Mmm, Back to the Future. I love to browse the branded t-shirts, but I never really buy them because once I start, I think I would become bankrupt quite quickly. However, I was looking at BTTF related t-shirts recently, I forget why, and these are my favourite five that I stumbled across.
Dr. E. Brown Enterprises I like the ones that aren’t supremely obvious, so whilst all Back to the Future fans should get it from the front, it would probably take the back to really make it clear what the t-shirt was all about. A big ol’ flux capacitor is hard to miss. I like that it also looks like a lot of music or band t-shirts you can get. “24 Hour Science Services.” I wonder what kind of services you might need in the dead of night.
A beautiful little animation. It’s sad at the end, but the description on Vimeo suggests it “sets off the compassion of an imaginative little boy” which I think can only be a good thing.
After my rather foolish admission that I hadn’t necessarily paid much attention to those that went to the moon after the main three, Steven Roy recommended I watch this documentary film on 4OD - In the Shadow of the Moon.
I watched, and I learned, and I made notes. I’ve posted the distilled version for Film Watch, but these are the full notes I made along the way - 90 minutes of brilliant space travel stuff, I highly recommend it.
When JK Rowling announced Pottermore, I breathed a huge sigh of relief. The Harry Potter books are some of the few physical novels that I still own, and I haven’t wanted to dispose of them until I had an ebook copy to replace it with. It’s been driving me crazy, as I only own six of the seven books, and that gap on the shelf is hard to live with. However, I don’t want to buy the missing item, only to dispose of it later.
When I was younger, I hoarded magazines, and would cut nice stuff out and paste them into books. Mmm, nice stuff.
I’ve just found the site Polyvore, which essentially allows you to do that but in a digital fashion. I’ve seen people doing this for ages, sometimes they call them mood boards, but I just think it’s fun. Polyvore provides you with a gazillion choices, whether it is fashion or interior design, or just something a little bit arty, and you piece together the bits you like to form a full outfit or a room.
Yesterday, the BBC screened a feature length documentary following the Team GB gymnastics squad as they trained ahead of the 2008 Olympics. It was called “Gymnast”. It started at the very beginning, before the six gymnasts had been chosen, and followed many more hopefuls as they tried to get selected.
Hopes and dreams, and all that, it was interesting to see the dynamic between girls, their family, and the coaches. The pressure on those taking exams at the exact same time as the Olympic trials, the worry of those who got injured and whether they would be fit in time.
We’re now on the second page of the calendar for this class. It started in July and ends in August, and that means this is the home stretch. Kinda. I’m still a few days behind schedule, so it’ll probably be September for me, but still. It’s going okay so far. Unusually, this week has four runs, with the last one being a 5k - presumably to see if you’ve got any faster. I’m not holding my breath!
So far, my blogging about media has been limited to films, Doctor Who and The Archers, with the occasional one-off if a piece of viewing really inspires me. It’s something of a dream of mine to have enough time and dedication to blog about TV more often, and I do have some vague plans to do more of it. Here are five blogs that inspire me in that direction, and are great reads.
You’ll remember that earlier in the year I went to my first (and probably only) football match, and somehow became an Aston Villa fan. I vaguely followed what they were doing for a few weeks, and then sort of lost touch until the season ended. Mr C and I watched the occasional Match of the Day update, but even then only if we happened to be in the right place at the right time - it’s not allowed on the iPlayer.
I don’t know much about fashion. I’m the kind of person that has a few staple items, and a few other bits I love and that’s about it. I detest clothes shopping, but I don’t mind ogling some of the sites where people show off their outfits each day.
I found this video, which takes the idea of a staple to extremes. To help raise money for charity, Sheena set up the Uniform Project - wearing the same little black dress every day for a year (or the same style dress anyway, I assume there was some washing involved).
Stumbled across this video from March last year of a proposed underground mansion. Actually there are two videos, the first is a report from Granada which gives a clearer idea of what the mansion is all about. The second video has more images and less chatter from irritating presenters - it’s actually got no sound at all which is a little disconcerting. Here’s the first though:
Video no longer available.
The final stop on my Alphabet mini-tour (way back in May, how did that happen?) was the National Space Centre, just outside of Leicester. I’m developing an interest in all things space travel, and I was surprised that we have a space centre, given that we have very little in the way of a space programme.
