The Rule Of Four - another historical folly......?

OK dudes, if you intend to read The Rule Of Four and have not yet done so, or still have not read Da Vinci (groan) Code or Angels and Demons, you may wish to skip this posting.

I have just finished The Rule Of Four, and yet again it is a book that heads for the trustable Raiders Of The Lost Ark ending. this follows in the path of Dan Brown's mega selling works, the mentioned Da Vinci and of course Angels and Demons.


all three are damn enjoyable reads, right up to the end. when it cannot have any conclusion but the Indiana Jones one of having the ark of the covenant (or the equivalent in the three books) 'mysteriously' boxed up and kept a secret. the problem, peeps, with manipulating history to suit your story is that you have to either :

(a) have "but it was all kept a secret still" as the ending

or

(b) come up with such an outlandish ending that it undermines the whole book (something that Angels and Demons flirts well with)

or

(c) have Pam wake up, find Bobby in the shower and declare it all to be a dream.

the "big" titles of literature at the moment are filled with astounding stories and incredible thinking, blending fiction and fact with relative ease. I do love this kind of fiction, the kind that turns around conventional thinking.

could I reccomend that Mr Brown, and indeed the two authors behind Rule of Four, take my advice and consult the great weaver of fact/fiction literature? that would be the late Anthony Burgess, of course. he came up with some unusual and certainly unconventional twists to history by leading the authour to question how we interpret actual historical conclusions, and not by playing with the steps taken to those conclusions. a slight, but effective, twist to this latest publishing craze.

if i have to read one more book which reminds me of Professor Jones being assured that the "top men" are looking after the conclusions of a great deal of time sacrificed by reader/audience, i will give it a real hiding on this page. that said, Dan Brown's Deception Point could well be my next read. you have been warned in advance.

ho hum, Lunar Park by the great great great great Bret Easton Ellis should be with me soon, as well as "Haunted" by Chuck Palithinuck (or however you spell his name, sorry), and indeed My Side Of The Mountain and Farenheit 451. some works of literature that I can trust and read with joy!!

right, off to bed!

be excellent to each other!!!

down with the Makems, you're going down with the Makems

here's Mick McCarthy, celebrating Sunderland's 100% record this season, which would be played four, lost four :)

that's 19 top league losses in a row for the Makems, and long may this record grow.

someone at work has very kindly put the Sunderland logo as my desktop wallpaper, and indeed added the Makem "Black Cat" logo to my image on the notice board. how kind.

i will find who did it and they will pay.

be excellent to each other. but not to Sunderland fans.

now i have a scanner ha ha ha

nice one michele, thanks for the scanner!! here's my first scan, a copy of the postcard my Aunt, Uncle and two cousins sent me of the last ever match at Ayresome Park. nice one!!

i am not 100% sure what exactly i will be scanning, but i felt this overriding need to have a scanner, so there you go.

should i scan anything class, and suitable to put here, i will put it here!

otherwise, i picked up Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure on videotape for a mere R25 yesterday. a wise investment, although i believe Spiros has the DVD on the way.

be excellent to each other!!

baby update

hello everyone! well, here's the latest pic for you. if you are smart and sharp of eye, you can see the forehead, the left eye, the cheek, the mouth and a hand!!

still no clarity on a name as of yet; Michele says James Robert Liam, I say Napoleon Elvis Ghengis. I think I will lose!

that's all for the time being!

be excellent to each other!!

a couple of good movies

DESCENT is one the most mindblowing, terrifying, stomach churning films i have ever been lucky enough to see. it's also very difficult to give much in the way of a plot or description as i would hate to spoil anything. it had both of us jumping in our seats.

if you ever saw the same director's first film, Dog Soldiers, you will know just how good he is. i believe this film is getting a very limited release. if you can see it, please do so, often!!


