tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27101439210914121982024-03-05T16:48:51.921+00:00Blog Title Under ConstructionThe musings of Dobmeister, Enginerd at Cambridge University and Level 80 Dwarf Hunter in World of Warcraft.Dobblesworthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15552592664188561609noreply@blogger.comBlogger21125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2710143921091412198.post-71919260278510245922009-05-21T18:49:00.003+01:002009-05-22T00:43:54.755+01:00Custodio ipsos custodes<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjj7-X34N11c0a24EF_IW8SJwgXTXOAEXOtBfaX7dldUXsrN-ygyqp63V2E71yg7cZtoWvd6Zv6MqaZ74tt0gMENBGaln47fAfV5BGs8_8vTK0NQBqbkRIq_jWrFoc4OYBB7qGAIaFG6LCQ/s1600-h/163635.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjj7-X34N11c0a24EF_IW8SJwgXTXOAEXOtBfaX7dldUXsrN-ygyqp63V2E71yg7cZtoWvd6Zv6MqaZ74tt0gMENBGaln47fAfV5BGs8_8vTK0NQBqbkRIq_jWrFoc4OYBB7qGAIaFG6LCQ/s320/163635.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5338427131596846530" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br />//My film review of Watchmen has been sitting in an unfinished state for a good long time, pushing 2 months; time to wrap it up.//<br /><br />One of my first acts on arriving home for the Easter break was, naturally, to go see the Watchmen film. This post won't be a linkage affair, as the overload of wiki was covered in this <a href="http://murlocking.blogspot.com/2009/02/this-is-freightaaaaaaaaaaa.html">previous post</a>. So, like with <a href="http://murlocking.blogspot.com/2008/11/its-suantum-of-quolace.html">007 Quantum of Solace</a>, here comes "Dobblesworth does Movie Reviews: Watchmen."<br /><br />The cinema in Newcastle was rather empty when we went; but this being a Monday evening a week after general release, I suppose there wasn’t much of a market for that showing. Loading up on my traditional choice of a large Coke and tub of Maltesers, we settled down for 3hrs of “yet another Marvel/DC Comics movie adaptation”. Sadly we were in a rush leaving for the cinema, but I would have liked to have brought my copy of the graphic novel with me, to read along and compare dialogue, camera shots & plot; I had read that Snyder had essentially used the book as his film’s storyboard and draft script, which critics have either warmly praised or coldly derided.<br /><br />On the whole I thought the adaptation was done well. Overall Snyder did follow the source material in a faithful manner, and he certainly pulled out a great film as a result of it. It certainly deserved that 18 rating; cinematic violence probably equals or surpasses 300, and that’s saying something. 300 could counter that with a more joyous heroic plot, whereas this is just down-and-dirty vigilante heroes of the 80’s. I suppose seeing Dr. Manhattan’s blue wang a good deal of the time has its effect, but in the majority of shots it’s neither frontal nor showing his lower anatomy in any case.<br /><br />Rambling thoughts...<br /><br />- Exclusion of “Tales of the Black Freighter” didn’t bother me; the film was a good enough standalone item.<br /><br />- There was a slight divergence from the source material to give a plot twist at the end. The “psychic apocalypse squid” was a crazy addition to the initial graphic novel and an actual bomb device is a bit more fitting for the post-9/11 modern age. Gives a more apt reason for Doc Manhattan to bugger off rather than simply being a tad bored and disenfranchised with Earth.<br /><br />- Wonderful opening cinematic. Nice combo of “Now these times, they are a-changing” with the flashbacks of ‘how the times change progressively from when masked vigilantes take up arms until they are eventually killed off or forced underground’. Good addition of character development for the various previous ‘Minutemen’ members. Can’t remember them directly, but I remember The Lesbian, The Insane Dude who got shipped to an asylum, and The Caped One who was legitimately pwned after getting it stuck in a revolving door.<br /><br />- Noticed an omission of Alan Moore from opening credits. Mentioned “original source graphic novel by Dave Gibbons”, but no Moore, as to be expected I suppose.<br /><br />- Prison corridor fight scene was particularly [EPIC]. One of the particular points where the Snyder influence was glaring, with the parallel camera motion, exaggeration of combatant blood loss, and the clever slow motion fluctuation. Seeing some goon’s femur break in 26 places is four times more satisfying when it’s half as fast.<br /><br />I’m not enough of a critical reviewer to give a more expanded judgement, but on the whole I was impressed. A concluding point I’d like to make: I don’t know whether I should embrace or cower from the fact I was semi- lip synching the film script that had been copypasta’d from the book...<br /><br />... Embrace it I reckon!Dobblesworthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15552592664188561609noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2710143921091412198.post-13452959325811682332009-05-13T17:05:00.004+01:002009-05-16T01:49:39.743+01:00Don't worry, I'm still here<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://imgs.xkcd.com/store/imgs/useless_square_0.png"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 300px;" src="http://imgs.xkcd.com/store/imgs/useless_square_0.png" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />It's been a while since I last posted on my blag, and I feel guilty as I have several topics in the pipeline, sitting as half-finished Word documents on my hard drive. I might do a posting spree at some point, but finding the time is difficult.<br />On the cards are my forays into Ubuntu Linux (codenamed "Ubunwha?"), Eurovision 2009 (it hits us this weekend), a film review of Watchmen (which I saw over 2 months ago now), then probably some random spiel about stuff on the iPlayer I view these days (e.g. the cluster-fuck of a plotline that is Heroes). Oh, and that "Blog Fu" topic I should have done yonks back, hehe. And finally, the momentous occasion of my easter vacation, when my hard drive crashed.<br /><br />Cambridge has hit Easter Term, mostly known as Exam Term to anyone who isn't on a slacker subject like Land Economy, so certain things have to take priority sadly.<br /><br />Image of choice is <a href="http://store.xkcd.com/">xkcd's</a> <a href="http://xkcd.com/55/">'Useless'</a> T-shirt, which I have been meaning to order for a while, and now have a more compulsive desire to. The first four items I have known for a minimum of two years now (matrices being the last of the four I encountered), but now the engineering mathematics lectures have hit the 5th and final one - <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laplace_transform">Laplace Transformations</a>. Filled with the power of ornate L notation! Side note: the comic strip original goes for a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourier_transform">Fourier Transform</a>.<br /><br />You may also want to know that I post intermittently on Twatter... <span style="font-style: italic;"><a href="http://twitter.com/Dobblesworth">Dobblesworth resides here in the tweetiverse</a><span style="font-style: italic;">.</span></span><br /><br /><3<br /><=4<br />!=5Dobblesworthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15552592664188561609noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2710143921091412198.post-15717848419082215282009-04-05T12:38:00.004+01:002009-04-05T19:43:08.376+01:00It's our problem-free, democracy! Oh no wait...<script type="text/javascript" src="http://widgets.clearspring.com/o/49305ffa183f0b58/49d8984a9d0956d8/49305ffa183f0b58/99a35fac/widget.js"></script><br /><br />Here's a little applet I saw posted to the <a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/Conservatives/8807334278">Conservative Party's Facebook profile</a>. Being a future voter for Team Cameron, whenever the next election turns up and assuming the veritably awesome <a href="http://www.omrlp.com/">Monster Raving Loony Party</a> do not put a candidate in my local area, and being a member of the <a href="http://www.cuca.org.uk/">Cambridge University Conservative Association</a> (equally awesome), I figured it'd be fun to add. So yes, viewers, visitors to Blog Title Under Construction will see that Dobblesworth has a certain share of the national debt as a result of briefcases of cash being offloaded to institutions like the Northern Rock and the RBS Pension Fund, which as of posting amounts to twenty-two thousand, two hundred and fifty-nine pounds, and fifteen pence. Fun.Dobblesworthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15552592664188561609noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2710143921091412198.post-59633009733441309182009-03-27T16:17:00.000+00:002009-03-27T16:17:50.285+00:00Project Title Under ConstructionLadies and gentlemen, we interrupt your internet browsing experience for a potentially important announcement.<br /><br />My associate <a href="http://thenoelor.blogspot.com/">Noelor</a> and I have been considering the launch of a new project. This project is as yet untitled, but the concept we have in mind is fairly solidified. Essentially we intend to carry out a blogging version of the ‘<a href="http://www.jonathancoulton.com/wiki/index.php/Masters_of_Song_Fu">Masters of Song Fu</a>’ contest through our respective sites. This was an <a href="http://www.quickstopentertainment.com/2008/05/01/masters-of-song-fu-the-battle-begins/">online contest</a> participated in by the legendary geek folk artist Jonathan Coulton [see subscription bar on the right], who likes to inform us that all he wants to do is eat your brains. So, here's the lowdown:<br /><br />At either defined periods, or whenever the hell we feel like it, a discussion topic shall be agreed upon between the two of us. Then both shall depart to Notepad/MS Word/OpenOfficeWriter/<span style="font-style: italic;">other text editor of choice</span> and proceed to compose thoughts and feelings on the topic. Still, a few things remain to be decided...<br /><br />Project title? Noelor has proposed “Blog off”; I’ve managed to come up with “Blog Fu” so far. Maybe one, both or neither shall be used, but I have other ideas. I'm thinking a potentially witty merge & subversion of both our blog titles. Potent Rant Titles Constructed? Or maybe not.<br /><br />Choice of topic? They would need to be unique and interesting, not "should WoW bring in Classic Realms?"; something both can talk easily about, i.e. if the topic were “<i style="">random pen ‘n’ paper RPG”</i>, he’d make a dissertation of it, while I’d probably just type “LOL DND” and leave it at that.<br />You’ll probably see stuff like the certain memes crawling over WoW blogs these days like “post your 6<sup>th</sup> screenshot in your folder.” That’s a bit difficult for me, as up until 2006-ish WoW saved its screenshots in Targa (.tga) file format, before switching to JPEG. About half that folder on my desktop is .tga. Which proves how long I’ve been playing WoW/how much of my soul I have signed over to Activision-Blizzard [delete as applicable from your perspective].