Battlestar Rhapsody

Seriously, how good was that:)
Speaking of which I'm gonna have to start on the full season boxset before I go back to work next week.

Prezzies

Well we are well into christmas afternoon and the yummy family dinner is settling down and to be honest if I hadn't got up from the comfy chair and gone on to the computer I would probably be napping right now:)
Santa bought me soaks and boxers so that's the basics done plus some stocking fillers (car care, dark chocolate) but the point of the holidays is giving and me dad liked his Homer Simpson talking bottle opener.

Holiday TV viewing started off with Sandra Bullock in While you were Sleeping, love that movie and Kiss Me Kate was playing during and after the dinner, again a sucker for a classic musical.
I'll record Dr Who in HD tonight since I am sure we'll have at least one "unexpected" visitor who will take a shine to the booze I bought for myself but no plans for tomorrow, well their is a family get together but show me face and then sneak out:)

Dexter

Well the latest season has been sitting on the hard drive awaiting my attention and I finally got around to watching the fourth season premiere, it's now 12.30am 23rd December and I've just finished episode 6!
Dexter isn't a show I like watching on a weekly basis since once I start I just don't want to stop and thankfully none of the podcasts I listen to do any spoiler level coverage so I can indulge without risk:)

The Intruder

One of the best William Shatner movies is now available in the public domain.
The Intruder (aka Shame) directed by Roger Corman tells the story of a racist instigator who visits a small town and leads a backlash against the integration of a school and an incident between a black lad and white girl soon after. Filmed in a real town and much of it with the townsfolk unaware of the real story of the movie it is a masterpiece of it's time but lost money and become Cormans one financial failure yet is rated by many as his best movie.

Internet Archive

Lord of the Rings (again)

After reading about the upcoming Blu I had a hankering for the trilogy again so watched each of the movies (1 per day) in HD (sourced from broadcasts) and enjoyed every single hour (I would say minute but even the theatricals are 3 hours).

They were if anything even better than I remembered, perhaps a couple of years gap since I last watched them showed how well they were holding up in terms of special effects and as for the rest that will forever stand the test of time.

3D Blu-ray

The Blu consortium have finally ratified the required specifications for incorporating 3D content on to the existing Blu-ray format. The encoding uses an extension to the existing H.264 codec but carries around a 50% overhead in terms of bandwidth requirement while maintaining backwards compatibility, glasses will be required.
Not surprisingly SONY have made sure the existing PS3 is an approved system, can you imagine a Blu-ray 3D format that was outside of the capabilities of the PS3, ahh global corporate politics:)

Personally I delighted to find the latest consumer electronic whizz bang offering to be of zero interest, I've been a very expensive early adopter of Nicam, Laserdisc, DVR's, HD DVD and Blu-ray so I'll sit back and laugh at the money spent to bring a cinema gimmick to the home.

CNET

Snowing

The first snow of the season, well it was only a brief flurry but hey maybe a white christmas:)

Lord Of The Rings

Finally we have confirmation of the long awaited Blu-ray release of the trilogy.
It's been scheduled for next April but alas it's only the theatrical versions of the 3 movies and yes there will be a latter bells and all release meaning they really are out to squeeze every penny out of the fan base.
Personally I love the trilogy and have them in HD on the PC but will not be buying them on Blu-ray until we get the extended cuts and all the extras associated with them, this is Blu-ray, there should be no compromises.

Woop

Finished my last shift of the year and thanks to a decision by the company to close half a day early on the 24th I got to go home at 10.45am today:)
Mind you it was still a miserable day but at least nothing like the bad weather the states are having to cope with.

A relaxing weekend and then some serious christmas shopping and put the decorations up perhaps Wednesday which is quite late in the month compared to previous years.

SKY

Well I rang SKY up today and cancelled the full TV package, I got the usual run around designed to confuse and misinform the ignorant and eventually managed to get the CS rep to do what I was asking him. The call lasted 20 minutes and he seemed quite put out making it clear I would not be getting any retention deals (I must have upset him) but since I wasn't looking for one that's fine.
Of course the human being in me is pissed so many people get crazy retention deals and having paid SKY full price since 1992 not getting a sausage is just another reason to believe I've done the right thing.

Service ends Jan 6th and guess what, I doubt I'll miss any programme I currently watch:)

Life

Season 1 of the most excellent cop show Life has been reduced to a bargain £9.95 at Zavvi.
There is also an additional 6% cashback if you are a member of Quidco.

