Aboriginals who have a symbiotic relationship with the forest they live in. Unfortunately the company has detected an ore steam underneath the Na'vi's home and well how are a bunch of blue aliens to stand in the ay of progress. The protagonist Jake is sent in Avatar form and manages to bond with the daughter of the clan leader before long though he starts to question his humanity and becomes more and more bonded with the Na'vi eventually united all the tribes and leading a revolt against the humans.

Overall I have seen these themes from Avatar so many times, and while the film is enjoyable and dazzles the sense it could have done so much more. That said James Cameron is certainly a slick and accomplished director its well directed if a bit long and it simply has to be watched for the amazing visuals and it has all the turn mind of feel good moments you could ever want from a Hollywood blockbuster.

Metropolis

"There can be no understanding between the hands and the brain unless the heart acts as mediator"

I just watched Metropolis for the first time. I must say I found it awesome, released in 1927 as a silent film it is a product of a different era. However the effect have a certain charm, and the cinematography and use of the art deco is really wonderful.

The film concentrates on a deeply divided society living in the fictional Metrolpolis. While the workers toiling in 10 hour shirt, in the depths of the city, labouring to control the machines, above ground the thinkers / planners enjoy the lap of luxury. Until the intervention of Maria brings some of the children from down below to the paradise gardens at the top. The son of the leader Freder of the city is disturbed and ventures to see the heart of the city. Thus begins a chain of events where he ends up seeing Maria deliver a revolutionary speech about the tower of babel and how a Mediator will come to bring the 'head' and the 'hands', "THE MEDIATOR BETWEEN THE HEAD AND HANDS MUST BE THE HEART!"

I couldn't help but think of the modern day parallels, I was thinking of 1984, Blade Runner, and the Radiohead song Palo Alto, only more dystopian.

I sat watching the film with some honey toast and a hot tody in an attempt to try and drive away my cough before Martin and Charollottes wedding on Saturday.

Suicide pact : you first

My Sunday was nice and relaxed. After a hectic week including yesterdays action it was nice to chill out a little. I rested read a few chapters of my book, listened to the Archers, and cleaned out the fish. Usually I would have headed to the gym but my shoulder is still painful so I stayed in and tried to start moving a few customers cross to the new server. I only managed to move two sites in the end but it was a start. I also managed to sort out at least some of the weird email problems I have been having, well that my customers were having. Andy Gilmore can now relay mail, and www.woodlandsgarage.com is now on the new server complete with redirect.

I also made and effort to try and catch hold of a few friends for a catch up chat, I caught up with Paul, and Jo. Jo was happy to hear his PC is ready for collection. Paul was in a good mood he recounted Paul McCartney, Pippa managed to arrange him a last minute ticket. I was really jealous! Was nice to catch up with them I really must be more proactive at keeping in contact with people.

I watched a weird little indie film with Phil this evening. It was called theThe Chumscrubber. Basically focussing on the interconnected lives of a group of people from the suburbs. Everyone pretends their lives are great whilst chugging down wine or pills in a vain attempt to stay sane. There is a bizarre (and frankly disconnected) parallel video game intermingled with the action.

Photos from Belgium

I finally got the photos from Belgium uploaded. I still haven't written the stories up maybe I never will now, who knows.

This evening I went to see a film with my friend Martina from Japanese class. We watch 3:10 to Yuma. Starring Christian Bale and Russell Crowe its a pretty standard cowboy film, encompassing all the traditional American values; redemption, good men turning bad, bad men doing good. Russell Crowe is the typical child from a troubled family turned to a life of crime, blah blah heard it all before.
I was actually pretty disappointed I expected a little more than a slight twist on the buddy film, but oh well.

Bruce has invited me to his house on Saturday, apparently he will be screening the rugby on his big screen. It sounds fun but means I have to miss what could turn out to be a fun party in Didsbury. I really do not want to miss the England game after last Saturdays performance though. I think the game against France is going to be pretty tough close and exciting so I am looking forward to it.

Zodiac

Had a pretty quiet day today finished closing time I found it a really good book but not a patch on Catch-22 and a heck of a lot harder to read. Basically the characters young and vibrant but dealing with lives cut short now deal with lives close to the end, and the absurdities of modern life. Heller is so witty and intelligent almost too clever by half at times writing some incredibly complicated prose.

Phil and I spent some time practising our Japanese we are both pretty shabby but a few more hours a week sure would help.

Paul phoned me he has a plan about going to see Paul McCartney live in Paris later this month. To be honest it sounds like a lot of fun hopefully we can get tickets and I can get the time of work because I reckon it will be great.

Tonight Phil and I watched Zodiac, a film by David Fincher he of Fight Club and Panic Room fame about the infamous serial killer Zodiac. It was kind of ironic I never realised Dirty Harry (which I watched only last night) was based partly on the story. The real life killer was never caught despite the best efforts of the police and an ex cartoonist who penned a novel about him. The film was good if a little long and drawn out, the cinematography was excellent I especially like the grand theft autoesq top down view of the police car.