<br /><br />So yes, if you have ideas, comments or suggestions, use the relevant box or toss an e-mail. Keep you posted, we shall.Dobblesworthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15552592664188561609noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2710143921091412198.post-55035899005059987802009-03-22T19:11:00.006+00:002009-03-23T02:06:52.619+00:00The State of SocietyIn my <a href="http://murlocking.blogspot.com/2008/02/well-lets-get-things-rolling-then.html">opening rant</a> I expressed the desire to use Blog Title Under Construction as an engine for spouting off against society and its delinquents, or just a general moan about the decline of my fondness for life in these British Isles. Up until now I'd remained rather mute and apathetic to it all. But two events in the past day or two have sparked off my will to vent my spleen in a fitting zealous manner.<br /><br />Issue #1: The 'War' on 'Terror'<br />While commuting into town yesterday for necessary “Over-commercialised Mothering Sunday” shopping, the following advert (most likely produced by some ‘<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ministry_of_Truth">Ministry of Truth</a>’-esque division of The Home Office) was being played on local radio...<br /><br /><p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><voiceover>Narrator:<span style=""> </span>This is the sound of your generic charv-infested, dark, dingy, booze-laden nightclub, when a bomb doesn’t go off...</voiceover></p><p class="MsoNormal"><voiceover><br /></voiceover></p> <p class="MsoNormal">*The sounds of drunken partygoers, music, dancing and the downing of many shots of vodka can be heard, as you do.*</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><voiceover>N: ... because two weeks earlier, a hypersensitive civilian, lulled into a constant state of panic by the media & government, reported a neighbour storing the chemicals in his garden shed, used to make the bomb.</voiceover></p><p class="MsoNormal"><voiceover><br /></voiceover></p><p class="MsoNormal"><voiceover>[This is perfectly rational and respectable. A line can be drawn between bomb-component fertiliser (50 bags) - I think it's ammonium nitrate they use for cheap kaboom... - and "Yarp just ferteeloisin mei plants in the green'ouse, yarp" fertiliser (5 bags)]</voiceover></p><p class="MsoNormal"><voiceover><br /></voiceover></p><p class="MsoNormal"><voiceover><span style="font-style: italic;">Part two...</span></voiceover></p><p class="MsoNormal"><voiceover><br /></voiceover></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><voiceover>N: This is the sound of a busy shopping centre during peak hours, when a bomb doesn’t go off, but it’s strange that we would care anyway, as the only lives lost would be the unemployed charvs living off state ‘incapacity’ benefits in a council estate...</voiceover></p><p class="MsoNormal"><voiceover><br /></voiceover></p> <p class="MsoNormal">*As before we hear the sounds of your average shopping centre during blissful weekend shopping hours, the cacophony of random chatter and cash registers in action.*</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i style="">Now here comes the bit that really irks me.</i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i style=""><br /></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><voiceover>N: ... all because a few days earlier another honourable citizen reported suspicious activity to the police, specifically <b style="">a random person studying the surveillance cameras</b>.</voiceover></p><p class="MsoNormal"><voiceover><br /></voiceover></p> <p class="MsoNormal">There then followed a brief period of guilt-tripping from The Powers That Be, requesting we report any suspicious events to a national terrorist hotline, and that no-one should be reliant on others to do it, lest another 7/7 comes around the corner.<span style=""> </span>This is all well and good.<span style=""> </span>I have nothing against Our Benefactors offering a service for me to say “Hi, erm, just thought you might wanna know that I’ve seen chaps with Irish accents daubing ‘Real IRA’ slogans on their fences, waving the Green-White-and-Gold and taking Catholic Communion with AK-47’s in hand”, if it is within the public’s interest and might save a few lives.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal">But seriously, come on, “studying CCTV cameras”?<span style=""> </span>Any randomer in the street can do that freely out of curiosity with no bad intentions; I have done so on several occasions just to consider overall coverage fields and what-not.<span style=""> </span>This doesn’t make me want to run berserk with my Kalashnikov firing pot-shots at my pre-located camera targets, however.<span style=""> </span>Any terrorist committed towards their <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uwOL4rB-go">Seventy-Two Virgins</a> would be a bit more discrete than standing in front of a bank of cameras wearing sunglasses and wielding a pen & notepad anyway.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal">So yes, to conclude: I am all fine-and-dandy with <span style="font-style: italic;">some</span> anti-terrorism legislation and government propaganda to keep the proletariat in line, voting for New Labour and not running around like headless chickens.<span style=""> </span>I’m not fine with such outrageous claims and paranoia that technical curiosity is pure hardcore terrorist activity.<span style=""> </span>It’s not on Gordon, just not on.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Moving on...<br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Issue #2: Jade ‘Minger’ Goody</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal">As the Max Clifford-controlled media has no doubt informed you by now, a certain cretin going by the name of Jade Goody has passed away after some form of terminal cancer, really couldn’t care less which variety, apparently cervical, but regardless, she has 'kicked the bucket', “<a href="http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/And_Now_For_Something_Completely_Different#Dead_Parrot">run down the curtain and joined the choir invisible</a>”, popped her clogs and will shortly be six feet under.<span style=""> </span>Good riddance.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal">Oh cancer's horrendous, I understand. I lost a grandparent to it as a child, and another person rather close to me managed to pull through diagnosis and treatment of it in recent past. But there's still a certain something about the b**** that doesn't quite let her get away with it by playing the "LOL I haz terminel canker" card, not in my book.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal">I must be one of the few rational people in this nation left, as I think I’m one of a noble minority who are glad to see her go.<span style=""> </span>It’s a truly depressing country we live in if people looked up to this woman, specifically a racist dim-witted plebeian whose claim to fame is appearance on reality television, itself a mockery of culture from the get-go.<span style=""> </span>Channel 4 & Big Brother and their ilk can f*** right off for all I care. Congratulations for dumbing down society and making references to a 'Big Brother (Orwellian & 1984) surveillance society' a memory jog for 'lolomg diaray ruum', come on chaps, take a bow!</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal">I really don’t get it.<span style=""> </span>I even heard newsbytes of how Gordon Brown has praised her courageous nature.<span style=""> </span>Courage, yeah, she smiled for the cameras whilst being a tad bald in a disgusting lilac wedding dress while getting her deathbed proceedings bankrolled by The Sun, OK! and all the other <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Tops">red top</a> tripe.<span style=""> </span>I hope to Cthulhu that Mr. Brown did not say that out of true respect and admiration for a random woman who died to cancer, but rather said what the proles wanted him to say to win their votes, that is if he ever feels like holding a general election, which ought to be due next spring.<span style=""> </span>For a prime minister whose goals are to extol the greatness of Britain, it brings the whole political system crashing down if he goes to lay flowers at this pathetic 'culture' icon’s grave. I honestly feel like gate-crashing the twat's funeral with a burst of good ol' Rick Astley. Or maybe a 4chan flashmob of V For Vendetta masks.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal">It is imperative that this be stressed: having cancer, or any terminal illness, does not absolve you of your past transgressions.<span style=""> </span>As a deist I’m not saying this from a religious viewpoint, I’m saying it from a vaguely humanist perspective, the perspective of someone shocked and appalled at the glossing over of this berk’s racist jabs and various other things wrong with her, which hardly made her a model for society, all out of sympathy and respect for this poor, poor soul who'll be given her last rites.<span style=""> </span>The word celebrity is derived from celebrate; to be a celebrity is to be celebrated for your talents and skills, not to earn fame and fortune from being a fluent speaker in the native tongue of the Charv, and inquiring to a TV producer whether you were, in fact, “a minger”.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Too many are saying rest in peace; I say <span style="font-weight: bold;">Rest In Pieces</span>. I hope others do too.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Someday I’ll get out of this decrepit hellhole, but I’m not entirely sure as of yet where to relocate to.<span style=""> </span>To put it simply, the state of this United Kingdom sickens me sometimes.<span style=""> </span>I’ve been told I’m too young to be a cynic, but someone’s got to do it.<span style=""> </span>It’s hard to be optimistic about this world.<span style=""> </span>At least not about the world I’m looking at.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Goodnight Britain.<span style=""> </span>Would the last sane person to leave please turn off the lights?<span style=""> </span>Thankyou.</p>Dobblesworthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15552592664188561609noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2710143921091412198.post-24527157966280680362009-03-18T01:34:00.002+00:002009-03-18T01:36:47.320+00:00Blogging the Roll; Rolling the BlogI felt it was time to get BTUC fleshed out a bit, so what I believe they call "a blogroll" in the lingo has now been compiled. So on the right-side you'll see a listing of weblogs that I follow: a mix of those from the World of Warcraft community, professional opinion from BBC News & The Times, and also some random ones like a fan-produced news-blog for the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloverfield">Cloverfield</a> film of 2008.<br /><br />The second listing is a spread of various webcomics from several genres: WoW, gaming, or nerd humour in general. Listed here too are database and search engine tools I find useful in WoW or the Internet as a whole, and links to several one-off sites that I whole-heartedly recommend.<br /><br />N.B. I am in no way being paid to plug these sites, I'm just boosting their traffic out of the kindness of my heart.<br /><br />I'm currently working on some form of basic banner image and logo for the site, but the WoW Model Viewer software I feel obliged to use is rather temperamental. Stay tuned, readers.Dobblesworthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15552592664188561609noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2710143921091412198.post-59432338300730304322009-03-18T01:10:00.001+00:002009-03-18T01:10:52.837+00:00The Audacity of SoapDisclaimer: This is in no way a post on politics, Barack Obama, or his book The Audacity of Hope. It is merely... "Thoughts on the 4-hour Commute up the A1 (North) from Cambridge". I just so happened to be reading that book in the car.