iRobot (the vacuuming one)

Roomba docked in the kitchen 

Today my new home helper arrive in the form of a Roomba J5+. I have been toying with the idea of buying a robot vacuum for a while. We have three cats and a small boy so there is always a lot of fluff and muck to clean up.

The package was simple enough take out the roomba and stand, site the stand then insert the roomba. There is an app for the iPhone I downloaded. The first run roomba wanders around the house mapping the floor plan. After which a map appears which you can subdivide into different rooms. 

The mapping took quite a while around one hour and forty five minutes. It did produce a pretty good representation of the ground floor. 

Once finished with the mapping (and a recharge) we set roomba going vacuuming round. It was did a good job clearing up dust and pet fluff and was small enough go go underneath our sofa and armchair. Even cleaned up the pine needles from the Christmas tree.

It is able to empty its dust collection into the dock which is nice, and should mean it only needs infrequent emptying.

I was able to pair roomba with my existing google home assistant and after naming the areas on the smart map I am able to say "Hey google ask roomba to clean the hall" and google will trigger roomba to go to that area and start a clean.

The unit also came with a mop function attachment. This requires more manual effort, first have to attach a cloth the unit then swap out the normal collection bin with the split mop and vacuum one. The downside to this is that it cannot empty the contents into the dock you need to fill the water prior to use then empty manually once roomba is finished. I would say the it did an adequate but not impressive job mopping, it wasn't able to get out mucky hallway clean from mudstains. It was able to clean the more lightly soiled kitchen floor.

Overall its a great bit of kit, especially as a vacuum. It cleaned up my house nicely and I can schedule it to run. It takes longer than vacuuming yourself however you are not putting in the work.

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.

Influence

I have just finished reading Influence: The Psychology of Persuasionby Dr. Robert Cialdini. I picked up this book after hearing it talked about on Radio 4 a good read picked by Daniel Finkelstein, Associate Editor, columnist and leader writer for The Times, was also an adviser to John Major and William Hague.

In Influence Cialdini writes about the power of persuasion. Using examples drawn both from his own life and psychological studies he examines some common themes which lead us to be manipulated (or to manipulate). Each chapter is about a particular method including;

• Reciprocation
• Commitment
• Social Proof
• Liking
• Authority
• Scarcity 

Each method is a unique example of how people in groups or as individuals react in certain circumstances. He gives specific example of how marketeers use this tactics, sometimes they do so even sub consciously to make us buy, buy more or give references. He also tells us how we can realise when specific methods are being used on us and to say no. I find it quite hard going their are a lot of psychological terms. It was however incredibly rewarding illustrating perfectly moments I have exactly felt. The chapter on commitment and consistency was particularly interesting to me as I have certainly been taken in. Hoisted by my own words by a clever salesman, getting me to commit and have my own words used against me, so much so I felt like I could not back out of the sale.

I would recommend to anyone who has an interest in marketing, or wow has ever felt powerless to salesmen or charity people.

Orange is the new black

On Sunday Kath and I spent  lazy morning together then in the afternoon we headed to Matt and Christelles' house for a BBQ. We arrived to find Matt in full BBQ mode. We started with sausages and salad made by Christelle. Next up were lamb kebabs then steak. Christelle made a tarte for desert which was very tasty, served along with homemade ice cream. The ice cream was a little solid but very good, and despite Matts dire warning about ice cream being one of the most dangerous things in terms of food poisoning we were good the next day.

The kids were amusing themselves on the trampoline while we eat. We had a great evening, chatting about kids, life and many things.

Matt recommended Orange is the new black which Kath and I ploughed through. I found it an interesting series with some good characters. Kath and I enjoyed sitting together in each other company watching TV. We see so little of each other that just enjoying each other company is amazing.

Today we went out for a meal with my Parents and Jean to the Bull Head. Kath and I shared a fisherman's platter, while my parents and Jean all had fish and chips. The food was very tasty, I think that we had a great meal. Afterwards everyone came round to our house to see the garden and give coco a stroke. Coco certainly enjoyed the attention. It is always nice to see Jean she is such a lovely person, its hard not to be happy when she is around.

All of Me

I have just finished reading the second Inspector Rebus book "Hide and Seek" by Ian Rankin. Jono had given me the first book "Knots and Crosses". I was very impressed Rankin has a real feel for the dark underbelly of Edinburgh.

