h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I love it! Ceiling cat iz watching u transubstantiate

How are you doing? Plans for the weekend? I have hiding on the agenda, waiting for payday. Maybe I'll put together an music of some sort. I've other nonsense to find use for aswell - we were supposed to get rid of some old germ-awareness posters, but I couldn't resist the opportunity for a bit of cropping so now have a hundred or so glossy labels with KILL IT in bold letters. I have no idea what to do with.

I'm doing all right- been a wee bit busy the last few days, work-wise, but nothing I can't handle. Just enough to keep me actually doing w*rk all day with little time for mucking about on hootoo, though.

Weekend plans... not really. K's got a band thing tonight, but the place is tiny so I begged off. Tomorrow night he deejays for the Club Foot anniversary; each DJ gets an hour slot. K picked 2-3 AM, so I'll probably be in bed sleeping before he's gone. Meanwhile, Monday's a holiday, so I have a third day with which to do absolutely nothing. Maybe I'll get some vinyl or VHS backed up. Stranger things have happened.

Hope K has a good time, and you have a nice long weekend.

Top tip from the b3ta newsletter -

"And here's my cat toy tip that you haven't
asked for: Local hardware shop (or B&Q if you
really must). Buy a 1m stretch of bath chain.
Cats love it. Ours even fetch it. They love
the sound of it. And the feel of it in their
mouths. Much better than that string rubbish."

Have just been watching Virgin Spring.

What an excellent film. Beautifully put together; must have been a challenge to put a rape scene in, in 1960. But a fine fine film, stories above Seventh Seal for me.

Glad you liked it. It's definitely one of my all-time favorites. We just happened to be at the Planet of Sound a few days before Criterion released that DVD, and when the owner saw us he brought it out to us from the back. I was more than a little enthusiastic.

Three-day weekend got off to a typical start- I woke with a really high fever and a screaming headache, and spent the entire day alternating between sleeping and puking my brains out.

Much better today!

Good to hear it! Nothing'll sicken you quicker than the promise of a public holiday.

Watched Yojimbo this afternoon, fantastic. I've got to go get the Dollars trilogy now, to compare and contrast. But a fantastic story. Thank you!

Glad you liked it, too. I've yet to see a Kurusawa film I haven't liked, and I've tried to get all the ones I've *really* enjoyed on DVD. Sadly, no "Seven Samurai" yet. I'm not a huge fan of the Western film genre in general, but the "Dollars" films are all right. They're probably not too hard to find?

I recently heard of another little comedy series I hadn't seen before, "The New Statesman". Rather than fork over $50 to get it from Amazon (or $40 from Sendit), I found it at Netflix and rented the first disc from them. Watched a few episodes yesterday in between naps and all that. It's amusing, though not as side-splitting as "The Young Ones" or "Bottom". (Apparently there's a box set of live "Bottom" shows; I've got it on backorder.)

New Statesman is probably one of those things where you had to be there. A lot of Brit-specific humour, but glad you enjoyed it a bit. It turned into a stage production recently.

For real Brit political evil, you need the Francis Urquhart trilogy (House Of Cards / To Play The King / The Final Cut). Michael Dobbs who wrote it was a former employee of the Tories. Ian Richardson is stunning.

I've had to look up a few things (Jeremy Archer, for example), but I'm reasonably getting it. I'll see if I can track down that trilogy, too. Thanks for the suggestion.


This evening's entertainment: I accidentally got a bit of stainless steel polish on the floor, and it left a slightly slick spot in the kitchen, in front of the fridge. It's non-toxic and all that, so it's not going to *hurt* Herman to walk through it to get to and from his food and water dishes. But it's funny as hell to watch his paws slipping and sliding around, as he does the kitty splits, slides sideways, then tips over and lands on his back with all four paws sticking straight up. With a very annoyed little oof-meow sound.

Aww, poor little guy. Will there be video?

Jeffrey Archer was one of the most detested figures in British politics, second only to Thatcher, at least until Bliar showed his true colours. On his release from prison (at Hollesley Bay, just up the road - people regularly "abscond") for perjury, he tried to ingratiate himself back with ideas of prison reform, but no-one cared.

Have a good Dr King Day, and Go Giants!

Giants? Is that a sports team of some kind?

Of course I'm up at my regular time- haven't gotten back to sleep yet after K left for work. I haven't got any video of Herman slipping and sliding, but I might give it a try before I wash the floor this afternoon.

Thanks for explaining the feeling of the "man on the street", so to speak, re: Jeffrey Archer. The Wiki article was fairly neutral in tone, so while I might have some back-story, it doesn't clue one in on the way people really feel. Though I did more or less assume he must've been a bit of a dirtbag for the Alan B'Stard character to think so highly of him.

The first few minutes of this'll put you beyond doubt.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAkdDuQyI0k

For the most part, I found that pretty funny. For the other parts... more "research". I'm actually kind of glad that a silly sitcom has led to an educational experience for me.

I should point out also the presenter there, Angus Deayton, had to leave after he was caught with a prostitute and a faceful of coke.

So... I linked to that site you emailed me about last week, and was able to get "200 Motels", "The Asphyx" (which we watched this morning), and the Tim Burton short "Vincent". Well worth checking the place out, and I will definitely be back.

Also, that IMToo thingy I got for converting AVI to DVD worked more or less the way I wanted it to; I upgraded to the full version (for $35 or $40) and viola! I can convert all of my video files to DVD. Herman had better watch his step.

Brillo. Did you get any Who??

I got paid finally on Friday so went off and got a new hoover. Sad state of affairs that I'd get so excited over something like that, but this bad boy can *suck*. Plus I got the Alien box set for £15, another Sandman book and am trying to leave something for going to Leeds later next month.

I want a new vacuum cleaner, too. Mainly because mine was partially submerged in water during the Great Roof Blowing-Off Flood of 2007. Now I'm half afraid to plug it in. I've got my eye on a shiny new Dyson, one of the ones designed to suck up pet hair, but kee-rist, are they a chunk of change!

Didn't download any Who- I'd thought I'd watch online a bit before committing myself. It's quite possible that I'll be the first one up tomorrow morning, and if so, I'll grab an episode or two then.

How's your weekend, besides shopping and hoovering? Just got back from dinner at grandma's. Last night we went to a housewarming party for a couple of friends. Tomorrow, I may want to lounge around all day in my jim-jams. Oh, and I ordered myself a pressure cooker, with the idea that it'll give me more dinner options on weeknights without having to eat in bed.

PS- I just now noticed a somewhat unfortunate typo in my earlier post- "viola"? "Voila!"

Not quite as bad as a memo I emailed to our entire HR department last week where I asked if they wanted "sex lateral filing cabinets" instead of "SIX lateral filing cabinets". Leave it to me to send a dirty email to HR.