<br /><br />So yes, Saturday March 14th I packed up several bags & boxes worth of textbooks, clothes and the random paraphernalia that a Cambridge nerd needs to make his assigned room feel like home. I then proceeded to hit the road in father's Audi, then load up the sat nav and my 'Generic Player of Digital Media'. I say such terms because a) I never use Apple products so it's no jPod, & b) it doesn't just play .mp3 music, but also some video files, .wma etc.<br /><br />Random events of the journey...<br /><br />- Glancing at the satnav at a random point in the journey, shortly after passing <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girton_College,_Cambridge">Girton</a>, I noticed that we were passing the settlement of "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lolworth">Lolworth</a>". I find this particularly 'lolworthy' enough to document.<br /><br />- Exchange between my dad and I while passing the below-mentioned landmark...<br />"There's nothing that welcomes me back more to Newcastle than the Angel of the North."<br />"Despite it being in Gateshead."<br /><br />I thought I had more to say about the journey, but I guess I don't. Either that or it's all faded to dust.Dobblesworthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15552592664188561609noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2710143921091412198.post-1962840369723163952009-03-14T22:53:00.004+00:002009-03-14T23:35:30.740+00:00Happy Pi Day<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfTQLP56Gp2Ds3akJiKAoZsvhq-Lc1XX_4ogo_4HwgwPCsa9XfEC-hFUGVPNpfKncnxQVe69QNhgtgaqXyBWgMSmgUPfayo9p4m8WUnG9mOu-TW8ZcCIlKg76E_CFwuDYm97Un4KIOzDCk/s1600-h/CIMG0001.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfTQLP56Gp2Ds3akJiKAoZsvhq-Lc1XX_4ogo_4HwgwPCsa9XfEC-hFUGVPNpfKncnxQVe69QNhgtgaqXyBWgMSmgUPfayo9p4m8WUnG9mOu-TW8ZcCIlKg76E_CFwuDYm97Un4KIOzDCk/s320/CIMG0001.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5313187768232409378" border="0" /></a><br />I would like to take the time to wish my fellow geeks & nerds a <a href="http://www.piday.org/">Happy Pi Day</a>.<br /><br />While this year I was unable to consume any pie, this day being the day of my travelling down from Cambridge/back north to Newcastle, I observed the 'more rational' Pi Minute at 1:59 pm with my digital watch alarm alert. On second thoughts, it's a pretty poor word to use in the same sentence, as since when is Pi ever rational?<br /><br />Attached is a photo of my celebrations last year, where I crudely inscribed that lovable table in the Greek alphabet into a (steak I believe) pie. The cake may be a lie, but the pie is the truth.<br /><br />You might question why I bother with March 14th. I must agree with such criticisms. As an engineer, Pi is never 3.141592653..., nor is it "well it's about 3, innit". It's either 1 or 5, depending on which side we want the safety factor.<br /><br />You'd also question why I should do the American day of March 14th, which reads 14/3 in the UK fashion. I will be indulging in 22nd July celebrations, or Pi Approximation Day [22 divided by 7 being 3.142857143...], but I guess PAD doesn't have as much scope for pie and American dominance has its effect too.Dobblesworthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15552592664188561609noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2710143921091412198.post-43976753021604895182009-03-12T19:16:00.002+00:002009-03-12T19:33:19.747+00:00"... and in the game!"A dear friend and colleague of mine, alias Noelor, has joined the Web 2.0 scene and the Blogger Bandwagon. Like myself, he's a strong fanatic for World o' Warcraft and currently taking a vaguely-CompSci-ish course in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devolution#Scotland">Devolution</a> Paraside of Scotland. I don't quite know which of our two interblags will come out with the higher readership turnover (besides us ourselves reading our subscriptions to our counterpart's RSS feed); possibly mine as I shamelessly export Blog Title Under Construction to my Facebook notes!<br /><br />Regardless, his 'domain' can be found here: <a href="http://thenoelor.blogspot.com/">http://thenoelor.blogspot.com/</a><br /><br />I think two posts on BTUC in the space of a day is a new personal best.Dobblesworthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15552592664188561609noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2710143921091412198.post-85236299244627113582009-03-12T16:58:00.004+00:002009-03-12T22:27:45.453+00:00Engineering HumourSecond term (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lent_Term">Lent Term</a>) of first year (Part IA) of my Engineering course (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tripos">Tripos</a>) is drawing to a close. The Cambridge week ends on a Wednesday, starting on a Thursday. Lectures and courses finished yesterday, having started on a Thursday eight weeks beforehand. heading home to Newcastle is restricted by college residence requirements until Friday, but I shall be loading up and hitting the road on Saturday. So essentially I'm in dossing mode, having finished supervisions for the term.<br /><br />Final supervision was focusing on the wonderful world of Digital Circuits, Combinational Logic & Boolean Algebra.<br /><br />As is the case of supervisions where you show up with little to no difficulty with the material, discussions often get sidetracked into wider real-world applications and systems. Talk of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CMOS">CMOS</a> brought up its competitor, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bipolar_junction_transistor">Bipolar Transistors</a>. They are hereby dubbed <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">"Stephen Fry Transistors"</span>* © <span style="font-style: italic;">{Dobblesworth Inc. 2009}</span>.<br /><br />A previous quote of mine was...<br />"I can't wait for the day when they decide to release <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Thévenin Internet Security</span>."** [Also © Dobblesworth Inc. 2009, to stop software companies getting their grubby paws on it.]<br /><br />If/when I have further flashes of wit and inspiration, I'll be sure to share them with you.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">* - Stephen Fry, Alumnus of Queens' College Cambridge, has bipolarity disorder.<br /></span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:85%;" >{Afterthought, not so much an Edit}</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> - Wi'pedia tells me he only has the milder form '<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclothymia">Cyclothymia</a>'. Ah well, learn something new every day.<br /><br />** - Norton Internet Security, produced by Symantec.<br />'<a href="http://www.allaboutcircuits.com/vol_1/chpt_10/9.html">Norton</a>' is also used in electronics and electrical engineering to denote a certain theorem of consideration of linear circuit networks. Its counterpart is '<a href="http://www.allaboutcircuits.com/vol_1/chpt_10/8.html">Thévenin</a>', which gives you a perfectly equivalent representation of the same chunk of electronics stuff in your network.</span>Dobblesworthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15552592664188561609noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2710143921091412198.post-79402286278998343002009-02-28T20:45:00.002+00:002009-03-01T01:01:47.907+00:00In the land of GMT+10, Skippy & Steve Irwin...I'd been meaning to post this one for a good long time, but never really had any dedication to finish it off, so here goes. Here's the belated posting of BTUC From Downunda, as composed during my 'recent' winter holiday to the homeland of Qantas, Hugh Jackman, and that Prime Minister who looks surprisingly similar to our Fluid Dynamics lecturer.<br /><br />---<br /><br />Blog Title Under Construction is coming to you today from Sydney Harbour, in a nameless internet cafe and/or hacked resident’s unsecured wireless network, gazing out at the <s>Tyne Bridge</s> Harbour Bridge and <s>Sage Gateshead</s> Opera House. Yes indeed folks, this nerd is spending his winter break in Australia.<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">As a matter of fact, it turned out to be Starbucks Coffee. Sadly the wi-fi was overpriced with a download cap as opposed to the (apparently) free counterpoint in the UK.</span><br /><br />Two weeks of questionable bliss in...<br /><br />A nation that celebrates Christmas with fir trees, turkey, fake snow, Santa hats, reindeer antlers, carols, Cliff Richard... in the middle of summer with 20-30<sup>o</sup>C temperatures.<br /><br />A country that sits 10 hours ahead of Greenwich Meridian Time, 11 if you’re in Sydney where they apply Daylights Saving Time.<br /><br />A land that is just about to introduce Freeview digital television – OMG!<br /><br />A state with somewhat limited internet access in urban regions.<br /><br />The itinerary involved a helluvalot of travel.<br />One flight over to Dubai avec Emirates, departing UK early afternoon, arriving in the Land of the Married Cousins and Teatowel Brigade around 2am local time. A short power-nap in the airline’s owned luxurious hotel followed, before a 5am wake-up call, a short continental breakfast, and dash back to the airport for an earlyish flight. This long slog across to Brisbane featured a quick refuelling stop at Singapore, home of the “You chew gum, you chew bullet” federal policy, offering a nice little break to stretch the legs between two eight-hour flights. Final arrival into Brisbane airport was at 6, a.m., local time, on a Saturday. Initial departure was a Thursday afternoon.<br /><br />Initial week was spent up the coast in a semi-suburb of Brisbane, Queensland. For the lavish price of ~AU$55 (about £25), I took out a week’s access to the ‘high-speed broadband’ internet access on offer. Or rather, 250 kilobit per second download rates. For comparison, the term ‘56k’ refers to 56 kilobits and was fairly traditional dial-up speed in its heyday. For further comparison, it’s 10Mbps with Virgin-and-Tonic Media back home, a factor of 40 faster. Sadly I’m a greater fan of the silicon in this Dell XPS M1530 laptop, than I am the silica residing on the beach, but it’s always great fun to stand and watch your sibling try and fail at surfboarding!<br /><br />After one week up there, it’s one week a little bit further down under here in Sydney. It’s a mixed blessing that we’re doing Xmas in Oz, but a Christmas Cruise ‘round the Harbour is never quite the same as doing the traditional routine back home. *sigh* We depart on the 28<sup>th</sup>, so we’ll be missing out on the New Years’ Fireworks.<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Reading various adverts at bars along the harbourside, ticket prices for their individual events on NYE were either in the region of AU$300, or not listed.</span><br /><br />Impressions of Australia...<br />Terrestrial television is rather slanted, with 5 Murdochian stations – Fox Sports 1 through 3, Fox US News and Sky News AU/NZ; three or four national networks, featuring mostly late arrivals of US/UK series and programming overloaded with commercial breaks.<br />Whilst watching Ocean’s Twelve last night, they made 3 hours out of a probably 90-120 minute film. I probably watched the same advert for Christmas discounts at Generic Store Alpha about 10 times... America may have a similar overload of commercial breaks, but at least they had 5619 pharmaceutical ads to cycle through.