O2 Broadband

My new router/modem arrived today and my ADSL2+ service should switch over sometime this friday and then I can get around to cancelling the rest of SKY. A shame to let the service go but I really don't take well to that sort of price manipulation and underhanded tactics to get more money out of me.

I got my R1 copy of Better Off Ted today, only £14.99 for the first season of what was a very funny comedy.
I picked up Kill Bill 1&2 on Blu for £15 and the Ice Age trilogy on Blu as well for what I considered a decent price, still not got Star Trek simply down to the pricing.

VM & TIVO

Blimey could this be the first good decision made by a UK cable company since their inception?

It's not going to be sunshine and roses for quite a while even assuming VM find the cash to replace their entire DVR range because a lot of the issues are totally in the firmware/GUI area. Still this is a move that NTL should have done all those years ago instead of selling off surplus £99 TIVO units but they really have never given a monkies about taking SKY on in the TV market and I don't think this will really change things.

It's a Blu day

Nice Mr Postie delivered my BSG and Supernatural Blu-ray boxsets today, not quite sure when I'll find the time to watch them so both may have to wait till the chistmas break.
A thanks to Lovefilm for their 10% off deal the other week which promoted the credit card splurge and if Blu-ray was cheaper as it bloody well should be I would be spending a lot more money on movies.

Riese The Series

Riese is a new web based series whose production values are very high and the story could very well be just as good. Set in what looks like a medieval world after the fall of a great empire it follows the travels of Riese and her companion who is a wolf. There is not a lot more to say as I've only seen the first episode but there is enough there to have me coming back.

Riese The Series

Chuck Season 2 Blu-ray

Finally the Blu-ray of the second season of Chuck has a 5th of January release date.
The UK market probably wasn't considered big enough to justify it's own release when the R2 DVD appeared and the US release as normal is timed to help promote the returning broadcast of the next season.
The irony is that it looks like the show could be returning so than expected as NBC's 09/10 shows are not really doing the numbers.

Amazon US

Blu-ray offers from Amazon UK

Finally a half decent promotion from Amazon UK which quite frankly is most welcome because price wise and certainly the selection of cheaper titles has been pathetic and that's in the middle of a recession.

Amazon 2 for £17

Holi holi day

A week off work, well a week and a day and even longer when you add two weekends.
Nothing planned as I'm really just using up my quota of paid days off which you lose if you don't take them by the end of the year so it's Boxset marathon time:)
I have The Professionals and Quantum Leap and already onto the second disk of House season 5 bought for £17.99 from BangCD, very good price.

V

The new version of "V" arrives Nov 3rd, high hopes but ready to be disappointed.

Michael Shanks

The news is that Michael Shanks best known for playing Daniel Jackson in the Stargate franchise is coming to Smallville playing the Justice League member "Hawkman".
Michael did buff up during his SG years so he'll probably be able to pull off the costume:)

Stargate Movie Blu-ray

Movietyme have the 15th Anniversary edition of Stargate at a reasonable £13.99 (£1 voucher and free p&p) and it's region free so I've been tempted back in the US Blu-ray market which I've ran away from with the poor exchange rates.
It's the first HD disc I have double dipped and hopefully there will not be many more:)








The second TV/DVD movie from the Battlestar Galactica franchise (The Plan) is also being offered but at a more ridiculous £20.99 which rules me out.

SG:U

I don't need the eye candy but I ain't going to complain about it either:)

New US Shows on UK HD TV

PAY Telly

House SKY1/HD 4th at 9pm
Fringe SKY1/HD 4th at 10pm
In Treatment SKYArts/HD 5th at 10pm
Stargate:Universe SKY1/HD 6th at 8pm
Bones SKY1/HD 8th at 9pm
Lie To Me SKY1/HD 8th at 10pm
NCIS FXUK/HD 9th at 9pm
Dollhouse SciFi/HD 20th at 10pm
NCIS:LA SKY1/HD 21st at 9pm


Free Telly

True Blood CH4/HD 7th at 10pm
Generation Kill CH4/HD 7th at 11.20pm

Unseen Academicals

Unseen Academicals is the latest Discworld novel from Terry Pratchett and joy my copy has arrived:)
We are back in Ankh-Morpork were sport mainly football has been introduced and the Unseen University has a team including the Librarian in goal.

The hardback is currently listed at a very reasonable £9.49 from Amazon UK.

