This time of year

Always gets me down to be honest it is the end of the year and what do I have to show for it. Well in some corner of my desk covered with paperwork there are some rejection letters well a few probably more in e-mail form and the vast majority are just those that never respond.

Now I just have to try and get a hold of myself so I can move on and keep grinding away for a job so wish me luck on that front. Got a few leads to chase up but it tends to get RATHER quiet right after Christmas.

Still got Internet access and a few TV shows to keep me entertained things could be much worse. Electricity here too and that is nothing to be sniffed at.

On a lighter note tasty snacks are now available from Blockbuster I have personally tasted them to verify this.

Here we are again folks

So I would say I’m a writer but not in such a way that I could derive a living from it or something. If you offered me a job writing for a manga/anime or video game magazine I would bite your hand off, unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be a niche for a magazine purely about American TV as a culture form not here in the UK at least I feel that there should be. So with time on my hands and a desperate need to keep the mind active lest it stop and I can never get it started again I write some stories and author some blogs like this.

As well as writing stories I also spend time on community style websites in the past you could always catch me on TV.com either writing up reviews for Smallville or endlessly complaining about the state of Heroes after the 1st season. Now I have moved on to the Starkville Forums specifically the Heroes episodic forums. I try to be insightful in my posts there and if I find something I dislike which does happen I try to explain why I don’t like it instead of just saying oh that is rubbish. So that was a little about me and writing check back sometime for more stuff.



[Edit: Random drunk girl started to hit on me while I was walking home. That sort of stuff never happens to me it was very strange, very strange indeed. Still it is nice to be noticed even if the person noticing you can't stand up straight.]

Women and the cold cold night

The nights are indeed getting cold and as they are I find myself thinking about the ladies (not said like ladeeeeeeezzz) just the female species I guess. Lately I have been regularly trying to improve my social situation through some pre-dating attempts. I've been trying to organise some but have failed mightily it seems. Still you can't give up so we have to keep on going.

My fingers are cold too poor for central heating it seems which brings us to job searches. It gets a bit quiet onthe job front in December as if it was not already quiet enough. So job related rant of the post, applied online for Christmas jobs at a popular mobile phone shop went through registering on their site jumped all their hoops and what not, and what do I get no response whatsoever. Things should be more equal and people should not be made to feel like cannon fodder if I have to spend 15-20 mins to apply for a job and those are the short ones then people advertising the post should respond to those people who are qualified for the job even to say no you did not get it. That is what HR is for surely?

Been a long time

As the American holidays roll in like Thanksgiving and then on to Christmas, so then does a lot of what I consider to be quality TV takes a holiday with major US TV shows like Smallville, Heroes, V and the like. Of course you could say you still have top British TV like Merlin and Misfits to watch but it is not enough and let us face it Merlin is dire and Misfits is nothing special. I have been checking out Paradox on the Iplayer and that is ok I guess but I feel it is more thriller than science fiction which at first it seems to claim to be. There is also Spooks, which is pretty strong, this season and one of the few British programs I have seen that can never be described as predictable although it got rid of my favourite character.

As I write this scratching around for ideas I find myself watching tennis Philipoussis is playing if you are interested. The laptop I am writing on my original one is coughing and spluttering under the weight of the mighty Word 2k, which tells me, it is definitely on its last legs. Going to have to find myself a job soon recently my shoes failed which was a bit embarrassing to say the least.

To add to my list of silly mistakes guess who forgot to reup their World of Warcraft Gamecard, as soon as it came up saying you only have 1 minute left of game time I had a facepalm moment. Unfortunately the bills have been stacking up and they have to be paid first don’t need to be getting into serious debt problems again took me over 2 years to get out of the last ones and they caused nothing but pain and stress.

What am I doing with my life?

I find myself asking this particular question too much. It seems as if I peaked way to early with my achievements, yeah I am proud of them but I want more a whole lot more. I have to I have mouths to feed and things to do and I ain't going out on a whimper. The deal is if childhood sucks things should get better right? Well that is how I want to do things. It is Christmas time so looking for temp work opportunities but heard nothing back which is crap my CV is worth a response but alas we must perservere till things get better.

I've been trying to pay more attention to Twitter and the strange way it does thing it certainly takes some getting used to. Other than that just watching the TV shows I like and trying to stay alive and reasonably content.

More than a month huh

Crazy stuff really especially with all this controversy on British television, Antoine Du Beke using the P word, Dannii Minogue dropping a clanger on X-Factor and Nick Griffin getting time on Question Time oh and don't forget about Jan Moir and that dodgy article she wrote about Stephen Gately.

I had a plenty to say about all those things at the time but not I just feel it is in the past and there are lighter things to speak of no point in kicking off with all that stuff. I will say that the BBC coverage which I tend to see through BBC radio Five Live is starting to wind me up just the way the presenters question people they ask them the question that the interviewee just answered previously. It just promotes that please slap them response within me.

In other news it will be November soon and yes that means I will be trying Nanowrimo again it is a lot of fun. Not sure how far I will get with my heavy WoW schedule to be honest but it will be nice to form a new story and let my imagination run wild.

Twitter - I've been far more regular on that at the moment I fear I am falling for all the hype and it is a nice way to follow celebs though in my case they tend to be Internet Celebs - the best kind if you ask me.

For all you TV peeps Dollhouse starts tonight on IT4 just before Sanctuary's 3rd episode of the new season. Sanctuary is pretty good at the moment not sure where it will go from here but I am eager to see more. Heroes will be on the BBC next year which sucks to be perfectly honest as the viewing figures will be terrible. Most sci-fi fans will opt to watch in other ways instead of being 8 or so episodes behind the US and trying to dodge the Internet spoilers. Of course it must be more expensive then say Sanctuary was to pick up but you have to spend money if you want the ratings.

That is all I care to say for now.

Just some random thoughts

So on my random romp around the Internet I found this and I thought, "Hmm weird but kinda cool". Yup those were my thoughts verbatim I think someone was recording them. So take a look and see what you think.



I found it totally randomly mainly because I was trying to figure out what thing Jaime had mentioned on her Twitter feed. Other than that I just checked out a sxephil show on YouTube which made reference to Christina Hendricks who is a hottie and a redhead which is a bonus for me.

