S-i-N City

Sally-in-Norfolk is interviewed by Radio Norfolk. Along with another lady, they talk about Facebook, blogging and twittering.

Sadly I squirmed at the need for the presenters to explain to the audience what the heck it is all about. I can’t help but think that the folk had the same issues when trying to explain the advantages of the printed word in the 15th century. I guess that’s why I have a book on order about the growth of the telegraph system. Just to see if there are any similarities between then and now. Humans tend to repeat experiences and attitudes, so I’d be surprised if there wasn’t any similarities.

Surprisingly the presenters then push their own Facebook group. Hey ho. I must have picked up the negative-sounding comments wrong then.

Sally’s post  - 2 hrs 10 mins in on iPlayer link, plus some chatter later.

There’s a defence of the blogs at 2hrs 35mins in.

Me? I don’t care. If people can’t be bothered, then they don’t have to. The world carries on. FFS, get a life, get your own life. Some people can get through life without ever needing to drive, or use a video recorder, or tv. Life goes on. It is part of the joys of humanity – we are all different, we all have differing passions. We are allowed to be different. Embrace that. I’ve given up defending what I do.

This is different from making people aware of what modern technology can do. And this changes on a daily basis – just look at the articles on Webware.com to see the changing face of online technology, and the pace at which it moves. There are some studies that say that emails are in decline – yet many people see the email as a modern way of communicating. I get more texts than I do emails, or tweets, or blog articles that I read on a regular basis. But that is just me, and my technological/age-group, for others it will be their Bebo or Facebook pages. This all raises an interesting problem for education – how can we teach people about communication tools if they have not yet been invented. Heck, it is really quite simple. We don’t. We teach the advantages of good communications, and the disadvantages of bad communication. We teach the difference between face-to-face communications and letter-writing. Of mass-communication and communicating with friends. And of communicating with different media.

Although the technology changes, the essence of it does not. We are humans, and the tools we develop are there to help us in different ways. They allow us to communicate across distances, across time zones, through language barriers (press the Babel-fish logo on the sidebar), ignoring race, colour, age, or gender re-alignment. Things that our forefathers could not do are now done on a daily basis by people. Our lives can be made easier, but not necessarily happier or more fulfilling. For that, we have art. Hold on to that which makes us happy, and continue to dream the impossible dream.

Return of the Jingle

Nice to see the return of a catchy jingle.

I guess this is a response to the easy-to-remember 118118 number. For some reason they are now one of two Ghostbusters-related adverts on tv; the other is for a car. Primary message forgotten, it just reminds me of the film.

Back on message, there’s more of Weebl’s stuff here

Interesting Cornfields #3: Jayne Cobb

To mark the release of some 15mm sci-fi characters, here’s a replay of the great song from a great TV series (and film which was, err, aimed too much at the people who didn’t bother with the series, i.e. numpties)

And then visit this site, for a wadge of ‘motivational’ Firefly posters.

I have low standards, so life is good.

Interesting Cornfields #2: Ray Kinsella’s

Ray Kinsella

Chi McBride

Just caught last night’s “Pushing Daisies” off my tv recorder, and I keep noticing how good an actor Chi McBride is. He plays Emerson Cod. Whether a surly “uh huh”, a raised eyebrow, or a facial tweak when there is an allusion to his estranged daughter, McBride carries it off.

As to the show, well that’s just strange and innovative enough, with a great sense of style and art direction that it has me glued to the set and coming back for more. Here’s a fillet of Cod:

Shopping for Civvies

I went shopping for clothes today. I managed to avoid it by dropping by work and asking if my colleagues on duty needed some help. I got to play with an EEE PC (by play, I mean hook it up to the wireless network). Then I got some d10 in Plan 9. And tabbed it out to Broomhill Road to have a look in the craftshop. 3 hours after setting out, there was nothing for it but to head to Slaters.

And I was shocked. Not at the usual wimps who can’t go shopping without their womenfolk making their clothes shopping choices for them, but that what I was wearing was (almost) fashionable. My shoes were Goretex lined (TNF Hedgehogs), my jacket a ‘soft shell’, and my t-shirt had a cartoon character on it. I wondered why I’d bothered going shopping. But I needed some smart casual clothes for next week’s conference in London, so stayed focused. My attempt to go for the Gibbs-from-NCIS look was out as they had no Dockers trousers in my size, and I wasn’t happy with the colours of the ‘sports jacket’ that they had. I went for Plan B, and am aiming for this look …

Yeah, right!

Here’s the making of …

Amazing. the last time I saw the advert, I was watching to see if the chap ‘boarding was a different fellow. He isn’t. Wow! I feel the urge to buy a hat. Visa? No. I don’t want another credit card. One is dangerous enough.