New toys for the PC

I've decided to get serious about protecting my data stored on the hard drives and while the really important stuff is backup manually onto a memory stick I really don't want to lose another 700gig of stuff again. To combat this I've just bought a WD My Book World Edition II which offers 4Tb in Raid1 format which is more than enough to store my HD movies and certain other material plus being DNLA compliant the PS3 recognises the unit without requiring the PC to be running and it was a lot cheaper than the price on the WD website:)

I'm currently moving data onto the NAS drive both from my older Dlink NAS and the from the internal hard drive and once that's done (not a speedy process) I switch the Dlink to Raid and I should be good to go.

The latest episode of Gatecast has just been posted so have a listen and feedback of any sort is welcome.

Dr Horrible hijacks the Emmys

Silver Lining

Well they do say every cloud has a silver lining and in this case after a 750gig hard drive crashed quite definitively losing quite a bit of stuff I am swearing about hours after I have found the hard drive that contained the HD caps of The Lord of the Rings. I had assumed I'd wiped that drive last time I had a boot drive emergency but when you are not looking you find things so not all bad but the shear cost and impracticality of backing up non-critical content always means there is risk of losing stuff.

I've decided to add another NAS device with RAID which can be shared between the PC and PS3 and take some of the load off my existing setup, still not ideal but nothing is perfect.

Starktoons

I listen to The SModcast by Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier and they were talking about this guy who did some shockwave type animation of a discussion they had, it was absolutely hilarious and so true.
Take a trip to Starktoons for the SMod animation and explore further as there are some very funny pieces of work on the site.

Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

It's been announced by Disney that a fourth movie in the franchise is to be made with an expected release sometime in 2011. I do hope the rumour earlier this year of Russell Brand doesn't come about:)

Robert Carlyle Interview

Sorry for the lame early morning hosts...

SG:U Clip

Harry Potter: Books v Movies

I cam late to the party but I've just finished the 7 Harry Potter novels so
a few thoughts in terms of the comparison to the movies so far.


Philosopher's Stone
Pretty much an excellent example of a film from a book, a few minor
differences but on the whole it had the feel and compactness you
would expect.
Chamber of Secrets
Again a movie that kept pretty tight to the novel it was based on.
Prisoner of Azkaban
The first of the larger novels which required significant editing
to produce a viable screenplay but that said it still helf true but
I enjoyed the book more.
Goblet of Fire
My favourite of the movies made so far bascially because it's
the first time we see the trio as young people not as kids and we
get limited Quidditch action. That said I did enjoy the more
complex novel and the background goings on in the school.
Order of the Phoenix
Not keen on the movie and I'm afraid that coloured my reading of
the book. I skipped pages and actually the Quidditch storylines
were pretty entertaining as they played more of a part in the
draconian clampdown on school activites.
I also preferred the expansion on the House Elfs role in the world.
Half-Blood Prince
I didn't come away from the movie with a positive experience.
The book is much better and underlines the sometimes hard decisions
a writer and director have to make to try to keep the spirit of the story
while making it work on a screen.
Deathly Hallows
A excellent finale to the series and I'm pretty sure the decision to split
the book in to two movies will prove a good idea and not just for Boxoffice.

Avatar Trailer

Digital Spy have the teaser trailer for the long awaited Avatar.
It looks impressive but hardly realistic but got to give it some leeway a streaming video is not really the standard in picture quality the movie should be judged by.
What we see in the teaser tells a pretty basic story and I do wonder for all the expectation if this will be all bells and whistles but very simplistic.

Official Website

Star Trek Confusion

Thanks to Scott over on ScifiDig forums....

Star Trek: Confusion




Anyone reading this blog that has been listening to The Gatecast and wondering where we are well at least 3 (maybe 4) shows are in the can. It's not always easy trying to organise a schedule when one guy is across the pond, the other is playing dressup and I spent three nights editing shows..
:)

Harry Potter

I just bought the boxset of the Harry Potter novels prompted by the recent Potterthon on Galactic Watercooler and their endorsement of the novels even for people only familiar with the movies. I bought them in paperback and blimey a couple of them are freaking huge!

Quantum Leap

Woohooo.
My full season boxset of Quantum Leap arrived today, it finally hit the price point I was happy about in a 10% off sale at The Hut last week. I can now delete some of the episodes off the hard drive I had acquired from broadcast telly, who really likes adverts and onscreen garbage when watching telly.

Stargate:Universe Comic-Con Panel

Burn Notice

It's just been announced that the USA channel show Burn Notice has been renewed for a further 16 episode fourth season:)
If you've never seen it via download or on FX in the UK it tells the story of a US spy who is "burnt" and left with nothing in Miami, fortunately an ex and a former partner are on hand to keep his head above water and he undertakes a number of jobs for normal people to keep his hand in.