[OTHER NEWS]
Taking an enforced WoW break due to my poor financial planning certainly have no one else to blame. Still it might be for the best if the guild raid today was anything to go buy it all went to hell after half an hour of raiding which is pathetic true it was the first step up from 10 to 25 man TOTC but still we have all done it before on many occaisons so the change over should not have been that hard.

In other news I've been listening to Free Talk Live a lot recently a different view from the normal it is true but often it does make me cringe some of the things that the hosts come out with. Still it is a very popular podcast according to podcast alley.

Guild Issues

So this other shadow priest in the guild has a problem with me because I have the gift of the roll and he can easily out dps me. He does around 4k and I only manage 2.8k at most. Now I'll blame my connection but I know he probably outskills me as well but I am striving to be better and I think post a decent phoneline and connection that our dps will be getting a lot closer. However just because you out DPS someone doesn't mean you should start calling them out about it. If it happens again then I'll call him out no guild is worth taking the abuse.

Other than that I am proud of doing new content (for me) and helping my guild progress. Things are going ok but I so need a decent connection it is untrue.

"I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore" I think the sentiment from a famous movie was somewhat similar. This applying for job after job only to receive the silent rejection. So I have been thinking about education I even grabbed some booklets from The Institute. So what should I do? God knows how I will be able to get the funding for the second time round. Well I guess there is always teaching :)

--------------------
Hmm Watching True Blood Season 2 Episode 6 and just realising how hot Jenny is and it was done tactfully for True Blood just a quick show off of her in her underwear before covering up and getting intercepted by her boyfriend.

So that is about all as I sit here watching BBC News and charging my mobile phone. Wow I know it is all so damn exciting

I feel like making blog to you

World of Warcraft
Fun fun people it is Darkmoon week and here is yours truly trying to farm up mats for Darkmoon cards to give to inscribers. Yes I could try buying cards but I am already up to 6 of 8 Noble cards. To be honest all the gold farming that bought me the initial cards drove me up the wall and now I guess I am less than enthusiastic about playing. Also it seems pretty hard to break into the raid group of my guild at the moment it seems my less rigidly structured schedule is to my detriment.

TV stuff

Star Trek: Voyager
Just watched Critical Care an episode devoted to the Doctor of which there have been a few. This one was interesting though and showed the Doctor to me being as dark as he was during a very early episode when he was with Kes and a quest to get a name and personality resulted in a Jekyll and Hyde condition.


Journeyman
I am glad I took a chance on this when it came to Sky Three I left it alone as a pilot way back when because one, it sounded like a bad Quantum Leap ripoff and QL was one of my favourite TV shows back in the day and two, any fool could see that it wasn’t going to be renewed. Still it is an engaging story and I have enjoyed the show so far but compare it to say Surface or Threshold two shows cancelled well before their time and it can’t hold a candle to them.

Veronica Mars
This show is weird it is pretty much unlike any teen drama I have seen before. I didn’t like Kristen Bell in Heroes all that much but I think that is because her character was written so incredibly badly that no one was going to come out of it well. In Veronica Mars, Kristen’s character is extremely unlikeable but you still watch, yeah the token black character is a little annoying but it seems a shame to me that the show died after 3 seasons when Smallville has been sucky for so long but then I guess Smallville brings a lot of geeks to show like me who won’t stop watching no matter how bad things get.

Other stuff
Well still experiencing the joy of a duff economy i.e. currently unemployed. I find myself more and more wanting to start writing to get warmed up for nanowrimo not sure what story to commit on though I keep wavering. Some of the time I think a fighting story based around a school or college like manga or a more interesting story about a sociopath.

Tell you what though the one thing I can say for sure is I AM SO BORED IN MY LIFE AND I NEED TO MAKE A CHANGE. So sod this I am off to apply for some jobs.

This is an Emergency!

So today was a windy day and that wind resulted in a little accident, I say little but actually it was a big deal, see there was a bit of a split in the frame of my bedroom window the wind today made that a whole lot worse resulting in it ripping from it hinges and plunging to the depths below and now there is a massive mess of broken glass and wood on the ground outside my flat =o(

I shall report it tomorrow and if I remember will do a little spring cleaning beforehand too because of the inspection. Sorry this is a bit brief too many things running through my head to be honest.

[Anyone having all manner of trouble leaving comments on Facebook it has been doing this for at least a couple of weeks]

Anyway let's talk TV.

Checked out the pilot for Caprica had to really feaured one of my favourite actresses Magda Apanowicz and I do hope I spelt that correctly. It was weird unexpected but I liked it and I am interested in seeing more. It was an hour and a half long but it did not have a cliffhanger ending as such which some people criticised but I think it could be good but it isn't BSG.

Also been checking out the current season of Burn Notice it is definitely growing up with the whole Michael and Fi thing being just interesting enough not to annoy the viewer for being to damn sappy.

Jiminy Cricket!

So TV watching is the main subject this time and I will be starting with The Wire. For those that didn't know the BBC are showing seemingly all of The Wire yes all 5 seasons at the rate of 3 episodes a week from beginning to end. At first I was not convinced but it definitely grew on me. I would rate it on a par with the first few seasons of Homicide: Life on the Street. The character base from season to season is huge and it takes a little while to remember names and back stories but once you do it is like an engrossing novel more than a casual TV show. I can't recommend it enough, you might think that it was ultra violent and nothing else but the level of violence is few and far between though intense enough when it happens.

In other TV related bloggings I got my hands on the first three episodes of True Blood. First impressions, well there is a... lot... of... sex and a lot of nudity. Past that though there is a fascinating story of a woman and a vampire. It is based on a book called Southern Vampire I think forgive me or correct me if I am wrong. It also has Vinny from Home and Away yes you heard me right, doing a passable Louisiana accent, well by my ears at least. So check it out if you don't mind the rated R content.

Extra-Bloggular news and addendums:
After an epic History's Strongest Disciple marathon which lasted for several weeks I am now up to date and anxiously waiting next week's fix. HSD or HSDK is a manga all about a young man who learns martial arts and undergoes hellish training to protect the things he cares about. It is one of my top mangas and easily up there with Bleach and Naruto and surpasses them in story structure it doesn't stretch a plot out like a piece of chewed gum as they often do.

