the terror war

hello there


it is always interesting, look you see, when people blame changes, developments and events on that which has not actually happened as of yet. there has been a quite spectacular display of this week, with the sensational nature of it of course enhanced by the ever keen to fan the flames of anything for a little while conduit that is "social media".

the short, actual news story - or non story, perhaps - was that a supplier and a grocer got into a bit of a debate about who should make the most profits, and as a consequence certain items from the supplier were either temporarily unavailable or in short supply. due to the dynamics of the relationship - both are, by and large, reliant on each other for any profit or even survival - this was resolved in days.

and yet it got played out all oh so dramatically. Tesco not carrying Unilever products because Unilever wished to increase prices by 10% "due to Brexit and the effect on the Pound Sterling" was the start of the end of society as we know it, dear reader, and a clear cut example of why Brexit is wrong.

because some of you like pictures, here's an advert i got mailed off of Poundland in the heat of the battle between Tesco and Unilever.

bravo Poundland for taking succinct advantage of the bad publicity surrounding a theoretical rival.

just a few random thoughts on all the fuss and nonsense, then.......with correct capitalisation......


* Brexit hasn't actually happened as such. Sure, it's going to happen, but it hasn't. Blaming anything on it is speculative at best. We will, in this regard, one day land a human on Mars. If you were to blame an asteroid hitting something or other now on the basis of that happening one day you'd get some peculiar looks.

* Aaah, but the Pound Sterling has crashed because Brexit will happen, and that's why. No. the Pound Sterling has crashed because of all them clever money and financial people who decided to, once again, place all of the coins of money eggs into one single basket. They bet wrong when they should have been preparing for any eventuality and not gambling.

* Glance, if you will, at the products above. If you look at the ingredients for most, a number come from within the UK itself. Others, in particular tea, come from countries who have a currency against which the Pound Sterling has not crashed. The 10% across the board increase due to "import costs" makes no sense.

and, well, you get the general idea.

with 24 hour rolling news coverage being a thing from multiple outlets, it is now the case - sadly - that every story must be sensationalised and made overtly dramatic so as that the provider may grab "market share" to secure advertising revenue.

and yes, i am guilty of perpetuating this non story by writing about it, so let me stop there.





be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

mostly mugs

ow do


if there was ever a case of me writing purely for the appreciated distraction value of doing so then this, look you see, this is so very much it. even the most passing of interest is, i suspect, going to be all the more accidental than usual, but one never knows. i just sort of throw all this out there, and wherever it may land so be it. but, if landing is happy, good.

the selection of something reasonably neutral to write about under the circumstances, or if you like circumstantially, brought me to mugs. i know that my array of mugs has over the year generated some interest here - if that continues here, well then so much the better.

the above would be our variant of "his n her" mugs, or indeed her and his ones, going on the order in which they appear. indeed they are Mr Men branded mugs.  are they particularly reflective of our traits and qualities? kind of. the one which is for my (considerably) better half is most decidedly purple, which is a colour that she has a preference for. also yes, from time to time she can be a bit naughty, i write thinking of certain newspaper related events and, indeed, a distressed petrol tanker driver.

mine? well, who isn't grumpy from time to time, i suppose. it would be quite flattering of my skills at grumpiness to say i should be so closely associated with the term, but also this mug was quite cheap. 99p, from what i remember, off of Tesco.

Pound World, as opposed to my usual Pound Land, is having a rich run of items which seem quite determined to secure my account on a more permanent basis than simply those occasions where time says that i must use them due to their proximity. here is a detail of the latest offering from them in this regard.

indeed it is a mug emblazoned, or branded, with that whole Game Of Thrones thing. no, there are no spelling errors on it that i have detected. quite surprising to see this branding going so cheap; normally an item licenced from this show costs around £10 as a starter.

a closer look at that later, but for now a treat for philately fans, in particular those who like the rudimentary processes followed by postal agencies decidedly south of the equator. or north, you know, if we've got which way around the world is all wrong. and sometimes i think we do.

that's some franked stamps right off of New Zealand, that is above. i quite like the effort they put into both the colourful stamps and the franking of sent items.

what's one of the best things you can drink out of a mug such as the ones shown here? well, that old gem of the English way of doing things dictates that it is builder's tea.

builder's tea is the name given to the tea preferred by tradesmen and other professionals. essentially it is tea brewed with a teabag in the mug, with manly, meant for men full cream milk in it, along with at least two teaspoons of hardcore sugar in it. this is not a drink for the weak or the cowardly, my friends.

yeah, that there is another look at the one Game Of Thrones mug what i got off of Pound World. the other just has Game Of Thrones written on it. this one has the "house colours" or logo, and i think motto, of them lot that here with the massive dragons is off. Targeranyainomochi or something like that. oh i see it says Targaryen on it, looking at the picture below.


but surely, you may well pose, the initial picture of Mr Men or if you like Mr Men and Little Miss mugs are not the limit of mugs what we have branded as such. no, they are not. here you go, along with a gander at that other dragon one. 

that rather smart - excellent, indeed - Mr Bump mug is off of New Zealand. i believe my sister selected it and my Mum transported it from me. as i am, and have been, somewhat accident prone, i would say that this is likely to be the Mr Men i would be most closely associated with in terms of characteristics.

anyway, with that out of my system, something of a break from writing i think. maybe. bet you i am back here on if not before the weekend.

until then, then,



be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Boba Wrap

hello people


quite recently - as opposed to some unspecified date in the future, which would render this a fiction - i was tempted by yet more Boba Fett branded merchandise. this one did test my resolve in respect of throwing money at the character some, but my dedication did in fact win out.

