The Android's Conundrum

I saw Star Trek and I wish the whole movie had been about them...

Fri, 17 May 2013 16:53:46 +0100

I saw Star Trek and I wish the whole movie had been about them being a super fashionable space biker gang with their space-leather jackets.

This comic by Gemma Correll accurately sums up my attitude...

Wed, 15 May 2013 20:28:01 +0100

This comic by Gemma Correll accurately sums up my attitude towards phone calls. I really, really don’t like talking on the phone. Or interacting with people in general. I’d be happy as a hermit, I think.

Blah

Wed, 15 May 2013 20:26:41 +0100

I am really behind with writing reviews - I have about three books I’ve finished and a few movies too. I’m just exhausted with work at the moment so in the evenings I get in and can’t be bothered to do anything. I will try to type up a few reviews and queue up a few posts this weekend though.

Apparently today is the day for “scientists walk into a...

Tue, 14 May 2013 19:24:51 +0100

Apparently today is the day for “scientists walk into a bar” jokes.

No spoilers, but I thought Star Trek Into Darkness was...

Mon, 13 May 2013 18:31:32 +0100

No spoilers, but I thought Star Trek Into Darkness was brilliant. It was a good film in and of itself, but also did a fantastic job of bringing a new twist to the original story. Really great stuff. I will leave it at that for now, but I will try to type up a longer review (which will definitely contain spoilers) later in the week.

Let’s Explore Diabetes with Owls is the newest book of...

Sun, 12 May 2013 19:48:20 +0100

Let’s Explore Diabetes with Owls is the newest book of humorous autobiographical essays from David Sedaris. I am a big fan of David Sedaris, I have read all of his other books and I generally love them, they are wonderfully funny and I always enjoy reading them. I also saw him a few years ago now at the book festival here in Edinburgh and he was a really entertaining speaker too. So I was of course really excited to read his new book, and I was not at all disappointed with it. If you’re familiar with Sedaris’ style and humour then you know exactly what to expect. It’s a mixture of reminiscences about his childhood and early adult life, mixed with more recent anecdotes about his life at present. There are also a few short fictional pieces scattered throughout the book as well. For fans of Sedaris it is nothing new, but then that is not a complaint, because it is entirely what I wanted from his new book. It’s funny and interesting and enjoyable reading. I’d really recommend all of his books, and this one is a good addition to the collection.

Oh I really need to rewatch Father Ted.

Sat, 11 May 2013 10:27:04 +0100

Oh I really need to rewatch Father Ted.

Last weekend I watched the 2009 Star Trek film, in...

Fri, 10 May 2013 19:42:39 +0100

Last weekend I watched the 2009 Star Trek film, in preparation for seeing Star Trek Into Darkness this weekend. It had been awhile since I last saw it, so I couldn’t remember a great deal about it, other than the fact that it had a lot of lens flare and a lot of people hanging from ledges. After watching it again, that’s a pretty accurate summary! But it’s also really good of course; the casting is great, it’s a good story, and it manages to stay true to the Star Trek that I’ve known and loved since I was a kid (with lots of nice references for fans of the original). I am now more than ever excited for the new movie which I am seeing on Sunday.

The entire text of The Hobbit on one poster.

Thu, 09 May 2013 19:29:18 +0100

The entire text of The Hobbit on one poster.

David Bowie - Heroes

Thu, 09 May 2013 19:17:33 +0100

David Bowie - Heroes

A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs

Wed, 08 May 2013 20:14:35 +0100

This week’s book club book was A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs. I read it on the Kindle because it is old enough to be out of copyright and available for free. For my review I’m not going to bother finding an image of the cover to post because it seems like every single different cover this book has had is equally ridiculous. Take a look at this Google image search and see what I mean. I know you’re not supposed to judge a book by it’s cover but I have to confess that I was a bit put off, and my opinion of the book never recovered from that. It’s an incredibly dated book full of sexist and racist overtones. The main character is a ridiculously over the top hero. Plot wise it’s a pulp science fiction adventure story, and while I suppose it was entertaining at times I was mostly left rolling my eyes at it. The book is considered a classic of the science fiction genre, but that does not necessarily make it a good book. I really disliked the book, but a few of the other people at the book club had much more positive reactions to it, so I’m not sure if it is just a matter of taste that I can’t bring myself to enjoy this sort of thing but other people could appreciate it more. Anyway sorry for the short and not particularly detailed review, but I’m really busy at the moment and there is not much else I can think of to say for this book.