Finally I am going to try to get a volunteer position at a popular fan website. Wish me luck.

WoW: Tut and double tut

My server is still down after Wednesday maintenance, 6 hours after it was supposed to be back online. The annoying thing for me is that there was no notification that there was extended work in the pipeline for our realm. For goodness sake it is not like we're a full server we're low and all our PVE guilds seems to be slowly leaving.

PUGs are a joke but you can't fix that in maintenance. Why do I stay you ask well because shifting 4 characters to a new realm is at once a lottery and a rather pricey option. If I move realms I want all my alts to go with me but even if just took 4 of them that is a ridiculous price just to take your chances in a new realm.

Anyway if other news getting closer to bagging a nicer connection through the old technology of the copper wire - yes a phoneline. More news soon bye all.

Adventures in Burger Flipping and other stuff

So got some money on at the beginning of the week so I decided to do some more creative shopping than I am used to. The main aim of this was to procure finely sourced ingredients for Shaft’s Big Daddy Burgersä. Yes they sound tasty don’t they? Anyway in my amazing travels I was unable to pick up what I viewed as the most important important – red cabbage. I would probably have had more joy at some kind of market but I only checked supermarkets, still managed to pick up my red onions though so that is a start.

Managed to prepare the first draft of Shaft’s Big Daddy Burgersä that night which went pretty well but did more dressing in the form of vegetables and maybe the preparation times of the different parts of the meal need to be reconsidered.

Broadband Baloney
So this week after transferring the required funding to my credit card I went to re-up my O2 broadband but joy of joy it bounced. Called up O2 customer service like it said to onscreen, they can’t help don’t know anything about the payment gateway and why it does the things it does. Their advice try it again, or the best one yet try another card because we all know how abundant people’s collections of cards are in these troubled times. Can I get a credit card from someone else? I don’t truly believe she meant for me to rob someone but she seemed rather blasé about getting someone else’s credit card for my use.

Now I find myself watching the Saturday Night B movie o Sky3 though not complaining as the one before was funny, a strange mix of environmental propaganda with alien conspiracies.

What the heck is this... monthly?

I know I know it has been an age. Yes and once again it is down to financial troubles along with the net. Can't complain too much though because after a time of being quite ill I have been enjoying good health for awhile and the flat is slowly but surely looking at least a little less cluttered. It still though has a long way to go until I can be happy with it.

In the world of entertainment I have had to cut out the anime totally because of bandwidth reasons which is indeed a shame. I did however before the ban pick up Shangri-La and watched the first episode. It looks pretty good I must say has an interesting theme with the carbon markets, sounds boring but its not.

In other news been playing too much World of Warcraft indeed I actually look to clearing up the flat as a way to break up the monotony of 15 dailies a day, I weep for anyone who has to do 25. All I can say is I really hope that on the weekend I can break up the monotony of course that remains to be seen.

The only other thing I can really tell you about in the exciting life of yours truly is that I've been applying for more jobs one London one and a more local one. Going to be doing more after this and making a slight change to my CV which requires updating a fair few websites.

So that is me signing off you guys have a good day.

Guild Politics and being bored of LAG

So been back on World of Warcraft, back to the grind of the Tournament, fishing and levelling Blacksmithing for me. It is good to be back on to be honest been missing it as I've been ill this past week.

In Achievement News added a few new things like titles and such.

More Guild stuff one of our top members has seemingly joined another guild with her main, it seems her first character has been retired perhaps we really can't leaking members.

Earlier before I went out we did some VOA runs, 10 man new boss with a tank PUG guy and we pulled some horrendous DPS the first couple runs I think only one person went over 2.5k and I came last of the DPSers on the last one we were certainly not much better with maybe another one person over 2.5 but I was happier because I came 2nd which was as you can imagine with an armory like this


My O2 Mobile broadband connection is not good enough for WoW I am thinking basically none of the current ones are unless you are in London in a low use area or something it cannot be relied upon. Don't worry though I hope the phoneline is coming in but it will take some time. I want to play Warcraft the way it is meant to be played where lag does not make things ridiculous.

I live

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronciles CANCELLED
Official word out from Fox that is indeed a crying shame the season finale really stoked things up and led everything in a very strange direction. Though to be fair with the new movie it was always unlikely that both would be allowed to exist. You can almost see Hollywood as a Hutt creature feeding on all its past idea in a futile attempt to survive. It is a shame.

IN OTHER NEWS: Been badly ill for about a week now and just managed to finally get to the doc's yesterday so still got a while before the symptoms which includes a pretty useless leg begin to fade away. Not to mention the amount of housework I have let slide while I have been ill :o(
no fun at all.

MANGA LIST: Naruto 390+ and My Balls (Yes it is as pervy as it sounds)

Hey hey

Been away for awhile sorry about that.

Smallville Finale - Was pretty good as it goes to be honest. Generally I don't think much of the overall quality of Smallville episodes as bad, the writing can be woeful and the character development is horribly handicapped by the fact that we all know what happens to the Man of Steel in the end. Chloe is interesting sometimes and to be fair with Lamuh away for a bit Lois is a lot more fun.

Really wanted to see Star Trek not sure if it is too late now though. Unfortunately currently I am very ill and not sure when I will recover so annoying it being a bank holiday for me at least because it means I have to wait that much longer to see the doctor.

She can't take much more of this Captain!

MPs Expenses
---------------
Not news unless it is actually illegal and I suspect around 90% of it isn’t. Yes it is ugly and shows off the negative aspect of people using power for their own advantage but no worse than the excesses of premiereship footballers. We have Pakistan threatening to implode with things not much better in Afghanistan. I think it was 10 pages in whatever newspaper broke the leak. 10 pages! Really is that how peaceful and serene the world is now? I should be able to put my feet up and stop worrying about our impending doom. Funny though today in the House of Commons to have the speaker talking so passionately about the right to privacy, just wish the MPs would have paid more attention to that in the past.

Obama and the cover up
-------------------------
So much for change people as the President steps in to prevent the release of more images of prisoners being abused by American soldiers. Once again citing the danger to American military as the reason behind it.