yes. not one, not three and certainly not four, but two packets of "gift wrap", or if you like wrapping paper, emblazoned with Boba Fett off of Star Wars, along with other, lesser, minor characters.

i know that a fair few of you would like a closer look at Boba Fett as he appears on this wrapping paper without the distraction of the lesser, minor characters. here you go, then, a fairly distraction free look at this, the most latest appearance of the character on something i have bought. 

speaking of bought, just how much did i splash in respect of cash in the direction of Disney this time? 99p per packet of two sheets and two gift tags, representing an overall investment of £1.98, or if you like just 2p south of £2.

i purchased these packs as a direct consequence of them being reduced in price, as well as the obvious presence of Boba. they were marked as being £1.50 as a standard, so that's a 51p saving i made per packet. per packet of wrapping paper that, truth be told, i didn't particularly need or require.

that's one of the sheets unfolded for you. a "for scale" image, including an item which one might wrap in this paper, will be coming along later on in this blog. as in i did not do it earlier, so don't you be scrolling up looking for it, for it is not there.

it's not like having extra wrapping paper within the home is ever a waste, by the way. we have something of a stream of requirement for wrapping up gifts, presents and so forth. friends and family have birthdays, and it's always nice - when possible - to send a gift. so yeah, anyone who gets a present off of me in this wrapping and happens to have read this will know, more or less, what i spent on the paper.

a look at the Boba Fett segment of the paper in Commodore 64 mode? of course.

if one were going to give someone a gift what was wrapped in Star Wars paper it would make some semblance of sense to make that gift very much a Star Wars related item of merchandise. that, or a Star Trek something, just to cause mirth and pull a joke or prank that no one has probably every pulled before. to this end, then, at least the former rather than the latter, here's a boss Star Wars related gift for use with this wrapping paper.

yes, The Phantom Menace 2 DVD set. there is more or less universal agreement - both in respect of Star Wars and virtually all other film series or if you like franchises, that the first one is always the best. with this one being called Episode I, then, surely this must be the film that most if not all fans consider to be the best.

by my reckoning you could, with some tight margins, wrap four copies of The Phantom Menace up with each sheet of paper, so with two packets in each pack you could send about eight copies to people. this would for the most part make their world all the better, as they would be entertained by a fine film. two of them would be even more entertained than six, as they would also have one of the two tags that came with the set of wrapping paper.

it is indeed frustrating that they only give you two tags to use for gifts wrapped in the paper. i think the intention is that you use one sheet per gift, which would as i have illustrated above quite wasteful. if you were using this paper to wrap and give something that would normally need even less paper - a pen, for example, or similar sized item of stationery - you'd end up with many gifts to give an yet so few tags to announce them with.

the use of a minor, mostly background irrelevance character like Darth Vader is also annoying. why not put Boba Fett on this part, to make whatever gift you give look all the more awesome?

anyway, it's highly likely that even more Boba Fett stuff will be waved at me with a view to a parting of the coins of money in the near future. when that happens, no doubt i will feel a need to share such here.



be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

further pension fund mismanagement

hey there


indeed the title is true. sadly, look you see, a further effort of mine to secure or otherwise ensure a reasonable pension fund payout has ended in utter failure. this is despite the fact - and i do not rule out financial mis-selling in this respect - that i was encouraged or coerced to invest more into the pension fund scheme that i normally would.

how much more? the new pension investment portfolio costs 25% more than was the case the last time i purchased some unit trusts, or if you prefer it's now up to £2.50 from £2.00. that said, the returns on investment on offered are now substantially higher, although it seems they are also substantially more difficult to actually access.

this morning, as i dined on my breakfast of preference and enjoyed a particularly satisfactory cup of coffee, i elected to log in to my portfolio services account so that i could see confirmation of the principle payment being made to me. i had expected it to be approximately £137 million, which i feel should more or less cover my retirement plans.

there was, but of course, to be nothing but disappointment when i reviewed my account.

by virtue of the fact that there is a note advising of the intention of the pension fund people to pay out premiums north of £149 million on the next schedule payment date is, by default, and indication that they have elected to not pay them on the previously expected allocation day. it would be nice if they contacted you to instruct this prior to you seeing it on their account page, but no matter.

disappointment with my pension investment schemes is, but of course and alas, nothing new. all the way last year i documented my distress at an apparent raid on my pension fund, leaving me unable to contemplate retirement as of yet. it seems that this distress shall continue.

how far away was i from meeting the satisfactory requirements of a pension pay out in respect of the terms and conditions of the Euro Millions provident fund company? not close enough, apparently.

i'm not at all convinced that "lucky star" is an appropriate term of reference for a financial institution, but no matter as i only had one of the two required, or if you like 50%. i also only had 20% of the required similarities between my policy numbers and their allocated pay out calculation mechanism, or if you like "draw".

what are my options here in regards of accessing my pension from the Euro Millions investment company? well, it seems that they wish for me to pay another £2.50 for a policy, with the carrot teasing this being the slightly larger annuity they propose to issue to policy holders.

one of the great dilemmas about this - despite getting the sense that this is all an elaborate con - is that my funding might be diverted to pay the pension fund over to someone else. and not just anyone else, oh no. my contributions could well end up being part of a payout to a Frenchie, or a dirty Spaniard, or even perhaps a Greek peasant.

but yes, i probably shall reinvest.