Work Stuff & F1

I called up to the managers office (not much of an office it has to be said) to discuss the vacancy in the warehouse. I hadn't applied for the job (same one I've been doing for the last couple of months) mainly because they work 8am till 4.30pm and driving home at that time would be a nightmare and I simply do not get paid enough to waste around an hour to move 10miles.


Michael Schumacher is coming back to F1, yes it's in a pretty poor Ferrari and we hope Felipe is back in his car as soon as possible but this is bliss, if he gets a podium in the European grand prix I'd die happy:)

Postie arrived

I got home from work today to find Children of the Gods (Final Cut) and The Middleman waiting for me, bliss:)
Alas I've got to watch last nights NASCAR and perhaps the Indycar with the 20/20 quarter finals all before I finally go to bed because I am working tomorrow.
Hopefully squeeze the new SG1 in tomorrow and savour The Middle DVD over the next couple of weeks.

Monsters Inc

I wasn't going to buy this movie on Blu-ray but after seeing some of the screenshots I just had to have it despite owning the DVD which looks great. The Blu-ray version is stunning though and well Monsters Inc is my favourite Pixar movie.

A more detailed review can be read here.

QMX Replicas

QMX have announced the new Firefly Serenity and Enterprise artisan replicas.
They are both beautiful and if I had the money I'd buy them both but I don't.

Latest SG:U Trailer

Stargate News

Episode 4 (Broca Divide) is up on The Gatecast, pay a visit and have a listen, feedback to the podcast is welcome. Alan has done some editing (butting out dead air and adding audio clips) so a much more polished effort:)
Gateworld has a review of the new Children of the Gods (R2 DVD release on the 27th).

Gatecast

It's not as if the world needs another podcast but what about the revival of an existing one?
I've recorded a few shows as co-host with Alan (Phazecast) of The Gatecast a Stargate SG1 podcast. I can not claim by any stretch it's a fine example of the genre or the art of audio podcasting but we're enthusiastic:)

I have done a second edit and post on the Emancipation episode which I posted to some free webspace, any comments would be welcome..

MediaFire

The Middleman

Almost forgot about this gems release on the 27th on DVD.
Not to worry I placed an order with PlayUSA for the R1 DVD of The Middleman, no hint of a Blu-ray so DVD will have to do and the price was acceptable at £15.99 for the boxset.

MGM Stargate

MGM are gearing up for the debut of their new SG series by relaunching their Stargate franchise website and while it's not SG:U specific it's certainly packed with relevant info as well as tons of stuff for SG1 and Atlantis.

Official Stargate Website


In more down to earth news Furse the company I work for has now moved the manufacturing division back onto a full working week, not sure if this means I'll be moving back or staying in the warehouse but I think my current position is definitely temporary. At the moment I probably have the best of both worlds by being able to start at 7am and leave at 3pm, doesn't pay as much but I do spend half an hour less in traffic:)

Gotta love bad drivers

TV updates

Torchwood returns tonight (6th) on BBC1 and the story "Children of Earth" is screened nightly for the rest of the week in both SD and HD. I'm expecting a lot from this production which probably means I'll be a little disappointed but it's good to have the show back even in a truncated form.

Going Postal the latest SKY1 adaptation of a Terry Pratchett Discworld novel is now in production and some of the cast has been announced including Richard Coyle (Coupling, Strange) as the anti-hero Moist Von Lipwig and Claire Foy as his chain smoking potential love interest Adore Belle Dearheart. Notable additions to the case are two fine well respected actors Charles Dance and John Suchet playing Vetenari and Reacher Guilt respectively, pity Jermey Irons isn't continuing his role as Vetenari.

TV news

It's been reported that the UK Scifi channel will screen the 13th episode of Dollhouse, the one that FOX refused to screen although it will I believe appear on the DVD set. In other news Legend of the Seeker has also been picked up by Scifi, it's a pity they can not match the schedulers of other broadcasters with UK screening within a week of the US, I am long past putting up with the apathy of UK channels.

On a totally different topic, Dads are they not awkward sods?
My mother was telling me about a spicy fruit loaf me dad picked up when they went shopping, it cost £1.40 pre-sliced, she told him to put it back and get the unsliced version which was only 79p, he refused and bought the more expensive sliced one.