Personal Note: I find myself watching X-Files and at the moment and it is amusing how often we see Mulder and Scully running from men with guns. They’re the FBI surely they are supposed to be running to those kinds of people. From X-Files we move to Fringe which is a truly awesome show just thought I mention that.

And why is Twitter down for goodness sake. Internet isn't free people.

Back from Beyond

Wolverine
I checked this out at the cinema this week and it clarified several things for me. One it is DEFINITELY worth paying 3 times the price and waiting till I am in Chelmsford to go to the cinema when placed against using the local cinema. I can’t be dealing with full cinemas especially when they are full of obnoxious idiots who can’t STFU while a movie is on.

The other thing I learned is that if you really love a character than the people at the movie studio will cut out the characters soul and gorge themselves on it like a pack of jackals leaving the results well… barely watchable. Poor Deadpool when I heard they were casting Ryan Reynolds I thought back to him in Blade Trinity where he basically played Deadpool.

Oh yeah nearly forgot Cyclops power is a concussive blast with the potential power to punch through a mountain. That last part is probably hyerbole though the point is though it does not give off heat it is force, so no he could not start a fire with it for instance. It is interesting that they almost seemed to switch powers with Gambit who has been show to have the ability to cause the explosive blasts in the past at least.


Heroes 3.24 + 3.25
The last two episodes of this show befuddled me greatly. The finale I really did not like and “I AM SYLAR” left me with this nagging little voice that said that there was no way the finale would be recovering from this episode. As you know I am a frequent contributor to the forums for Heroes over at 10th Wonder Podcast. I just don’t know what to say or do about Heroes anymore the characters just seem to do anything and go totally against character. Glaring plot holes are driving me mad, Nathan dead? Nothing Claire’s blood couldn’t heal but somehow we forgot about that. I could on and on but I want to get this blog out there.

Battlestar Galactica - Finale
YES I know I am coming to the party late but such is the shortcomings of living in Europe. I thought the ending was pretty good all in all. I can’t claim to have easily understood all the themes and idea of BSG sometimes it really threw me for a loop but in the last season I felt things were a little tighter and I especially loved the half season finale (I think it qualifies as one) was deliciously brutal. I kept watching a lot of the time mostly for Baltar as he was such an interesting character who only sometimes for me acting totally out of character. His redemption was interesting and ultimately believable for me and it was interesting to get that insight into how Caprica managed to get the secret info.

Patch Me In or should I stay with WoW

World of Warcraft it is a big deal.
Anyway 3.1 came out this week the first new content patch since the new expansion came out. The result is new areas to explore and newly implemented features and a lot of the millions of WoW players coming back to sample the new stuff. The bad news is that the servers can't handle that many people online at the same time. Also factor in the fact the servers running the realms are divided into North America, Europe so on and so forth so basically all the players tend to log on at much the same time.

Add in a crappy Three Mobile dongle (don't even bother with them) which I am now thankfully about to cancel and WoW can be a very stressful undertaking indeed. Well I am not entirely sure whether or not I will leave WoW for awhile or be able to set about getting a phoneline sometime soon so just keep your eyes peeled for more details.

In real life news this week has been good for finding jobs so been filling in the mind numbingly pointless application forms. I mean what is the point I could understand if there was an actual difference between the information requested by the forms and what can be found in my CV but no it is just rewriting something you have already done.

Don't even get me started on interview questions. NO DON'T.

Anyway that is goodbye from me

ME ME ME!!!

I am on a creative writing binge at the moment trying to warm up my creativity for Nanowrimo later this year. If you didn't know Nanowrimo is Nationa Novel Writing Month (which is interesting as it is international really) where you have to write a novel of 50,000 words in the month.

O.o yeah just one month for some serious word crunching. Been trying it for the past 3 years but they were both Fails though last year was nowhere near as epic as the first time, so I'm getting better this time. So for my warm up I will trying a collection of stories set in the dame fictional universe, not sure how big it will be we will just have to see if I can keep my interest in it.

Also I will be re-examining the larger stories that are currently archived on my back up drive. For me larger stories are ones over 10,000 words that I intend to run to more than twice that size so keep your eyes peeled for more info and incidentally I think if you go back far enough over my posts there is an excerpt of a story, I THINK can't be sure.

Anyway hope your Easter was good I'm off to fill in applications.

TV Blogging

TV Blogging

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
YES it finally did step up and stop making non-stop allusions to religion or whatever and started with simpler story involving John stepping up and dealing with the death of Riley. I always like the dynamic between John and Sarah and lately it has been firing well, the leader of the resistance and his momma that is always likely to end with the two butting heads and onscreen it works well. Add in the Cameron effect and it really goes off like a rocket.

In this episode we also get to see just how important Cameron is in the future as John’s aide but it does make Sarah’s question of why he would send her back interesting. The aforementioned question though may be easily answered as seen during John’s talk with Jesse where he relays his thoughts in the past where he questioned his future self over sending back machines instead of humans to protect him.

This episode was great so let us hope now that they have brought up the quality it stays there.

Doctor Who: Planet of The Dead
WHAT! A good Doctor Who episode you certainly don’t get many of those to the pound. But hey I am not complaining I made a small gamble by stopping Primeval halfway to watch Doctor Who I could have gone either way but it works better this way for my Sunday viewing so there.

Michelle Ryan, an interesting choice and a weird character to be honest but she served her role as eye candy (how tall is she) and equal to deal with the Doctor and his ego. I won’t spoil the story but it is a good standalone tale for sure better than half the last series and that is a conservative estimate. Certainly worth a watch.

Time to step up John

So eagerly anticipating the Sarah Connor Chronicles episode tonight on Virgin 1 (UK) if you are wondering where we are in the run, we are behind the US with Riley's death only being discovered last episode and I think the US are 2 or 3 episodes in front. I am not so sure about this series of T:SCC to be honest there seems to be lots of themes running around like religion. Although there have been some good episodes like Cameron in the Library for instance stands out, it is definitely more interesting to see her interacting with people outside the circle.

At the moment just checking out The Mentalist which is quirky in a similar line to Monk and perhaps Psych though I have not seen the latter.