despite remaining in poverty, i encourage you still, dear reader, to





be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

the taper

hello people

if this post, look you see, reads a good deal worse and more convoluted than usual, that would be because it's disjointed. there's simply too much information and what have you for me to sit and write about all at once. do bear with me, then, and i trust it's of use, if not fascination, to someone somewhere.

for quite some time now, to get to the point, i've been toying if not tinkering with getting one of them boss devices that lets you convert negatives, slides and possibly 8mm film into a digital format. my (considerably) better half grew somewhat tired of my contemplations and dilly dallying on the subject. to this end, she forced my hand when a piece of equipment came along at a superb price, and so i now have one.

that is the EveDyo E10 Pro negative, slide and 8mm scanner. and that's a Led Zeppelin CD which cost me 98.5p next to it (but one for £1.99, get one free) next to it for scale. the scanner, which i fancy you are more concerned with the costing of, seems to usually sell for north of £150. when we saw it (slightly) south of £100, then, an opportunity was taken.

why was i so keen on this? it is not, after all, like i've ever expressed much interest in the world of photography and that. i suppose it's something of a lifelong fascination and engagement in taping and conversion. this would have all started when my Dad was, to my younger eyes and mind, magically able to make a tape off of a Queen record for me for my first walkman.

but, we will look at a history of the taper as we go on. for now, i would imagine that the more casual reader, or google enthusiast, is here solely to see the performance of this machine, or if you like device, to see if it is worth getting themselves, or just to see what it is all about. and if you are in a tres rush, this device is superb, even in my untrained hands.

right, scanning slides and negatives. other than the device, what one needs is some slides and some negatives. these are things what i happened to have, albeit in (at first) somewhat limited quantities.

the provenance of both? the negatives are off of The Stone Roses at Heaton Park, July 1 2012. the pictures were taken with one of them "disposable" cameras, and were developed by them off of Tesco at their theoretical "professional" photo lab. the negatives have been through at least two sets of x-ray equipment, which i gather is not so good for film - once when we headed back to SA after the gig, and then again (presumably) when they were shipped back home.

we will get to the provenance of the slides you see, dear reader, but as the next picture is off one of the negatives from The Stone Roses, let's take the time to see how the device works.

in short, quickly. you load the negative into the relevant holder (i think 5 types are provided), you slot it into the device, power up, select the type of negative and size, and et voila it appears on the screen on the device.

a really small-ish picture of it appears on the screen, as you can see. quite difficult to see any of the finer details, but you can see what it is and indeed carry out some "colour balance" adjustments, should you know what they are. that said, there is a cable you can plug into a TV or monitor so you can see it in a much larger size as you go.

once you've balanced and what have you, a couple of buttons are pressed and the new digital image off the negative are saved to either the internal memory of the device or to an SD card if you have put one in. on that note, it must be a pure HD card, an online guide says that a micro SD card in a convertor is likely to make this machine freeze.

and how does the digital image produced look? like this, it does, to be sure.

that's one of the first ones i did, then, and it is "raw". no editing, and certainly no messing about with the colour balance or any of the other stuff i don't quite understand yet. in those terms, then, this is, to me, perfectly satisfactory.

size and quality of the image? well, the picture file, a JPEG, is just slightly south of 3MB. in terms of resolution, quality, etc, the box says "22MP", whatever that means. someone on the web, however, has said that it is "14MP", whatever that is, but is "interlaced", whatever that means, to create a sense of it being the aforementioned 22MP. if that helps you out, great.

another taper story? sure. when i was in the mid-80s i was quite interested in the news, and so watched it. one night there was a segment on the dangers of something called "computer piracy". it showed you someone making copies of tape based computer games via a "tape to tape" deck on a stereo. such a thing had not occurred to me to do. i set about doing it at once, of course, but of course only with computer programs that i was legally entitled to make copies of, as breaking any sort of copyright in place would not be part of my character. no, no siree, law enforcement type, that's not how it is done.

onwards to slides on this new device, then, and the provenance of the slides that i have. but, dear reader, although it will be instant for you to read it, i shall only write it tomorrow. enough for this second session of updating this epic blog post.

provenance of the slides i had at my disposal to try? my Uncle. no, not that one, yes that one and hence no not the other one either. he had given them to me quite some time ago, and had assured me that i featured on the slides. at least that's what i think he said.

did i in fact feature? no, not quite. perhaps in a metaphorical way, maybe.

if you're looking at the above collage of works of art, and that is what we shall call it, dear reader, and thinking they all look like......that's because they are supposed to, i would expect. it turns out that these slides are from a midwife convention held in North America (possibly Canada) in the early 1990s, possibly late 92 or early 93.

for the technical details, no i made no special preparations or adjustments in respect of the above image. i just loaded the slide up, pressed "capture", and what you see is what i got. yeah, of course you can adjust the quality, colours and light - i just haven't worked out how. we will get to that in a bit, technical fans.

another look at the device in action with a negative? yeah, sure, and then i suppose i had best pepper this post with another look at my history of taping / converting.

the above picture does indeed come from when you think it does, but there's a closer look (as in how the scanned or captured image came out) just now.

after learning the art, for educational and non-copyright violating purposes, of tape to tape recording for computer games, it would seem in retrospect natural that i would explore other avenues of doing this with the technology of the day. connecting two video machines was to be the next stage, then, and one that i would like to think i mastered very well indeed.

more of that just now, but yes, eagle eyed types, the above does indeed show me scanning a negative off of the wedding day of my (considerably) half and i; a day what my (considerably) better half assures me was one of the happiest of my whole life.