Movie Reviews

We'll start with the Transformers:Revenge of the Fallen. There was plenty of laughs and action much in the vein of the last movie, the overall story was a little simplistic but what do you expect but it had it's moments with both old and new characters human and alien.
Made of Honour
A generic rom-com featuring Michelle Monaghan, Kevin McKidd and Patrick Dempsey in which long term friends only realise the depth of their feelings after the female half is swept of her feet and is to be married.
I'm a fan of this sort of movie, a little cheesey perhaps but what the hell.
Forbidden Kingdom
This one passed me by which was surprising given it's stars Jackie Chan, Jet Li and Michael Angarano who plays the modern time guy who attempts to fullfill a prohecy involving a staff and a monkey god, sounds a little daft but the cinematography and action are excellent.

Footy again

Setanta defaulted on their Scottish footy rights so they are now up for grab, three years remain on the contract at roughly £30 million a year. ESPN have bought the old Setanta Premier League rights giving them 46 games for the 09/10 season dropping to 23 for the next three years, not sure how they will be able to sell that to the people paying mainly for the footy.

CC safety

Just received a call from my credit card company querying a number of transactions in the space of an hour.
Out of the 5 suspects only one turned out to be genuine and that from a Canadian DVD retailer who I've used on and off for years. Well over a £1000 was billed to my card so it's been cancelled and the charges froze, I'm being sent some documentation to look at and then sign and a new card should be with me in a week or so.

Never a dull moment in sports tv rights

The Friday deadline passed and the Premier League didn't see the £30million they were owed and so Setanta have been stripped of their rights to next seasons 46 televised games, the likely hood is that despite being viable before entering the PL market it's unlikely they will be able to take that step back as they may default on other sports as new subscribers dry up.
In F1 we see the teams which make F1 watchable pulling out, quite right because when the rule making body and the vested interests who take the top slice of the cash think they are more important than the teams and people providing the spectacle a change is needed. If there is no more movement on the differences between Bernie/Max/FIA and FOTA then who exactly is going to pay the hundreds of millions of pounds to host, broadcast and advertise in F1 as it will be without Toyota, Renault, Maclaren, BMW and Ferrari etc.

So much for my day off.

The boss came around the other day and asked me and another guy to come into work on Friday despite our normal department still on short time, well you are not going to refuse but well even after two weeks you get used to a 3 day weekend:)

Primeval Cancelled?

Reports are coming in that ITV have decided to cancel Primeval after 3 seasons stating a desire to limit high cost scripted drama pre-watershed. Given how well reality TV has done for them in the early evening slots it comes as no surprise a far more expensive and audience limited series is for the chop.
Mind you the loss of two key characters in the third season didn't help matters and ultimately it was decline although rumours of a theatrical project or US funded version still circulate.

Day Off

In the middle of my imposed day off, nice day so that's a bonus.
I spent the week working not in my usual manufacturing part of the company but in the warehouse picking and packing UK orders, quite alarming how much stock the company imports or buys from other UK manufacturers. One other bonus is that I am now working where I park the car thus cutting 5 minutes off the time I get home, it's the little things:)

My SG1 coasters arrived yesterday, no one in so had to collect them and had to google map the post office address, turned out it was about half a mile away as the crow flies but in the vastly expanded Shipley View estate which was my stomping ground as a kid.

Inheritance Trilogy by Christopher Paolini

I've just finished the trilogy of books (one more to come so it won't be a trilogy anymore) written by Christopher Paolini the first of which was made into the movie "Eragon".

Eragon
Eldest
Brisingr

Not surprisingly the books wipe the floor with the movie adaptation as the movie and even though it leaves you hanging at the end (perhaps for a sequel) the short cuts taken in the movie really don't do the books justice.

Flash Forward Trailer

FlashForward promo
by lyly_ford

Looks quite good.

Laid off work tomorrow (Friday), had a change of pace today as I went to the other location and worked in the warehouse/dispatch department, a lot to learn in a short space of time but what pissed me off was leaving the building walking past my card and going to my normal building to clock out then walking back to my car, ok it was only 10 minutes but what a pointless waste of my time:)

Torchwood Trailer (Spoilers of course)

TV News

The new Dr Who companion has been announced.
Karen Gillan a 21 year old Scottish actress has been named as the sidekick to the new Dr played by Matt Smith. She's a cute red head so no problems there but isn't it about time this new version of the classic series followed suit by having either male or even alien companions rather than pretty little things (well apart from Donna).

House starts on SKY1 and SKY1HD this Sunday at 9pm, I've already seen the series but I'll tune in now and again from some of the better episodes and in HD of course.
The first round of bidding for the Virgin media TV channels has ended with reports that BSKYB with a £160 Million offer is way ahead of bids from CH4, Time Warner and NBC/U, interesting whatever happens.