In the first novel John Rebus is a troubled policeman haunted by events from the past and present. His past some of which he can't remember following a nervous breakdown after a terrible time in the SAS. Add to this a troubled relationship which his daughter and ex wife, and overachieving brother. Then mix in the dark drug dealing parts of Edinburgh.

The second novel follows almost immediately from the first. Following the events of the know and Crosses Rebus has been promoted, but his relationship with Gill has failed, she taking up with a DJ. A junky is killed and laid in a satanic pose leading Rebus into a dark underworld of crime, run by Hyde.

Both novels heavily reference Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde, a book that I have never read but certainly will try and pickup.

The action takes place in the 1980's so there are some weird anachronisms reading today. I couldn't help but think, how much mobiles phones have changed things so much. No more calling bars, and other places where someone might be. Or struggling for change at a payphone are a distant memory, the internet generation wont even know what it was like not to be constantly available.

Abduction

I have just finished reading a book Jono gave me called Abduction, by Mark Gimenez. It follows the abduction of a young girl. It was quite entertaining, especially the first section which focuses more on the effect of the abduction on the family and the response of the FBI. I must admit the larger plot and eventual ending was a bit much for me to stomach however the characters were very well drawn especially the mother Elizabeth and Vietnam veteran grandfather Ben.

Interesting to compare the drunk character in this to Jo Nesbo's Detective Harry Hole. Nesbos character seems more realistic, whereas Ben is an all American hero who cant stop drinking to save his marriage but suddenly stops to save his granddaugher. In the plot itself is somewhat better done than I lay out. The action plays out in an exciting and interesting way coupled with several story arcs to keep you entertained.

Police

I have just finished reading the latest book from Jo Nesbø, Police
. Its the eigths in the Harry Hole detective series. I think he is back to his best form. It reminded me of the Redbreast the third in the series, and probably the best of the lot. The book follows on from the events of the last book the Phantom which left on a cliff hanger with us not knowing whether Harry would make it. It takes about a third of the book before we find out what happened.
 
Like the other Nesbo books I have read the action clips along at a pace with plenty of Red Herrings and twists to the plot. I  could bearly put it down once I got into the story, overall a very good read.

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.

Safe without

I finished Wolf Hall last night. At 650 pages it is a bit of an epic, but well worth it. The author Hilary Mantle has managed to take a well known piece of history Henry XIII wives and put a new spin on it. The main character (though there are a lot of characters in the novel) is Thomas Cromwell. She manages to turn what could be very dull historical moments like Parliament sessions into dramatic and interesting scenes. Building a portrayal of 16th century England which is accessible and interesting. Opening with his childhood, abusive father and trip overseas. Then switching to Thomas as a 40 year old in the service of Cardinal Wolsey. Thomas stays loyal to Wolsey despite his fall from grace after failing to obtain a annulment of Henry XIII and Catherine of Aragon.

I found it to be a page turner and was sad in a way to reach the end. I can certainly understand why it won the man booker price in 2009.

There are much better reviews than I could write by the Gaurdian and Telegraph

Civ V

Finally managed to start playing Sid Meier's Civilization V, so far its excellent. Civilization V is the latest incarnation of the Civilization series. I have been playing since getting hooked on Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri Complete (PC). SMAC followed Civ two coming before Civ III, and it hooked me. Phil and I used to play for hours, famously we once played until 4am and he had to work the next day (I had university I think I did make it to lectures somehow).

The graphics are greatly improved, the world map looks great. They have streamlined the whole game, removing the spying and religion features. Personally I think that this really helps make the game simpler and more fun. To get you going Advisors pop up to help make recommendations on their areas. The main thrust of the game remains the same however, starting from a lone city in 4000BC build up our Civilization into an great power.

One of the biggest improvements is the battle options. The unit counts are reduced to a more sensible one per tile, so no more stupid 20 unit stacks crushing your cities. Units cost more so it more important to keep hold of them upgrade them. Tactics now seem to be favored over swamping enemies with units.

There is one new feature, city states. These are computer controlled cities which can be interacted with in a variety of ways, befriending, trading or attacking.

The only issue that I have had so far is the games stability. I rally enjoyed Civ IV I wasnt sure how they could improve it, but they have managed to tweak the game in all sorts of wyas to make it a simpler and more fun experience while still maintaining the essence of what makes Civ uch a good series. If you like god games this is one of the best!