and yes, dear reader, my (considerably) better half further assures me that i am, have always been and shall forever be very happily married. bless her for reminding me of this.

the above image came from a negative that was given to me by an Uncle - indeed yes that one, not the other one from the slides and no, not the other. it was a picture taken by my Gran who is sadly no longer with us, but who did come out to be an important part of celebrating our wedding.

so, yes, anyway. connecting two video machines. it worked a treat, it did, to be sure. but i was always mindful to make sure that i never, ever used this great power to make copies off of films or other recorded materials what had copyright on them. this was of course in particular true of any video rented off of petrol station at Marton Shops, which they have torn down and replaced with a dentist and a bookies.

phew, there's a long way to go with this blog post yet. anyway, for technical fans, or if you like people who want to know how you can scan negatives and slides perfectly, let's have a gander at the mysteries of the adjustments you can make before saving the scan of the negative or slide. 

right, back to writing this. now where were we. aaaah, yes, technical.......

the above is what the device presents you in terms of "fixing" the picture. no. i am not sure what EV means. R, G and B are, i believe, there to represent the Red, Green and Blue levels in a picture. you can adjust these - is that what's called hue and saturation and so forth? - before saving.

i have not really fiddled with these controls as yet as such. mostly that's down to time, but partially because i have had no training and experience in this. with respect to the latter, that's not really an issue. the very worst that happens is that i save a picture which is too red, green or blue, and i have to delete it and start again. hopefully one day soon i will have time to play, but for rough and ready, done in seconds work i can't complain with how they have come out thus far.

in order to get the most out of these settings i suspect that i shall need to hook the device up, via the cable provided, to my PC monitor or a television. the little screen on the device is good for a glance at what you're doing, but it strikes me that to be able to save in the best quality possible you really need to be looking at the biggest possible image of it.

now then, up to this point we've looked at the basics of what this device can do in terms of converting slides and negatives. any device, theoretically, should be able to do the above, with the difference being the cheaper the machine the lower quality. time for the device to face certain tests, or if you like trials, to show its worth.

what's the above? i know this could be like one of them pictures which shows a tape and a pencil and says "only kids who grew up in the 70s / 80s / 90s will understand this", but no. this is not a challenge. it is, as best i can describe, a "viewfinder". in the white end is a colour slide, whilst at the other, smaller end - the "business end" if you like, there's normally a bit of magnifying glass. you hold the white bit towards a source of light, right, and you may see the picture on the slide.

as the "business end" of this one happened to be broken, my uncle (the one off of the wedding picture negative giver) and i decided to elect to use this one as an experiment in scanning, for it was not possible to repair it and thus nothing would be lost if things went wrong.

i took the viewfinder home, then, and popped it open so that i may retrieve the slide from it.

provenance of the viewfinder? other than off of uncle? well, uncle says Butlins at Kent in 1980. i would trust him implicitly that this was the case. had i been called on to guess i would have said a couple of years earlier in the late 70s, but no matter.

with no way of knowing for certain who or what would be depicted on the slide, into the device it went, then, using the relevant slide holder (it appeared to fit into the one designed for 110 size) and on the machine went.

as you can pretty much clearly make out on the screen of the device above that's two people. some of you will not need this to be spoken, but it is in fact an image of my dearly missed, for they are so sadly no longer with us, grandparents. quite a happy day, then, that i was through this device able to obtain an image of them that had not been seen for some time.

a closer look at the image i scanned, as in the actual image i scanned? of course, here it is as it was produced by the device.

lovely picture. i do, however, need to work on all that EV stuff and colour balance to make it all look perfect.

in terms of all this saving and storage side, one does have to buy an SD card. i suspect i may have mentioned this earlier - totes sorry if i have, but i am not going back to look. the onboard memory can hold "about 40" images. with the size of each picture being around 3MB, then, although it does not say so i am guessing that it has a memory capacity in itself of 128MB.

please note it also requires a full on SD card, and not a "micro SD" card in an adapter, or if you like adaptor. the books says that if you use an adapter version it might cause the machine to freeze.

now, then. a true test or if you like trial for the device. the main motivational reason for purchasing this device above all other was the claim that it made about being able to convert 8mm and super 8mm film. i kind of assumed that his was a highly subjective and conditional claim, and i was proved right. but it does do what it says on the box. we will see.

as it happens i do indeed have access to a fair bit of 8mm footage, as shown above. also, as shown on this blog a while ago, maybe three or four years. it's 8mm footage filmed by my Dad with a camera, back in the days before a video camera was an actual thing. which means it is from the 70s.

the reason it came up on the blog before is that i have in fact already had this converted. it took some time and cost some considerable coin of money, but was all worthwhile. the prospect of being able to convert it myself, however was - as my fascination with taping and converting perhaps suggests - too tempting a prospect to ignore.

on we go, then, and first one is required to select "movie positive" for the type of thing that you are going to scan on the device.

let's get one thing clear - it does not claim to "convert" 8mm in the same way that you would convert a VHS to Beta, or vice versa. this is to say there's no means by which you can simply play the film reel and have it record as-is. there are some devices which do allow you to do this, but they are professional studio ones and tend to cost thousands, if not more. a telecine device and a video camera can do it, which would set you back slightly south of £2,000 (if you are lucky), but even then it's not going to be perfect.