<br /><br />Sydney feels rather overpriced, especially the “£5 for a 200ml bottle of Coke” minibar and then the ‘AU$0.55/min in-room, probably dial-up masquerading as broadband’ internet connection.<br /><br />Australia’s economy is looking a little screwed currently, with them being pretty reliant on China for export revenue on alumina, and apparently that market is drying up also. Coal industry specifically is being hit hard by economic progression it seems.<br /><br />Events of the fortnight included a trip to the wonderfully-managed "Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary", offering photo sessions with its perfectly docile and marginally overweight inhabitants - got mine in '09 calendar format too. I have to commend their quick-thinking to get the domain <a href="http://www.koala.net/">http://www.koala.net</a> registered.<br /><br />Having watched Indiana Jones IV on the flight over there, I had a sudden desire to acquire some form of leather fedora/bush-hat, essentially to pull off the pose on the return flight, whereby I dozed with the brim fully closing over my head in shade. AU$75 from a gift-shop in Sydney, kangaroo leather (ethically-sourced in the government-authorised and managed annual cull) with a nice durable feel to it.<br />Can be seen <a href="http://photos-h.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-ak-snc1/v1975/37/40/503005977/n503005977_1504959_4032.jpg">here</a> [I randomly decided to wear it for some engineering structural design testing here in Cambridge, which was promptly Facebook'ed]Dobblesworthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15552592664188561609noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2710143921091412198.post-43552129557736218662009-02-25T23:33:00.004+00:002009-03-01T01:05:26.073+00:00How to screw over some mathmo'sPicture the scene, of sitting bored in your university/college common room, or "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junior_Combination_Room">JCR</a>" as they are known in these parts, in the void period between two supervisions, or tutorials as they would be known over at <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Oxford">That Other Place</a>. Your preparation work for the second is complete, and the JCR/location of second supervision is too far from halls of residence to feasibly head back and doss for a brief period in between. Luckily, you spy an untarnished back page of <a href="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/">The Times 2</a>, and hit the Sudoku puzzles...<br /><br />Now, bring in the other consideration: your first supervision/tutorial of the two had been on the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eigenvalue,_eigenvector_and_eigenspace">Eigenvalues & Eigenvectors</a> elements of Matrices Mathematics, so certain items are whizzing around your head...<br /><br />What is the resultant of the Venn diagram-like intersection of these two conditions? Why, the answer is simple of course! You've only just thought of one of the most sick and twisted-minded method to set some advanced mathematics exam questions...<br /><br />---<br /><br /><span style="font-family: arial;">1) Attached to your question paper is the back page of tomorrow's <span style="font-style: italic;">Times2</span>. Choosing any two of the Sudoku grids given on this page, produce the completed grid for both of your choices, ensuring you follow the common rules: integers 1 to 9 in all nine rows, columns and boxes, once and only once, ensuring there are no clashes.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: arial;">More maximum marks are available to those opting to solve the </span><a style="font-family: arial;" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killer_sudoku">Killer Sudoku</a><span style="font-family: arial;"> puzzle as one of their two choices, and less marks are attainable if you go for the noddy-maths "Easy" difficulty grid.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: arial;">We give you tomorrow's copy to ensure those of you who do these Sudoku pages daily would have no advantage by knowing the answers. It's not fair to just memorise the 9x9 grid now is it?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: arial;">Please ensure that you indicate on your answers paper which two Sudoku grids were attempted.</span><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family: arial;">2) The perceptive among you will note that your two solved Sudoku grids form a pair of 9x9 matrices. Denoting one of your grids as Matrix </span><span style="font-weight: bold; font-family: arial;">A</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> and the other as Matrix </span><span style="font-weight: bold; font-family: arial;">B</span><span style="font-family: arial;">, solve:</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: arial;">a) 9x9 matrix multiplication of </span><span style="font-weight: bold; font-family: arial;">A</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span><span style="font-weight: bold; font-family: arial;">B</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: arial;">b) Calculate the eigenvalues and eigenvectors for both matrices </span><span style="font-weight: bold; font-family: arial;">A</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> & </span><span style="font-weight: bold; font-family: arial;">B</span><br /><br />---<br /><br />I wouldn't say this question would be insolvable at all, but, I dunno, the perfect collision of heavy-duty mathematics with a modern-day pastime of logic and deduction would make for a rather hilariously synoptic final exam question. I'm also sure 2(c) could be developed, as could q3 etc... The exam paper suggested above is hardly exhaustive.<br /><br />So yes, go find a mathmo' and tell him (or her) to have fun with this geezer! I suppose it's not simply the mathematicians who would embrace this jocularity, NatSci's, Engineers, CompSci's too I suppose. It would be a bitch of a paper for whoever's marking them though, haha.<span style="font-weight: bold;"></span><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></span></span></span>Dobblesworthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15552592664188561609noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2710143921091412198.post-14183456276155878582009-02-22T16:49:00.003+00:002009-02-22T22:03:46.590+00:00We got tagged!Like most committed hunter players out there in WoW, I'm a regular reader of our great prophet, BigRedKitty [commonly found venting his spleen at <a href="http://www.bigredkitty.net">http://www.bigredkitty.net</a>]. I'm not specifically certain which articles I have offered my thoughts on, but he offers a service whereby "you post comment with link to your blog, and BRK will hopefully reference you later."<br /><br />So, on this averagely grey Cambridge Sunday afternoon, as I trawl through electromagnetics while listening to the Newcastle-Everton game on BBC [I follow the former], I hit my Firefox RSS feeds...<br /><br />BRK: "Massive Linkage Time" (<a href="http://www.bigredkitty.net/2009/02/22/massive-linkage-time">http://www.bigredkitty.net/2009/02/22/massive-linkage-time</a>)<br />So towards the end, I see this line...<br /><span style="font-family: arial; font-style: italic;">http://murlocking.blogspot.com - English Enginerd</span><br />I suppose that sums me up quite nicely. While I don't quite think I have explicitly stated English, I do use Enginerd. English-speaking Briton residing in England, yes; English, not necessarily. Although, I am, so yeah.<br />Enginerd itself I didn't come up with, rather I saw it as a user title of some randomer on the <a href="http://forums.xkcd.com">xkcd forums</a>, and figured that summed me up rather nicely as well.Dobblesworthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15552592664188561609noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2710143921091412198.post-44793404195659323642009-02-14T02:20:00.006+00:002009-02-14T03:20:29.531+00:00This, Is, FREIGHTAAAAAAAAAAAI've been following with eager anticipation the forthcoming release of the film adaptation of the graphic novel "Watchmen". Written by the same bloke who gave the world "V for Vendetta", it essentially chronicles the lives of a series of masked vigilante superhero adventurers in America during a fictitious 1980's world, where Nixon is still President, the Vietnam War was won by the US, and nuclear war between The Yanks and The Kommies was almost a reality.<br />I'd recommend you read it, and I have a copy if people wish to borrow it for a while in Cambridge.<br /><br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watchmen">Main article of graphic novel</a><br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watchmen_%28film%29">Main article for upcoming film</a><br /><br />Writer - <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Moore">Alan Moore</a> - Moore objected to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wachowski_brothers">Wachowski Brothers'</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V_for_Vendetta_%28film%29">imagining </a>of his other work <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V_for_Vendetta">V For Vendetta</a>, a classic piece in both formats from my point of view, and has since then vowed essentially to let producers attempt to make films of his work, but not really with his blessing and he is fully disconnected from the Watchmen film project.<br /><br />Graphic Artist - <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Gibbons">Dave Gibbons</a> - he's OK with it, as was <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Lloyd_%28comic_artist%29">David Lloyd</a> in V4V<br /><br />Director <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zack_Snyder">Zack Snyder</a> - You might remember him from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/300_%28film%29">300</a>, which I also have the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/300_%28comics%29">graphic novel</a> of, by a certain <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Miller_%28comics%29">Frank Miller</span></a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Miller_%28comics%29"><br /></a><br />To cut to the chase, there's a certain plot element of Watchmen known as "Tales of the Black Freighter", a comic read by a bit-player within the comic itself, and is generally viewed as a microcosm for the human philosophy of the main characters itself, or something like that. Hardcore fans were livid when told that TotBF was not going to be added directly into the film, as in the novel the story weaves between the two rather elegantly. Instead it's going as a separate full-length (not movie full-length though) item, either on new DVD release itself or as a bonus DVD element.<br /><br />Now, you probably don't think that's all that interesting, even if you are vaguely interested in Watchmen. However, what if I told you <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerard_Butler">Gerard Butler</a> was doing it?<br /><br />Gerard <span style="font-weight: bold;">"THIS IS SPARTAAAAAAAAAA!"</span><span><this,> <span style="font-style: italic;">/kick</span> Butler<br /><br /><br />It is, quite simply, <a href="http://www.wowwiki.com/Epic"><span style="color: rgb(102, 0, 204);">[EPIC]</span></a>.