Chindie

GAME. (They aren't dead yet...).

On the international stores front, I think only the Swedish arm might be alright, because I seem to remember hearing that was run somewhat seperately from the main company, or something. Although saying that I understand that the Swedish stores do next to no business so *shrug*. I did read earlier that the Irish stores have been nuked, so to speak - i.e. they're goners. But seen little confirmation outside of a couple of Dublin stores apparently shuttered already.

You can still trade in games at stores, but only for credit. And you can still earn points on your card, but at this moment in time, you can't use them.

Should be.

What would you like to know?

I hope if any of you had trade cards or loyalty points to use, you did, because they've now been stopped, i.e. if you can find a store thats open for business, your loyalty points can't be used and neither can your trade card at the moment. And if you had money down on anything for a preorder, that cannot be refunded at this moment in time.

Well, it took an hour. My store is closed, I'm out on my ear fairly shortly. Will probably be doing my last couple of shifts packing up stock.

This is my guess as well. The only big thing missing is a simpler, less energy-demanding way of getting the Hydrogen off whatever it's stuck on. It's not something we'll run out of. Indeed. I seem to remember reading that at the moment they were looking at ways of not having to 'refine' hydrogen to then sell at the pump, instead having the fuel cell do the 'refining' itself, i.e. getting the hydrogen out of whatever material it's currently part of. Which would also make the process of creating and maintaining an infrastructure for filling stations potentially far simpler.

Adminstrator appointed (PwC), looking to sell the company as a going concern. No idea whats happening with my job yet. Well, thats a lie, I'm soon to be unemployed, it's a just a case of exactly when, barring miracles.

Plan a patio?

For a start it's not some massive breakthrough in motoring. I'm quite sure I saw a team on Scrapheap Challenge years ago make what was ultimately a pretty standard car engine run on compressed air with little fiddling, for example. It's effectively the same principle that a steam engine works on, except you replace a boiling vessel with a compressed air tank. And has similar problems. Pressure vessels are very dangerous and have to be maintained and checked thoroughly, but it's not something that people encounter day to day unlike, say, getting their engine serviced, or doing basic motoring maintenance. People get cars as they are now, and they like them. Secondly, I'd bet it has some drawbacks. 65mph, for example, is not flexible enough for your average motorist the world over, and I'd bet they'd struggle to improve that much. And so on. And lastly, and most importantly, it's big oil you're talking about. They know how to run this market. They also know that they're running on borrowed time in the long term, hence why they've all started to invest in alternative energy, because they know that that is the future of their business. If air compressor cars where the future, it's such a simple thing, that these guys would have been all over it already. If these turns out to be 'a thing', it'll only be big in the emerging markets/poor markets. The big markets, the developed world, will go with hydrogen fuel cells.

I suspect the oil companies won't be very worried at all.

Watched Tintin last night. I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would. Once you get past the fact that it looks a bit weird (the curious mix of mo-cap animation, and the characters having a odd cross of cartoon features but with really, really high quality CGI making them look almost real is bizarre. There is fidelity to the characters that make you believe to an extent they are real, but they obviously have a design that cannot be real. It's almost uncanny valley stuff and is a bit offputting to begin with), and suffers from the same thing that Tintin always has, that being that Tintin is insufferably dull himself, it's a really nice family romp. It's overblown in the all the best cartoon ways - it's silly and over the top but still has a gentleness to it, which is hard going considering this is a film that has plane crashes, a sea battle with associated sword fight, numerous people getting knocked on the head with bottles and fists, and more than a little gunfire. Some pretty grim things occur but the film steps back from really playing up the danger. Where any other film would ramp up the tension in some of the scenes, they tone it down just a little and you find yourself sitting relaxed and enjoying it. About the only things that I really didn't like about the whole thing where Thompson and Thomson just not working at all (a shame since I love Pegg and Frost and when I used to watch the 90s animation I loved those charatcers), and the fact it does some of the most blatant sequel setting up I've ever seen a film do - the conclusion happens and then completely gets overshadowed by the fact it's clear the story is going to continue. I suspect some people might grow tired of how much it pulls you through it, every single plot point is foreshadowed miles ahead and you ca see exactly where its going but it never cuts to the chase so to speak. But even so I found it hard to feel too sore over that. It feels like what Indiana Jones might have been had the last film not been an utterly shameless cash in. Good fun.

Nah, there'd be no trailer before Wrath of the Titans, at least not a new one. You hear ages in advance about trailers, if there was a new one for pretty much the biggest release of the year you'd know already.

I did wonder whether they know that a) it's going to be huge regardless, and that there are a few big movies between now and July, so are letting them get out of the way and pumping out the big guns in their aftermath. Doesn't explain why they've not got on board with the viral stuff though. Though I guess they might figure theres little point, viral marketing requires effort that this movie might not benefit enough from to make it worthwhile. Lets face it, even if the movie is dog dirt it's going to be a licence to print money. The Dark Knight was too big for it not to be. Though critically, TDK could prove to have set a benchmark it can't surpass, perhaps even meet.