why not? well, to get technical (ish), it is all to do with "fps", which is "frames per second". typically an 8mm film reel would run at 16 - 18 fps. great. a video camera, indeed a TV or video, would normally run at 24 fps, although this can be 25/26, depending on where you are in the world. simply projecting 8mm on a screen and filming it would, then, not work. well, it sort of does, but you get that "flicker" effect on the image, and the sense that it is sped up.

what this device claims to let you do is instead scan it in frame by frame. these scans can then be combined and made into a video, with something as basic as Windows Movie Maker being perfectly capable of doing it. there is of course a problem with this. well, a couple. three maybe.

firstly, it will get messy. i think each reel of 8mm i have is 50ft long, with one of them being 2 or 3 times that size. with no empty reel to spool it on to, and then rewind i guess, i will be awash in film reel.

this didn't stop me having a go with the start of a reel, of course. at which point i hit another issue.

yes, quite. what you can see on the screen there is an awful lot of black and only part of the image.

i loaded in the film exactly, or if you like precisely, how it said to in the book or guide or what have you, and it wasn't "capturing" the footage as it should. it looked like the problem of unspooling many feet of film was academic if not moot, then, as if i did i would not be able to capture the frames.

except of course i worked out a way around this, and behold, here's a capture from the 8mm film above as it perhaps should look.

provenance? as in what is it? why, that's a lion. i would suggest, then, that this reel is the one which my Dad took at Chester zoo, when i will have been about 2 or so. many years ago indeed.

how did i fix the problem i first experienced in trying to do this? quite simple really, i simply ignored the instructions in respect of where it said to put the 8mm film and fed it into the section designed for slides or negatives.

as you can see in the above, that shows the full image on the screen, at the least. and, at the least, as the images show, it is in fact viable to scan each and every frame of an 8mm reel in order to assemble it into a digitized movie. which leads us to the major problem with all of this.

time. time, ladies and gentlemen, time. if we go on the basis of lowest rate, 16 fps means that i would need to scan 16 frames to make 1 second of film. or 160 frames to make 10 seconds. and, well, so on, you get the idea. that is many, many hours of work. when you hear that they have "restored" a film frame by frame, i trust you will now have an even higher level of respect for just what exactly that has involved.

almost done with this rather long blog post on this device, then.

to give a run down then, my skills as the taper, or if you like the converter, stretch to the following with the equipment i have :

* negatives to digital image / printed photos
* slides to digital image / printed photos
* 8mm film image grams to digital image / printed photo
* VHS to DVD
* VHS C (video camera) to DVD
* audio tape cassette (no reel to reel) to digital file / CD

it has been suggested that i could probably set up a nice little part time operation with the above, as there are people out there that want it done, don't have or don't want to get the equipment and are happy to offer coins of money for it to be done. to this i say maybe.

a final 8mm shot, showing me wandering around Chester Zoo? sure, why not.

in respect of 8mm film, there are people out there who presumably have the very expensive pro equipment. they charge around £5 (plus postage) to convert one 50 ft reel. that's better than i could ever do.

at this stage i am really eager to play with my toy, but in no way do i feel that i can yet use it to a high quality level that i'd expect people to pay for my time to do it. perhaps one day, but today isn't that day.

that said, bringing the points above together, if any friend, family member, reader or avid google user has got here and said "i have some of that which i wouldn't mind converting", i'd be happy to do it for you. get in touch, we will arrange getting it to me.

aaaaaand......that's all. if you are looking at buying this device, or similar, for your own photos, slides, etc, then i hope i have given some helpful information over. if you've just read all of this for fun, thank you very much indeed for doing so.

the next blog post may be shorter.........




be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

the fiver from nottingham

hello there


such is the rather colour by numbers nature of my life at moments that i do, look you see, get all enthusiastic and excited as and when something different from the norm, or if you like abnormal, happens. little can, in this respect, compare to the thrill when i get a secret bit of code passed to me via the conduit of them being written on bank notes, or if you like money.

i think within the last year or so there was an incident where a special, secret code was passed on to me by it being scribbled on a bank note. i don't recall when, and i am not inclined to search. let's, in a very yolo way, live for the moment, then, and worry about what i have in the here and now.

it was quite exciting when i was handed this note, it coming as part of change for some concern that i had purchased. no, it didn't come off of a cash machine or atm; for these days they only issue the new £5 note so as they may reach circulation.

my first thought when i saw this, as i am sure was the case for you, was that i had walked into Swordfish, that most excellent documentary about how the American venture capitalist system works. and works it indeed does, going on the exciting life civil servants within certain divisions of the American political system have.

the second thought i had was that it looked, at a glance, like it was probably a car registration number. perhaps the buyer of the car with that registration had jotted the licence plate number down on each note they had paid for the car with, so as to give conclusive proof that they had purchased.

what's that picture above? it's one of them 'Boris Bike' things off of London. a rider had abandoned it in the bush, or if you like hedge, near where Spiros lives. which is quite interesting, as from what i recall there is no standard parking space for these bikes near his residence, and to my knowledge one must park it proper in order for one to retrieve their debit or credit card back off of it.