Let it be

Sunday night was the Liverpool Sound concert. Once Phil finally made an appearance we set off to Liverpool. I was feeling incredibly hungover but Paul McCartney was playing so I had a soak in the bath and some tea and pulled myself together.
Paul had this notion that there would be some sort of early birds area so wanted to arrive well ahead of time. It struck me a decent idea get there early, get a nice parking space, have something to eat together and queue up. Unfortunately I hit a problem. I bought Phil a ticket to the concert for his birthday present only he wasn't at home and his phone was switched off. I got stressed, but finally I booted my computer up to find that at 3.26 am he made friends with Andrea, I assumed this meant he was at her place. At about 12.30 he came online on messenger to tell me he would meet me at his house at 2. I arrived and waited getting more and more stressed chatting to several people on the phone. Finally at 3 Phil arrived and we left for Liverpool, as it turned out our timing was great. I managed to park right next to the stadium and get near the front of the queue. We even somehow beat Paul in though he had been in the queue an hour longer.
Our early arrival gifted us a forward position to watch the bands. The Zutons started around 6.30 they were really good. The sound was great. Kaiser Chiefs were next, I am not really a fan but they put on a really good performance, Ruby and I predict a riot were stand out. Unfortunately by this point I needed to visit the bathroom and Phil having been up all night needed to grab some caffeine.
Thanks to the toilet being right at the back we were unable to get back to Paul and Pippa, we found a place that had a reasonable view, which was good as Paul was superb, well not just superb, superlative.
He put on a great show mixing in his own, the Beatles and Wings numbers. I couldn't remember the full list but fortunately another blogger has it.

Hippy Hippy Shake
Jet
Drive My Car
Flaming Pie
Got to Get You Into My Life
Let Me Roll It with the Foxy Lady
My Love “This one’s for Linda”
C Moon
The Long and Winding Road
Dance Tonight
Blackbird
Calico Skies
In Liverpool
I'll Follow the Sun (with 4 endings)
Eleanor Rigby
Something (tribute to george) played first on ukelelee and electric for other half
Penny Lane (forgot the words off the bat and had a false start)
Band on the Run with David Grohl on guitar
Back in the U.S.S.R. with David Grohl joining Abe on drums
Live and Let Die with stage pyros and fireworks
Let It Be
Hey Jude

ENCORE
Yesterday
A Day In The Life then Give Peace A Chance ending
Lady Madonna
I Saw Her Standing There (with David Grohl joined Abe on the 2nd drum kit)
Dave Grohl came out and joined Paul to play Band on the Run, Back in the U.S.S.R. and I Saw Her Standing There. Then moved to the drums to a couple of songs, he also joined in the encore on Day in the life. I cant really adequately describe in words how good the atmosphere and the music was, hearing an entire stadium singing along to Hey Jude or being overwhelmed by the pyrotechnics on Live and Let die was all just awesome.
We caught up with Paul and Pippa as the crowd dispersed at the end, to the bangs of the fireworks over our heads. We were all buzzing, I boughta program and we said our goodbyes as Paul and Pippa headed for London and Phil and I to Manchester. We were both really awake so as to extend the evening I took a detour into Rusholme for a curry and a chat about the gig.

Seven Spices

After a rather dull day I had a very interesting evening. Hooking up with Nick, Ian, Phil and Gilly we headed out to the new(ish) Indian seven spices in Cheadle Hulme. The place is attempting to be an upmarket Indian restaurant. They have excellent decor and the food was a cut above the normal.
Poppadoms were scarce they server a kind of salt and pepper Poppadoms, not just the usual deep fried affair. They tasted great but there wasn't really enough to go round for 7 hungry people.
I started with Sheek Kebabs, which were excellently prepared, just about the right level of flavor. I swapped half for Phil's Afghan Tikka, I wish I had ordered his dish. The chicken was succulent and tender the preparation superbly flavoured.
My main course was akin to a Jalfrezi, chicken tikka with a green chilli onion an pepper sauce.
The drink service was pretty good the Polish girl serving us regularly asked us how we were doing. The food service wasn't quiet so hot, we had to wait for some time for our order to be taken and as I guess everything was cooked to order the waiting time was fairly long. The portion sizes were good all the food arrived server in deceptively sized copper pots.
Overall the food and surrounding were top notch, in fact some of the best I have tasted. The service was good in places but it took a good while to actually eat anything. The bill came to about £27 a head pretty expensive for Indian, and pushed up by the high cost of the drinks which due to the wait we ended up drinking quite a few of. I would say for connoisseurs is an excellent choice for people wanting a traditional Indian its a bit overprices and definitely not fast food.
After the meal we headed to the John Millington for a drink, then wen on to Bramhall for a couple of drinks at Graze. I was so full I found drinking a chore and got a lift back with Nick at one.