I have a document where I keep track of all the books I’ve read each year. I just noticed that...

Wed, 08 May 2013 18:29:38 +0100

I have a document where I keep track of all the books I’ve read each year. I just noticed that I’d made a typo with The Princess Bride. Somehow I think The Princess Brie would be a very different book. Never go in against a Sicilian when cheese is on the line!

"Books are not about passing time. They’re about other lives. Other worlds. Far from wanting time to..."

Tue, 07 May 2013 19:39:34 +0100

“Books are not about passing time. They’re about other lives. Other worlds. Far from wanting time to pass, one just wishes one had more of it. If one wanted to pass the time one could go to New Zealand.”

- Alan Bennett, The Uncommon Reader

I was a big fan of the television show Jeeves & Wooster when...

Mon, 06 May 2013 18:58:51 +0100

I was a big fan of the television show Jeeves & Wooster when I was younger, and a few years ago I eventually got around to reading one of the original books by PG Wodehouse. I really enjoyed that one and meant to read more, but got caught up with reading other things. Until recently that is, when I had a sudden craving for more and read Carry On, Jeeves by PG Wodehouse. It’s a collection of short stories featuring the hapless Bertie Wooster, and his clever valet Jeeves who can be relied on to get Bertie and his friends out of all sorts of trouble. The stories are great, and Wodehouse is a terrifically funny writer with such a brilliant unique style. Really there is nothing else like him, at least as far as I know. Featuring rich, aristocratic young men from the 1920s, it’s nothing like real life, but that makes it perfect for light-hearted escapism. Nothing terrible happens in these books and Jeeves has it all sorted out by the end of the story. The stories are funny, the characters are wonderful and I find it all just impossible to dislike. I’ll definitely be reading more of the Jeeves books in the future, I am sure they will be something I can turn to when I want something reliably funny and light. They may not be to everyone’s taste but I’d definitely recommend giving it a try if you want to read a comedy classic.

Broadchurch is a British detective drama series, recently...

Sat, 04 May 2013 13:00:25 +0100

Broadchurch is a British detective drama series, recently broadcast on ITV, that consisted of eight episodes. The series starred David Tennant and Olivia Colman as two detectives in the small seaside town of Broadchurch, who have to investigate the death of an eleven year old boy found on the beach.

I’d heard a bit of hype about the series beforehand, and then when it started I began to read some really positive reviews of it. I decided to wait until the show had finished and catch up with it all then. I started to watch it one evening thinking I’d see an episode or two, but ended up staying up late and watching five in a row, before finishing off the last three the next day. I was utterly hooked, it was compulsive viewing and I’m glad I wasn’t stuck watching it week to week because that would have been torture.

The show is set in a small English seaside town. It opens with the murder of the boy and from then on it revolves around various groups of characters in the town. There are the police detectives, the family of the murdered boy, the journalists reporting on the story, and various townsfolk who come under suspicion.

I won’t spoil the ending, but the plot and writing was fantastic, and I was kept guessing up until the last episode with the various twists and turns and red herrings. The actors were also brilliant, especially David Tennant and Olivia Colman (but to be fair they are both excellent in everything they appear in).

The show had a few flaws, I think the pacing was a bit slow and they could have cut down some of the side plots. Also stylistically while it looks great, the frequent slow motion shots probably added quite a lot to the running time!

Overall though I really liked it. It’s not the sort of thing I usually watch but it was really good. I don’t want to sound like too much of a snob, but I was especially surprised because I really didn’t expect anything appearing on ITV to be particularly high quality! But I was utterly captivated and I thought it was a fantastic programme. Apparently there will be a second series at some point in the future, and while it is hard to see how that will work given the ending of this series, I will nonetheless be watching that when it appears.

