19 posts from April 2009

Numerology

Apr 30, 2009
14 comments

In my boredom today I looked up numerology and taught myself how to work it all out. It seems that my Life-path number is 5 and after surfing many sites as to the meaning of this, it seems that the following blurb is meant to be me, and since most of them were very similar, I'll take this as a standard.

A Life Path 5 person is usually very versatile, adventurous, and progressive. With a 5 life path, you are one of those people who is always striving to find answers to the many questions that life poses. You want to be totally unrestrained, as this is the sign of freedom and independence. You abhor routine and boring work, and you are not very good at staying with everyday tasks that must be finished on time. You are, however, a good communicator, and you know how to motivate people around you, perhaps inclining you to be a teacher of some sort. A love of adventure may dominate your life. This may take the form of mental or physical manifestation, but in either case, you thrill to the chance for exploration and blazing new trails. You are apt to be multi-talented, but just as likely to suffer from some lack of direction, and there is often some confusion surrounding your ambition.

Positive Traits : The number 5 personality is rather happy-go-lucky; living for today, and not worrying too much about tomorrow. It is important for you to mix with people of a like mind, and try to avoid those that are too serious and demanding. It is also important for you to find a job that provides thought-provoking tasks rather than routine and redundant responsibilities. You do best dealing with people, but the important thing is that you have the freedom to express yourself at all times. You have an innate ability to think through complex matters and analyze them quickly, but then be off to something new.

Negative Traits : In the most negative application or use of the 5 energies, you could become very irresponsible in tasks and decisions concerning your home and business life. The total pursuit of sensation and adventure can result in your becoming self-indulgent and totally unaware of the feelings of those around you. In the worse case situations negative 5's are very undependable and self-serving.

Does anybody believe in this stuff?

Blergh!

Apr 29, 2009
3 comments

I can barely lift my arms and I'm unable to type properly. Why? I finally got fed up looking at my garden so I decided to do something about it. After an hour of strimming and mowing, raking and getting rid of weeds and grass, I can't even lift my arms to my face, which is a bit of a problem as I'm starving!!! Nothing like a bit of fresh air and some good honest work to build up an appetite!

I knew I was a little out of shape, but this is ridiculous. I have the shakes from the strimmer, it actually looks like I've got Parkinson's or something. It's no joke, I wanted to go down into town to fetch some shopping, but I doubt very much I could carry a bag back home....

So, I have decided that enough is enough and that I'm going to go on a fitness drive. Exercise every day, including at least ten miles on the bike. I'm not happy that an hours work has rendered me incapacitated, especially after all the hard work I used to be able to achieve only a few months ago.

Just to set me off on a good way, I'm now going to go and sit in the garden and rest, reading the first of the Dresden series by Jim Butcher in the sunshine, because we all know, this will be the only Summer Britain will get.

Resign Brown!

Apr 27, 2009

Feel like you have been led up the garden path by Gordon Brown? The visit 10 Downing Street's website and sign this petition to get the prat to resign! Hopefully we as a nation can find a leader who knows what communication is, not an insular control freak with delusions of tyranny.

Movie Marathons

Apr 23, 2009
1 comment

Yesterday I did something I have never done before, I actually sat down and watched all six Star Wars films back to back. Thirteen and a half hours of pure Sci-fi. My only regret was starting at such a late hour, I ended up watching Return of the Jedi at 11am this morning.

A few comments on Bookface and it got me thinking about other potential film marathons. Ones that were mentioned were the extended Lord of the Rings trilogy, I think that totals at just over nine hours, which I did just before Christmas; another good call was the entire collection of Star Trek films, without including the new one, that would take me 19 hours. Others could include Indiana Jones, Harry Potter, Pirates of the Caribbean, Superman, Batman, the list could go on and on.

So I got thinking about what is the most lengthy movie marathon possible?

We have the Friday 13th horror series to think about, with ironically only 12 films.

Or if you're into porn, how about Debbie Does Dallas, a whole 20 orgytastic films.

Could it be James Bond? If you include the non-franchise films that would total 25 films so far.

The Japanese franchise of Godzilla films. To date, 28 of them. Could be quite boring though, men dressed up in costumes and fake looking scenery...

Could it be the Carry On films? A total of 31 films! Now there's a bum number if I ever saw one, plus I don't think I could put up with two whole days of double entendres...

More porn in the Emanuelle series, a whopping 56 of them, I don't think I could masturbate for that long!

There have been 89 films with Tarzan in the title since 1918, but the longest series with a single actor is only 33, so that's quite easy really.

