Journal Entries
Like it was a whole different work of fiction
Posted Mar 7, 2015
For the past few months I've been working my way through the Harry Potter audiobooks, read by Stephen Fry. I'm currently a chapter or two from the end of Order of the Phoenix. Dumbledore and Voldemort have just been having a tiff in the Ministry of Magic.
If you thought they mucked about with the story when they made the Lord of the Rings films, it's nothing compared to the Harry Potter films. There are so many things that are so different. So many scenes missing from the films. So many subplots ignored. Characters who simply never appear in the films. I'm finding myself in the same position as someone like the former Mrs Gosho, who saw the LotR films before reading the books.
I'm not sure Stephen Fry was the right man, or woman, for the job. Or perhaps it's the person directing him. Stephen's a little bit... intense. Far too much so at times. It's made listening on the bus to and from work difficult sometimes because I want to shout at him "Fer cryin' out loud Stevey baby, get on with it!", or "Pull yer bloody head in, mate!".
And he can't do a very good French accent. Far too Benny Hill. Nor a plausible Lancashire accent either.
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Latest reply: Mar 7, 2015
Peripatetic prices
Posted Mar 6, 2015
I was reading a conversation here recently about online prices changing from day to day. It might have been in Ask. As I was reading it I remember also reading something, much longer ago, about how a certain online retailer, the same one mentioned in the conversation, ups its price on an item slightly, the more an item is viewed in a set period of time. Life seems to be run on bloody algorithms these days, doesn't it.
Any road up.
One side of my headphones packed up a few days ago. You've no idea how irritating it can be to have Stephen Fry in one ear instead of in the middle of your bonce 
. I bought the phones nearly three years ago. By no stretch of the imagination could you call them best quality, but they're pretty nice for a $20 RRP, and I got them on sale at one of the online computer parts and electronics retailers, for under ten bucks. They're usually discounted at around $14, and that was the price a few hours ago, when I went to look at them again. I couldn't recall exactly when I bought the last pair so I went to my order history, found them, and clicked on the link. Now the price reads $7.99 - the price I paid for them three years ago 
Right, if that's what they're offering them at I reckon I'm having some of that. Result 
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Latest reply: Mar 6, 2015
DNA is everywhere
Posted Mar 5, 2015
"Dr Goldfarb calls this "the oldest physics" and imagines a cavewoman - the first physicist - banging rocks together to see what was inside."
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-31162725
"We'll be saying a big hello to all intelligent lifeforms everywhere, and to everyone else out there, the secret is to bang the rocks together, guys."
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Latest reply: Mar 5, 2015
How much?
Posted Feb 28, 2015
There are two urban farms within walking distance of work, and last week I visited one of them with the intention of buying some eggs. They have both chickens and ducks on the farm, and for ages I've been hearing people like Hugh Fearlessly-Eatsitall espousing the wonders of fresh eggs, and to be sure, these are quite different to the ones I buy at either the supermarket or the co-op. Unbelievably yellow yolks that stand up in the frying pan like a... use your imagination 
, and firm whites with no watery part to them which would probably poach really well.
But seven bucks for a dozen eggs? 
That's almost twice the price of the good quality, free-range, organically-fed eggs I can get elsewhere. It's not like they have storage or transport costs. The chickens are right there, squeezing them out They're bloody good eggs for sure. But not for that price will I buy them again.
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Latest reply: Feb 28, 2015
Wheels within wheels
Posted Feb 25, 2015
I think I'm going to have to start my own version of BG's Synchronicity thread because things keep... happening. Like this morning for instance.
I've never knowingly heard anyone use the term 'baked in' to describe something fixed or permanent, until today, when I've already come across it three times and it's not yet 11am. The first two were on the radio, and I can only remember one of them - someone was describing a nasty piece of spy/adware that Lenovo have been installing on their PCs http://www.npr.org/2015/02/25/388901986/lenovo-sued-over-superfish-adware Now though, they're not doing it any more and are trying to get it off the PCs that already have it. I heard one commentator in the story describing it as being 'baked into the operating system'.
A while later, in another story, I heard someone else use the term 'baked in'.
And just now I read this: "That's something I have baked into my DNA and it's very hard not to have that kind of reaction." http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-31616523
I don't much care for it to be honest. It sounds like it might be a new buzzphrase that everyone wants to use. But as a side order of spookiness, the BBC story is about telesales calls, and that bloke's tale is about how he got more of them once he signed up for the no-call database. Well, the same thing has happened to me in the past few months. I've had this number for several years now. It's a cellphone, it's my only phone, and it's only this year that I've started getting any sales call on it. After the first one, early in Jaunary, I added my number to the federal no-call list. Yesterday I got two calls within 15 minutes from a company, both from different numbers, with a robomessage, asking if I wanted to place an advertising sign outside my house, and this morning I've found the same message on my voicemail 
And last Wednesday I watched The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, a film directed by John Madden (something I wasn't aware of) which just happened to come up in my Netflix queue. Not only did I hear his name mentioned a couple of times last week, but this week it seems that The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is about to be released.
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Latest reply: Feb 25, 2015
There is only one thing worse than being Gosho, and that is not being Gosho
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