Spiros did something quite interesting with the bike. he phone TfL and reported it, so they may collect it and make use of it again, which they did. this baffled, if not perplexed, TfL some. the gentleman who came to retrieve it said that it was the first time someone had actually reported one, as normally when people find them they take them to some dodgy lock up under the arches, get it cut and spray painted and claim it as their own. also, when TfL find them of their own accord in hedges and the like, normally all that can be stripped of it - in particular the wheels - has been stripped.

it is now the case that Spiros knows precisely what to do when he next finds such a vehicle. and it is quite unlikely to involve either authorities or telephones.

what's that picture above? nothing to do with TfL, although you'd rather fancy they would have something like that if they could get away with it, if only to give their talented drivers something new to threaten a strike about.

the above is, as point of fact, the Aotea Maerske, ostensibly the largest ever most massive container ship that the world has ever seen. it recently had reason to dock near where my Mum & Dad are in New Zealand, with that reason being that the port there is the only one capable of accepting a vessel of this size. 11,000 containers on it, give or take, i believe. which makes you wonder what it is that the people of New Zealand are so short of.


anyway, back to the mystery of the encoded message passed on to me via an old school style classical fiver.

further thinking on the subject led me to conclude that this was in fact probably a post code. a quick google search on the subject showed that, yes, NG5 6QR is indeed a recognized post code, in Nottingham, no less. it's quite remarkable, then, to think that this fiver had come all the way from Nottingham to here, and ended up in my custody. briefly, as i have since spent it.

if the people of Nottingham are, for some reason, of the opinion that we are all poor and destitute up here, and this fiver was the first of a raft of donations, then let me not stop them. send more, Nottingham, your donations are welcome and appreciated.

post codes are amazing, man. once, i am not sure now, it was the case that there was only one post code applicable to 15 or 20 houses. that was how come Royal Mail was so brilliant and effective at delivering mail. now, of course, they have a "whenever, wherever" approach to deliveries. you really might as well just put HEY 4Q2 as the post code for everything you send, for all the difference it makes to where it gets delivered.

anyway, that's that for now.




be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

the latest in pop music

howdy pop pickers


my itunes account has, look you see, been rather busy for the last week or so. it is an account which exists mostly so that i may purchase recordings off of The Stone Roses when they release them at 1 or 2 in the morning at random, so it's been quite interesting to use it in the direction of other artists.

the year this year, which is 2016, continues to be most curious, then, in terms of music. it would appear that we have some sort of trade off on the go, whereby we are allowed to once again have interesting and quality releases, yet the unspoken price is the passing of artists we around the world have loved.

in this respect, the year has already brought more quality releases that the last three or four combined, and we've had to say goodbye to more greatness than we have for quite some time. whilst one would hope that the year has now ceased to take musicians away from us, it still has some music to deliver yet.

what have i been spending coins of money on down at the local itunes in the absence of further Stone Roses releases? well, whilst we wait for The Stone Roses to formally announce Christmas With The Stone Roses as their third album, messers Robbie Williams and Metallica have some new stuff coming.

whereas once singles would have been released in anticipation of new albums, now we get the ability to purchase a track or two off the forthcoming recording. yes, it's a shame that proper singles have died, etc, and that the chart is now an irrelevance, but you can only play the hand you are dealt, whether you are the recording industry or a simple music fan.

let's kick off, then, with the lead single off of the new Robbie Williams album. or, at the least, what i thought was the "lead single" off of the new album.

that, assuming the video thing works for you on your browser of choice, is a snippet off of Heavy Entertainment Show, the titular track off the imminent album. as it was available for 99p i took as a given it to be the lead single. it isn't, strictly speaking - another one that i could (and did) buy for the same price was or if you like is. we'll get to that later, or right now if you scroll down.

first thoughts? quite a familiar feel. as in, if i am not mistaken, that opening piano is off of Feel, one of the more celebrated of the many celebrated pop songs that the cheeky lad has done in the past. and it's no bad thing that it does. familiarity is what people like these days. why? who knows. maybe it's just that (according to the record labels) there's not enough money in music any more to throw thousands at the time and talent it requires to make something groundbreaking. perhaps all great pop songs have already been written, or possibly no one cares enough any more.

anyway, on to Metallica, and their second theoretical single off of the imminent double album, Hardwired....To Self Destruct. which may or may not be a statement about what us lovers of music have done to the industry, but anyway.

much like the titular first single, which you can read of here, this new one called Moth Into Flame is an absolute belter of thrashed hard hitting metal. a lot of lazy, can't be bothered to check anything before writing (such as was the case recently) are claiming this is a "welcome return" to this sound by the band. i, and all fans of the band i have spoken to, have said, hang on, what about.......

.....the last album which the band did? Death Magnetic was also a "welcome return to their harder hitting sound", was it not? quality it was, too, if somewhat buried under the ludicrous amount of different special editions you could buy.

if anything, what we've heard of Hardwired thus far sounds like it carries on the band's revisitation of their intimidating original sound, touched by a smattering of the pop sensibilities of the "black" album which dragged them, kicking and screaming, into the mainstream world of massive sales.

a snippet of it? for those who can play back video on their browser off of this site - and i believe there are about three of you - then here you go.

i really would, however, suggest that you go and watch the official video for Moth Into Flame. just north of three million people have done so already, and you can join them by clicking here. the best part of it is that Kirk looks like some really mental, very scary witch in it.

yes, i do know that a lot of them three million will have done an "mp3 rip" of the official video, and i am just a small fraction that's actually paid for the song. hey ho.

a lot of people are saying that Moth Into Flame is better than Hardwired, mostly on the basis that it's longer and seems to have about twenty times more lyrics. i get where they are coming from, but to my ears both are outstanding, and bring on the album entire, i say.

i also say that Metallica have missed a few tricks here. firstly, if you are a heavy metal band and you're planning on releasing a double album, you should in fact totes release two double albums at the same time. it's just the way it is done. also, if the record is basically locked and loaded, why wait until the middle of November for a release? if you're the biggest, scariest, most intimidating and most awesome metal band left in the world today, wouldn't it be wiser to unleash a new album on the last weekend of October, when it's payday and when it is Halloween?