The rest of the expedition involved nipping to HMV – 50quid for series 3 of NCIS (yeah, right), and the box beside it had the same product but only 25 quid (still 8 quid dearer than online). So I didn’t bother. Nor the ever-decreasing amount of men’s clothing in Debenhams. John Lewis’s gents seemed to be based either side of a main road through the shop, with staff cutting the road perpendicularly. Burtons had a couple of items I liked (I couldn’t resist the boxers: “Grumpy by name, Grumpy by nature”). I ended up in a couple of gear shops and bought a ‘Radar’ cap. Maybe it’s fashionable?

In Stewart We Trust

When I can, I catch the “Daily Show” on a wee Freeview side-channel of UK’s Channel 4. It’s after the news on a channel which has house-building programmes and the like, so it is about the only thing I watch on that. I’d caught the build-up to  Cramer’s appearance, and I have to say that it was the most interesting piece of reporting that I have seen in a good while.

Stewart’s timing and body language was great. At one stage it looked like Cramer was going to cry. There is nothing like this on UK television, as we too seem to have “commentators” (as Cramer described himself) rather than reporters or investigative journalists.

I awoke this morning to an article on Radio 4, talking about “The Daily Show”.

At the time of writing, there are still videos on the show’s website. If you didn’t see it, watch some of the background first, and then the slug-fest.

Sorry Tim

I caught the trailer and saw Mohinder running, and I thought “I don’t care”. The last two series of Heroes were so lame that I have decided to add it to my shelved listing. The story relies on me caring, and I don’t. The big clash between heroes and criminals would have put a rookie DM to shame. On seeing the trailer I had the realisation that I was in a dead-end relationship. It had ceased swimming, and I was living in the past. Series 1 to be precise.

I can’t be bothered saying any more, so here’s my last word on the topic, courtesy of “The Stranglers” (thanks to Giohiro).

Like so much of the plot – it is obvious, really.

1DR in WegieLand

Taking it on the chin that this Aberdeen movie slates part of the Central Belt, “One Day Removals” is being shown as part of the Glasgow Film Festival on Friday evening. Yup. Not midweek, but at a proper time.

Glasgow Film Theatre 2
Friday 20 February, 18:30
Director: Mark Stirton
Featuring: Patrick Wight, Scott Ironside

Festival Page

As mentioned in the past, the film contains an honest amount of swear words. But you’ll hear more on the city streets walking to the movie, but instead of shutting them away they are woven into the script of the labourers.

The Day The Music Died

50 years ago a light aircraft crashed, killing the pilot and three passengers.

17 year old, Ritchie Valens

The Big Bopper (28)

Buddy Holly (22)

Sadly, it seems that the music companies have hit YouTube, and closed down a lot of people hosting the copyrighted music of these three artists. Appropriately on this day, the music has truly died.

Frankly, we are better than these squirming suits at the music companies. I saw the tribute stage show a few years back and immediately went and bought Valens and Big Bopper albums. I already had some Holly tapes/cds. Even 50 years later, their music is so emotive that a 17-year old can cause the music executives to piss their pants in panic of the free distribution of their songs. Home many youngsters can say that?

Rave on.

Radio 4, Naturally

Tristan, of Natural Navigator, on “Excess Baggage” just now. There’ll be a ‘listen again’ available.

Just don’t mention the war.

Free Indie Movie: 1DR

Local Aberdeen indie movie, “One Day Removals”, is available to watch free online from 30th January - 2nd February at dailymotion.com/OneDayRemovals-Movie

Contains the most swearing in any dramatic feature film in the English language - ever. So, don’t watch it and then complain that you weren’t warned.

Previous posts.

WiiPlayer

I got the Wii hooked up to the Internet. Hmm. Why is life so complicated? No, not the wireless connection (sorted after some human error). Nintendo stars not points? An exchange rate from one schema to another. Both are in-house Nintendo systems. Pah. What rot.

Oh, I forgot, they were ‘out’ of some of the online, mythical, non-real-world ‘cards’. How the p***** can you be out of stock of a ‘card’ that only exists in digital format online? So, I couldn’t exchange all my ‘stars’ for ‘points’. Just 400 stars (stars, maybe as in: “complicated systems can get to ****” ?) for 100 points. But the “internet channel” (sic) costs more ‘points’ than that. So, I end up having to spend 7 quid on the lowest number of points (1000), and accessing the “internet” (sic) costs 500 points, and amazingly, half my Wii’s memory blocks.

So. I get an Opera-based browser. Internet access. And a feeling that I’ve been screwed by the mega-corporation. Off to load up some web pages, my blog (obviously), and then to see what Opera can do on the Wii.