Bloggable

My thoughts go out to the people of L’Aquila in Italy recovering from the earthquake. At last check 91 deaths and 1500 injuries had resulted from the powerful earthquake. Anyway that is enough from me you can read about it here.

------------------------------

Look at this from Obama
I don’t even know how many years too late this has come sigh especially after listening to an American ranting about Islamic Extremists and refusing to countenance that there is any such thing as Christian Extremism. All this happened on Radio Five Live’s Up All Night program on the 4th April after 1am with Dotun Adebayo. I can’t remember exactly how it started but it really kicked off. I apologise because I cannot find a clip my internet connection won’t even facilitate be opening the BBC Radio Five Live website. Hopefully later I can edit it in.

------------------------------

Just watched Smallville Series 8 Episode 18 and it just goes to show that one of my many contentions about Smallville remains valid this far into the shows run. That contention is that you never manage back to back awesome episodes it just does not happen. I have also realised that Smallville is like the new un-updated Buffy The Vampire Slayer – full of standalone dross with little to know character development plot development and arcs that are more like straight lines. Any and all the storylines usually account for 4 or 5 episodes and the rest is 80% filler with a little character exposition at the end of the episode like this one.

Sorry I've been away ran out of bandwidth :)

Project update
The prep work is going well as I am for a number of prepared entries before the site goes live to make the initial launch go smoothly. Maybe next month I can think about a launch but we will have to see.

Protests
The protests were interesting I remember back when watching the coverage of the protests in Italy for a similar meeting thinking how would we do it in the UK. Now of course feel free to disagree with me but wherever you see legitimate protestors you will see fakers. By fakers I mean government sponsored often off-duty policeman that dress up as protestors and orchestrate flare-ups in order for the police to go all riot control and take more extreme measures against the crowds. No don’t get me wrong there are protestors out there whose main aim is to cause a little destruction but more often than not in these high profile protests when the world’s eyes looking on they get a helping hand from these provocateurs.

Of course that is my opinion I could be wrong.

Televisual Entertainment
So many of my favourite TV treats have recently come to an end, Kyle XY finished up for good a few weeks ago, BSG is now finished but I have yet to catch the last few episodes but it is winding down well, as good a resolve as the Peacekeeper Wars was for Farscape.

Still following Heroes, Smallville and Fringe with Smallville being by far the most disappointing of those shows if not all the shows I have been watching this season. I wonder about Dollhouse I am a huge fan of Eliza Dushku and I wish that Tru Calling had lasted a little bit longer for me it was an interesting show.

In terms of UK TV, Primeval is back and looking good at the moment, I have to agree with a critic I heard on Five Live that they have gone for a real big budget blowout approach to the series and it is different to the previous 2 series, I think this is all in an attempt to fight for ratings so you can’t really blame them. The hope of course is that this new direction doesn’t ruin the series for those of us who bothered to tune in from the beginning.

The Death of News – All thanks to the BBC

Over the past few days on the BBC the lead news story has been pornography. Yes pornography no not them waxing lyrical about the effect it has on our youth, society or bandwidth costs no, all because the husband of the home secretary claimed expenses for it. That story bumped Militants attacking a police academy in Pakistan, it bumped the ongoing story of the takeover of the major Scottish building society Dunfermline by the UK government.

This is getting beyond a joke people when there is so much wrong with the world, scratch that too negative – there is so MUCH going on in the world that we cannot spend our time endlessly staring up our own collective noses tugging on these stupid pointless stories. This is the dumbing down of our society, come on between near blanket coverage of Jade Goody and now Madonna’s newest adoption controversy. The BBC is a public service broadcaster how can this tripe be in the public’s interest.

Bah I apologise for bringing you down I suggest heading over to www.phillyd.tv who often has a refreshing take on news.

I am unimpressed

I am so tired of this existence it is mundane without excitement or incident just a day to day grind that can be predicted hour by hour to almost infinitesimal detail.

What am I doing to get myself out of this you may ask well applying for any jobs I can lay my hands on I don’t have to tell you that the current climate makes that interesting at best and nigh on impossible at its worst. What I may tell you is that half the roles I apply to are in an industry I now know almost never looks outside of its existing staff to fill vacancies and that the interviews I often find myself attending are just a requirement of the law.

It is a bad joke and it seems I’m the butt of it.

I’m so pissed off right now I could go nuclear all by myself.

Girls - A Mystery wrapped up in an Enigma

So I was going to talk about girls in this post then I realised that I really don’t know enough about that particular subject to be indulging in any blog rants so instead I will be talking about women and me as that would seem more sensible. First thing first I never quite understand why people can be so set in their ways regarding types, you know the people who say they like a very set image of their ideal partner. From the picky, “I like tall blonde guys with muscles” to the just blame dumb “I only date footballers” it never ceases to amaze me how small minded people can be about something that could be as important as the person you spend the rest of your life. People need to get over themselves and take a look around.

Now an insight into the enigma that is me, I’m peroxophobic which means I’m scared of blondes (it is not a real word). I blame university and all the scary blonde girls there, not that they were scary looking indeed quite the opposite, which more often than not led to all sorts of problems. So now I generally find blonde girls to be very intimidating, my friends find it hilarious me not so much.

I often think about the difference between Antiguan and British girls apart from the racial makeup. I am not really in a position to comment though I was too young to fully appreciate it. And besides that I think most will agree that British women defy all explanation.

Well that is enough about that to think this whole idea surfaced on the my contention that sisters are often both hot but men can only notice one of them at a time to prevent our heads exploding.

The News according to me

Ryanair Air Hostess exposed as Porn Star

Ryanair Air Hostess exposed as Porn Star
First saw this story as a result of catching the Phil Defranco Show on YouTube. The thing that amazed me most is the fact that I listen to BBC Radio Five Live everyday. That is not over stating it as a rule I do, the only time that I may not is if I spend the entire day travelling, as radios and train don’t mix. Why did Five Live not have this story it is funny and interesting and so worth so much more time than one of those stupid “Scientists say” stories, you know like the ones where after 1.5 million dollars or pounds, 5 years and a 1000 subjects a research university comes out with the modern gem that if you eat Doner Kebabs regularly you may become fat. What? You’ve taken my breath away with the sheer importance of that little nugget of information.

