Archive for ENTERTAINMENT
BBC Thought for the Day
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I have just been reading an interesting piece in the Telegraph, about secularists wanting a voice on Radio 4’s, “Thought for the Day” slot. Personally I find the Today programme quite a good bit of news reporting, especially as they have a really agressive style of interrogating their guests, in a very un-Paxman like way.
So for the un-initaited ”Thought for the Day” comes on during the Today programme around about 7:45am and a pre-selected religious buff gives us a 3 minute monolgue about what he thinks about current affairs. There are a mix of religious commentators from the Christian, Muslim, Jewish, and many other faiths. Needless to say, its almost like a daily sermon in a 3 minute slot.
Now the evil secularists, atheists and humanists want to get in on the action and have a slice of the action, boring people to death with their endless drivel in the 7:45am slot. Sorry to be harsh, but you can’t tell me it will be any better just because they don’t believe in God. I’d don’t agree that non-believers should be banned from the slot, but equally I don’t really give a crap. There are a lot more important issues to address than “Thought for the Day”. How about, so called “honour killings”, or forced marriage, what about the 26 C of E Bishops who sit unelected in the House of Lords.
I just can’t get up the energy to argue about “Thought for the Day” as it all just smacks of, me-too-isms. The only reason the slot has 4.5 million listeners is because they’re already tuned into the Today programme and can’t be bothered the change the radio station. I bet if you took it off air, and made it available only on iPlayer very few people would bother to go look for it.
Oh and if you’re one of those religious types, don’t go thinking I’m on your side either. You get plenty of programmes on TV, like all the channels that pump out worship on Sky. They even have it listed specifically in the planner! Let us also not forget “Songs of Praise” and “Around the World in 80 faiths”. So don’t tell me that the religious are hard done by.
So what to do with the 3 minute boredom slot? either make it more interesting, or bin it is my view. I have no interest in it and it seems completely out of place in the programme content.
The Northern Lights
Posted by: | CommentsI am currently reading the Northern Lights, (via audio book), which is quite a useful way to pass the time in the car journey to work.
This story is also known as the Golden Compass, adapted for the movies from Philip Pullman’s original book.
The tale is quite compelling and appeals to my sense of adventure and the mysterious and I am partial to fantasy stories.
The main character Lyra is very strong an determined, and makes me think a little of Rachael. I have not seen the movie yet, but the more I hear the story the more I want to go and see if they have done justice to Pullman’s original work.
Should you have any great desire you can even work out your own Daemon by answering a few simple questions on the movie web site. Mine is a female tiger which is quite inspiring.
I really am enjoying Northern lights and the story is so compelling I have to drag myself out of the car when I get to the office. I almost want to find an excuse for a long car journey so I can continue to find out what happens to Lyra in the home of the bears.
Ben Elton’s Latest
Posted by: | CommentsI have just finished listening to Ben Elton’s latest book, called “Blind Faith“, when I read the description on iTunes I hadn’t quite got the whole picture of what it was about.
The book describes a world of the future in which the polar ice caps have melted and everyone lives in cramped conditions, with no privacy. In fact privacy and secrets are a perversion. Citizens are expected to display the most intimate details of their lives on their blogs and “tubes”. The country is run by a religious group which reveres God, Jesus and Diana (assumedly princess Diana). They worship “The Love”, even when children die every day. Open display of raw emotion are the norm, people sharing sex and grief using web cams in their homes. The heat is so unbearable the populous of this place walk around barely clothed and people openly engage in sexual activity, and perving on others is expected as a societal norm.
The main Character in the story Trafford, is an ordinary unassuming guy who just likes to keep one or two little secrets to himself. He gets involved with a group of subversives after having his daughter vaccinated (which is illegal), and finds himself becoming the voice of Humanism in a world blinded to reason by religion. Stupidity is expected, and intelligence condemned.
With everything monitored and watched on the net, and people punished for belief in evolution, Trafford soon gets carried away with revolutionary ideas.
The names of the characters were quite amusing, such as Katelyn Happy Meal, and Tinkerbell.
There are parts of this story that make me chuckle, but I didn’t really get if the tone was supposed to be funny, or a commentary on society as it is today. Of course it represents the best and the worst in humans as all good stories do, and it also paints a picture of what society could be like if religious zealots took over. It describes what would happen if reason were replaced with mythology and superstition, then combine that with the “Big Brother” type of voyeurism, but far more graphic and sexual.
I couldn’t possibly spoil the plot line or the ending, as it was a very compelling story (audio book). I would recommend it highly, as it paints a very stark vision of the future, in which sanity and reason are lost, and the only light is the humanists keeping their dirty little secrets.
