My first interview…

I was going to put them all in one when I’d got them, but cheated…

Interview you eh?
1. What’s the worst book you’ve ever read? And was it by Anne McCaffrey, because it bloody well ought to be.

Silly question; Battlefield Earth. Remember, Gareth bet me I would never be able to finish it, but I managed just to spite him? The film is actually worse as well. I liked McCaffrey when I was a kid, haven’t gone back to reread now I’m old enough to know better though.

2. Good job with shit pay or shit job with good pay?

Um, I currently have a good job with shit pay, and I’m probably staying for awhile. So the former.

3. How do you want to die?

Quickly?

4. Would you rather give up Kitkats or fake bacon rashers?

I gave up KitKats before you gave up meat, haven’t bought a Nestle product for over 2 years now.

5. What’s the coolest piece of technology you own?

Actually, it’s probably my new mobile. It will likely become my DAB car stereo with CD player, but it isn’t wired in yet (it was an Xmas present with free installation; all I have to do is ring one number. d’oh!)

And 6. Are you coming down the Bunker tomorrow night?
Cheat. Yes, I got a personal invitation to do so. You?

There’s some obligatory meme text to add in, but I’ll put it on the later one… Feel free to ask for one anyway.

April 30th, 2005 Posted by MatGB | Uncategorized | 11 comments

The Guide, a review (well, acclamation really)

Just go and watch it. Go on, turn off the computer, walk to the cinema, and see the damned movie now. What, you mean you don’t have a cinema less than 5 minutes walk from your flat? Move damnit!

It starts weird, and takes awhile to get going. It is funny at the beginning, but anyone who’s read the books, seen the TV show, listened to the radio series repeatedly and read the books again will be linking the jokes to what they remember and not necessarily noticing the new/different stuff. Arthur’s depression fueled by a picture on his camera phone is a great touch. Who cares if the sequence with PRosser is cut short substantially? MJ Simpson? Meh, random obsessive who doesn’t like new ideas.

The dolphins in the title sequence are great, but a non-fan will be rather confused I suspect. The Guide itself is very well realised, and of course, well, it’s Stephen Fry’s voice. Anyone who’s read Salmon knows how much Fry liked Adams and how they got on, so hearing him voice it is perfect; he gets the right intonations and infelctios and gets across the ludicrous nature brilliantly.

The characters are funny. And come across well, although Arthur’s obsession with Trillian is a little bemusing; maybe she’s just not my type? The way Zaphod’s heads work is funny; the election pastiche is clever, the new characters are worth it, the different way of telling the story, with the varied plot, is cool. Nighy is perfect as Slartibartfast. The effects as he takes Arthur into the construction yard are actually good (if a little overdone) and the film looked good.

Marvin is great. The scene where Ford and Arthur meet in flashback is very cool.

Is it “perfect”? No. The only thing perfect around here is me, and I’m not being reviewed. Some of the jokes don’t work, and I’m not sure non-fans will get bits of the story. Zaphod is bloody annoying (oh, wait, he’s supposed to be; well done, good job).

The Vogon incompetence is a little overplayed, and how the hell did they get to the new Earth through the portals and all the rest? Did the Magratheans just let them in? but I liked them overall, especially the reaction to the lunch break siren.

The deputy President seemed a little pointless, but, well, maybe she’ll develope in the sequel.

Just go see the film, alright? They finish on their way to Milliways, with a brilliant comment from Marvin. I want to see The End of The Universe on the big screen, so that means this has to be a success so they make the sequel. Go. Now.

Some people will tell you that it isn’t funny. Some will say they don’t get it. Don’t worry, just assume they’re stupid and move on. The purists will tell you it “isn’t like the (books/TV series/Radio series)”. Well, neither were they!

It’s the Guide. It’s clever, it’s funny, it has great visual jokes that involve spending money on special effects, the whale is hilarious even if I did know what was going on.

Find out when it’s next on, and go watch it. Especially if you’re a student, you get in cheaper than I do, and I’m going again ASAP.