Amelie

I was tired this evening so after Japanese class I stayed in and watched TV. It gave me the chance to rewatch Amelie a film I haven't seen for years. I had forgott just how well films acted and truly beautiful this movie is. Ameile is a confused young waitress living in modern France (warning it's a subtitled film), she has lived a dysfunctional and introverted life. Basically she comes to the realisation that she can improve the lives of those around her and that helps her to feel happy. This vicarious life helps many people in her life (and by dint makes the world at large a slightly better place). Along the way some of the people who's lives she influence learn to love her and herself find love.

It truly is a wonderful film full of hope, the sadness of isolation the discovery that interaction can be fulfilling. The cinematography is simply amazing there are so many visual tweaks hart-warming moments. They all contribute to the film as well not just special effects for the sake of it.

Perhaps I am being overly sentimental but it really cheered me up if you have never seen it RENT IT NOW. I wish one day I could work on something so beguiling, so wonderful.

I missed out on going to see a concert tonight I was meant to be doing a remote in overtime for work but things changed at the last minute and it was cancelled I left my phone at home and missed my opportunity. I still owe Jo for the ticket as well.

As I missed out on the concert I went to the last Japanese class of the year, it was pretty hard had the first proper listening exercise. I still barely know Katakana and next year we start learning Hiragana. I guess in time things will come to me.

I was thinking today three people I know who are about my age have decided to get married this month, Mo a girl used to work with, Maia and now Bruce. It is strange how things can change so suddenly. I messaged Maia to tell her the irony and had a bit of a chat. She will keep her name as that is the Italian style apparently. Initially they are going to live with his mum until they find a place to live. I guess that means there is hope for me if he is thirty.

Yes your right I am stupid I should not torture myself speaking to her its never going to happen I know. I would not be the nice guy you all know and love/hate/feel ambivalent to if I did not remain friends with people long after I should leave well alone. It is the part of me that rushed into a breaking up someoen else fight that just cant stop sometimes.

I have been trying to work on a website for Becky, www.cheshirehorseboxhire.co.uk. Its still in the early stages, I hope I can achieve what she wants I am not really a very good web designer, I just tried and do something to give her a presence.

3 Films

Stayed in tonight and watched movies, its cold and I am poor so I decided to have a night in save cash, so went straight out and rented movies, oh well cheaper than the pub.
First film was a Korean anime called blue sky. It was fairly entertaining, in a post apocalyptic world (Anime and the end of the world seem to go hand in hand don't they) one city remains surrounded by a rag tag of oppressed people called the diggers, has the time come for a revolutions. Then rendering and mixture of traditional and modern graphics were in places breathtaking. As usual from anime though I wasn't sure which side was really correct the decadent citizens or the peasant diggers anime make me think even if all them films end up being so abstract they are bearly followable.
The second film was “Made in Britain” in which Tim Roth plays a young nationalist youth trapped into a steady decline highlighting some of the social problem in Britain had in the 70s. Its a rather grim look at the UK kind of in the same vein of Romper Stomper in the UK
The third film was one I watched on tv, Phil went home before the end of Made in Britain and when it finished I kind of flicked over and started watching TV, just caught the start of Best Laid Plans, it then got into the twisty plot in which Resse Wetherspoon was excellent, as the long suffering girlfriend prepared to do anything for her man, its also a film that demonstrates how white lies spiral out of control.

More Linux, and Lost

I felt so tired waking up this morning; fortunately to cheer me up I received Lulu's new year card today, was such a welcome surprise hiding in amongst my junk mail. It was lovely to read and made me smile a lot. I wish I had been able to put the same level of sentiment into my letter t her I guess I am just not as good at expressing my feelings as she.

I decided to do something productive with my, so I read some of my latest buy does anything eat wasps a book published from the last word articles from the back of New Scientist. There are some really freaking / interesting questions and answers well worth an afternoon read. I also managed to clean the layer of dirt off my car its black again now!

After that I went to the gym for my first weights routine of 2006, a month off weights certainly makes a massive difference I was a lot weaker, hopefully I should be able to build back up fairly rapidly though.
I the evening Bruce and Phil came over we upgraded the memory in the terminal tournaments server and also built a new Linux kernel optimised for the server. Hopefully this will give a significant performance benefit. I also started downloading a fresh steam installation in an effort to fix the weird start-up issues we had at the last Lan. The next one should probably be the biggest yet with a load of returnees who couldn't make it to the Christmas bash and some of the new Christmas players coming back for more. I can't wait!