3V

Here is an interesting idea. Bascially you buy vouchers at payments points which can then be used to buy goods and services online.

Each voucher you purchase has a visa number on the receipt the expiry data and cvt2 are sent to your email or mobile phone. These are the three details needed to make purchases online.

Unlike some other payment cards this can be used at any site that excepts Visa. While this does look like a coinvent solution for people whom don't have or cannot get a credit card there do seem to be a few little quirks. The actual physical card is only used to purchase vouchers each voucher has its own visa number and while you can move money from one to another there is a £1.75 charge. Some of the vouchers themselves have a charge to purchase and the maximum amount that can be used cannot exceed £200's

Further more like the pre pay mobile phone vouchers this scheme is clearly based around the vouchers have an expiration after which their value drops to zero.

You could use these for anonymous online payments couple with an unregistered pre pay mobile phone.

Over all I think this is an interesting but expensive and fiddly system which isn't worth it for the average person. Given one of the pay points local to me is a high school they are clearly targeting young people who are used to buying top up for they pre pay phones and cant yet get a real credit card. They might also be useful for people paranoid about fraud shopping online after all the maximum you can lose is the vouchers value.

One thing to note as these are not real credit cards you wont be protected by section 75 of the consumer credit card act so if you were buying items and they arrived damaged you would not have the credit card company to back you up.Here is an interesting idea. Basically you buy vouchers at payments points which can then be used to buy goods and services online.

An Ending

I got back from the Gym in time to catch the Japanese part of around the world in 80 Gardens. You can catch it on the bbc iplayer for the next 7 days. Kyoto looked so wonderful, I really cant wait to see it for myself. There is one scene where Monty Don is in a taxi driving past a bamboo patch and just has to stop and admire it, it looked like the scene in house of flying daggers!

Owners on the orange phone network get two tickets for the price of one at Cineworld cinemas every Wednesday night. As Martina is an Orange customer was indulged in an Orange Wednesday night.

We went to see Juno, a film about a teenage girl whose life is turned upside down after she becomes pregnant. Rather than aborting she decides to have the hild adopted, the film follows the emotional twists and turns. I found it a really touching and cute film. The dialogue and acting were excellent and the sound track is superb, well worth a watch.

Boxbackup

For a long while I have pondered and tried to find an elegant way to backup my co-located server. I tried and failed with Amanda and several home-brew scripts. I finally stumbled across boxbackup.
Boxbackup is a multi platform network backup device. One system acts a a server to which clients (windows mac linux bsd) can connect to and backup files.
Boxbackup uses libsync (think rsync) to only synchronise files that have changed. Also because there is both a server and client agent its should be more efficient than rsync alone.
Security is assured through the use of Tsig certificates. Certificates are used to encrypt the data transmission and secure files as they are transferred.

Server Setup

There are Debian packages available here Download
wget http://www.backports.org/debian/pool/main/b/boxbackup/boxbackup-server_0.10-1~bpo.1_i386.deb
then install
dpkg -i boxbackup-server_0.10-1~bpo.1_i386.deb
The debian installer didnt work out very well for me so I manually ran. Replace server1.example.tld with the name of your server.
bbstored-config /etc/boxbackup server1.example.tld bbstored
Change directory
cd /etc/boxbackup/bbstored
Create a certificate authority
bbstored-certs ca init
Sign the server key
bbstored-certs ca sign-server server1.example.tld-csr.pem
copy the certificates into the bbstored directory
cp ca/servers/server1.example.tld-cert.pem .
copy the server cert
ca/roots/clientCA.pem .
My server is behind a NAT firewall so I had to open port 2100 and edit /etc/boxbackup/bbstored.conf from
ListenAddresses = inet:server1.example.tld
to
ListenAddresses = inet:10.0.0.254
Create a client account, each client is identified with a unique hex code 75AB59D
bbstoreaccounts create 75AB59D 0 20480M 20480M
The numbers with M following are the soft and hard limits for the amount of space on the server to allow for backups.
Start the server
/etc/init.d/boxbackup-server start