back to Robbie Williams, then, and indeed the one which is his actual single, which would be Party Like A Russian. but first this.

what's that? a sign recently posted, several times as point of fact, on a popular stretch of running area in New Zealand. this was taken by my sister as she did all that running stuff, and was the third such warning she passed on her run. not one to be scared of snakes, my sister. that said, she paused at the site of the third warning of a boa constrictor being around, noticed that she had not seen anyone else ignoring them for a certain amount of miles, and so turned back, so as to conform and not make everyone else feel as cowardly as they apparently were.

my sister is quite the fan of that cheeky scoundrel Robbie Williams, and so it's normal for me to buy all what he releases so as i might be able to send them to her. the last two releases - an unreleased song collection called Under The Radar and a live recording which busied itself with bad mouthing Jimmy Page (for his hindering Robbie's home renovation planning permission and not for any incidents involving 14 year old girls, as documented in Hammer Of The Gods and weirdly as not of interest to the current constabulary investigating pop stars) - were sold directly off his website. this new album, i believe, will be of a more conventional release, and i will be able to purchase it on day of release at HMV, funds pending. funds and indeed how cheeky HMV get with how much extra they put on the price for the "honour" of buying it off of HMV.

a snippet of the song? sure, here you go. although i believe the official video is quite spectacular, so you might want to search that out.

lazy journalism is at the fore again with this one. before i heard it i'd read reports that it "sampled the theme from The Apprentice", with The Apprentice being, i believe, that reality show with that angry shouty bloke who made the rubbish computers and owned some sort of football club. what it is in fact "sampling", or borrowing off of, is Sergei Prokofiev's  Dance Of The Knights, and i would argue the reason, rationale, purpose and point of doing so is to reference if not evoke the infamous film Caligula.

most seem to point to this song being something of a pop or go at that Russian what owns the football club, Abramovich or something like that. why's he upset Robbie? no idea. perhaps he lives on the other side of him to what Jimmy Page does, and he's also got all uppity about planning permission.

anyway, both Party Like A Russian and the other one are smart songs. should the whole album off of Robbie Williams sound like this, then so much the better.

splendid days if this has been of any interest to you, fellow music lovers.



be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i already read em

Hello There



And so a couple more book reviews, or if you like two. This is, look you see, all very stuck record, but once again I bemoan the removal of public transport of consequence from where I live, for it has robbed me of a few hours of reading time each week.

A look at the front cover of the two novels which I read? Surely, and it is my most earnest hope that they appear the right way around – sorry, took the images with an Apple device and thus Blogger might well take exception to the rotation.

Something of a quick, spoiler free review? Certainly, as far as I can. Pyramid by Tom Martin is an agreeable “ancient mystery solved in days” tale that would have benefited from a different title, and I am in two or so minds about A Short History Of Tractors In Ukrainian by Marina Lewycka.

In respect of the all important provenance of the novels, both cost me 50p each. They were donated to a hospital which I have had reason to visit frequently, as were several other books I’ve picked up for the same modest fee and will get around to reading. This I highlight so that book readers, or if you like readers of books, know if they didn’t before to visit hospitals, libraries, doctors offices and so forth in order to get texts at bargain prices and, perhaps more importantly, help good causes. I would also encourage all to donate books which they have read to such places. I do, as much as it was hard to give up having a library as such.

That said, for ease, for convenience and for people reading this around the world, links to the books are from the world’s grocer. This is no endorsement or affiliation. And, as ever, be warned, for spoilers are quite likely to lurk in everything from here on out.

Pyramid by Tom Martin was the first one that I read of the two, so that is where I will start, then. I picked it up as it looked like fairly easy reading (medium to large text, sensible short chapters), and everything about it screamed “if you liked Da Vinci Code you will get on just fine with this”.

Plot? A brilliant professor is barbarically murdered. His death is, however, reported as suicide. Catherine, a former pupil and now closest friend, does not believe the report. The disbelief is justified when a parcel from the professor, sent just days before his death, arrives, giving instruction on what to do should something happen to him. This she does in the company of a fellow called James, who just happened to be visiting the professor and elects to go on a relatively global quest with Catherine. Well, she is rather good looking.

It’s quite good. A lot of it is colour by numbers, as all the ingredients are there – shady organization that’s the most powerful in the world, riddles unsolved for thousands of years are worked out in minutes, etc – but they work just as well here as they do in the realm of Dan Brown. One suggestion would have been a different title and different cover. Any possible suspense at points when the two are travelling the world getting shot at kind of doesn’t exist as you know where the story ends up.

That said, it is rather well written, and the “great mystery” premise behind this one is, although likely preposterous, something new to me and fun to read about. Worth a try if you, as would be the case for me, enjoy all of this hidden / secret history concept stuff.

My feelings on A Short History Of Tractors In Ukrainian are, as said at the start, mixed. On a superficial, read it and take it as it is level, it was kind of enjoyable. Well, enjoyable in the sense of an idyllic, so-called middle class presentation of life seemingly free of the standard worries. Think an 80s ITV sitcom, say Fresh Fields, but with Ukrainian Immigrants rather than Esher or Berkshire born and raised suburban types.