This is sometimes how I feel being in a Christian country, that I should keep my peace, and just try to blend in, pretending to be Christian. However am I lucky because I don’t have to, and wouldn’t want to.
Ben Elton’s Latest
Posted by: | CommentsI have just finished listening to Ben Elton’s latest book, called “Blind Faith“, when I read the description on iTunes I hadn’t quite got the whole picture of what it was about.
The book describes a world of the future in which the polar ice caps have melted and everyone lives in cramped conditions, with no privacy. In fact privacy and secrets are a perversion. Citizens are expected to display the most intimate details of their lives on their blogs and “tubes”. The country is run by a religious group which reveres God, Jesus and Diana (assumedly princess Diana). They worship “The Love”, even when children die every day. Open display of raw emotion are the norm, people sharing sex and grief using web cams in their homes. The heat is so unbearable the populous of this place walk around barely clothed and people openly engage in sexual activity, and perving on others is expected as a societal norm.
The main Character in the story Trafford, is an ordinary unassuming guy who just likes to keep one or two little secrets to himself. He gets involved with a group of subversives after having his daughter vaccinated (which is illegal), and finds himself becoming the voice of Humanism in a world blinded to reason by religion. Stupidity is expected, and intelligence condemned.
With everything monitored and watched on the net, and people punished for belief in evolution, Trafford soon gets carried away with revolutionary ideas.
The names of the characters were quite amusing, such as Katelyn Happy Meal, and Tinkerbell.
There are parts of this story that make me chuckle, but I didn’t really get if the tone was supposed to be funny, or a commentary on society as it is today. Of course it represents the best and the worst in humans as all good stories do, and it also paints a picture of what society could be like if religious zealots took over. It describes what would happen if reason were replaced with mythology and superstition, then combine that with the “Big Brother” type of voyeurism, but far more graphic and sexual.
I couldn’t possibly spoil the plot line or the ending, as it was a very compelling story (audio book). I would recommend it highly, as it paints a very stark vision of the future, in which sanity and reason are lost, and the only light is the humanists keeping their dirty little secrets.
This is sometimes how I feel being in a Christian country, that I should keep my peace, and just try to blend in, pretending to be Christian. However am I lucky because I don’t have to, and wouldn’t want to.
BBC iPlayer: I’m Impressed
Posted by: | CommentsLast night I downloaded BBC iPlayer, and it downloaded my first TV show. iPlayer for the uninitiated is one of those tools that lets you download TV and watch it later at a more convenient time.
The BBC have a pretty good selection of comedy and drama, including Dr Who, which I didn’t really watch properly when it was on first time around. It lets you download programmes to your hard disk and you’ve got up to 30 days to watch them, then 7 days from first viewing to watch them over again. After that time they automatically delete.
The programmes do take a little while to download, but its worth the wait because the quality is really good. I’m not certain if its HD quality or not, but its a crisp and sharp image.
The system uses peer to peer file sharing, and you can turn it off when exit download manager. The BBC also make it very obvious that the technology is peer to peer unlike other companies who have downloadable content.
If you’re a radio buff I player also has shows on there as well, but I haven’t as yet listened to them. I personally think this is a bit redundant as I’d prefer to listen to radio shows as a Podcast on my iPod.
iPlayer also has parental controls and warns you before download if a programme contains adult content.
I think this is very cool and if more TV producers do this it pretty much sounds the death knell for Sky+ and Tivo.
I may even just download programmes in future instead of watching them when they’re on, allowing me to schedule when I want to watch TV shows. So the next time someone says did you see the Extra’s Christmas Special, I’ll be able to say, not but I’ll have a look if it’s any good.
Playstation 3
Posted by: | CommentsWell, I’ve got one now, and joined the HD revolution. About a week ago I bought a Playstation 3, a birthday present for myself. I’ve got a number of games for it already and I’ve had a pretty positive experience.
I’ve got a number of games including “Ratchet & Clank: Tools of Destruction”, which I am currently quite addicted to. The PS3 isn’t really comparable to the Xbox 360. I can’t say I look at the two consoles and say to myself these consoles are the same. The PS3 feels much more grown up and sophisticated and than the Xbox 360, which seems to sit in what I would call the Peter Pan generation. The PS3 has a lot of other features not included with the Xbox 360, including built in wireless, web brower, and you can use any Bluetooth headset you like.