So I survived my first week at work! Well just about survived, I twisted my ankle on the way home on...

Sat, 04 May 2013 08:48:31 +0100

So I survived my first week at work! Well just about survived, I twisted my ankle on the way home on Friday so now I’m limping around in pain. I’m not used to working full time so I’m really exhausted and I haven’t really had time to write or post much during the week. This weekend I’ll try to catch up with writing a few reviews and have some posts queued up for posting next week.

So if you look up binary and hexadecimal in Google, it tells you...

Fri, 03 May 2013 20:06:30 +0100

So if you look up binary and hexadecimal in Google, it tells you the number of results in binary and hexadecimal respectively. Ah, Google.

I haven’t seen The Simpsons for ages, I stopped watching...

Wed, 01 May 2013 20:17:45 +0100

I haven’t seen The Simpsons for ages, I stopped watching it properly maybe five or six years ago. But every now and then I’ll catch an old episode or see a clip from it like this one, and the nostalgia hits. Because this show shaped my childhood and adolescence, it was something I watched and memorised and loved so much for such a long time. I really need to go back to the beginning and rewatch the whole series, catch up on the new episodes, and brush up on all the quotes I have been using since I was a kid.

Having got hooked on Only Connect last year, I’ve now been...

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 18:27:48 +0100

Having got hooked on Only Connect last year, I’ve now been suckered into watching another quiz show, Pointless. This one is hosted by Alexander Armstrong and Richard Osman and features teams of two players who complete by trying get the lowest score. They are asked questions that had previously been put to members of the public, and aim to find the most obscure answer, that the fewest number of other people knew. There are various rounds and different types of question, so the format varies a bit throughout the show.

I like the format, it’s unique and a nice twist compared to other quiz shows. They have good questions which cover a range of topics, so sometimes I know none of the answers when it’s something like sport, but other times I can get a good few answers myself. It’s not quite as difficult as Only Connect, but it’s not completely dumb either. The hosts are also great, there is a good chemistry between Xander and Richard and they can be genuinely funny with their awkward banter. They’re both great in other shows, so it’s no surprise that they are a winning combination here.

I used to say that I didn’t like quiz shows, but that was back in the days where the most popular one around was The Weakest Link, which was basically just rather dim people being cruel and overly competitive whilst a horrible host insulted them. This is nothing like that, and with shows like Pointless and Only Connect the genre has clearly moved on, in a good way. I really like it and I’m glad I started to watch it, because it’s a lot better than I assumed it would be. Overall it’s a clever and funny show, just really entertaining in a way that took me by surprise.

I recently finished reading The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed...

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 18:30:46 +0100

I recently finished reading The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson. It’s a bit different from the sort of thing I usually read, but I do occasionally like to expand my horizons. I’d seen this one in the book shop and been amused by the title and the premise of the book. Then when I looked up some reviews on Amazon I noticed that at the time the Kindle edition was only £0.20. Well I figured that for 20p I could take a chance on a book that had good reviews and intrigued me. And I’m really glad I did, because I loved the book.

Allan Karlsson is the titular centenarian, and on the day of his 100th birthday he climbs out of the window of his room at the home for old people where he lives, to escape his birthday party. On the run, he makes an impulsive decision to steal a suitcase at the bus station, and this leads to him being pursued by both the police and a gang of Swedish criminals. He makes his way across the country, acquiring new friends and leaving a trail of bodies behind him after a few unfortunate incidents. Interspersed with the current events are chapters which tell the story of Allan’s long life, from his childhood onwards, which makes it clear that this sort of adventure is nothing out of the ordinary for Allan.

It’s a fantastic story, and I was utterly captivated by it. The plot is brilliant, and the writing is great too, I loved the style of it. The characters are also excellent, Allan especially but also the various other characters he encounters (including a few historical figures in his past). It’s a thoroughly entertaining and funny book, a perfect enjoyable and light hearted read. I was taken by surprise by how much I enjoyed it, but I really loved it and I would unreservedly recommend it.