<br />And yet it makes perfect sense. Here we have Snyder doing what should be an amazing film adaptation with a garnishing of awesomesauce, bringing back his leading actor from a similar project of astronomical success, to do a side-project to appease the purists in the fanbase. Watch the trailer below, and you will not be dissappointed, unless you're not a graphics novel person at all, in which case, why the flux are you still reading?<br /></this,></span><div style="text-align: center;"><span><span style="font-family:arial;">|</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">|</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">V</span><br /></span></div><span><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://timesonline.typepad.com/blockbuster_buzz/2009/02/watchmen-tales.html">http://timesonline.typepad.com/blockbuster_buzz/2009/02/watchmen-tales.html<br /></a></div><br />I'd also recommend you hop around that blog posting [<a href="http://timesonline.typepad.com/blockbuster_buzz">http://timesonline.typepad.com/blockbuster_buzz</a>] in general, it covers a good deal of movie trailers and news, Watchmen, Dark Knight & Batman, Terminator, Star Trek(king), Transformers (no, not the ones with Dr. Holburn and Dr. Durkan dancing the cha-cha on; the ones who are more than meets the eye and quite potentially in disguise)...<br /><br /><br />So that ends my musings on Blog Title Under Construction for the time being. At some point I might upload my tales of fun and adventure on my winter holiday to summer Australia, and possibly some form of review rankings of Engineering lecturers down here at Cambridge. Oh and then there'll be Eurovision 2009 to cover...<br /><a href="http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Iron_Man_%28film%29">To peace!</a><br /><br />Appendix A:<br />Yes I do like Wikipedia. Wi'pedia is win.Dobblesworthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15552592664188561609noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2710143921091412198.post-28835249149222541332008-12-09T22:33:00.005+00:002008-12-14T11:12:26.353+00:00World of Reseller-craftThe long-awaited second expansion to World of Warcraft, "Wrath of the Lich King", arrived last month. Being caught in the Cambridge bubble, I wasn't quite exposed to the mass media hype and bandwagon made out of the fact that several thousand elves and gnomes descended on Oxford Street HMV. But, being a self-respecting Warcraft-lover, I picked up my copy of Wottulk at the local GAME store, but sadly not collector's edition. Wasn't quite on time to put up a pre-order reservation it seems.<br /><br />As a side-note, I was told by the clerk there that only 4 of their projected 10-20 CE copies arrived on the day, the rest being stolen off the back of a van. I have no qualms about losing out on a pre-order out of First Come First Serve lottery basis, but I truly felt sorry for those customers who'd be turning up to here their honest copy had been stolen, and was probably halfway to the locations listed below...<br /><br />Amazon and the like had naturally sold out of pre-ordered collector's edition copies within the first hour of listing. That was to be expected. What rather annoyed me was to see a certain message arrive in my GMail on arriving home with WotLK in hand that afternoon...<br />"Greetings Dobblesworth,<br />We here at Amazon are a bunch of spineless b******s, and are pleased to announce that we are allowing the lucrative practise of first-day reselling to continue on our proud website. As a result, we have noticed that these companies on our second-hand reseller listings have put up your desired product for three times the initial value, in complete and unopened packaging.<br />Have a nice day."<br /><br />eBay was similar, but I believe in those initial weeks the resellers were being more rational and asking for £20-60 rather than some of the £150+ I saw on Amazon. I think now the only CE's left up there are determined powersellers looking for the $$$ rather than the "awww thanks for a random collector's edition box for my birthday dad, but I play Everquest" kids perhaps.<br /><br />So yes, that is the rant for the day: eBay/Amazon resellers of pristine unused highly-sort-after items should be scourged from this land. You make no friends when you stride out to make a quick 200% profit off a WoW nerd's desire to stride around with a soundtrack album, a shinier box, and a little Frost Whelp pet.<br /><br />Commentary on the game itself to follow.Dobblesworthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15552592664188561609noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2710143921091412198.post-91579632252385026812008-11-20T19:40:00.009+00:002008-11-20T20:31:15.651+00:00// Commented<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaRGPLc3iljcygTIaORFbejS-5dOl1DVpeo2BtchP3vAV_ia7XYRrK3lMm8lwf4pdqgtkrxn_1O_3qBbQYh8x8_WlM9PEcLtg0cvX-PdTMXW-q_k1lX86KxiW6WhgEW63uP9Gr1ZdNVUnb/s1600-h/Commented!.png"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 234px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaRGPLc3iljcygTIaORFbejS-5dOl1DVpeo2BtchP3vAV_ia7XYRrK3lMm8lwf4pdqgtkrxn_1O_3qBbQYh8x8_WlM9PEcLtg0cvX-PdTMXW-q_k1lX86KxiW6WhgEW63uP9Gr1ZdNVUnb/s320/Commented!.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5270827189201247826" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-family:courier new;">#include </span><iostream><iostream><br /><span style="font-family:courier new;">using namespace std;</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:courier new;">int main()</span><br /><span style="font-family:courier new;">{</span><br /><br /><br />Today I meandered over to the Guildhall, where the Cambridge University Engineering Society today hosted its Annual Careers Fair. An assortment of companies were present, including the likely suspects of BP, Shell & Rolls Royce, as well as others like British Sugar, <a href="http://www.notjustsugar.com/">who apparently don't just do sugar but also tomatoes</a>, and various others who, as is the case with most of these corporate events, are only interesting for the freebies.<br /><br />My shopping bag today consisted of:<br /><br />2x highlighter - <a href="http://www.fabermaunsell.com/">Faber Maunsell | Aecom</a>, <a href="http://www.shell.com/careers">Shell</a><br /><br />3x biro pens - Faber Maunsell (again), <a href="http://www.arm.com/">ARM</a>, British Sugar<br /><br />1x blue plastic 'Frisbee'/non-aligned flying disk toy you play <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultimate_%28sport%29">Ultimate</a> with - <a href="http://www.sentec.co.uk/">Sentec</a><br /><br />1x orange foam boomerang - <a href="http://www.tandberg.com/">Tandberg</a>. I've given this a try and for the most part it just flies in a vague forward arc with little suggestion of a return path. Might need more space.<br /><br />1x stress ball in the form of a ripe red tomato - British Sugar<br /><br />1x blue squidgy foam armchair for the resting of mobile phones - ARM [geddit?]<br /><br />1x hand-crank dynamo-powered emergency mobile phone charger/torch - ARM. Bearing the cunning text of "ARM-powered". I c wut u did thar.<br /><br />I also gave this item a trial run, and the torch element wouldn't be something I'd immediately leap for in a crisis. Takes a good deal of gyrating to get a current going, and the bulb promptly cuts out when the crank stops turning. Needs a capacitor mode I reckon.<br /><br /><br />The image of note from today's post is a screenshot I took of the Faber Maunsell website. Now, being a cautious <a href="http://www.getfirefox.net/">Firefox</a> user, I browse almost always with the <a href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/722">NoScript</a> addon active. This handy little device essentially blocks all JavaScript, flash plug-ins and coding that websites have by default, but informs me of elements that are being blocked, who owns them, and whether I want them on my whitelist or not. Essentially, I don't want my browser to pick me up a keylogger on my travels.<br /><br />So anyways I take a trip to Faber Maunsell out of common interest and see the crazy text:<br /><blockquote style="color: rgb(102, 255, 153); font-family: courier new;">// Provide alternate content for browsers that do not support scripting<br />// or for those that have scripting disabled. </blockquote>and it made me smile. Having dabbled my hand with C++ these past weeks and following a few years of awareness to the <a href="http://xkcd.com/">xkcd</a> <a href="http://forums.xkcd.com/">community</a>, it amused me to see // COMMENTED! lines appearing in a website's final display to the viewer. It also seems like the second line was an after-thought or edit from a second developer. First goes in there, types the code with either normal users or those stuck on Netscape in mind. Second checks it out and adds the third category - overly cautious JavaScript annihilators.<br /><br />But yeh, // for the win really.<br /><br /><br />Those concerned about yesterday's musings reading "2nd post in a week" and seeing it paralleled with one listed for 12 days beforehand: here's an explanation. That post was initially drafted a few days after seeing QoS, but it wasn't until last Friday, 14th November, that I finished it off and posted it. Curse ye Blogger and your definition of 'post date'. Those who are seriously pedantic can have the "two posts that went from start to finish in a seven-day timespan" now I suppose.<br /><br /><span style="font-family:courier new;">return 0;</span><br /><span style="font-family:courier new;">}</span><br /></iostream></iostream>Dobblesworthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15552592664188561609noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2710143921091412198.post-8748278108623377032008-11-19T18:16:00.004+00:002008-11-20T20:31:52.503+00:00I, for one, welcome our new dobblogger overlords.Observant readers may possibly notice a subtle switch in poster profile names from this point on. Here's a low-down for you, comrades.<br /><br />Up until now I have been working on Blog Title Under Construction using a Google Blogger account derived from my Hotmail e-mail. As one can never have too many e-mail accounts (I operate off four these days), I initiated a GMail account, which of course comes with the Google Account items such as Blogger profiles.<br /><br />Now, as signing in to two Google Accounts frequently during sessions for keeping tabs on my GMail and posting here/wallowing in self-pity seeing "Comments (o)", can get quite tiresome, I followed a mini-tutorial for switching blogs between accounts (<a href="http://help.blogger.com/bin/answer.py?answer=41448&topic=12500">http://help.blogger.com/bin/answer.py?answer=41448&topic=12500</a>), so did a bit of a switcheroo. Dobmeister/Dobmiestre derived from my HMail GAccount, ceded command to Dobblesworth d'GMail.<br /><br />All three are seamlessly connected online entities of yours truly, so don't expect any change in editorial stylings.<br /><br />Wow, two postings in the space of a week, I feel this calls for a celebration... Toblerone anyone?Dobblesworthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15552592664188561609noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2710143921091412198.post-88184878158940279952008-11-07T23:00:00.002+00:002008-11-21T17:48:10.261+00:00It's the Suantum of Quolace!Good evening world. How goes?