Work Update

There was a meeting at work yesterday where the plant manager spelled out the situation in regards to the order book and short term future. Compared to this time last year the production is down by 20%, the simple answer is to go onto a 4 day week and review the situation on a weekly basis.
It's not ideal but it does mean there will be no compulsory redundancies, for now anyway.

Star Trek

Trekkies Bash New Star Trek Film As 'Fun, Watchable'



I saw the new movie yesterday and strangely enough it was enjoyable but as a fan it cut to many corners or trod on what I consider as Trek for it to be really good, no worries at all about buying it on Blu-ray though and adding it to the collection. A second movie looks on the cards and now they have gotten past the need to set up the crew I am really expecting JJ to create something incredible.

Dollhouse Renewed?

A source indicates that despite low ratings for it's Friday night broadcast Dollhouses DVR and potential DVD sales have secured it a second 13 episode run on FOX.
If it is true then I am quite delighted as the show does have some very good elements and a half season run will mean a tight and arc orientated narrative.

Live Feed Article

Memorabilia and Flu update

Good news as over a week has passed since returning to the country and no signs of the virus, we can all breath and sneeze easier:)
On a slight side note the building next to the manufacturing facilities is being demolished, driving one of the big JCB's and knocking a building down looked like fun:)


A little on the high side price wise with courier shipping but I just had to have the QMX Stargate SG1 coasters, I couldn't afford the scale model of a F302 so I'll make do with something to put my Buffy mug on.

Swine Flu update

A guy at work whose kid returned form Mexico last week is now on paid leave as a passneger on the same fleet has been confirmed with the virus, so far the young lad and the father are fine but the company has to be seen to take steps.
Cue endless rounds of humour at the guys expense the day before and even today after a global company wide memo did the rounds:)

Funny how you suddenly feel a little under the weather when people start talking about viruses and flu or is that just me?

District 9

This looks like the sleeper hit of the summer, low budget docu style movie about an alien presence on Earth and their impact as they settle and are faced with growing issues with the resentment of the humans surrounding them. It's also produced by Peter Jackson so has some muscle behind it.
District 9

BSG

More info is now emerging about the upcoming full series release on DVD and Blu-ray due July 28. I have the mini-series and first season on HD DVD and DVD but restrained myself from buying the second, third and fourth so a full series boxset is just about workable:)

House

After Five decided not to show the fifth season of House (they were expected to push it back to the summer) they chose not to renew so SKY1 have picked up the PAY rights including HD but no info in Free rights so no word on a SKY3 screening at a later date.
On a side note I just bought season4 on DVD for a tenner.

Turn Coat

I've just read the latest Dresden File novel "Turn Coat" which was released the other day.
An enjoyable read but quite a dark novel certainly lacking much of the humour from previous stories but once you read it you will understand why.
The first few chapters can be heard read by Jim on the Butcher Block.

Tricia Helfer 35 today

Tricia adds a year to her age this day, she just keeps getting better and better with guest appearences on Burn Notice and Chuck and the upcoming Warehouse13.

Offical Website of her gorgeousness.

Red Dwarf: Return To Earth and other Scifi

The long awaited reunion of the boys from the dwarf makes it's debut on Dave tonight at 11.30pm, yes I know hardly primetime but I suppose they think the fans will tune in or record it regardless.

Dr Who returns with the first of three specials tomorrow on BBC1 at 6.45 and simulcast in HD and the day after SKY1's adapatiation of Skellig screens at 7pm.

Back in the saddle

Right I've installed the new boot drive and a clean install of XP SP3 and after spending most of the afternoon install apps while intermitintly watching the footy, House and Chuck I am quite happy with the final result. XP boots up very fast even with the software overhead added to it and the overall performance is much smoother than before. I have moved both Newsleecher and Itunes storage folders off the boot drive which may be helping out there but as always I think there is a need for more hard drive space:)

SKY HD and PC fun

My SKY+HD has been updated with the new GUI, much more modern than the previous one which was based on the 1998 vintage GUI first seen with the launch of SKY D.

After the performance issues with various anti-virus applications and overall "not right" feeling I've been getting from the PC I am about to add a new WD Velociraptor as my boot drive and run a clean install of XP SP3, Vista still has issues with a few apps I need. I could be back in a couple of hours or heaven forbid the whole weekend, things seldom go smoothly:)

Harpers Island

A new mini-series premieres on the 9th, it's been picked up by the BBC but no idea if an airdate has been decided upon.