The website makes it clear that this is a destination designed for kids. At the moment, on the homepage, there’s a lego space shuttle, and three pictures of kids enjoying their day out at the centre. I was anticipating this when I went, and given my lack of any real space knowledge, I figured I’d do well to start with something aimed at the children. I was to be disappointed.
Last time we saw The Doctor, he was saving the world, keeping Rose from imploding and taking one for the team, by forcing a regeneration. David Tennant had just a moment to say Barcelona before the episode ended.
Thus, his first full length episode is this Christmas Special. Although, he isn’t really in it for a lot of the action, so perhaps it’s harsh to call this his first episode. He spends most of his time relegated to a bed, or the floor of his ship, and 90% of the episode sees him in pyjamas - even the fighting at the end. I am not a fan of the pyjamas.
This month has been dominated by two main stories - the scarecrow rivalry, and the E.Coli outbreak at Pat and Tony’s.
Firstly, the scarecrow battle. It was interesting to see how all the parties reacted to the efforts to make a bigger and better scarecrow. It seems Will has forgiven Emma for everything that has gone before, whilst his hatred for Ed just keeps on getting bigger. Both parties were keen to get their extended family involved, and luckily for everyone, little Georgie managed to win from both sides. I wonder if Lewis was being somewhat diplomatic with the decision.
Mr C has instructed me to make a note of this conversation.
Me: “I don’t know why it’s so hot.”
Mr C: “It’s summer.”
“I want winter back.”
“No you don’t.”
“I’ll never complain about being cold again. Next time I complain about it being cold, punch me in the face and remind me of this moment.”
“Blog it, and I can link you back to it later.”
I guess this is the 2.0 version of I told you so.
What I love about the repeats of Top of the Pops on BBC Four is seeing the 1970s for all the good and bad of music, fashion, and taste. Rather than the golden era montages, where the best and the iconic are selected for a rose-tinted package, this is full repeats of TOTP programmes that were running in 1976.
It’s incredible. Noel Edmonds pretends to be a cameraman!
Again, I didn’t manage to run over the weekend which has put me rather behind schedule. Also, for this first one, I was slightly hampered by new-shoe-related injuries. Thing about taking some time off work is you forget how to wear posh shoes. Anyway, on with the running.
Week 3, Day 15 Tricky run. My feet weren’t actually that much of a problem in the end, but I did find myself struggling in the final few running stints. That pesky thigh ache returned, along with a stitch, both on the right-hand side, so I suspect I might have been leaning over like the Hunchback of ND, or something. Because I wasn’t on top form, it took forever to cover the distance. I started to get my head around the conversion between miles and kilometres, which will definitely help in the future. I started to lose energy and motivation towards the end though. Could have done with one of those gels! (Not.)
I actually had this post in mind yesterday, when I realised I’d spent quite a lot of time watching the action from the Swimming World Championships in China, and was loving it. Today, it seems to have taken on a different significance, given the news that F1 will be moving to Sky next year. However, these aren’t F1 replacements, just sports I’m starting to get more fond of, and want to see more of.
Oh, how I have so loved having Back to the Future back in my life. Not that it ever went anywhere, but fresh material, and most importantly good fresh material has been brilliant.
I have already blogged every episode of the TellTale Game revival, and whilst I do not have much more to add now I have completed episode five, it seemed only fair to have a farewell post to complete the set.