THE FANTASTIC FOUR, meanwhile, happily takes the approach of Spiderman, Batman Beings and The X-Men. this means that it is a quality film in its own right as well as being (i suppose) a good comic book adaptation, and is not The Hulk, a film which failed on every imaginable level.

it is really good fun - see it if you can!

been a while

hi anyone still checking

well, no excuses for not updating, at least i am updating now!!

all is well on this side. Mrs R & baby are doing very well. sorry if you were hoping for a surprise, but I must release the info - it is a boy on the way. we think we know what he will be called, and i know we are not going to be naming him Napoelon Elvis!!

the due date we have is December 15, but i am convinced that it's not quite so an exact science as to say that for fact. i guess we had better start getting ourselves ready and prepared, although Michele has started buying nappies and things!

it's our second wedding anniversary this weekend, well sort of. Tuesday is the actual day, but as that is a public holiday we have taken the Monday off and decided to make a long long weekend of it. we were planning on going away, but things always change. as mentioned above, i guess we are getting ready for the baby! not sure what we will be doing, just chillin' i expect.

otherwise, i have finished off reading another Dan Brown novel, Angels and Demons. not too bad, but still it seems his best was placed in Da Vinci Code. i shall be reading Deception Point at some stage, however......

we are mere days, ladies and gentlemen, away from the return of Bret Easton Ellis. Lunar Park is due to be published on August 16. I never did find the "bootleg" version on the internet, and i am glad that i did not. i cannot wait to get my hands on it!!

there have been a few good films lately, but let me put up some seperate reviews!

be excellent to each other!!

forever-ever delayed

Heya

is it worth saying sorry for the lack of updates? i did not think so......


well, still so far so good with the pregnancy. week 18 now, i believe, and he/she is turning into quite a big baby. i guess it will take after daddy in at least one respect!!

not sure if i mentioned in my last post (doubt it), but, believe it or not, a better film that Star Wars Episode III has arrived. it is called Batman Begins. a most excellent film from a class director with an ace cast. if you have not seen it, see it!

otherwise, major thanks to my mate Chris - he has sent an excellent package of tunes and videos, including footage of the Manics gig Michele & I went to! nice one fella!

meanwhile, I seem to have started an international ring of emails about David Hasselhoff. sure, there are many going around, but this one is in a circle of 20 people and has made dubious, unsubstantiated comments about my boss trying to dress like the Hoff. it can only be a matter of time before I am threatened with dismissal.

otherwise, all is well here guys. I will try and put the "proper" scan image up soon, but then again we will have a new one as of the 25th!!

be excellent to each other!!

a first look at the young one!!

OK, we have a scanned image of the baby, and here's our best copy of that pic using a digital camera, cellphone cameras, a sponge and a rusty spanner :)




beautiful!!

we have a suspicion that we know the gender, but I shall remain quiet for now. next scan is in four weeks time, we may know for sure then!!

update

hi everyone

well, since i sent the link out to a load of people recently, i suppose i should try and keep everyone updated!

the news is that, well, there is no news. i may be tempted to the cinema again this year for something that is not Star Wars - this Batman Begins film looks rather smart.

my class Miami Vice DVD set should arrive tomorrow, along with a couple of discs that are not Miami Vice. nice one to Mrs R + 1 for buying it for me! she will be away on stocktaking duties, which means i can watch it this weekend. a strict condition of it being bought was that Mrs R + 1 did not have to see it. ever.

hmn, the new series of South Park features an episode called The Death Of Eric Cartman? bummer, man, that's a bummer.

be excellent to each other!!

and the news is.....

there is no news!!! no updates of late because there is not much happening at the moment to share with the world at large!!

Michele needed to go to the doctor last week, and as a consequence our next scan has been put back a week. we will only know how the baby is, and if it is a little boy or girl, on June 27th.

otherwise, I have established that it IS possible to watch Episode III far too many times. I think I will avoid it again until the DVD release.

be excellent to each other!

looking smart, Mrs R+1 !!!!!

this is us on Richard and Erika's wedding day.



see, I can dress properly when I want to, or at least when I have to!

ahem, as ever, Michele looks wonderful. if I am not mistaken, this is the first time her image has appeared on this page of mine!

time for an update

hello everyone

well, once again, sorry for the delays. it's been busy days for us, as my last post or two hinted at!

first off, most important - baby talk. Michele has been for some tests, owing to her existing medical conditions, and everything seems 100% fine with the pregnancy. nice one! we have a due date of 15th December 2005, but I understand and accept that delivery dates for babies are not quite an exact science. ho hum, when he or she decides to turn up, we will try to be ready for it!