<br /><br />The new Bond film, <span style="font-weight: bold;">Quantum of Solace</span> has been met with mixed ratings among the media. It certainly receives one from me. A few weeks ago I went along with a few members of a covert and nameless society of the university I am currently an undergraduate at to check it out. I thought that, on the whole, "<span style="font-weight: bold;">Bond 22</span>"/"<span style="font-weight: bold;">The Quantum of Solace</span>"/"<span style="font-weight: bold;">The Thingy of Whatsit</span>" had its merits and was a good use of 2hrs of my Saturday evening. However, it also had its downfalls, which will merge in here in due course...<br /><br />- Interesting switch from the more one-off episodes of the Bond franchise, in that it leads directly off the ending of <span style="font-style: italic;">Casino Royale</span>. Oh, mild spoiler warning for this entry by the way ;-)<br />Whereas your <span style="font-style: italic;">Moonraker</span>'s, <span style="font-style: italic;">Goldeneye</span>'s<span style="font-style: italic;"> </span>and <span style="font-style: italic;">Thunderball</span>'s<span style="font-style: italic;"> </span>would all introduce the villain, the Bond Girl, the master plan and its demise in a 2hr burst, <span style="font-weight: bold;">QoS</span> builds upon the workings of <span style="font-style: italic;">Royale</span>, and implicates CR's antagonists in a wider plot and a shadowy organisation that, much to the concern of surveillance state proposers, even MI6 couldn't track.<br /><br />*Spoiler*<br /><br />LeChiffre in CR is shown to have a certain "Mr. White" working in the shadows behind and around him. This geezer then goes on to blow The Frenchie's brains out when Bond wins in the longest cinema poker match, blackmails Bond's girl Vesper into transferring the casino winnings over to him and his organisation, before off-ing her as well in Venice. Bond shows up before the end credits to blast his kneecaps with what Doom fans might call a Big F***ing Gun Lite at his country mansion. QoS opens with Bond's "Escort Mission" for his foe, bound and gagged in the trunk of a flash Aston Martin.<br /><br />*End Spoiler, for now*<br /><br />- In a similar vein, there's some good character development moving off Royale. Daniel Craig may still be a cold-hearted b******, but he's more strongly motivated here, determined mainly by the death of Vesper - a combination of a feeling of betrayal and a desire for revenge. M offers a good line drawing this out in one of the 'board meetings' during it.<br /><br />*Partial Spoiler*<br />You don't think about it too much when considering Craig's Bond, but he very sternly states <span style="font-style: italic;">"I am motivated by my duty"</span> at one point; offering insight into the fact that, while he may cause a bit of collateral damage along the way, he's true to his goals, and definitely is going out there 'For Queen and Country'. Especially interesting to see this counter-played by the switching of loyalties and lack of moral conscience of the British politicians and Americans from the CIA.<br /><br /><br />- Certainly maintained the migration away from over-the-top gadgetry as seen in <span style="font-style: italic;">Moonraker </span>and <span style="font-style: italic;">Die Another Day</span>... Well, to a certain extent:<br />*Here thar be more spoilers*<br />~ The Evil Guys take in a performance of Tosca and, spread across a 10,000 seater auditorium, engage in a bit of teleconferencing. Their means of communication? One earphone with a localised wireless network connection to a stylised pinbadge on their lapels concealing a microphone. Not only did they freely chatter together in the auditorium, but I believe they were also linked in internationally.<br />~ Pulling out his Mobile Phone, Bond manages to get accurate facial recognition shots of moving targets from about 500m away<br />~ The extent of technology for MI6 offices is ludicrous. Starting on a desk-based touchscreen interface system, features could be effortlessly brought up, shifted along, cross-referenced, before being projected 2 metres across the floor to another system on the wall, then skirted around on to the semi-translucent boardroom window. Somehow through all this mess they get a lead that laundered money was marked by them with a tiny pinprick, this cash was then noticed to have been deposited at point X by man Y who had been seen entering Heathrow at time Z.<br /><br />- OK that's my discussion of some of the more superficial stuff over. Now, onto the plot. I hope I use the term correctly, but most of the plot seemed to be to be a bit of a <a href="http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MacGuffin">MacGuffin</a>. Bond's searching for a root cause of the organisation, yet by the end of it you're left disheartened with a feeling that the surface had only been scratched. You're only really told the name of the umbrella they work for, but essentially the Big Bads for QoS boil down into "Frenchie Neo-Liberal Environmentalist Capitalist" and "Random Army General with aims for a coup in Bolivia". Die Another Day may have had some ludiocrity associated with it, but at least we knew they were pretty big, upper-level Koreans with a more explicit plot for world domination.<br /><br />- A certain scene features Bond piloting a Ye Olde cargo plane over the desert. It gets peppered with bullets from a fighter. The engine catches fire. The plane is still getting shot at, yet somehow Bond can continue to control it to glide another 15 miles through canyons, before jerking it up the vertical for maximum lift, then flinging themselves out the rear bay door to parachute to safety. Surely they'd have crashed by that point with only one working engine?<br />- Going directly off this, it takes Bond 95% of his descent to reach his femme fatale with the parachute and yank it open. You see a split-second of footage where it's open before they slam into the ground. Yet somehow they are able to casually walk it off in their dusty evening wear with nary a scratch. I feel like digging out my <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equations_of_motion">SUVAT</a> equations here.<br /><br />- The cataclysmic wrecking of EcoFrenchie's Greenpeace Hotel In The Desert was hilarious. The entire place was filled with biofuel cells, that yes, you guessed it, are hilariously inflammable. Those babies must be pumping out Terawatts of power to explode and combust that vigorously.<br /><br />- The advertising, oh <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lordi">Lordi</a><span style="text-decoration: underline;"></span> Lordi, the advertising. In the 30 mins plus of tripe you get nowadays in advance of a film, heck even in advance of the "These trailers are for films of the same rating standard" spiel, there was so much of the QoS bandwagon jumping.<br />~ The official game based on the film. AKA slap Quantum of Solace on a generic FPS game and release it on everything from the C64 to the PSP. ... ??? PROFIT!<br />~ CokeZero tie in with QoS to get a free demo disc of the above. Cunningly done for 007 to be made of C<span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">o</span>keZer<span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">o7</span>.<br />~ Omega, the watch of James Bond. Yes we know... you said it very explicitly on your empty train to Montenegro...<br />~ Random plug for the non-memorable arbitrary model classification of the mobile phone Bond uses a heavily modified version of.<br /><br />Now to finish my ramblings, I present to you a YouTube offering. No the video is not a rickroll, rather a far more impressive theme tune for Quantum of Solace <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSLHFiTwYas">than was given in the movie</a>. Enjoy: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMoJRLStD9c">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMoJRLStD9c</a>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2710143921091412198.post-37627916889916716282008-07-12T15:33:00.003+01:002008-11-20T17:29:40.682+00:00A Double-edged SwordSince March of 2005 I've been a committed player of a certain MMORPG going by the name of "World of Warcraft." You may have heard of it perhaps. Since then I've racked up pushing 200 days of game-time, predominately on my only character to hit the level cap (currently 70), and the only one to have moved beyond level 30.<br />Those who are interested can check out my sexy dwarf hunter and his various equipment pieces <a href="http://eu.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Thunderhorn&n=Dobmeister">here</a>.<br /><br />Having played WoW over 3 years now, I've certainly witnessed a lot of the game and surrounding culture. I was around at the start of the Leeroy craze, witnessed such epic events as a day-long war in the battlefield of Alterac Valley - a battleground that since then has gradually been denied of it's grandiose feel, and has been relegated to a fast-paced zergfest; The Scourge Invasion which came with the launch of the Naxxramas raid dungeon - a well-designed server world event that probably won't be offered again, not even with the new expansion. I've had two particularly memorable moments, namely the two dings to the level 60 and 70 level caps respectively, prior and after the Burning Crusade expansion pack. I like to think of myself as being pretty inventive in how I approached those points in the game.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><<span style="font-style: italic;">I did have two images showing the events that got me to levels 60 and 70 respectively, but these got wiped from this blog when I transferred from home desktop to laptop and didn't bring the screenshots with me></span><br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:85%;">My ding to level 60 followed an extensive night of zombie-slaying in the Plaguelands (about half the total amount of XP for 59 to 60 in one night) and completed by handing in a set of Scourgestones (markers of allegiance to the Scourge held by said zombies) to the Argent Dawn (a multi-racial force of warriors, paladins and priests fighting the aforementioned Scourge), using the XP from the quest to push me up.<br /><br />In the case of level 70, I utilised the game mechanic that grants experience on discovering new regions of the game world.<br /><br />Also note the extreme difference in my user interface and various add-on's, essentially marking a difference of 1.5 years and how my playstyle has varied since then.<br /></span></div><br /><br />So yes, essentially I've played WoW for some time now. I won't go into how it's affected my life since I first lifted a copy off the shelf in GAME 3 years ago, that's for another time; rather how I feel the game is for me as a player.<br />- I enjoy the game. Significantly. I've honestly never had such an engrossing experience as playing World 'o' Warcraft before, and the terrain, character, creature, weapon and game mechanics design never ceases to amaze me.<br />- I've gotten a lot out of it. Made many friends among guildmates and other players, a few enemies as well... as you do ;-) There's that great sense of camaraderie and feeling of cohesion you get at around 1 o'clock in the morning when that set of 10 of you, spread across Europe and beyond, linked only by bytes of data and strings of 1's and 0's, banded together in a guild, finally finish off a certain boss fight after a night of attempts and weeks of stagnated progress.