As I'm reading through the books at the moment, I am really looking forward to the second series. You are spot on about the 'far bigger story' too. The books are superb btw, easily the best fantasy series I've read since the 'His Dark Materials' trilogy. Agreed. The books are fantastic from beginning to end. One thing that did get to me a bit was how little is seen of the direwolves in the TV version. Missed these replies (and others), apologies fellas. I'm looking forward to the second series since they're already saying they'd managed to secure a bit more cash to do some proper battle scenes - I nearly pissed myself laughing when they set up a battle in the first series and conveniently get out of it with unconscious related shenanigans . Unfortunately I'll probably be late to the party with this series too - we don't have Sky Atlantic, and I cannot be bothered tracking down net uploads anymore. As for the books... I don't think I could read them. I like fantasy, but I've read so much of it I can't really bring myself to. Especially when I know it's an ongoing thing and theres a distinct chance they'll never be finished, and when I've read some examples of quite grim prose from it. I also can't help thinking it's going to be pretty derivative stuff (something the series can escape - theres not really been a fantasy epic series like it. Whereas fantasy epic books are ten a penny). I know a couple of people who've read them and sing their praises... but nah. Not yet anyway. I picked up Boardwalk Empire series 1 today, so got that to look forward for the next couple of weeks viewing. I've heard nothing but good things so fingers crossed.

Nah, Nightwing isn't 'a thing' to the general public. A Nightwing movie, unless it cost £3.50, would struggle. And rightly so, 'cos Emo-Batman sucks. The closest you'd get to Nightwing in this movie imo is a nod to Bruce Wayne no longer being the Bat, which is of course a brief part of the Nightwing history (and of course Azrael's origin, but that story has ludicrous baggage). But you'd not have a name check of Nightwing (or Robin), it'd just be Bruce Wayne handing over the responsibility to someone else at the end. However he chooses to do that. And your fanboys in the crowd will be able to go 'Yeah that's part of the Nightwing story, cool!' It'd be an interesting way to round out Nolan's trilogy and I wouldn't bet against him doing it. He's only ever been interested in Bruce Wayne's story (hence no Robin talk, stupid character that brings a load of it's own baggage), and all the marketing for this is all about the 'end' of the legend. Even the choice of villain is a nod to it - Bane is the character that most famously made Bruce Wayne unable to be Batman. It'd be a ballsy move too - the comics have knocked Wayne out of it countless times, but no movie has. With Nolan definitely leaving the franchise alone after this, along with numerous cast members, it'd be a definitive 'end' to his dealing with Batman but leave enough of a happy ending/continuation of the Batman character to not leave everyone a downer ending. And it ain't like Warner Brothers are going to continue the franchise with whatever Nolan does at the end of this as canon. Anywho, the marketing for this has taken a whole different swing to the TDK. It's a little strange really, given the way films are marketed these days. By now, 4 months out from release, TDK had a huge viral campaign in full swing, the I Believe in Harvey Dent stuff floating around and all the rest. Nothing like that for this. We've had a a teaser, a trailer (there'll be more you'd have to reckon, a launch trailer at the very least), the prologue, some set shots... and thats about it. For such a big film, it's fairly quiet. With the release of the Avengers coming soon, my hypes died off a little for this, but it's still my second most anticipated movie of the year. With those 2 and the Hobbit Part One, big big big year in movies for me.

Nolan has said he had no interest in Robin. He's a smart man.

Unlikely. Tomorrow will just be an official confirmation of appointing an administrator. The quarterly rent bill is due tomorrow (technically tonight) and there is no way we can pay it. So that will signal us officially being out of cash. But it won't mean the company will just close up tomorrow. It'll take a while for closures to happen while the administrators work out what to do.

Customers who think they know their consumer rights. Had a bloke come in today to return an item he'd bought earlier, taken home, tried and not liked, and wanted a refund. He insisted he was entitled to a full refund as that is a statutory right. No it ain't buddy. And another thing that pisses me off, my manager giving him his money back.

Absolute wonder goal.

Had a staff night out last night, which was alright. I intended to get utterly wasted but that didn't happen. Was home just after midnight. Pissed off that I basically forgot I'd gone to a cashpoint between pubs, and then got more money out for the taxi home, not remembering that I still had £30 in my wallet. Was working this afternoon and surprisingly un-hungover, just tired. Gonna order a pizza later. Missed the nice weather since I work in a windowless hole that has no natural light and very little ventilation. And tomorrow work again, and am also going to buy a couple of film/TV related things to enjoy in the week. Bleh weekend.

Of course there'll be more Batman films. They'll give it a break and bring it back with a new man, and probably cock it up. I'm still convinced that Nolan will underline the fact that his take on Batman is done with this film, by having Bale's Bruce Wayne give up the cape... somehow. My guess at Levitt's role is that he will, in some way, be asked to carry on as the new Bat, which you could think of as a nod to Nightwing, and also give Nolan a slight out if he does decide to 'retire' Wayne - I don't think he'd want his legacy of the films to be one of being the man who 'ended' Batman. Letting another character take the cowl lets him get away with both. And of course when Warner Brothers do bring out a new Batman film in the future, they'll just ignore that, and the new man will be Bruce Wayne again.

This policy is absolutely barking mad imo I vote for Tony. I'm sure May claimed that this thing they are calling 'preloading' was something new. I could have sworn we used to do that twenty odd years ago when 'binge drinking was also called 'drinking'. Speaking as someone who will be drinking himself to oblivion and beyond later, I agree with these wise gentlemen.

Depends on the uni, and also the lecture/tutorial/seminar organiser. My experience was basically casual wear across the board but a couple of friends had some lessons where they were expected to be a bit smarter. I always just turned up in the same stuff I'd wear around the house, though never sandals. A guy on my course turned up in a dressing gown more often than not, which was weird, but nothing was ever said. I think Oxbridge requires a proper academic dress in some lessons, and smart casual in others.