The new Apple operating system, Lion, was released last week and I volunteered to be the test pilot for our house. At first, I wasn’t that fussed about it but gradually, the more I use it, the more I notice, and there are some bits and bobs that have caught my attention. Here are five of them:
Natural scrolling. I turned off the natural scrolling straight away. They can call it natural all they like, but it doesn’t feel natural to me. Thankfully, this is something they give you a preference option for, so it was easy to switch back. Missing buttons. I was busy editing a podcast and thought I was going crazy when I kept moving my mouse in search of some left and right buttons on the scrollbar and they weren’t there. After too many muscle memory moments, I checked with Mr C and he quickly ascertained that I wasn’t mad, they were gone. I hadn’t even updated the software but lo and behold, something had been changed without telling me. Apparently, the idea is that everything in Lion is geared towards gestures on the trackpad, so who needs buttons when you can swipe two fingers left or right? I can’t stand the trackpad. Autosave. At first, I was mildly concerned about the concept of autosaving. It’s been gradually more prevalent in software, but usually with the control still ultimately resting with the user to save. The way it has been done in Lion seems interesting, and it’s not that often I need to go back on a version anyway, so I can’t see it being a huge problem. It does annoy me that sometimes a document can be a bit sticky as it’s working out where it is in terms of saving, and I opened up something that said it was locked because I hadn’t used it for two weeks. Like it’s my operating software’s business how often I open my files. Launchpad. I do love the new little Launchpad icon. It’s like a Windows Start button but for my Mac. That is something I’ve missed since switching, and having it right back is excellent. Accessing the Applications folder at the click of a button is brillo, although it may take me a while to organise the stuff within it into groups I like. Little upgrades. There are nice little features tucked away that don’t get shouted about, like the way folders unfurl when you open them within finder, or the preview that appears when you search for something in Spotlight. Any way of making Spotlight more useful is good in my book. Plenty more still to learn, I’m sure, and I envisage getting angry and being pleasantly surprised in equal measures as I continue to uncover new stuff. For now, it’s a pretty smooth transition to Lion, but I do think the heavy emphasis on gestures is going to get annoying.
One of Mr C’s biggest complaints with the iPod and iPad stems from the idea of touching the screen and your big thumbs getting in the way. Particularly when you are playing games, controlling whatever is on screen with your not-particularly-see-through-hands can be tricky.
It’s a valid complaint, although I always argue that the ease of the iPad far outweighs a technical little issue like that.
We were perusing some iPad accessories and stumbled across the AluPen from Just Mobile. I’m not very knowledgeable in the world of styluses… styli… style… pen type things, and this does just seem to be a regular point and touch device with no bells and whistles.
Whilst watching Wimbledon this year, Mr C questioned what those tennis players were consuming when they squeezed little gel packets into their mouths.
I assumed they were some kind of gel thing for top sportspeople, but then I realised they sell them in the supermarket. We decided to try some.
Eww. I mean, I wasn’t expecting a sweet treat or anything but this was not good. It tasted like medicine, and as a gel it was all gooey and gross. I didn’t particularly feel any extra energy but then I wasn’t in the midst of a mammoth tennis game either.
Had to delay the long run until after the weekend, as I wasn’t feeling too good. That might also explain why it was a tricky one!
Week 2, Day 8 Felt good to start with, but gradually got more and more tired. It’s quite weird having to run to a programme set in miles when I’m so used to working in kilometres, but it doesn’t make a difference either way really. I was a bit disappointed with the pace, really, but did feel pretty worn out by the end.
A while back I discussed the concept of degrees via the Open University, and whilst I move more and more away from the concept of degrees and suchlike, the very open format and wide variety of courses on the OU still intrigues me.
I just discovered the LearningSpace with tons of free modules - usually bits and bobs taken from now defunct courses - and there are some interesting things to read. I was only browsing around for a moment and found this piece on Aberdulais Falls. I’ve been there!
I’ve just started playing Monopoly on the iPad and I’m enjoying it. Actually that’s not true, I’m hating it because I’ve played twice - both on the easy setting - and I’ve lost both times. I swear the AI is cheating. However, if you ignore my uselessness at Monopoly, the app is really cool.
There are animations that make the dice rolling and piece moving fun, but you can fast forward them if you’re not interested in watching the dog gallop forward. Not having to calculate the money is brilliant and I think it is that part that makes playing Monopoly electronically a lot quicker than the board version.
The second book of the 365 F1 Stories series was published over the weekend, and you can find more about it on the books page. It’s been quite the process getting these two books into being, and it’s not over yet. There are more things to do with those two, and more ideas in my head for further exploration. I hope to blog more about the process when I am able to think straight again.
I’ve been catching up with some episodes of The 404 and they mentioned this relatively new website that lets you create a social environment for listening to music. Outloud.fm allows you to create a chatroom with the added bonus of anyone invited able to upload music to a collaborative playlist. The queue of music then plays out for everyone at the same time.
I love this concept.
I’m no music afficionado. I like what I like and that’s pretty much the end of it. However, Mr C and I have been known to have the odd Friday night conversation about music, the kind that starts with Glastonbury and ends with the knowledge that Sergeant Wilson was the father of one of the Wombles.
Here we go then, the first week of a new Runkeeper Class, and all fingers crossed that it’s going to be more successful than the last one. Just two runs to break into the first week gently.