So who is the winner?

Well, depending on where you take your information from, the longest running franchise of films belongs to Wong Fei Hung, the Chinese martial arts hero, currently the title holder at 99 films between 1949-2004. So if you're into your Kung Fu, you are in for a treat. Let's just say for arguments sake that each film is 90 mins long, it would take you 148 hours, or just over six days of continuous watching to endure this franchise!

Anybody got a good supply of popcorn?

e-books

Apr 21, 2009
11 comments

Today I took it upon myself to sort out my e-book collection. I didn't realise how much of a mess it was and just how many duplicates I had. It basically took me around ten hours of filing and sub-filing to put it all in order. I am now the proud owner of a catalogued e-book collection of 1,565 authors, which is around 15,000 book titles, mainly in the sci-fi and fantasy genre with a few classics and horrors thrown in.

I don't think I'll be able to work myself through them in my lifetime and I'm sure that I'll be adding to it as new books are written.

But e-books I hear you bemoan, they're not the same as 'real' books! Well no they aren't, I much prefer to settle down with a real book, but you can't carry 15,000 books around with you very easily, in fact I don't find it easy to carry one book with me at all times as I don't carry a bag with me.

Ever since I found Stanza for the iPhone I have been reading much more, simply because whenever I'm bored I just whip out my current read from my pocket, wherever I am. Plus it's much more handy at night, you don't have to have a light on in your room as the reader is back-lit and it's easy on the eyes too as you can dim the screen to your comfort.

If I was sufficiently loaded I might have forked out for Amazon's Kindle, but from what I've heard it's not worth it, anyway I'm very happy with Stanza.

So at the moment I'm re-reading Isaac Asimov's Robots series and enjoying it immensely, I have about a couple of hundred pages to go so that should last me a couple of days, depending what I'm up to. But now that I have so much choice as to what my next read will be, I am at a bit of a loss as to which to choose.

Any recommendations in the sci-fi/fantasy genre?

I'm almost sure that I have a copy of nearly everything that has ever been written since the dawn of time, plus it will be a good test to see if anybody can catch me out. Just you watch, now that I've said that, any and all recommendations will result in me not having a copy....

Suggestions please, within reason, I won't have any new books, but any that are over a year old I'm confident I'll have.

Piracy

Apr 19, 2009
2 comments

I've been avoiding writing about this subject for a little while, I just wanted to see how the tides were turning as it were. I'm not writing about the Somali pirates but the Swedish court case against The Pirate Bay by the draconian International Federation of the Phonographic Industry.

The guys who set up Pirate Bay have been found guilty of breaking copyright laws and been sentenced to serve a year in jail and fined £3M in damages. They will appeal against the verdict and I for one hope that they manage to overturn the ridiculous charge. Everyone who uses sites like The Pirate Bay know full well that there are no copyrighted files on their servers, they merely show you where to find them. I fail to see how this is breaking a copyright law. It's like charging an electronics website that sells DVD recorders because they sell equipment that has the potential to mass copy billions of films.

Let's face it, everybody has downloaded copyrighted material or has some kind of unpaid software on their computer somewhere. It's just the way things are. Making scapegoats out of these guys from Pirate Bay will not stop what is going on. So why bother fighting against the tide of public opinion, why not embrace it and find a way of getting people to pay for what they want to download. I for one would pay a small amount for a film or a TV show, but the prices are currently way to high for my budget and when you hear about the amounts of money some films are generating it makes you see how greedy these copyright owners are.

Fair enough, you can argue that downloading copyrighted material stops future investment in new films and music and that the artists involved need recompense for the time it takes to create things. I argue that they are already sufficiently remunerated for their time, most times in the millions so why are they whinging? If the material is worthy I would rather buy it than download it anyway simply because of the quality issue.

We all know that this isn't a new thing either. When I was a kid I'd record songs from the radio onto audio cassette, yes kids, music was once available on plastic tape, plus I have recorded hundreds of films onto video from the TV. So what is so different from doing the same thing by using your computer? Nothing. The companies involved are not losing any money because they would never have received it anyway and the last time I checked I don't fund terrorists, although I'm not sure what happened to that pile of enriched uranium I used to keep in my shed.

Although I know that there is no such thing as a free ride in this world I'm glad that there has been a backlash of public opinion on this subject, I especially like the demonstrations in Sweden where thousands of people went out onto the streets to support Pirate Bay.