Anyway moving on Edita Schindlerova is her name and her porn alias because let us be honest you ARE going to google her (for research purposes of course just to make sure the facts are right) is Edita Bente. And guess what she operates out of Stansted, Essex. COME ON! LOL. That of course will be lost on you outside of the UK but never mind.

Man killed at Airport in brawl

This happened at Sydney Airport and the news feed says that two biker gangs unexpectedly met and a fight with weapons broke out resulting in one man’s death and a number of arrests.

UK wants your TWITTER

I’m paranoid I admit it in no part likely due to my high opinion of myself combined with a firm belief that too much power vested in a government will render it corrupt and undemocratic but then that’s just my opinion I could be wrong.

We have Google taking pictures of our houses, our faces or belongings and then inviting us to bring our traffic to their site so that we can look for our own pictures to then demand they be removed? Publicity, marketing and traffic in one fell swoop all the way dropping the elbow of profit on any thought of people’s right to privacy. Google must be laughing all the way to the bank.

Kyle XY Finale

Kyle XY Finale

It was pretty damn awesome. It didn’t play like a finale which I think is a good thing and obviously symptomatic of the fact that Kyle XY got cancelled before the writer’s had any real chance to rap things up. If I had to describe what the episode felt like then I would compare it to the autumn break the halfway in a season where things come to a head.

We got a decent feature from everyone really except for Hillary. Declan shows us he is more than a failed jock and really pitches in. The final battle was… well epic is a word I would use and that twist at the end was something that I certainly did not see coming and it stops just at the moment where you are crying out for more. Even though things had been incredibly serious in this arc this episode as well as the rest kept in those humour filled moments to help balance things.

I was reading an EW article (just the article BOOOO to EW after savaging Heroes for no reason) and I think they are right in that Kyle XY despite its strong sci-fi themes did the family stuff best and allowed for shows like Greek and the Secret Life of the American Teenager to get out there. Unfortunately the viewers hadn’t stuck and the show paid the price.

I doubt I will ever find a show quite like it again and it follows in the footsteps Surface, Threshold and Firefly as those that have gone too soon, why is it always the sci-fi.

Reading List

Just what I am currently following and having fun reading through.

Manga

Team Medical Dragon

My Balls

Aki-Sora

Anime

Kidou Senshi Gundam

Here we are

I really don’t know about the BBC’s recent coverage of the recent killings of military and police personnel in Northern Ireland. I don’t know what their game is when interviewing Sinn Fein members they have been incredibly confrontational and trying to almost insinuate that they are somehow in league with these attackers. This is a time to tread carefully and I find myself questioning their treatment of their interviewees. This just seems to go along with my recent realisation of the BBC’s hand in manufacturing the news as opposed to what they should be doing which is simply reporting on it.

Speculation, speculation and more speculation it is like the early episodes of MuggleCast scratching around between the book releases. Whenever something tragic occurs around the world the BBC seem to pick at it like scab until it starts bleeding. There has to be better ways to report the news then just to rush in head first and make all sorts of accusations with nothing to back them up, there was a time at least I thought there was when investigating was all about the facts.

OK that was HEAVY. Onto lighter subjects now just happened to catch two episodes of 8 Simple Rules with Amy Davidson and Kaley Cuoco looking absolutely sinful. I really wonder where that show was aiming for having Kaley parade around in outfits like that, that girl could trigger puberty at 50 paces and Amy was even hotter in my opinion though very, very tiny. It is odd to think she is older she just has those cherubim good looks I mean wow she is nearly 30 o.O

KESSICA ZOMG!!!

Thinking back now it seems almost silly that I did not expect that to happen. Kyle XY keeps going from strength to strength even if 3.07 was maybe a little slow the next episode definitely made up for it and two play together incredibly well. Again it is such a shame that after I viewed those two episodes it hit me that there are only two more episodes left. Jaimie and Matt are awesome in their scenes together it is really great to watch.

There is a campaign to keep Kyle going which you can find out about here not sure if it will work though. Jericho worked for an extra season after a huge campaign but then died a death again. Maybe we can work for a few movie specials to tie up the series in the right way. If we are really lucky we could get a season as a result of the global economic downturn - Sarah Connor Chronicles got renewed because it was cheaper than greenlighting a whole new series.

Get to watch some Heroes later so that should be full of awesomeness. C ya.

WOOP WOOP It's the sound of the police

Lately in Essex there has been a bit of a rise in the presence of the police it seems. There was some sort of a gang that apparently kicked their way into a guy’s flat and undoubtedly did him some damage as well. This happened about a minute’s walk from my place and since then it has been like CSI Essex up in this place. Today got stopped on the way back from the shop and interviewed about it.

UPDATE: Had a visit from the pretend police today about the same incident as mentioned above. Well that is what I thought but it seems to have been a con. While one quizzed me on the normal stuff the other ones was taking down details of my appearance, apparently I’m the same race as the criminals involved. It annoys me that they came into my home on a false pretense especially after they had already taking down my recollection of the event.

Just one of those things I guess still waiting at the moment for my Heroes/Kyle XY fix after which you can probably find me debating plot holes at the 10th Wonder Forums. I am going to have to wait even longer for my Heroes fix as I’m going to wit for the UK to get catch me up I think at the moment that means wait for two weeks. But apparently Heroes in the US is taking a 1 week break in order to help May sweeps whatever that means. So hopefully it means that I will still be able to post my thoughts from time to time.

Lately though in televisual entertainment I have been watching a couple episodes of Gundam 00 Series 2 it is really an excellently written show and builds well on the ideals of the first season which sometimes came across as a little airy.

Anyway on the quest for eternal internet the search goes on and on. It REALLY should not be this hard but it seems that if you don’t live in a place for at least a year then you don’t truly exist but then the same thing goes if you don’t have a credit card so it is to be expected.

FACEPLANT!!!

Good god how did I manage to do it again. St. Valentine's Day is a dangerous time it seems especially when I go all romantic in my old age. Unfortunately the object of my crush is taken, and more unfortunately that is not the first time that such a thing has followed a declaration of interest. Well just got to pick up my pride and move on I'll live =o)

Other than that next month there is a Wizard Rock event that I would like to check out but it is in Cambridge which while it is in the same region as me does not feature good transport links so I think I will have to stay over and catch a bus or something to get back. Never been to one before so my head is a buzz with questions like what should I wear and will anyone anywhere neaer my age group be there. Nothing like HP events to make a young man feel ancient.