Week 1, Day 3 First workout was four minutes running, one walk, and repeat x3. You can see the bumps that are the walks, but overall it was a lot faster than any other runs I’ve attempted. Not quite my fastest average pace ever, I think, but a good start. It was pretty comfortable, but I’d expect so being that short. Mmm, twenty minute run.
I’ve mentioned before, many times, how I love Maggie’s outlook on life. She inspired me to create my own Life List and that has been something magical for me. This time the message is - when life is getting you down, turn it around and do something fun for thirty days.
Fabulous.
The thirty day idea is such a good one. Who knows where it first came from, but breaking life up into manageable chunks is great, and taking a project a month at a time makes it seem much more achievable.
Whilst on my trip around the Merrivale Model Village, I spotted the zoo with added baby pandas! Fantastic!
There doesn’t seem to be an awful lot of bamboo for so many pandas living in one space, and I’m surprised they are housed between the monkeys and the llamas.
I’ve wanted to see a model village for a long time, and although I’m not sure there’s anything special about this one, it coincided with my trip to Great Yarmouth. When I told people that I was visiting a model village for the letter M, they assumed that was because M stands for Model. I went one step further and found a model village that begins with M as well. Double win!
Here’s a revelation. Trying to come up with your own running schedule, and more importantly sticking to it, is pretty darn tough. Today I said to Mr C: “I’ve been thinking about signing up for another Runkeeper Class, because it’s not working so well doing it by myself.” He replied: “I don’t remember the last time you went out!”
Well, it was a few days ago, and the time before that was a few more days ago. I had set up my own workout in the Runkeeper app, a simple 5k and just ran until I reached the deadline, or felt particularly dead. That’s not exactly fun, fun, fun. That’s just… pounding the pavements and hoping for the best.
With ITV finally bringing out their app for iDevices, we know have all channels from 1 through to 4 covered. The BBC iPlayer has been doing it’s iPad business for a while now, Channel 4 had their On Demand app out relatively recently, and ITV have now joined the gang.
The ITV app is not a bad one but the choice is limited, considering how many channels ITV have. There was nothing on there I’d watch, but it has all the staples, Emmerdale, Coronation Street… Jeremy Kyle. The only thing that was remotely interesting was that recent detective show with the lovely Suranne Jones in it. They had the last episode available but no apparent series link to catch up. You can tell from the screenshot above that they do have the “Watch More Episodes” feature, but just not on the one thing I wanted to watch. Oh well.
It’s about time I posted another update of innovations in the world of the mug. I have posted a couple of mug selections before, but now I am drinking more tea than ever, so finally, I can envisage actually using them rather than just looking at them.
In this world of ever-shrinking attention spans, it seems even a tea break needs to have some kind of entertainment involved. The concept of games on mugs is interesting, whether it is participatory or not.
With the challenge complete, it’s worth rounding up the list of links. I wasn’t all that specific about which song was which in the posts themselves, and given how unreliable YouTube can be in terms of videos disappearing, it’ll be good to have the definitive list in one place.
This month in Ambridge seems to have been another where the storylines tick along nicely, but there were no major outbursts to dominate. There were a few talking points, though, so let’s see what’s been happening.
Just tripping Adam and Brian agreed to take over Farm Sunday to take some of the weight off David. It was a nice gesture from them, although clearly they were all quite competitive about it. Will they be fighting over who gets to host it next year? There’s been plenty of talk about the pickers, particularly the battle between Jazzer and Harry as they try and get to know one particular sweet-talking girl. Has he forgotten about Fallon? Are they not friends anymore? I find that slightly odd, but it was fun to hear the odd couple bickering with each other. All those trips that the pickers go on, they seem to have a more exciting life than anyone who stays in Ambridge regularly. Shakespeare plays, potteries, all kinds of things.
I ran this final run of the 10K class before finally admitting defeat.
Week 5. Day 29. The long run of the week, and I felt good going out there. I’d lost my TuneBelt armband and was all ready to use that as an excuse not to go. But then I changed my mind and went anyway, and I’m glad I did.
I thought I might be able to get past 5k, and I decided to lower my average pace threshold to the 9:25 it was before the break a couple of weeks ago. I ran and I ran, and suddenly I was at 7k. I did go up to 9:26 for a moment, but I was determined to get the longest distance I’ve done to date. And I did!
