New Year's Eve at the Moulin Rouge (Blackheath)
Blackheath, New Year's Eve
Port Grapes
Another one from the Portugal trip
Winter Sunshine, Brighton Road
Any Port in a…
I'm busy scanning some old slides of mine. Right now, I'm working through some pictures of a press visit to the Quinta do Noval back in 1995. The visit was during the grape harvest that year, and I ended up spending a few hours treading grapes for the 1995 Port vintage…
I'll have a set up on Flickr later, but I rather like the picture above. It was taken from a train that was travelling up the Duro valley, as I recall.
Clapham, morning
Christmas Eve @ my brother's
His new house has four ovens. Four!
A Paris Christmas
Grabbed yesterday afternoon, near the Champs d'Elysee in Paris
In Paris
Suffolk Morning
A Brief Return to Suffolk
I popped back to Suffolk for the day, for the first time since Mum's house sold a couple of months ago. I visited the grave, made sure all was ready for the return of the headstone and got my car serviced and MOTed while I was at it.
Oh, and I got very wet and muddy… But that's fodder for a different post.
First Icy Car Morning
QH gets Festive
Real Life Rickroll
This is just full of win:
(No idea what I'm talking about? Rickrolling explained.)
Recreational Social Gaming for Beginners
Here's a thing: I barely watch any TV any more. And since we picked up a BT Vision box, that TV I do watch I record and watch at my own convenience.
Now, I wish I could claim that I used the time I reclaimed that way in working for world peace or the betterment of mankind. But I don't. On the whole, I use it playing World of Warcraft. And there's a reason I find this online game so very compelling - levels of interactivity.
TV is essentially a passive experience. You watch what someone else has produced. And while it can be a communal experience, you normally have to be in the same room as the people you're watching TV with. In WoW, the same restrictions do not apply. You're interacting with the content. It's designed so that you have to do stuff to get the most enjoyment out of it. You are the protagonist. And, more than that, you're online with thousands of other people at the same time, often working together to achieve the objectives within the game. And I've managed to stack things such that most of the people I play with are my real life friends. Indeed 90% of the guys on the stag night last weekend were also my guildmates in WoW, including the groom. (The bride's a player, too...)
That combination of the social and the interactive is what makes the game very compelling - and all but the best TV rather insipid by comparison.
Don't believe me? OK: ask Ozzy:
Now, I wish I could claim that I used the time I reclaimed that way in working for world peace or the betterment of mankind. But I don't. On the whole, I use it playing World of Warcraft. And there's a reason I find this online game so very compelling - levels of interactivity.
TV is essentially a passive experience. You watch what someone else has produced. And while it can be a communal experience, you normally have to be in the same room as the people you're watching TV with. In WoW, the same restrictions do not apply. You're interacting with the content. It's designed so that you have to do stuff to get the most enjoyment out of it. You are the protagonist. And, more than that, you're online with thousands of other people at the same time, often working together to achieve the objectives within the game. And I've managed to stack things such that most of the people I play with are my real life friends. Indeed 90% of the guys on the stag night last weekend were also my guildmates in WoW, including the groom. (The bride's a player, too...)
That combination of the social and the interactive is what makes the game very compelling - and all but the best TV rather insipid by comparison.
Don't believe me? OK: ask Ozzy:
Of Stags and Baths
So, what have I been up to in recent weeks?
Well, last weekend I headed off to Brighton for Martyn's stag weekend. And I can't really talk about it as it was very much a "what happens in Brighton, stays in Brighton" sort of weekend. (Although, I apparently have a big dose of beginners' luck when it comes to cards). Instead, I give you this lovely picture of Brighton Pier, from my hotel room, showing the beautiful light of a cold autumn morning.
My hotel itself, the Royal Albion, was... interesting. It was very shabby chic, with high emphasis on the shabby, and low emphasis on the chic. Breakfast was of the "bucket buffet" style, and it's obviously popular with the hen nights. (Either that, or the policewomen of Brighton are wearing indecently skimpy outfits these days.) Oh, and the first room they gave me had no bedding on the bed. I eventually found it in the bath, along with two lights and the coffee making stuff. I moved rooms pretty swiftly.
Oh, and it was good to catch up with AndyB after I invited him along to gatecrash the Friday night for a while.
Battlestar Galactica Season 4.5 trailer
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdsfpeNURHU&w=425&h=344]
There have been two scifi series that have really redefined the genre in TV terms over the past couple of years. Doctor Who has proved that it can be a mass-market, mainstream hit, topping the viewing figure charts on main national TV stations.
And Battlestar Galactica has proved that it can be serious, adult drama with as much emotional weight and political focus as any drama produced on either side of the pond. It's a shame that we're only half a season from the final end of the show, but I'd rather it finished well than drifted into cancellation.
Lamps in the bath
Fairly sure this isn't normal styling for a hotel…
They're Taking the Hobbits to Isengard
For Rev Stan who could probably do with a laugh:
The (Rotten) Core
I seem to have watched some really bad movies of late. Most of my free time has been caught up with trying to get the flat back into a decent state after the sudden arrival of an avalanche of possessions from Mum's house, and so picking and choosing movies hasn't really been much of an option. We just grab something likely-looking on our BT Vision box, and watch it when we get the chance.
Last night, we watched The Core. And what an appalling piece of tosh it was. By around 15 minutes in we'd correctly predicted all the major plot points of the movie, from the number and identity of the crew who would survive, to exactly what would result from the ship being modular. It was plotting-by-numbers, only enlivened by some pretty good performances from DJ qualls and Stanley Tucci.
Still, it gave us something to laugh at, and it was the kind of movie that you could keep track of while popping in and out of the living room, carrying boxes into the study. And that's exactly the sort of review quote you never see on Movie adverts…
The Apple iMug
Autumn Leaves
Sunday Sainsbury's Hell
Orinocho Flow, interpreted through dance
[via The Medium is Not Enough]
Gosh
That'll be Strictly Come Dancing back, then.
It's a lovely outfit she's nearly wearing, isn't it?
It's a lovely outfit she's nearly wearing, isn't it?