Client Setup

Log into the client computer, download boxbackup-client
wget http://www.backports.org/debian/pool/main/b/boxbackup/boxbackup-client_0.10-1~bpo.1_i386.deb

and install
dpkg -i boxbackup-client_0.10-1~bpo.1_i386.deb
You will be prompted to let Debian guide you, it didn't work for me. Change to the boxconfig directory
cd /etc/boxbackup/bbackupd
and run the config generator
bbackupd-config /etc/boxbackup/ lazy 75AB59D server1.example.tld /var/bbackupd /home /var/www

The final entries are the directories to backup.
Copy 75AB59D-csr.pem to the main server /etc/boxbackup/bbstored/ and sign with your server certificate.
bbstored-certs ca sign 75AB59D-csr.pem
This will create 2 files ca/roots/serverCA.pem and ca/ clients/75AB59D-cert.pem. Copy these to the client in /etc/boxbackup/bbackupd/
Start the client
/etc/init.d/boxbackup-client start
Check its running
grep bb /var/log/syslog
You should see something like

Jan 14 22:53:54 client bbackupd[3540]: Starting daemon (config: /etc/boxbackup/bbackupd.conf) (version 0.10)
Jan 14 22:53:55 client bbackupd[3540]: Beginning scan of local files
Jan 14 22:53:55 beta bbackupd[3540]: Opening connection to server server1.example.tld...
Jan 14 22:53:56 beta bbackupd[3540]: Connection made, login successful

Good Luck!

Second life

I opened the Telegraph this morning and on the front of the property section had a most revealing article about the world of the second life. For those not in the know second life is a virtual world, not really a game more a in which you can live, own property. I always thought it was about sex people living out their lives vicariously or attacking journalist with flying penis.. However increasingly it seems that people are living out there lives even making a living from Second Life.

The article in the telegraph was talking about Prim Perfect a magazine showcasing some of the more imaginative the houses in Second Life. I knew Second Life was big when I started to read about companies and country opening up shop there. Such as Reuters opening a office in second life. Though part of what I found funny in that was the Reuters reporter imitating Jennifer Government and taking the name of his company in the virtual world.

I suppose virtual worlds give creative people a canvas to create, whether it be objects, or art and others who want to surround themselves with nice things. Perhaps things they can buy only in a virtual world. I think I might be somewhat behind the curb I was going to create a character for the screening of Four Eyed Monsters in Second Life, then for the technology expo. Maybe Ill open up a shop, I just need to think of an angle ;)

Aqueous Transmission

This evening Phil and I went to see Incubus at the MEN Arena. It was a really good gig they played a mixture of the old favorites, Drive, Mexico, and The Warmth. I enjoyed the old songs immensely.

They love to experiment many of the songs featured eclectic electronic openers and in the middle of the set they did a prog rock esq bit where all the band members played a solo section.

It was a strange gig really Bandon Boyd hardly said a thing, they were late on went straight into it played until 10 had a break then a 20 minute encore. They finished the set by playing Aqueous Transmission, it sounded amazing but the insect sound they played and left playing soon chased everyone out of the venue. Overall not the best gig I have been to but enjoyable and different.

I have been finding it hard to write recently it used to be a release I enjoyed and there are a few things mulling around my mind. Somehow though I cant really find a way to get things down onto my blog. Hopefully my mind will open up and Ill be able to write again soon.

mmm Simpson's

Bruce and I headed to Parrs Wood last night to take in the new Simpsons movie. I love the Simpsons TV satirical full of in Jokes and references. The film continues this tradition, Lisa delivers an environmentalist lecture entitled "an irritating truth" and at one point Bart wears a black bra on his head and says in a rather mousey voice, "I am the mascot for an evil corporation".

The main plot centers around environmentalism and religion. After a dark warning from grandpa Simpson, Homer does everything wrong and inadvertently causes the doom of Springfield after polluting the lake. He goes on to nearly lose his family (Bart even starts to idolise Flanders!) after moving to Alaska Homer faces some stark choices, will he be able to save his family and Springfield?

The only real criticism was the underuse and sometimes irrelevant use of all the other Simpsons characters. Monty burns, and principle Skinner had rather unfunny parts almost just to get them in. I suppose with such a wealth of material they just wanted to put as much in as possible.

I really enjoyed the film, I think they did try and take on an awful lot transferring it to the big screen. Especially whilst still working on the tv series. Some if it worked the main, there were some hilarious moments, both visual gags and dialogue driven. I especially loved the pig parodies, Harry Plopper and Spider Pig. Overall it should make you chuckle and feel good well worth a watch.