-MatGB, an individual with an IQ slightly below that of Marvin

April 30th, 2005 Posted by MatGB | Uncategorized | 3 comments

Memage while I write the review

Heh; written by someone with a little knowledge; anyone else (except Paul) know who Rawls is? I wouldn’t have if I hadn’t been forced to read his excellent book.

H2G2 review going to be written now, just got back in from seeing it for the first (but not last) time.

April 30th, 2005 Posted by MatGB | Uncategorized | no comments

On test, opinions and polls

From http://politicalsurvey2005.com/ which uses pollig data from YouGov and compares your position to other respondents and YouGov’s data. Looks pretty accurate from my perspective, I’d love to see how it comes out for others. My full results are:
http://politicalsurvey2005.com/survey/CAHBHADFCBBDABDDDEABBDBAEDBCCBBADDDEADBDDB

I redid http://www.politicalcompass.org/ again.
Your political compass
Economic Left/Right: -5.75
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -6.26

And, again, I think it makes me slightly more extreme left/down than I should be, but not too far.

The top one is very good in my opinion. Go on. It’s just another meme, right?

April 23rd, 2005 Posted by MatGB | Uncategorized | 6 comments

The thirst got to me.

Fell asleep while reading last night, without noticing we’d had another powercut so my clock alarm had reset itself. Which meant it decided it was midnight and woke me up at 4am (the alarm default is midnight? WHY?).

So, I slept most of the morning, and would still be in bed “resting” if I hadn’t run out of water. Ah well. Cooked breakfast at 2pn; what does that classify as, late brunch?

Oh look, I’m the slightly gothic misfit. Meh.

I keep meaning to motivate myself and go out and campaign. Haven’t managed it yet.

April 23rd, 2005 Posted by MatGB | Uncategorized | 3 comments

Meme city

If you were voting for the next UK government, who would you vote for? Reply here and then post this in your own LJ.

Oh, and what a surprise…

You are Optimus Prime! You are a natural born leader, brave and selfless and you will fight to the bitter end for peace and freedom. You have extensive knowledge in just about everything from art to the art of war. You would be a better leader if you were more ruthless, but then you just wouldn’t be Optimus Prime. Roll out with your bad self!

Transformers Generation One Personality Test
brought to you by Quizilla

Meh, off home, advert is designed; “Happy home? Have fun Hosting”. Someone has gone to the marvel comics school of alliteration methinks; not me- our public school educated design bloke (who gets paid less than me; how?!)

April 23rd, 2005 Posted by MatGB | Uncategorized | no comments

That who to vote for test

OK, after a lot of people commented, I ran a brief analysis of the thing. I wrote it up here on .

Guido; if you put in a neutral result for both the Europe questions, and gave a libertarian response on some others, such as anti-ID cards, you’d come up with a soft positive on UKIP.

Barry, was it you who pointed out it seemed to favour LibDem policies? You’re right, it does. Go comment y’all, it took me all of ten minutes playing around to get the results.

April 18th, 2005 Posted by MatGB | Uncategorized | one comment

Oops…

K, guess what I did Saturday? Yup, I slept. Problem with insomnia and a full time job is you still need to drag your carcass into work each morning during the week, no matter how little sleep you’ve had. Which means by the weekend you’re exhausted, so you catch up on the sleep. Which means your body confirms its opinion that waking up at 2pm is the correct thing to do. And so the cycle perpetuates.

And so to today. My sister rings. Did you go shopping yesterday? What did you get Mum for her birthday?

Ah, that was what I was supposed to do yesterday. So, rush into town, catch Ottakers before it closes. Literally, 4.27pm and it closes at 4.30pm. Relief as they’ve got the Pam Ayres series from Radio 4 on CD; something Mum will like that she knows comes from me as it was me that got her into listening to Raqdio 4 when I lived in Manchester, and she’s always liked Pam (who’s been remarkably funny on Just a Minute recently, very enjoyable).