Anti-Virus Software

I upgraded to the new AVG 8.5 free package and my PC suddenly decided it would take over 4 minutes to bootup and overall seemed very sluggish especially when opening a drive. I uninstalled it and downloaded the trial of Kaspersky AV but that demanded I uninstall my Zonealarm firewall. Next I tried the trial from McAfee but that quite frankly turned my PC into a treacle sponge so that got uninstalled as well:)

I'm going to try the well reviewed free offering Avast! next and if that doesn't work I'll try to get AVG8.0 again.

Andy Hallet RIP

Reports say that Andy Hallett (singer and performer) perhaps best known for his portrayal of Lorne in the Joss Whedon series "Angel" passed away tonight.

Eonline

Stargate Universe Teaser

Thanks to Gateworld..

Family Guy do TNG

Mini Movie Reviews

[Rec]

This is a Spanish horror movie filmed POV style and follows a TV reporter and her cameraman on a nights visit to a emergency service operation. A seemingly routine callout to help a woman who may be in trouble in her locked apartment turns into a night of terror.
The movie is subtitled but once the action starts you could quite easily get totally immersed and forget to read them, horror doesn't need talking to work.


Quantum Of Solace

The second Daniel Craig outing as James Bond follows on from Casino Royale and I quite like the idea of an overriding arc to the movies. The problem is that the story is pretty weak and even some seriously good stunt work and action direction fail to raise the movie above any number of by the book action flicks.

New Trek Trailer

A final trailer for the Trek movie has been released, watch it at the official website and I have to admit even this TOS devote is pretty impressed despite it stomping all over what I consider the genesis of Kirk.

BSG Thoughts

A most satisfying finale to a fantastic show.
The first half of the finale dealt with the assault on the colony and was everything a action geek would desire and the second dealt strongly with the mythology of the series and covered most of the issues raised but not all.

QMX have released a Special Edition Dog Tag Plaque, quite expensive and looks good but at this time with the economy as it is well it's not a good time to buy something because it looks nice.

BSG Finale

So after 5 years and 4 seasons we have the final installment of the journey tonight on the US scifi/Syfy channel, I'll be watching tomorrow morning and I don't think any finale has has this level of anticipation. Mash and Cheers spring to mind but they were not scifi so don't really count, you know what I mean:)

Dollhouse and Knight Rider have been acquired by the UK Scifi channel, tells you how in demand they must have been if they turn up on a mid level PAY channel.

Skellig

Well we knew that Going Postal was pushed back so no new Pratchett on SKY this year but quite under the counter SKY1 has started to promote their adaptation of the childrens novel Skellig by David Almond.
The show stars Tim Roth as Skellig a mysterious figure found in the shed of a house a family have just moved into.

Official website.

Work News

We had a meeting at work triggered by an EU wide letter from the companies home office in Memphis. I'll admit I feared the worse but it only went on about a freeze on internal promotions and cost cutting at all levels which includes no wage rises until March 2010. Our part of the company negotiated a pay rise last December but it never got the final sign off from the European head cheese so right now we don't know if that is going to be negated by this decision.

It's not great news but I'm still working and nothing has been said about redundancies or short time let alone a wage cut in the manner announced today by the workers of Toyota in the UK.

Bitch Slap The Movie!

I only came across this movie after reading up on Michael Hurst who appeared in this weeks Legend of the Seeker and probably better known for being in Hercules along side Kevin Sorbo.
It says it's a throw back to the "B" movie exploitation era and with the babes, guns and general mayehm then Bitch Slap seems to be the business.

Blu-ray News

Some good Blu-ray news, the X-Men trilogy is going to be released on the 20th of April, priced around £32.99 for the 6 disk set. Monsters Inc is also getting the Blu treatment, I have it on DVD and it's an excellent release but I've got to have it in HD.

Word has it that Panasonic are ready to launch their Blu-ray recorder into the UK market now there are at least 2 FTA HD channels on Dsat, the model DMR-BS850 may be here as early as May with a rumored price tag of £1000. Sounds a lot but the first DVD recorders were over a grand and didn't have the global enconomic issues which are hammering Japanese exports.

Digital Spy & The Simpsons

Just got an email from DigitalSpy telling me my account was locked out as someone had tried and failed 5 time to log in, an IP trace says it's someone in France, bizarre:)

The first ever Simpsons in HD was screened on SKY1HD yesterday (US screening the week before) but in a very surprising turn of events the St Patricks day episode will air on SKY1 and SKY1HD on the 17th of March a week before it's shown on FOX in the US.
Looking forward to Homer being the guest editor of the SKY magazine, probably a much better read than it is at the mo.