Michele next goes for a scan on 20th June. I will be with her of course, but I doubt they will want to scan my tummy! that should be 14 weeks into pregnancy, and I believe it is possible that we will be able to find out if it is a boy or a girl. I doubt that I will pass up on the chance to find out!!

Michele's cravings are getting more and more interesting - she absolutely needed fillet steak and tons of vegetables for lunch today, which was nice!

OK, our other major event - Richard and Erika's wedding. it went really well, and everyone had a fun time. the Elvis impersonator doing the singing was ace!!

some of our family came out for it - Colin, Angela, Christopher and Andrew to be precise. it was wonderful to see them all, and sadly we waved bye-bye last night. it sounds like they got home OK!

what other news do I have for you? well, I have been back at verk for three days, and it seems in my absence I was made employee of the month. nice one!

it's is Matt's birthday today - sounded like he was having fun when I called him, I trust he still is!!

oh, well, that's just about it all from here for now.

be excellent to each other!

not taken the pirates long....

the rather bad looking pirate copy of Episode III. you can clearly see that this is a time-encoded copy, with someone fading out the time stamp.

really, this is not worth the effort. the original DVD will be out by the end of the year. for such a special film, do not waste your time or spoil the experience with such a poor version of it.

seen it!

Episode III = ace film. go and see it as soon as possible!!!

Revenge Of The Sith and other news

well, I am a mere 14 hours away from seeing Revenge Of The Sith.

that does not seem to exciting anymore, considering Michele is pregnant!

totally out of the blue, and certainly unplanned, but there you go!

will endeavour to send more news and so on when the shock goes and it's all 100% joy!

No Way, Sis

well, thanks to a nightmare in the traffic this morning, I was able to hear the new Oasis album twice today.

it's not bad, but it is not great either. it's the quality of the b-sides for the singles off the first two albums - very good, but not quite good enough. ho hum, well worth a listen, and please go and buy it. I will as soon as they release it here - that could be a year or so, knowing now useless our CD stores are!

14 days today and Revenge Of The Sith hits the cinemas. nice one!

be excellent to each other!

a mere 17 days to go......

.....to Star Wars Episode III : Revenge Of The Sith. nice one, hard to believe that this event is barely two weeks away! wahoo!

anyway, I have been having a look at some other, lesser films in the mean time.

Sin City, picked up mainly because Matt was after a copy, is not a bad film at all. I have no idea at all about the graphic novel it is based on, but it may well be worth a look on the basis of this flick. Mickey Rourke yet again proves he is one of the most underused sources of talent in the galaxy, and Bruce Willis stands around a bit doing Bruce Willis things.

Constantine I have not watched, but Mrs Ricketts has. she seemed to enjoy it. well, she was impressed with the special effects, hence me hearing "holy s@#$" every few minutes as she saw it. me? watch Keanu? I don't think so, my dear.

Hide And Seek is yet another entry into the world of Robert De Niro's "look, give me the cheque and I will mumbe a few things and then shout a bit" works. oh dear, what a shame to see the great one constantly slumming it. which leads nicely into.....

GodSend, featuring more of the De Niro as painted above.

what the hell else did I watch? oh, Ring 2. well, the first one was OK, this one is kind of more of the same and yet not more of the same. see it and figure it out.

back to verk tomorrow after the long weekend. no doubt a chaotic morning ahead, no surprises there.

anyway, be excellent to each other!!

excellent!

check out this web page :

http://darthside.blogspot.com/

hello

not even sure if I have regular readers, thanks to the irregular nature of my updates!

well, what can I tell you about? not much, really, plodding along as usual. Michele is getting ready for her exams, we are all counting down to Richard & Erika's wedding, and of course there is the small matter of Star Wars Episode III very, very soon!

read Dan Brown's first novel, Digital Fortress. not bad, I guess, but not the most brilliant book my eyes have cast over.

ho hum, if all is well, and nothing dramatic has happened, I shall leave you to it. I have no doubt that many, many posts will accompany me seeing Star Wars :)

be excellent to each other......

Purple Haze....................

just what is eminating out of General Grevious' head????? I can only imagine that he is getting lamped here.