I’ve found the SIXAXIS controller to be excellent fun and it certainly adds another dimension to the games, although it doesn’t vibrate like the 360 controller. For example when playing “Ratchet & Clank” you have to do a dance to gain entrance to the pirate areas. So you press left, right, up and down to move in certain directions, and then to “Shake your booty” you literally shake the controller! Fabulous fun 
The other thing that amazed me is the definition you get from looking at HD movies on the Blu Ray drive. Of course you can play normal DVD’s on the drive, and they look OK. However Blu Ray gives you a clarity that just blows you away.
The other good thing that I think Sony have got right, is that you can upgrade your internal hard drive on the PS3 to whatever size you like. If you want 250GB storage, get yourself a SATA drive and the instructions to install it are in the manual.
I’m always one of those sceptical types when it comes to media hype, but so far the console hasn’t crashed, it doesn’t sound like a Hoover, and it has a beautiful interface.
It certainly gets my thumbs up, but I’ll leave you to decide for yourself. The only drawback right now is that it doesn’t have the range of games available that the Xbox 360 does.
Rating: 4/5
Facebook: am I a sheep?
Posted by: | CommentsFacebook, the new social networking phenomenon, and I finally gave in and signed up.  The free thinker in me resisted for as long as possible as it was just another way of conforming, and mob mentality. However I have seen the light and decided I don’t want to be left out in the cold, so I signed up.
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If nothing else it’s another way to promote my blog, but it also gets me linking up all my friends in one place. You can also find people you haven’t spoken to in a while or who’s email address you’ve lost along the way.
I’ve signed up a few friends and some of them have even accepted so I feel a bit less like Billy no mates now. There were also a couple of humanist groups on facebook so I’ve joined those in the hope of finding some more humanist friends.  Apparently they are out there!
In a lot of ways it reminds me of a previous social networking site I belonged to years ago called sixdegrees.com but that has long since gone. The idea was that you signed up, and linked up with your friends, and each of your friends sign up six of their friends and so on until the whole world was united.
Originally I only signed up because Nick Clegg has a campaign group going on there, but it actually seems quite a useful tool. It’ definitely more chat oriented though and no replacement for my blog.
Halo 3 Achievements
Posted by: | CommentsI haven’t played much in the way of Xbox lately but I thought I’d have a bash this evening. I got promoted to corporal grade 2 which made me happy. I was playing social matches against the weak and helpless! <Insert evil laugh>
I also played a bit more of the campaign mode, which I’ve completed already, but this time I’m doing it on the heroic mode, which is quite a bit tougher than normal mode, and the strategy for dealing with the onslaught of flood is quite different.
As you can see from the screenshot I’m not taking any prisoners, and am definitely sorting out the evil critters of the galaxy. I’ll keep you posted on my progress. If you’re feeling brave, I’ll take on all comers in a social game of slayer, or you can join me in my victory over the flood!!
The ape that got lucky
Posted by: | CommentsI’ve been back on iTunes recently looking for something to make me laugh, and I was extremely successful. For those who don’t know my humour level it takes quite a lot to make me really laugh. Chris Addision and his cast did exactly that with “The Ape that got lucky”, and incredibly funny audio show about the evolution of mankind.
The programme is split into a series of episodes in this podcast, and it provided me great amusement in the car driving to work. So if you’re feeling a little low, I can strongly recommend this audiobook.
There are tons and tons of gags in this programme, especially the “conversations” between cave man and cave woman. The discovery of fire, and how she throws the meat on the fire to “try something new”.Â
I’m not going to provide endless quotes, so if you want to have a list go and download a copy from iTunes or at the very least listen to the preview.
 If you want to know more about this programme there is a more complete description on the BBC web site.
Another Star Trek Movie…
Posted by: | CommentsOK! I admit it I am a Star Trek fan, I love loads of Sci-fi programmes and have a Star Trek uniform in my closet. It’s not a secret! my friends and family all know it.
I am sorry to say, I do not think they should be doing another Trek movie. It’s old it’s tired and as far as I can see they’ve just run out of steam. To be honest sci-fi writers in general seem to be running out of steam, and I see old plot lines recurring in different incarnations of Star Trek, and Stargate SG-1, and even parallels between Mutant X and Heroes.
Maybe I’m just getting too old to enjoy the magic and mystery of sci-fi any more, and perhaps I should just stop trying to kid myself.
A new Trek film has no appeal to me whatsoever, especially after the miserably dull Enterprise prequal that flopped. I will probably see the movie just out of curiosity, but I really can’t see how they’re going to generate a fresh and interesting plot line.  It may appeal to the next generation of fans so I could be completely wrong.
Comic books seem to be what draw me at the moment, and movies such as the Fantasic Four, Spider-man, and Iron man are more my cup of tea these days. Excitement and action is what I need in my life!