Whilst it was downloading we watched episodes 10 and 11 of lost series two, I know I have said it before but lost is getting more and more weird diverging from what I liked about it in the first place. It's still enjoyable to watch just not quiet as cool as series one. We also watched a bizarre Japanese film called Dead or Alive it was violent weird and visual Phil's going to have a great time when he visits there in March.

Post 100

Todays post is a milestone, I am amazed at myself sticking at this for so long now, 100 posts its incredible normally I lose interest and stop after a couple of goes. Spurred on by Lulu, and a few other people I have tried hard to put some real emotion enrgy and I hope some decent writing onto the my website.

Phils Despair calendar lasted only one day by Wednesday morning it had been quietly taken down and returned to my desk. Nevermind everyone was amused by it and we all had a look at the funny items on it before I took it home and put it up in my bedroom. Andrew has the daily dilbert calendar which is equally as good and allowable in our office.

I finally got an interesting piece of software to work on abiet briefly Mike D has designed a web service to allow xml results to be pst and results returned from advances to the outside world this is vastly superior to the current clunky interface. I got to write a basic stylesheet outputter which was actually kind of interesting a lot more so than fixing bugs in the archaic notes system.

Its satuday and one week on I still feel rough as hell worse both my dad and Bruce have succumbed to the mystery illness its a real pain. I am really missing being able to exercise and I could very much do with getting into it soon, Christmas was a bad time for my diet and I have put on a few kilos. I did manage to eat pretty heathly this week though so that is a bonus. I have replaced chocolate and chrips with fruit and nuts so that should help a little also I have cut down meal portions and snacks its actually easier at work not to snack on things than whilst I am at home.

Today I got totally ripped off by my local pet store I had to replace some of the filters on my fish tank, it wa quiet urgent I do not want to let the tank get behind the cleaning schedual its very bad for the fish and plants in their so I paid twice the normal price from the internet shops to by the carbon filters :-S

Phil came over last night, we were both feeling under the weather still so we rented a few films including land of the dead (pretty good) Napolean Dynamite (offbeat American humor) and the excellent Hotel Rwanda. After seeing Don Cheadle in both Hotel Rwanda and Crash I must say he is a really excellent actor. As I write this though Phil is off skiing with his dad in Austria lucky sod.

Hope you enjoyed post 100!

Dark Water

This evening Phil rented a film, must have been doing this a lot recently as we couldn't seem to find a film we wanted to watch. Eventually we settled on Crash only to find it was all out. Instead we rented Dark Water, it looked good from the same writer as the ring.
Eccentually the film is about a mother who having split up from her adulterous husband moves to a dingy apartment complex with her daughter. It opens well with the obligitory sepia toned flashback to the womens own abusive mother.
Unfortunatly the pace isnt so much slow as glacial. I also guessed pretty much correctly what was going to happenwithin about three scenes. The tension was built up in a kind of is she mentle or is this really happening kind of way but I felt it was clumsily handled.
There was some great acting especially from John C. Reilly as the machievellian estate agent and Tim Roth as the cheap lawyer working out of his car.
After a few more turns on civ I finally hit the hey.

Ong Bak attack

After another day at work and another tiring gym session I decided a night I might be night so spent this evening watching some movies.

Ring 2,  oh dear oh dear Hollywoods obsession with Japanese horror has really gone wrong now, whilst I preferred the original Ring to the remake I thought the remake was passible his however was utter tripe I didn't care about the characters one bit yuk.

Next movie I was joined by Bruce though he spent most of his time searching for content on google video, mostly of potato guns and a where to buy ex soviet tanks why you ask perhaps one of his colleagues wiping out todays work finally tipped I'm over the edge?

Ong Bak is a Thai martial arts film it was quiet enjoyable with its forgettable plot terrible dialogue but excellent special effects, given it was done without wirework or cgi it was very impressive.

FP!

Well thought I would give this blogging lark a try, it's a lovely sunny summers days here and I have just had a bbq so I am pretty full. My Chinese friend Lulu has been pestering me to start writing so here it is. Ive actually self published some earlier work on my website and also some of the Slashdot journal. I may migrate some of the content depending on how well I like blogger.

Last night I went out to Wilmslow, Paul was out as was Lisa freshly arrived from Sydney. She was in great form as was Paul, in fact it was a great evening sat outside the rectory chatting and drinking in the awrm evening air. Wish I had taken out my camera and got some shots. Talking of cameras Woller has a really lovely new camera phone 2mp! Think its time I upgraded there is a 7mp Ixus now.

It has been a long week, this time last week I was in Sweden watching the Flugtag and at Coldplay on Tuesday they were amazing much better than when I saw them at the men arena.

Yesterday I saw a film that chilled me to the bone.  Called the corporation and is about the rise and domination of the corporation I hadn't fully realised how much control they have it was scary and now the question is what do I do as a shareholder and a member of a capitalist society I couldn't go through life and avoid all corporate but I really think the system has to change.