<br />- Call it addiction, but I've developed a strong 'bond' to my avatar in the game world - Dobmeister with his ginger beard, as well as his own band of bestial companions a Hunter has at his side in the game world. I think it would honestly break my heart if the plug got pulled on WoW; not much out there that can replace it, not when I've already had my soul latched on to by the merciless Blizzard Entertainment.<br /><br />However, I do feel that the game currently has become a double-edged sword for me. I get loads out of it, as mentioned above, but now I feel I need something else.<br /><br />ostly it boils down to guilds and raid content: I am not slating the hardcore element of WoW here. I personally enjoy playing it at a 'hardcore' level, but I want more of it in terms of progress. Currently there are 6 Tiers of raiding content with a few sub-Tiers in between, in terms of gear and the difficulty/quality of the dungeons you and your cohort must battle through. I've only done 1 and 4 [T1 being the first raid level at 'vanilla' WoW stage, T4 being first one at Burning Crusade]. Even then this is limited. Those are the only 2 levels that I've had that chance to experience.<br /><br />Since I started I've never been in one of those respectable high-flying guilds taking down bosses like Illidan, Nefarian and Kil'jaedan. I've just been a bit-player in a 10-man group that will run Karazhan once a week and get Prince Malchezaar down once in a while. Partly this is down to a lack of hardcore full-on commitment from my part. With a full-time job I don't have that chance to sit down at 4pm, power through until 2 in the morning and get an Archimonde kill before crashing out; neither do any of the guilds I wind up in it seems.<br /><br />As a matter of fact, charting my game history, all of my guild involvements going back to December 2006 (a full 1.5 years now) have been tracked to one point of signing up to guild A, which then collapsed to partially form B, merging with C, splitting to form D, splitting again to form E and then merging finally to F, where I am now.<br /><br />All the constant recruitment messaging you see on chat channels never has any openings for me, sometimes down to gear, sometimes down to "u needz to be unemployd n abul to play til 6 in teh morninz lol", predominately down to "We are looking for players on Class X. You need to specced in Talent Tree Gamma, with this specific breakdown of AA-BB-CC." Not something that floats my boat really, even if I was in that field.<br /><br />I play for fun, but finding the fun is getting harder these days. You have the casuals, playing 1 hour a night, levelling as they please and enjoying the game. You have the hardcores, playing 100 hours a week and slicing through the Sunwell Plateau like the proverbial hot knives through proverbial butter. You also have Casually Hardcore - those who know the game well, devote a good bit of time to it, but still aren't pro. I'm probably in there, but it's a wide spectrum, and finding somewhere to fit in is tough in the game really.<br /><br />As a result of this lonely journey of mine, I'm essentially sticking to the Player-versus-Player content, farming the Battlegrounds for the kills of mages with their Ice Lances, rogues with their Shadowsteps, then warriors with their Mortal Strikes. No wait, hang on a sec, those guys farm <span style="font-style: italic;">me</span>. Of course, that got repetitive after a while, so I did take a break for a few months to play stuff like Portal, Rome: Total War and Unreal Tournament.<br /><br />I think that break did allow me to come back, take a fresh look at things and start over, but now I feel that renewed enthusiasm is draining out. With the revision of the PvP gameplay, to upgrade the level of gear attainable through the rewards system, that part has started over again. The guild I'm in as well, about 2 months ago, had a small wave of quits from a core group of those doing the 25-man large-scale content, which has set us back. I'm certainly not getting out of it as much as I did initially. And yet I still play the game and pay my £50 to Blizzard every half-year. It's interesting how it can draw you back to this expansive <span style="font-style: italic;">never</span>-changing (they still haven't fixed that bridge in Redridge 3 years after I found the bloke's spanner) gameworld and how you accept and grin-and-bear some of the tough elements of gameplay to get your <span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 153);">[Epic]</span> gear in the end. Like I said, double-edged sword.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">And if you're wondering, the URL section murlocking is in fact inspired by <a href="http://www.wowwiki.com/Murloc">these fellows</a>. I'll leave it up to you to decide whether I chose it as MurlocKing, or one form of the verb "to murloc", which I propose as a new term meaning, "<a href="http://www.owlboy.com/wowwiki/mMurlocAggroB.mp3">to engage in a replication of that guttural murloc mating call cry</a>".<br /><br />Wow, third (second if you count a proper wall-of-text) interblogoblagnet post, I might be getting somewhere with this project.</span>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2710143921091412198.post-79457906602357643812008-05-25T08:26:00.002+01:002008-11-14T05:55:20.256+00:00Eurovision 2008<span style="font-weight: bold;">Eurovision </span>week for 2008 has now been and gone, with a grand total of 43 nations from across Europe (and a bit of Asia really) taking part. As usual, the contest has been overwhelmed by:<br />- Block Voting<br />- Really awful Eurotrash acts alongside credible and effective entries<br />- Very annoying presenters being shoved on stage by the host nation, as well as fashion sense-deficient announcers of the various televote results.<br />- Senseless acts getting the top spots while interesting, more Western European ones are shunned into the gutter.<br />- One very boring interval act<br />- Sir Terry Wogan's excellent commentary, keeping us Brits sane throughout.<br /><br />Here's a rundown of the scorecard for your perusal:<br /><br /><table str="" style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 198pt;" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="264"><col style="width: 102pt;" width="136"> <col style="width: 48pt;" span="2" width="64"> <tbody><tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"> <td class="xl22" style="height: 12.75pt; width: 102pt;" height="17" width="136">Nation</td> <td class="xl22" style="width: 48pt;" width="64">Points</td> <td class="xl22" style="width: 48pt;" width="64">Position</td> </tr> <tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"> <td style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17">Russia</td> <td num="" align="right">272</td> <td num="" align="right">1</td> </tr> <tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"> <td style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17">Ukraine</td> <td num="" align="right">230</td> <td num="" align="right">2</td> </tr> <tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"> <td style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17">Greece</td> <td num="" align="right">218</td> <td num="" align="right">3</td> </tr> <tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"> <td style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17">Armenia</td> <td num="" align="right">199</td> <td num="" align="right">4</td> </tr> <tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"> <td style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17">Norway</td> <td num="" align="right">182</td> <td num="" align="right">5</td> </tr> <tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"> <td style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17">Serbia</td> <td num="" align="right">160</td> <td num="" align="right">6</td> </tr> <tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"> <td style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17">Turkey</td> <td num="" align="right">138</td> <td num="" align="right">7</td> </tr> <tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"> <td style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17">Azerbaijan</td> <td num="" align="right">132</td> <td num="" align="right">8</td> </tr> <tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"> <td style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17">Israel</td> <td num="" align="right">124</td> <td num="" align="right">9</td> </tr> <tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"> <td style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17">Bosnia & Herzegovina</td> <td num="" align="right">110</td> <td num="" align="right">10</td> </tr> <tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"> <td style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17">Georgia</td> <td num="" align="right">83</td> <td num="" align="right">11</td> </tr> <tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"> <td style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17">Latvia</td> <td num="" align="right">83</td> <td num="" align="right">12</td> </tr> <tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"> <td style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17">Portugal</td> <td num="" align="right">69</td> <td num="" align="right">13</td> </tr> <tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"> <td style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17">Iceland</td> <td num="" align="right">64</td> <td num="" align="right">14</td> </tr> <tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"> <td style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17">Denmark</td> <td num="" align="right">60</td> <td num="" align="right">15</td> </tr> <tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"> <td style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17">Spain</td> <td num="" align="right">55</td> <td num="" align="right">16</td> </tr> <tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"> <td style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17">Albania</td> <td num="" align="right">55</td> <td num="" align="right">17</td> </tr> <tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"> <td style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17">Sweden</td> <td num="" align="right">47</td> <td num="" align="right">18</td> </tr> <tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"> <td style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17">France</td> <td num="" align="right">47</td> <td num="" align="right">19</td> </tr> <tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"> <td style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17">Romania</td> <td num="" align="right">45</td> <td num="" align="right">20</td> </tr> <tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"> <td style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17">Croatia</td> <td num="" align="right">44</td> <td num="" align="right">21</td> </tr> <tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"> <td style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17">Finland</td> <td num="" align="right">35</td> <td num="" align="right">22</td> </tr> <tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"> <td style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17">Germany</td> <td num="" align="right">14</td> <td num="" align="right">23</td> </tr> <tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"> <td style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17">Poland</td> <td num="" align="right">14</td> <td num="" align="right">24</td> </tr> <tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"> <td style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17">United Kingdom</td> <td num="" align="right">14</td> <td num="" align="right">25</td> </tr> </tbody></table><br /><span style=""><span style="font-weight: bold;">UK</span>'s entry with Andy Abraham's "Even If" had its merits. I did find it a quite nice and catchy disco song, supplemented by a good backing group. I knew it wasn't great and I knew we weren't likely winners, but I still saw it as a credible entry. For it to come joint last alongside our friends in Germany and Poland was a bit depressing really. Very annoying that alphabetical ordering makes us </span><span style="font-style: italic;">the </span> last placed finalist. As Mr. Wogan said in his commentary: "Thank God for <span style="font-weight: bold;">Ireland</span>!" (on their donation of 8pts). On the other hand, it appears our friendship with <span style="font-weight: bold;">Malta </span>was short-lived, following a jump from 12pts for Scooch to 0pts for Andy, which is a shame really. For those who are interested, the small principality and debut nation of <span style="font-weight: bold;">San Marino</span> gave us the other 6. Irish readers out there: I would have voted for your turkey, but UK couldn't vote for SemiFinal 1, sorry.