Except, of course, I can’t resist, so I bought the Stephen Fry read audiobook of the Guide (um, I’ve read all te books, wathced all the shows, listened to the radio shows, why do I need the audiobook? Oh, wait, it’s read by Fry, of course, that’s a good reason…) and some other books; trashy stuff this time, my serious books to read pile has gone down slowly recently, so figured I need a break.

and some Maltesers (both were on offer, couldn’t choose). Macaroni Cheese as I’m feeling lazy. Cookies. Chocolate Hob Nobs (plain, natch). A few other little things, and I go to walk out. Past the DVD and CD section. Oops.

The new Garbage album anyone? How about the Incredibles on DVD? Nah, I’ll not bother says I. Then I see, lower in the chart, a Pixar boxed set with the Incredibles, Nemo, Monsters Inc and Bugs Life. Forget about my supposed principle of not buying DVDs and CDs in Tesco.

Oops. £75 in Tesco? I only went in for some bread and some milk…

That’s why I avoid shopping. I hate wondering around looking at things, I just want to grab and go. Which means I don’t stop myself from grabbing stuff. I’ve been so close to buying a laptop just because it looks nice a few times too many recently…

Anyway, in election news, Kilroy has been caught out as a huge, vote rigging liar. Well, ok, it was an online poll on his own website. Read how the Orange Tanned One tried to rig his own poll/ Veritas=Truth? I think not.

Cuts inserted as I realised it was a little long…

April 18th, 2005 Posted by MatGB | Uncategorized | one comment

Anyone surprised?

Who should I vote for?

Your expected outcome:

Liberal Democrat

Your actual outcome:

	Labour 2
Conservative -45
	Liberal Democrat 72
UK Independence Party -23
	Green 14

You should vote: Liberal Democrat

The LibDems take a strong stand against tax cuts and a strong one in favour of public services: they would make long-term residential care for the elderly free across the UK, and scrap university tuition fees. They are in favour of a ban on smoking in public places, but would relax laws on cannabis. They propose to change vehicle taxation to be based on usage rather than ownership.

Take the test at Who Should You Vote For

Let’s face it; card carrying members should agree with the policies they voted for, right?

April 14th, 2005 Posted by MatGB | Uncategorized | 6 comments

On fandom, obsessives, and H2G2

Oh dear. From Slashdot:

MJ Simpson, who has ‘been studying and documenting the life and career of Douglas Adams for more than 20 years’, has written a very in-depth review and plot analysis of the Hitchhiker’s movie. As well as the full review that contains SPOILERS , he has also published a shortened spoiler-free version, as well as a list of things
from the radio plays, records, books and TV series that have not been
included in the movie. Hitchhiker’s fans, prepare to be like Marvin…
very depressed.

So, I go to read the reviews. Because, let’s face it, I’m watching it anyway.

The “review” is that of an obsessive nutjob. He looks to be even worse than the LoTR freaks who wlaked out of Fellowship because there was no Tom Bombabil. It hasn’t got that bit so it sucks.

Well, you see, the thing is doofus; the radio series is long, the books longer, the TV series is also quite long. The film needs to be 90 minutes, and work well as a film. So, it hasn’t got every joke from the book.

So what? It isn’t the book, it’s a film. Ah well. The movie may be great, it may be awful. But the above reviews don’t help me make a judgement one way or another.

What is it with obsessive fans that expect movie adaptations to be word perfect? Or radio adaptations for that matter. JK Rowling refuses to allow Radio 4 to adapt her books, so you’re only allowed to read them out verbatim. Completely, and utterly, pointles…

Very Goth You scored 61!

You’re a Goth. Whether you admit it freely or not there is no denying it. You love the stuff and can’t get enough. You decorate your living space in a way that is part morbid part chaotic.I’m sure your music is mostly Goth/Industrial/Darkwave. Wherever you go you’re probably dressed mostly in black.Not only do you know who Switchblade Symphony is, you own every CD and EP they ever put out. Your dream profession is definatly something that benifits goths-Tattoo artist, goth DJ, freelance Gothic artist, Gothy comic creator ect.ect.ect…

If I own all their albums, can someone tell me who they are?

April 11th, 2005 Posted by MatGB | Uncategorized | 9 comments