I have a lot of favourite songs. Picking one should be hard, but I kept coming back to this, and really… there can be only one.
It reminds me of lots of things. The many times I’ve seen We Will Rock You. The first time I saw and loved Highlander. (Not so much now.) My brothers. The awesomeness of Queen.
I went back to good old Abduzeedo for this one, the tutorial for Abstract Wallpaper. I tweaked the colours a little and made it my own, following the tutorial exactly made it too dark for my tastes.
As ever, I have used Anivers for the font, as it matches the text on the blog.
You’ll notice that there is no month in the header this time out. I’ve been quite lucky that I had a productive few months earlier in the year and had some spare designs in the bank, but now I have run out. I’ve been busy doing other things, such as writing books, and so whilst I do still enjoy creating the headers, it is not a priority at the moment.
Credit: jsteph/Flickr
I’m aware that content on this here blog has been a bit thin on the ground recently. Thank goodness for the music challenge for being something of a stopgap. I’m burrowed under calendar dates and F1 facts, getting towards the end of the second part of 365 F1 Stories.
The finish line is close now and it’s hard to think of anything else. I’m pushing myself too hard, but it’s almost impossible not to - it’s fun to do, and the nearer I get the more I want to do.
Just two more to go, and the challenge is at an end. It’s been an interesting run through the highs and lows of my musical taste. I’ve discovered songs I thought I’d forgotten and I’ve managed to expand my knowledge at the same time. Good stuff.
My least favourite song could be one of a few, but there’s only one that springs to mind at the moment. I had this one worked out when I first read the challenge through, but it’s made worse by the fact I just heard the song yesterday as well. Gah.
Unlike the last subject, where there are few songs that really make me sad, there are plenty of songs that make me happy. Narrowing it down to one is kinda hard, but I’ll go with this one for now. They’re specifically generating the music to make you feel better.
I hadn’t seen the video before today. Not so keen on the clown thing.
There aren’t a lot of songs that make me sad, although I did already mention that if I’m in a particularly melancholy mood, the song that reminds me of a certain event might do it. The only songs that are particularly emotional for me are all of those on the first Coldplay album.
Those teenage years were tricky, and unfortunately for Coldplay, they were the ones who helped me wallow in my angst.
So, after my mini breakdown at the end of Week 3, I wasn’t really sure what to do. I knew I wasn’t about to give up, and I sort of knew that Gavin was right when he said that I shouldn’t force myself to stick to this Runkeeper schedule when I clearly can’t do it.
Remember we are all different shapes and sizes and you will get to 10k – but maybe you might have to go your own way rather than rigidly follow a course without a personal trainer or buddy who knows you well enough to give you the correct advice. - Wise Gavin (RubberGoat)
This song reminds me of my mum, because we used to have this exact concert on, well, VHS probably, and we’d watch it over and over.
The mullets, the high pitched voices, and the guy’s weird eye movements. What’s not to like?
I don’t know if it’s just me, but the video goes out of sync halfway through which is a shame, but you get the general idea.
Every part of this brings back memories. The weird guy clapping at the start, the “season” who rests his nose on the microphone, and the rather funky bass solo.
I love sandwiches. They are one of my favourite foods. I love perusing the new and exciting fillings that shops and bakeries come out with. I’m not all that adventurous though. I tend to stick to chicken, tuna or cheese, with the odd extra ingredient here or there to make a change.
As it is Wimbledon week, Tesco came out with a celebratory Strawberries and Cream sandwich. Amy pointed it out to me, desperate for someone to try it. I was reticent, but Amy added:
This song reminds me so much of my ill-fated attempts to go to the gym. I stuck at it for a while, but the gym was never a particularly comfortable place for me. Just hearing the beginning of this, and particularly seeing the video - which was often played on those weirdly silent TV screens - puts me right back to that place. I can even smell the odd gym smell, a mixture of exercising bodies, air conditioning and ineffectual cleaning products.
Does an entire year count as an event? When I saw this was one of the criteria for the thirty days, I immediately thought of Welcome to the Black Parade. F1 fans will know that it was used in the ITV video montage they played on their final race before coverage moved to the Beeb.
It was the last race of 2008 and it was brilliant. The months leading up to it had been just epic for me for many reasons. If I’m in a particularly poignant mood and I hear the opening bars of this track, I may even find tears prickling my eyes, and that is a rare occurrence.