Bits

Bought myself The Dresden Files boxset for £12, given up hope for a Blu-ray and since I was buying a books from Amazon I thought what the hell.
Rumour at work says the company may make some changes at the end of March given the state of the UK and Export order book, worrying.
Going to put some cash into the years ISA, the interest rate for my primary savings account is disgustingly low, I'll keep the current account active but put a few grand away at the still pitiful interest rate compared to this time last year.
I'm even considering buying some premium bonds, just to diversify a bit.

Sony Spoof

Sony Releases New Stupid Piece Of Shit That Doesn't Fucking Work

FIrst Blu-ray of the year

It's February 10th and I've ordered my first Blu-ray of the year and it's not a movie.
I was browsing Movietyme (exchange rate makes US prices very unattractive) and noticed they had the first season of History Channels The Universe on Blu for only £19.99, bargain.
I also added Dr Horrible's Sing-along Blog which used to be an Amazon exclusive for under a tenner.

It went BOOM

Well thanks to some environmental nonsense on Radio Nottingham which prompted me to start switching off the microwave to save money (who needs a digital clock in the kitchen when you have one already on the wall) the result is very bad for the enviroment and my wallet.
Switching on the microwave during the sunday dinner preperation and it blew up, not in a bomb kinda way but it was an impressive bang so that means buying a new one and scraping this one.
Personally I think the microwave had built up some condensation when powered off thanks to the cooking on the near by hob and went powered up it shorted out, just a theory.

Terry Pratchett

Terry Pratchett has is featured in a two part documentary about Alzheimer's, the first part is on Wednesday the 4th at 9pm and the second a week later at the same time.
It looks like an indepth warts and all look into how TP dealt with the revelation of his illness and the subsequent embrace of the community and efforts to use his illness to promote understanding and research.

Snow

Finally after so many years we have some real snowfall, yes it took me an hour to get home from work and I'm pretty sure the roads will be iffy at 6am in the morning but woop there is white fluffy snow falling from the sky.

Of course as usual with anything out of the ordinary large parts of the country fall apart:)

Zack and Miri

I watched the movie last night and as a big Kevin Smith fan I expected to be entertained. It was a funny movie, not a great movie but it had it's good points and some excellent casting but felt quite short or perhaps took too long to get going.
Justin Long and Brandon Routh were hilarious at the reunion and Jason Mewes again proving he can act beyond his Jay persona and Seth and Elizabeth played their parts in a manner that looked like they were having fun.

I'll probably pick it up on Blu-ray in a month or so.

Jan blues

It's been a slow time at work, the global economy has slashed our export order books and a slow down in UK sales has put everyone on edge, it's not critical right now but it can't continue like this without the usual staff reductions to counter reduced production targets.
I had my yearly assessment and it went well, I may be having some training in another department to make me more useful to the company and provide coverage in that area, hopefully that means redundancies are not imminent.

On the post-xmas period I've paid all the debts and managed to go through the whole month without spending any money on anything but essentials. The decision to only buy Blu-rays in 2 for 1 or 3 for 2 deals has helped, yes I can't buy on day of release but a few quid savings are worth the wait.

Ricardo Montalban RIP

Sad news today with the passing of Ricardo Montalban aged 88, best known in the genre world for his role on Fantasy Island and as Khan the genetically advanced human that gave Captain Kirk a run for his money.

Atlantis on Blu-ray

Well sorta, in a movie pretty much lifted from the Star Trek Fan Collectives MGM are holding a poll to pick the fans favourite episodes for a compilation disk. I like the idea but you wonder if that means no Blu-ray full season releases.

Here We Go Again

So it's the last day of my holidays, I don't count this weekend since well I don't work them anyway.
Was these last few weeks worthwhile, well I got together with a few people I hadn't seen for a while some by choice and some by just having to do the family thing and not quite watched all the TV or caught up on the podcasts I wanted too.
That aside it's been a good christmas, my dad loves his Homer Simpson slippers and normally like me he is difficult to buy for:)

I don't know what this year will bring, I work for a company this relies on commercial construction and rejuvenation so we are going to get hit by the down turn and well I'm one of the most recent new employees so a little concerned. I will of course pay off my credit card and at least for the first quarter limit spending to the essentials, not a time to be reckless especially as interest rates are pathetic and my savings not growing very fast at all.

A little good news as Terry Pratchett is Knighted in the new years honours list.