Anyway for now let's have some entertainment this song is EPIC

OHMIGOD - Kyle XY is off da HOOK

=o) I know it is a silly title, nevermind. I am up to Kyle XY Season 3 Episode 6 and all I can say is WOW WOW WOW and I am not taking about gaming here people. The last episode blew my mind and had me blowing my nose from all the crying. The writing has stepped up after lagging a bit in the middle for me anyway. I remember the first few episodes when things where just getting started with Kyle walking around naked and learning to pee which was hilarious stuff as well as his first interactions with the family especially the kids.

Now we have things moving along nicely especially tonight with the huge confrontation goodness that took long enough to come along didn't it. I still can't believe it is ending and so very soon too. I just hope the stars from here go on to other successful shows. I want to see Magda and Jaime regularly on a top show and heck I hope the guys do well too.

So moving on mostly looking forward to Heroes Episode 3 of Fugitives, once again with Heroes in full swing I just find myself being the question questions questions guy but to be fair I get to head over to the forum and talk about my theories and theres and debate why I am right, which I hope I am more than I am wrong =o) I also want to see Burn Notice now that it is back but I will have to wait.

Too much blogging?

BBC

Still no Heroes on the horizon it seems which is a shame the first two episodes are EPIC and could do a lot to revitalise the series in the UK although not sure if it needs it here compared to the battering it takes in the US from time to time. Personally I think the BBC should be striking now while the iron is hot and going with the big name international TV show to help their ratings.

Kyle XY

Still ending I am afraid it will be on in the US tonight. For me it is still all about the Kessie ladies and gentlemen. Also last episode was excellent and featured no Amanda too had me crying like a baby for most of it.

Burn Notice

Sneaked back onto the scene. If you didn’t know this is a spy story with a difference with Michael Weston as a spy who gets “burned” (losing all his standing within the covert world) and his quest to find out who sold him down the river. It is now in its second season and going strong. From what I have heard it is critically acclaimed hopefully that does not mean it will get cancelled soon.

The Shield
Coming back to UK screens tonight (unless it was already on a Satellite channel and I was not paying attention) still it is definitely worth a watch so I will be tuning in and maybe eating a pasty.

Well well well

Not posted in awhile so sorry for that it has been cold and snowy but mostly cold.

Just been seeing some more about Zimbabwe it seems to me that the world just forgot after Tsvangirai decided to try and make a go of things with Mugabe which was to me the wrong mistake but I do not believe that the international community gave him much choice and now his minsters are being imprisoned again yet we can go into Iraq and Afghanistan because we can't ignore people in need, well that is what the Western leaders would have us think.

Now at the moment I am trying to sort out some broadband, living in the UK you would think that it would be fairly straightforward but when you add in that I don't have a phone line at my penthouse suite :o) and things get very interesting. If you need a phone line installed (i.e. there was never a phone line or the line was stopped) it will cost at least £100. Then you need a broadband provider who nearly all want you to have a BT line which is great when a BT line costs £140 to install with a 12 month contract at £10 a month, I am sorry I don't own my place and I could be gone in 6 months or even less so why am I going to sign up for a year. I am hardly the only person in this predicament it is just so stupid it makes my eyes hurt.

I will update you in a couple of weeks to see if I will ever achieve broadband speeds.

Back

I am still reeling over the passing of Kyle XY into the ether but here comes another programming decision closer to my shores that seems equally idiotic. The BBC Heroes website is still listing Heroes as coming back this year which to me sounds quite some time away when it is so generic. If you didn't know this Monday marked the US premiere of the 2nd episode of Volume 4: Fugitives or episode 15 in normal currency.



How long are the sci-fi or Hayden Panetierre obsessed fans going to wait when they are easy ways of getting access to Heroes in the here and now rather than waiting for BBC2 to catch up. It is hard enough in this global age when you are following Greg Grunberg or twitter and have US facebook friends who might accidentally spoil you. The viewing figures when Heroes comes back will suffer badly and then the BBC will let someone else take over and it will probably be off to Satellite.



Tv as we know it is surely on the way out and the networks here at least don't seem to know how to deal with it. You can get go on NBC.com and watch Heroes with commentary if you live in the US the rest of us just have to do without.



As I was on the train I was reading a story about Emma Watson with two guys apparently vying for her attention at a series of parties. I can remember reading a story of MuggleNet of her winning the young actress award in some magazine basically as a good role model and not one of those young starlets who go off the rails maybe they spoke too soon. One of the boys was that guy from Stormbreaker an Alex Rider novel which is a very good series if you want to pick it up.



See you next time.

Kyle XY cancelled!!!!!

Yeah you certainly didn't hear it here first the story broke early yesterday apparently I did a search for Kyle XY after watchng the episode 2 of the third season what a way to bring me down. Between Magda and Jaime I have no idea wat I will do when Kyle XY heads off for good but Magda should be returning to our screens for Caprica but I am not so sure if that is set in stone yet. Matt Dallas should be able to find more work I think he is a good looking guy and seems to be a fair actor compare him to how Tom Welling was at the beginning, good god man! The difference is acute.

Anyway RIP Kyle XY.

I just saw this

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7850085.stm

In the words of Dane Cook

UNBELIEVABLE!!!

"Those who fail to learn history

are doomed to repeat it;

those who fail to learn history correctly--

why they are simply doomed."

Kyle XY FTW

"Here's everything I know

about war: Somebody wins,

somebody loses, and

nothing is ever the same again."

(BEWARE YES I SAID BEWARE OF SPOILERS UP TO SEASON 3 IN THIS POST)

A whole post about Kyle XY some family show on ABC (Trouble and BBC2 have shown it in the UK) you must be thinking that when it comes to teens and relationships that Skins is more your thing but you might be surprised by the quality of the storytelling in Kyle XY and the well roundedness of the characters. I compare it with say Smallville and cringe; I think the comparison is apt both about super powered teens learning to deal with those powers and relationships. Kyle XY manages it with well rounded characters that seem real in an implausible, I like Smallville I really do but for the first 3 or 4 seasons the characters were so wooden and one dimensional it hurt the eyes to watch the dramatic stuff and don’t get me started on Lana gaaaaaaaaaahhhhh!