In saying this let me relate a little tale about the new upcoming film Wolverine which is due out this Summer. Someone in the post-production labs leaked the film and within hours the work-print copy of the film had been downloaded millions of times. As I understand it, this copy of the film has no music, limited special effects and has yet to be tightly edited. Some people in the industry have already stated that the film is now unmarketable and will surely do very badly at the box office. Even Hugh Jackman was said to be heart broken over what happened as he thought the film was going to huge!

I personally feel that nothing has changed for this film. The people that go to the cinemas will still go to see it, the people who buy DVD's will still buy it if they feel it's worth their hard earned cash. The broadcasting rights will still be sold and undoubtedly the film will still make multi-millions for all involved. In fact I'll stake my reputation on it as I have seen the trailers and the film looks pretty awesome.

What do you reckon?

Holodeck

Apr 18, 2009
8 comments

For those of you who love Star Trek, here's a nifty little video for you of what I would regard as the beginnings of a future holodeck.

Amazing 3D immersion technology from IDEO Labs on Vimeo.

Early days yet, but I reckon this shows a lot of promise.

Take Care Online

Apr 14, 2009
9 comments

I read this little snippet on FML today and I burst out laughing.

by oxbbabexo

Today, I was talking to a guy I met online and have known for 4 years. I've fallen in love with him twice, one of those times being currently. He was supposed to visit this summer. I got an email from him saying he's really a 17 year old girl from Chesterfield, MO. FML.

It made me think about all those people I chat to online and if they are who they say they are. I have been quite privileged over the last few years as I have met quite a few online friends, to name a few, Kazart, Chandramoon, Moomin, Fundy, Squilla, Honeychild; I even met and fell in love with one and lived with her for a year or so, plus I have spoken to many of you through Skype and even a few landline calls.

So the above horror story has not applied to me, yet....

Oh, by the way, if I left you out up there, you must have been so boring I couldn't remember you, hehe, no not really, I just spouted a few names off the top of my head.

I just can't imagine deceiving anybody like that, plus I don't think I could keep up the pretence for longer than ten minutes before I'd crumble and revert to my old self. I suspect it would take a lot of self-control to keep a duplicitous life on the go, much like someone who commits adultery or is a bigamist, but unlike them there is the safety net of anonymity about online life. You don't have to show your face and more than likely you live a continent away from the person that you are chatting to.

I suppose this is why some people find it easy to write utter nonsense and filth online, or to flame peoples blogs and suchlike. I doubt very much if anybody would have the gumption to write distasteful remarks about someone who lived in the same town as them, especially more so if that person was a nutcase like some right-wing zealots we have here at Vox.

So, anybody have any nightmare stories like that one from FML?

Subtlety

Apr 10, 2009
2 comments

This was an email that came through that made me really laugh out loud. It's just one of those wonderfully obscure and subtle jokes. I love it.

All Your Base....

Our Ken Would Like This...

Apr 9, 2009
1 comment

I'm only going to post a link to this insidious video, called The Gathering Storm from The National Organisation of Marriage, I simply didn't want it dirtying my little haven in the cyber world.

It was brought to my attention by way of another blog I read, but I feel it's important to pass on these messages by fundamentalists.

For those of you on low bandwidth, the video consists of a few well chosen individuals and professionals denouncing same-sex marriage. I wont go into detail, I'm sure that you all know the drill.

For the idiots out there like Ken, I'll state for the record that I'm not gay and I don't believe in marriage, although I respect other peoples right to be either or both. I really can't see how the hell it would impugn upon anybody's lives other than the two people involved. Why does a doctor have to choose between her faith and gay marriage? How does gay marriage affect someone who goes to church? Why does two people of the same sex who love each other and want to celebrate their union with a piece of paper make a difference to anyone?

It doesn't.

What you have to remember is that most of the Christian world have based their entire belief upon the writings of a few goat herders from 2000 years ago, which was then re-written by power hungry zealots at the Council of Nicea to ensure that Christianity became the richest and most powerful religion this planet has ever seen. And I always thought that God was love, not a money driven, profit making business, which sadly it has become.

So we regress slightly, back to what Christ, the Jewish fundamentalist terrorist, was meant to have been teaching everyone. In Gods eyes we are all equal and created in its image, so I suspect strongly that gays are also created in that same image, otherwise you are implying that God is wrong. And who are we to go against the word of the Almighty!

I suspect this has something to do with the fear of the unknown, it's easy to castigate something you don't understand, and lets face it, these people who are against same-sex marriages don't have the intelligence to tie their own shoelaces, so they jump on the bandwagon their closeted gay priest, who more than likely likes young boys, tells them to. No wonder they call congregations flocks, it's easy being a sheep.