Chindie

Cheers.

I have noticed that Brum fairs have gotten sillier to be honest. I last went out, properly, on New Years a couple of years ago. In the end 2 of us headed home from Digbeth to the Kingstanding area, and ended up paying £40. To say we were taken aback is an understatement.

It's just another addition to the argument against going out for New Years Eve - It's a horrible night and **** expensive. Go to a (reasonably local, probably) house party, or just stay in.

Unaware of any other way to do it. Will investigate.

Seems finally updating Kies and subsequently also my Galaxy S2's firmware for the first time in an age was a bad idea. 90 minutes so far of the software failing at each stage, torturously long downloads at each stage too. Finally managed to get the software up to date, and thus far each stage of the firmare upgrade process has, at some point, either crashed, hung, 'stopped working' or otherwise failed. Last time it got to the the point that the phone was telling me, with a big Android logo, that it was downloading the update, only for the software to tell me that the phone was no longer recognised and the process closed, leaving the phone in limbo and leading to a tense turning off half expecting a rather expensive paper weight to reveal itself at the other end. I take back the praise I previously heaped on the Samsung software - it's apparently shit. EDIT - And there it goes again, process timed out. **** it. Sod the firmware, it's working fine as it is.

Seen one of these today. It's a nicely put together thing, looks classy, surprisingly slim, but has a big footprint, it's a big old thing.

Empire's frame by frame trailer breakdown Mild spoilers in there, but worth a mooch even if only to get a better gander at whats actually going on in some of the trailer shots.

Finally losing my temper at work

Oh I just remembered one more Christmas tradition - on Boxing day when we visit my aunt, over dinner she usually asks if theres a lady in my life. Answer is usually no, so she then will quickly ask '...and you're not one of those. It's perfectly alright these days'.

£19.98 new, £17.98 preowned. If you're lucky you can still pick up the Day One Limited Edition, which has a mini strat guide and some other stuff in it. Nice little package.

I've bought Dark Souls - dropping to sub £20 at work forced my hand. I'm ordering a bargain controller, just in case.

I think they will be in it, I suspect the film will end with their arrival on the scene - I would not be surprised to see if the Space Jockey we were first introduced to in Alien gets his chest burst near the end. I don't think they're going to be the focus, but I'll be surprised if they don't appear at all.

Scott apparently said this week the xenomorph isn't in it. I can't say I quite believe him.

I've not read the LOTR for a long while. I read them first when I was 8 (my teacher failed to believe I could understand them at that age and used to quiz me on the plot), and for while I'd read them yearly. Can't have read them in, 8 years or so now. They're not for everyone, I had a crack at picking them up again and couldn't bring myself to enjoy the slow pace another time, and they are painfully slow in parts. I can sympathise with anyone who doesn't get on with them. The films, despite (probably wisely, on reflection) not following the books nature as less action more travel, do suffer from that decision imo. I bought the extended editions on Bluray this year, watched them all back to back one weekend, and the fact that they want to be (and largely are) just action flicks means that the slow bits with Frodo are really pretty dull. He's not a terribly interesting character and he's so limp and so little happens that each time they appear on screen from the second film on it just feels like they're a buffer for the next big fight with Aragorn and the like. The books focus being on the journey more than what actually goes on on that journey makes that problem less apparent. When Aragorn and co are swashbuckling theres little said about it, it's not written heart racingly, whereas Frodo and Sam are more intrinsically tied to the story of a journey, so they aren't quite so dull as they are in the film. Thats an issue the Hobbit doesn't have. They barely get going before they're tripping over cantankerous trolls, tricky spiders, goblins and dirty great talking wolves. And at the end they play a dangerous game with a cunning and evil dragon and end up in a war. They might go on a journey but it's effectively the party falling from one bit of action to another.

The Hobbit is a very different being to LOTR, it's more of a straight adventure, and far far more childish than the LOTR ever is. Interestingly I think Jackson is probably better suited to making the Hobbit than he was to LOTR, Jackson likes action and he likes some light hearted comedy. One of the criticisms of his adaptation of the LOTR to the screen was he seemed to miss the point - the book reads like a journey more than it does an adventure. Massive action moments in the book are gone in a couple of pages, the film makes them huge lengthy setpieces. Thats not the case in the Hobbit. The Hobbit is wholly an adventure, full of action and lots of light hearted gags, Jackson will be in his element. The only issue may be how he ties in this film to the LOTR - he clearly wants to maintain a strong connection between the 2 projects, they share an aesthetic and a style even this early on. But despite the Hobbit's nature as a prequel and featuring many familiar characters and places to the later work, as books they have a different... spirits. They don't really tie together all that well in the impression of the world they evoke - wargs in the Hobbit are talkative conniving wolves, in LOTR they are demonic twisted wolves, simply dastardly animals for example. In a book, thats not much an issue. In a film, especially one so keen to tie in to the style of an predecessor, it may be jarring.

Tis Freeman. The Swedish fella I believe has brought in to play Beorn, so hopefully he's quite a big chap

Sale price changes. Had to do ours today, lead to pretty much the entire stock being pulled out to whack a new price sticker under the old one that in 2 weeks will be changed again, and really **** annoyingly a shitload of them had the wrong 'Was' price on them anyway so you end up piss arsing about tripping over each other trying to grab the sticker for the old price so the new sale price represents the right sale saving. Took a **** age.

I dunno what it is about Demba Ba. I just can't convince myself he's actually good, despite the goals. Whenever I've watched him he always seems to lack finesse, not to mention seemingly that much skill, he doesn't appear to be a good player... but he scores all the bloody time. I can't quite put my finger on it. Saying that, if you could guarentee his knees wouldn't fall apart, I'd kill for him in our side on this seasons showing.

I'm all for this, provided at the end of the year (or for the traditionalists, when the crops next fail/plague arrives/things go otherwise tits up), the person given office is sacrificed by druids.

On this point, Radio 5 spoke to a representative from one of the 'Kick It Out'-esque groups last night following this announcement, and the point about 'it being friendly in Uruguay' was directly answered by the rep. His comments? To paraphrase, yes it can be a term of endearment between friends in a friendly situation. It can also be considered an insult, a derisory comment, especially in a heated environment, which you'd think 2 blokes on opposite teams in a heated football match probably comes under. Suarez is at best, a moron. Why the **** would you call a bloke you're probably not friends with, in the middle of a match, who is from a completely different culture to your own, a term which is at best going to sound racially derisory? Football365 are not far wrong either - I'd have the FA chuck the book at Liverpool for that statement. It's **** embarrassing.

Why the tourism argument is bobbins, Republic.org

I don't care about them, I have no reason to be bothered about these people, much like I don't give much of a shit about any other Tom Dick or Harry. It doesn't actually over bother me that they make money for er... **** all. But I dislike what they represent, so, for want of a better turn of phrase, orf with their heads.

I think the only thing I have any issue with is quite how they've decided he's guilty.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=G0k3kHtyoqc.

Far too many things. And why I let these many things annoy me to the core, to the point I just want to rail at people.