<br /><br />Prior to tonight's finale I had been watching the semi's to gauge the competition this year, and I did pick out a few favourites along the way. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Finland</span>, with their heavy metal rockers Terasbetoni (which literally translates to steel-reinforced concrete, and that on its own is worth Douze Points!), I thought would do well and possibly emulate Lordi's success of 2006. However, perhaps Europe wasn't interested in another group of Viking rockers unless they came dressed as zombies, vampires and hellcows (no offence to Lordi, but that's probably how Europe saw them in '06 and therefore gave them the comedy vote). Ye Scurvy Pirates of <span style="font-weight: bold;">Latvia </span>with their sea-shanty 'Wolves of the Sea' was the second entry I was keen to see do well, yarrr, but I suppose finishing midfield isn't bad at all. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Sweden </span>and <span style="font-weight: bold;">Germany</span> had disappointing results; I'd certainly enjoyed Hero by Charlotte Perelli (former 1999 winner for Sweden) and Disappear by No Angels (German 4-piece Spice Girls group) and put a quick vote down for them both. Sadly, neither of the last 2 finished in Britain's nationwide top ten. Those two acts certainly had unique flair. The Swedish LAZERS (pewpew!) and 5-piece synchronised psycho dance routine won me over, as did the very fit Germans in flowing dresses and wind machines.<br /><br />Of the ones that succeeded:<br />- <span style="font-weight: bold;">Russia </span>was an interesting act: solo singer, violinist jamming away on a podium [As a side-note, he either has a very good memory of the notes for that entire piece, or he was miming along to backing track], then revealing said podium to in fact be a compact ice rink, approx. 3m diameter. And it would have been so hilarious had that figure skater crashed and burned during his pirouettes :D<br />Russia's victory had been somewhat predicted by Wogan, especially considering the various Slavic states we have in ESC nowadays. I think it's a case of "Hey, Putin/Medvedev, we'll give you 12pts and the contest for '09, but just don't nuke us and/or cut off our gas/oil supplylines!"<br />- <span style="font-weight: bold;">Ukraine</span>: a very good diva dance song, I won't knock it. Good healthy eastern bloc voting for it.<br />- <span style="font-weight: bold;">Greece</span>: Aqua's Barbie Girl from the 90's revamped for Eurovision. It got the 12pts from Cyprus, naturally.<br />- <span style="font-weight: bold;">Armenia</span>: I think this was another diva entry, not sure. Wasn't memorable that's for sure.<br />- <span style="font-weight: bold;">Norway</span>: Final act of the night that did surprisingly well.<br />- <span style="font-weight: bold;">Serbia</span>: The host nation's act wasn't very impressive, and the chorus reminded me of the Numa Numa string in 'Dragostea din tei'. The voting for the Serbs confused me. All those Balkan states - <span style="font-style: italic;">Montenegro</span>, <span style="font-style: italic;">Albania</span>, <span style="font-style: italic;">Croatia</span>, <span style="font-style: italic;">Bosnia-Herzegovina</span>, <span style="font-style: italic;">Macedonia </span>- fought tooth and nail to escape the decaying Yugoslavia superstate and Serbian oppression at the turn of the 1990's. Many of the people there still detest Serbia, and they go ahead and give 12 for a very unmemorable performance from a nation whose guts they apparently hate.<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">I think it's about we have ourselves another war in the Balkans. We really need to clear out the trash down there.</span><br />- <span style="font-weight: bold;">Turkey </span>started off with a huge amount of votes at the start, especially from UK, certainly mirroring last years' contest, where we gave them 12, apparently because we were told "one of the backing dancers is a Brit". They had a decent Busted/McFly pop guitarist number, with their frontman sporting some very crazy heavy eyebrows.<br />- <span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Azerbaijan</span>, Azerbaijan, if they can do it, everyone can!</span> Oh dear this one was awful! A very visual display of Angel v Devil while singing something completely unrelated. For a debut entry they did well; I just didn't see its merits. Azerbaijan and Turkey have established a new 12pt exchange group in ESC, to go with Greece and Cyprus (and others), mainly the result of a red strip of their flag and the Crescent/Star emblem.<br /><br />And the rest:<br />- <span style="font-weight: bold;">Israel</span>: poor<br />- <span style="font-weight: bold;">B&H</span>: made no sense<br />- <span style="font-weight: bold;">Georgia</span>: slightly religiously controversial with the finale showing the act members displaying Stars of David, Crucifixes, Crescents, implying that Peace Will Come between all (which it won't, not for a long time)<br />- <span style="font-weight: bold;">Portugal</span>: "It ain't over 'til the fat lady sings", and sing the fat lady did.<br />- <span style="font-weight: bold;">Iceland</span>: Eurotrash, very, very Eurotrash. Also, think Little Britain's Davyf Thomas if he lost weight, was a little bit more 'camp' rather than 'out & sophisticated'.<br />- <span style="font-weight: bold;">Denmark</span>: reminded me of Roger Cicero's swing ballad from Germany last year<br />- <span style="font-weight: bold;">Spain</span>: My God was that one awful. A made-up four part dance routine, with obscure names for four already-determined dance moves, which are not shown when he actually says "Now dance it!" Also, that My Little Pony-esque mini-electric guitar round his neck was pathetic.<br />- <span style="font-weight: bold;">France</span>: I kinda liked this one. A Gallic bearded bloke in a suit, turning up on stage in a golf cart singing in English, very absurd, very surreal. Oh, and the (most likely female) backing singers all had the same overwhelming beard and big sunglasses. The promotional video was more impressive though, with the artist flinging the microphone to himself over (I counted) 60 individual camera shots, and a bit more of a 'divine' appearance in a white suit.<br /><br />So it's going to be Moscow for Eurovision 2009. This makes it slightly more fair on the Vladivostokians tuning in to the contest, but possibly means pushing it make to 5/6pm slot in Western Europe. Oh well...<br /><br />Wogan seems to feel strongly that the BBC and UK, as well as a few others from the West, should pull out for good, or branch off for our own contest that's not swamped by 20 nations in the East with the population of 1 nation of the West, but with 20x the voting power. It would certainly impact the funding of the event were the UK, Spain, France and/or Germany to up stakes and move out, but I suppose that's something that may be needed to be done to prove a point. No reason why we shouldn't follow Austria/Italy really.<br /><br />It has been said that UK's popularity has gone down in Europe since Iraq and 2003, and we therefore haven't performed so well of late. However, we also put forward during this time:<br />- a double act whose song had epoch fail written all over it before their sound system went dead on stage<br />- a Mancunian rapper and 5/6 20-year old singers dressed as schoolgirls complaining that there is a thing known as education for teenagers, and that teachers care not for who they're sleeping with or what drugs they're taking. Daz Sampson's moronic entry was an advertisement for our failing state school system.<br />- a very Butlin's level of camp, overly patriotic song by a long-expired bubblegum pop group<br /><br />Maybe Balkan/Baltic/Eastern bloc states don't vote for us on the principle that our government misled us into a prolonged conflict in the Gulf, but it's also down to the fact that what Britain produces as an entry, isn't their kind of music. This is compounded by the fact that no serious artist enters, in an attempt to maintain their career's status, because they know the general public don't support their license fee money going towards the annual circus that is Eurovision, because they know the acts put forward as the people's choice, have no hope in hell anymore. And the vicious circle continues. As well as this, some of the 'decent' entries we put forward between '98 (when we hosted and Israel won) and '03 were also disregarded by Europe (though I think we had one/two entries coming in the top 10 with a good 100+pts)<br /><br />Whew, I think I covered everything. I hope people read and place their views, as this was more than a good hour's worth of my Saturday night/Sunday morning.<br /><br />So, until the next time my spleen needs venting,<br />Auf Wiedersehen... Genossen!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2710143921091412198.post-86370557364049052482008-02-01T21:33:00.004+00:002008-11-20T20:31:34.921+00:00Well, let's get things rolling then!Good morning/afternoon/evening and welcome to episode 1 of my interblag posting saga. Enjoy your stay, but don't eat too much of the cake.<br /><br /><insert>~Insert writer's block here~<br /><br />I guess I got round to this after noticing I have years worth of frustrations and spleens that need venting, so this, albeit possibly slightly generic, blog is the result.<br /><br />Stuff that might get a regular mention:<br />- News articles, usually from delving through BBC News or other online media<br />- Thoughts for the Day/Week/Month/<insert><br />- Rants, possibly derived from listening to crackpots on the morning radio or reading about crackpots in the morning paper [read: British urban newspaper The Metro that gets distributed for free on public transport]<br />- Gaming, with a range of topics from developments in World of Warcraft or any others in my collection, to other related news items in general<br />- Nerd/Geek stuff<br />- Charvs, and how much I despise them<br /><br />Anyhoo, I can't really think of much else to say, so I'm gonna leave it there.</insert></insert>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0