The show didn’t get a huge media push didn’t have a big title behind it like Smallville or the Sarah Connor Chronicles, it simply had to swim or drown on its own with us the viewers knowing next to nothing about it beforehand. The first season was short if I remember 12 episodes in all and had equal parts of drama, comedy and action. The casting of Krajicek from X-Files worked well.

While Kyle XY is entertainment, it is from a family channel and is chucked full of those life lesson messages that were remembered so fondly when Power Rangers first premiered on our screens all those years ago.
























The array of eye candy on show also helps now obviously I don’t know what everyone’s tastes are but I think the girls and boys of Kyle XY offer something for most of us. I find it hard to choose a favourite girl myself I am stuck between two for the top position. Andy Jansen (Magda Apanowicz) and Jesse (Jaime Alexander) very different I know but each with a unique wow factor for me at least. Magda doesn’t always look quite so young just check her out in her appearance on the short-lived Bionic Woman redux. Chelan Simmons is also worth a look but I used to hate her character, she is doing better now though finally a more rounded character.

All I can say is that I hope that the quality continues unlike some shows about people with unusual abilities.

What I have been doing

"If hope is the engine of the soul,

Then duty is the navigator...

And love is the fuel."

1. Writing a short story. How short you ask? Well at first I was thinking maybe 1000 words or so but who knew it seems I am a bit long winded in my writing and so I have left it open for now. I am trying to write a romance which is a change from my usual science fiction and combat/special powers based writing and it is set after the 2nd World War.

2. Applying for a really nice position at a prestigious University. A role that I could get my teeth into.

3. Going mad as a result of the ravings of various women who make no sense whatsoever.

4. Trying my hand at a level wheeling and dealing WoW style.

For now that is all of major note I am also working on a Twitter account but my connection is so bad it needs some work stay tuned for more details on that front at least. Hope you like the quote at the front, if you know it why not leave a comment as to where it is from.

New York on the news again

Wow scary stuff man, just happened to switch over about quarter past 9 in the evening UK time. Information of course still piling in of course. Apparently it hit a bird??? Quite lucky in some ways could have been much more destructive if it had hit either side of the Hudson.

Level 75 and why Hollyoaks is fun

WORLD OF WARCRAFT


After toiling in Dragonblight for over 130 quests all of which were fun filled and rewarding I have achieved level 75 on my main (which for the uninitiated means the primary character I use on World of Warcraft.) I am still not finished in Dragonblight though rather unfortunately, I still have to finish some Wrathgate quests which gets you another achievement though it is not like I plan on collecting them at the moment best to head towards 80 first in my opinion.

I also intend to get myself a nice title once I hit 80 after the necessary grinding of course think I might go with the faction ones not sure which one yet. To think that I still have no sorted out my epic and cold weather flying yet.





HOLLYOAKS


Hollyoaks is a guilty pleasure I say I watch it to be fair I only catch about 20 minutes a week so it is hardly a regular thing for me but let’s be honest it features some of the hottest people on TV. It is responsible for the careers of one of the hottest British Actresses in my opinion one Gemma Atkinson. It also does what in my opinion what most soaps fail to do which is stay interesting while not being incredibly depressing.

Yes it deals with a lot of heavy stuff and I think the call this number stuff at the end is a good thing. The main reason I wanted to mention it is to talk about my current favourite actress on the show one Jessica Fox (great name I think) once the rock chick now a little less so but it looks like the storyline she is getting involved in is about to get more interesting we can only hope.

Facebook drives you crazy

Facebook is pretty great and leads to no end of good things. All those pictures of those females you know wearing "interesting" outfits (god bless costume parties). Also it is a social network like no other and in my opinion owns Myspace. Things like keeping in touch with friends who you may have moved away from even to other countries and also enabling people to make new friends.



There is a dark side of Facebook though and certainly spending too much time on there can drive you crazy. Now I am going to discuss my main problem with or related to Facebook and I wonder if anyone else has had the same issue. Consider for a minute your friend list, now I have a set of assumptions I will make such as you have been using Facebook for at least 18 months to have actually built up a friend list AND that you log into it at least twice a month otherwise in m experience all the more frequent users of Facebook would have given you up for dead in fb terms.



That in mind of those friends on your list a lot of them will be people who you won't see from day to day but you might like to message from time to time, maybe they are people you knew from a prior workplace or perhaps they are someone who you met more recently and would like to get to know better. The issue quickly becomes though that fb in this case is your only channel of communication you don't have their phone number and visiting them would be a bit hit and miss after all how would you know when they are in.



Needless to say it can drive you mad when someone you really want to talk to is not returning your messages and you then want to send them messages asking why they are going on to their accounts adding pictures leaving comments and not responding to your messages.

All that is left for the person concerned is to resist the urge to go full stalker mode and freak everyone out. Just as well tonight's episode of Voyager is all about the Vulcan way of life. Time for me to go live long and prosper.

Kirsten Dunst is kinda a Hottie

That gem of wisdom is something I noticed while watching "GET OVER IT". I should also mention that we get to see the acting umm talents of Sisqo in this particular Teen romantic comedy. Not seen it before but that scene with Kirsten and friend in bikinis does still manage to make the jaw drop just a bit. Though I still disagree with her as Mary Jane which is interesting as there is a redhead pseudo lead in Get Over It. Someone said that she was a redhead and just dyed her hair blonde constantly but they were not the most reliable font of celeb related info so I take that with a pinch of salt.

Anyway other than that I have been looking aty a wishlist of DVD goodies which currently consists of Firefly, Serenity, and the first two seasons of Heroes. In other relatd DVD goodiness I have borrowed the first 12 episodes of Full Metal Alchemist from a friend. So far it is ok not going to go with higher praise than that especially as it is still early in what apparently was a fairly long run.

In terms of animes I highly rate I would point to Death Note, Kidou Gundam Senshi, Vampire Knight. That is all I can think of at this particular moment but I consume a lot of Anime so I will undoubtedly think of more.