Plot? An 84 year old, in the grand scheme of things recently widowed Ukrainian gent living in Peterborough elects to marry a fellow 34 year old Ukrainian. This is to help her remain in England, and in part as she allows he to “fiddle” with her. His daughters, both close or near to their 50s, are horrified by what they see as their father being taken advantage of – even if he knows this and willingly carries on anyway. Much of the novel then deals with the two sisters trying to save their father from himself. It’s narrated by the younger of the two, Nadezhda.

The rather flippant, flimsy, almost whimsical slant that this apparently light-hearted family looking farce is presumably supposed to have is undermined somewhat by mixed signals from the writer. In amongst the fun are hints at horrors experienced in the Ukraine by the family members old enough to have been there during World War II. These hints are never followed up or explored. They then serve only to leave a quite uncomfortable distraction for the reader – me at the least – and manage to make character development or understanding sensationally underwhelming.

My reading was of course subjective. Considering the living hell what the British Government made life for me, a born and raised English type who never ever gave up his citizenship, as I tried to come home, I somewhat disagree with the helpful and supportive nature with which such business is presented here. This novel was, in its defence, written before Theresa May seized power in the Home Office, where she first started openly waging war against the British public. Me in particular.

Would I recommend A Short History Of Tractors In Ukrainian? No. It’s not badly written and at times it is fun, but there are too many distractions and mixed messages in the story to leave you with a clear idea of how you’re supposed to feel about it. I have no idea at all as to what I have, or was even supposed to, take away from the experience of the novel.

And so there you have it. Looking back I get a feeling that I am perhaps not as enthusiastic about these books as was the case with other reads of late. That, sadly, would seem to be fair. Whilst there’s no regrets about reading either, they are overall not two books I would suggest should be read by all as soon as possible.

An audience, or if you like market, exists for both. If these comments have helped you clock that you are part of the intended market for either, well then so much the better. And thanks, as ever, for reading.



be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

the greatest

heya


a few years ago there was an incident. well, incidents happen all the time, but this specific incident was, look you see, unusual. it was unusual in the sense that it was a moment that - briefly - united the majority of the world in mirth, humour and joy.

it was back in those halcyon days of 2010, and it was an incident created by Sam Allardyce. at that time he was manager of Blackburn Rovers, a football club of some minor success but now nominally only being able to remain in a division by making ungentlemanly demands of points deductions off of other, dare i say better, teams.

anyway, the incident saw Sam Allardyce confess that he should not be manager of Blackburn Rovers, for he was on a higher level. his level was, in his modest view, the giants of the game, such as Real Madrid, Barcelona, Manchester United, etc.

all of us, if we are honest, found this hilarious if not downright hysterical. his declaration of being able to win trophies on a regularity of "week in, week out" if he were trusted with such a job were met with some disbelief.

now that he has, albeit earlier than expected, finished his stint in a top job, us doubters have been proved wrong.

the track record Sam Allardyce has left behind after his stint as England manager will never - i repeat, never - be equalled. and when i say never, i mean neither in terms of the England job or any other managerial appointment.

Sam's record as England manager reads thus :

* 100% win record
* 100% clean sheet record
* 100% never behind in a game record

well done, then, Sam, for proving that you, when given the chance, can deliver the high expectations of success. as we get ready to sit back and watch four successive defeats under Gareth Southgate - one likely to be highly humiliating as it will be off of a Gary Neville inspired Malta - we can all look back to the glory days that we had.

what reward for Sam's achievements? there's been some talk of a Middle Eastern ambassadorship, but i do hope he's rewarded with a knighthood, or one of them peerage things.



be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Boba Ferret

hello there


just yet another post on the subject of my commitment, look you see, in respect of spending coins of money on any bit of Boba Fett off of Star Galactia or whatever that i happen to see. i'm not convinced that it is so much a commitment as it is a compulsion, or if you like addiction, but anyway.

i was in one of them greeting card types of shops in order to purchase, as it happens, a greeting card. whilst there i observed that a range of Star Wars items had been added to the wares which the proprietor sells. as this is quite rare, for little is done in the way of overt marketing of this particular franchise, i had a closer look to see if there was any Boba Fett related stuff.

there was. but i suppose that is obvious, otherwise this post would not be.

what is it? ostensibly it's one of them "screen wipe" things. one purchases this size of item with a view to using it to clean the screen of their touchscreen "smart" device. cute, fun and presumably gets the job done.

as i do not do touchscreen devices, what with me being purely a button man, i have elected to see this item in terms of it being a miniature toy ferret and, as one would do with any form of ferret, i have taken to walking around with it resting on my shoulder.

that is indeed the side view of Boba Ferret, and indeed if it was a correct recreation of Boba Fett as a ferret one would see a Wookie scalp on this side. there is, alas, no approximation of any sort of scalp.

cost of this latest Boba Fett investment? a perfectly reasonable £3.50. reasonable in the sense that normally a Boba Fett item is one that i would be expected to pay north of £10 for, at the least.

yes, it is quite cute how he / it looks, isn't it.

did they have other Star Wars characters like this? yes. all of them, of course, being the ones what are robots or wear helmets. if Disney made ones of the actual human (or human looking) characters, they would be obliged to pay image rights royalties to the actors what played the parts. that is why we get so much Darth Vader, C3PO and Stormtrooper merchandise.

i have pretty much run out of things to say on this Boba Fett merchandising.

oh yes, whilst there is no Wookie scalp, they have added his smart if somewhat pointless green cape thing, and his boss jet pack / rocket launcher thing.

how does it work in regards of its intended purpose, which is wiping or cleaning the screen on touchscreen devices? i have absolutely no idea. these pictures are the last i have seen of it; the boys have decided that they now own this.



be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!