Harry Potter vs Transformers

Saturday was consumed with PC building so I only managed to read about a third of the new Potter book. My mum got a copy from John Lewis for £5.

I made a proper start didn't get to start my copy of Potter properly until Sunday.
I read a good deal Sunday Morning, but I had to take a break in the afternoon to go visit the data centre, then help Bruce move some bits around his house. Its really coming along, the kitchens pretty much done the floors don't have holes in the floor anymore and the decorating is in progress.

In the evening we headed out to see the new Transformers film. I can still remember playing with them when I was a kid. Watching this film was an attempted at reliving childhood memories. The effects were spectacular, the transformers fought, lived with the actors. There were some annoyances, the plot was about as understandable as the Chinglish manual that came with my PC bits. I have no idea what the point of the security analyst / geek programmer were other than to have a beautiful girl ons creen. I would personally have confined it to the cutting room floor. Its worth a watch for the action, but its too long, too short on plot, and not really for kids there is a lot of adult humour and references.

I got home and hit potter hard, the story twisting and turning throwing the odd curveball. It starts out dark, and pretty much stays along at that level. Everything which Potter has endured thus far is firmly eclipsed (short of his parents untimely end) as the rise of the dark lord casts a dark shadow over the Potter universe. The usual trio, are nearly torn apart by the stresses and strains. A good section of the book read like something out of Lord of the Rings, they are cut off from the world facing incredible odd the situation worsening all the time.

Overall I enjoyed reading it though I do feel she hasn't quiet reached the levels of imagination she hit when writing Goblet of Fire. Too many loose ends were ticket off in a sort of screenplay fashion, I wonder it was aimed for the screen. A shame if so. I guess my biggest gripe with Deathly Hallows is how it ended. After everything Harry is forced to go through suddenly its over, very neat, there is even an epilogue. I am glad that its a series where Rowling has taken risks characters can and do die, the narrative can be gritty and real, examining issue like racism exclusion jealousy and love within stories about a teenage boy. Its certainly worth a read, especially considering how readable a writer she is. Somehow even complex narrative is always not just understandable but enjoyable. Would that I had even a modicumo fher talent I would be a happy man.

NeverAlways Be Lonely

Its been a bit of a mad weekend, for expected and unexpected reasons. Friday was a long day, I was meant to be catching Sandbox after work, but by the time I left work I wouldn't have had time to change, I felt tired and didn't want to turn up to a gig in my suit.
So my Friday night consisted of drinking a couple of beers and watching a dvd. It was a very very good dvd though, Pans Labyrinth. Its a film that crosses the dreams of a girls fertile imagination against a brutal backdrop of the end of the Spanish civil war. Well written well acted a good story this is the sort of film I really enjoy.
On Saturday my dads pc failed, this meant stress for me, as de facto pc guy I had to sort it out. I decided rather cunningly to give him my 18 month old old and to buy myself the bits to get a new one. I found aria were selling 4GB of ram for just over £ 100 and scan had a reasonable price on processors. I decided to go the whole hog and shelled out for Windows Vista just to give it a try. I would say Vista is a worthwhile upgrade if you have a powerful computer and like eye candy. Its got slightly less patronising pop ups then XP other than the box which pops up every time you want to install anything. I know its for security but does it really have to be that irritating. The graphics tweaks make Vista look good but switch between Windows has nothing on Apples expose. I was a bit worried when on installing Visual Studio it warned me about the incompatibility problems. I only had to download a 490mb patch to fix it.
I basically spent the rest of the day backing up, screwing together, installing and configuring this new machine, which was good really as I was feeling dreadful. Sometimes I find the loneliness consumes. I spend hours looking at photos of whats been happy times trying to cling to something good. I also find doing installs is a good way to avoid thinking about it, her.
To be honest I am angry with myself, my friend said it best. I make too deep connections too quickly so I end up hurt then shut myself away to avoid getting hurt again. Overcompensating in both directions like an emotional sea-saw. I supose things are not made easier by the fact the I received an sms telling my how much she was enjoying herself with her niece by the sea. Whereas I am sat alone, in the rain. I suppose it could be much worse I shouldn't complain my house isn't sat in the middle of a new lake right new. Bah the only problem is I feel guilty for feeling sorry for myself, but at the same time whilst other people have worse problems it dosnt actually change the way I feel, stupid emotions.