Well, it can’t handle Google Maps. But neither can my Opera on the mobile phone. It can play YouTube, DailyMotion and BBC iPlayer. Well. Here’s the rub. The BBC iPlayer isn’t the same as the one on my PC. On my PC, I can watch BBC Alba. But not on the Wii. Both through the same router. In the same room. I can watch other programmes, but the available shows is strangely truncated. For example, there was only one TV programme in the seven days by BBC Scotland. Following the same sequence on the PC version, I get 5 pages of BBC Scotland programmes. And BBC Northern Ireland – which is non-existent on my WiiPlayer. This is the only way to get regional programmes on the Wii.

Later I catch Radio 4’s “News Quiz”. Before that, I changed the settings so that I can hide the toolbar. I don’t want it interfering with me listening to a radio programme via my television set, now do I.

The Iolaire Disaster

There was a very good programme on tonight about the Iolaire Disaster of New Year’s Day 1919. A horrific sinking of a boat packed with sailors coming home after the end of the Great War. 205 men, fathers, sons and brothers were killed. 80 survived.

It was a touching piece, and there is a website to investigate across bbc.co.uk/alba/tbh/iolaire/

To give some idea of the losses – between 1914 and 1918, the village of Leurbost lost 18 men (according to the memorial inscription listed by the North Lochs Historical Society). In addition to that, 11 were lost when the Iolaire hit the rocks at the entrance to Stornoway harbour. One poor soul’s body was found within sight of his house in Sandwick.

The programme discussed the impact that it had on those widows and families left behind. One girl had her Gaelic name changed to remove her father from it.

I go past it most times that I travel home. The sun sometimes marks the spot. (Maplink)

Have a look at the website. It doesn’t matter if you don’t speak Gaelic. They have video clips of the Iolaire sailing, interviews with the families and some historical ones of the survivors. Have a look at the faces of the departed, and you’ll see the same faces on many streets in Scotland, or Canada, or Australia or the myriad places we have diasporad to.

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Footnote: The full, subtitled, programme isn’t being shown on the iPlayer, and the original showing on BBC Alba is now unavailable.

Cable Frenzy

I spent much of the evening rebooting my computer. Every time I changed the computer settings, I had to reboot the computer. This was to try and get the computer to detect the television on the other side of the room. Between the two, and behind the sofa, were some of the cables that I had purchased off eBay. An s-video for pictures, and an audio output cable.

I could get sound, but the video wasn’t playing. So I went looking online, and tried rebooting the computer with the VDU unplugged. It worked.

A bit later, I was finally able to receive BBC Alba without having to pay for Freesat or Sky.

Heuch.

Sadly, the reality is that I have to disconnect the VDU (not just power it down), and the computer audio, reboot the pc, and then flick through the tv handset, and then crick my neck navigating to sites to watch them on the telly. But the cables only cost me about a tenner.

Time Travel Sickness

I feel old all of a sudden. Not only is the new actor to play the role of Doctor Who younger than me, but I’d left school and was working before he was born.

Maybe a new role for Marcus Brigstocke as a stand-in?

I bet we’ll see a Wii controller in the TARDIS.

I think I’ll be rooting for The Master next time. Even if he just breaks the Doc’s skateboard. Respect.

Death of an Icon

Catching up with things, I hear that Majel Barrett Roddenberry died a few days ago. It became a game to spot where she'd turn up in a series of Star Trek. It was a shame that she didn't stay as the First Officer of the Enterprise, but the original series had a few changes from the pilot screening, and that was one. The only woman on the bridge would be another icon, Nichelle Nichols; and I won't deign to include the note-passing passing floozies that wandered by the Kirk.

TOS is going the same way as that "Dad's Army" sketch: pointing and shouting "he's dead" as a character appears in shot. It comes to us all.

Stirton Gifts

To advertise their latest twice-award-nominated movie “One Day Removals”, Stirton Productions have opened a “cafePress” site. I particularly like the sticker. The ideal gift when you buy the video.

• Gift store.
• Video store.
• YouTube channel.

Warning - Material contains strong language and graphic violence. Well, the gift store doesn’t, unless you drink some weird freaking tea out of the mug. Yuck.

プラネットＸ 惑星爆滅
（原題：ＴＨＥ ＰＬＡＮＥＴ）

Earlier movie – now out in Japan.

Planet X

Mike came round with the Japanese release of Stirton Production’s “The Planet”. It was strange hearing the dubs. It gave the film a different feel for me, as I knew some of the chaps in real life.

There is a trailer on the Japanese site.

Also, the YouTube channel has “The Making of…” parts one and two. As this was filmed at Balmedie beach, it might have a historic context after the Trump development gets underway.

The Long Road South

Just read that Aberdeen film-makers, “Stirton Productions”, latest movie is up for a British Independent Film Award.

“One Day Removals” was recently shown at the Raindance Festival, and was so popular that the web-based showing crashed the server. There is a long list of big names who have won awards in the past, people who have gone on to bigger and better things.

Mark’s post

See what the fuss is about before the rush starts

Previous postings here