Sequels

Having a scan through wikipedia this morning, as you do, and I came across the distressing news that the sequel to the masterpiece "Dr Horrible's Sing Along Blog" has all but been cancelled! It's officially been put to the back burner while Joss Whedon works on the 2012 Avengers 3D film. Avengers?? Seriously?? I know what I'd rather he makes, but money talks I suppose even for geeks like Joss. I've always thought the vast majority of marvel/dc/general superhero films have been pants and this wont be any different, and unless Fillion/Day/Harris are going to Dennis Waterman the theme tune, I'm just not interested.

Usually I'm dead against sequels/remakes/reissues etc, they have their place and on occasion can be great (Back to the Future, Aliens) but so much of the time are rushed cheap pieces of cash in crap (Starship Troopers 2, The Ring 2, Caddyshack 2, Scary Movie anything). The only thing worse is hopeless cash ins on the same material, this brings me to one of the biggest culprits and the person who made think up all this rubbish, George "I love jar jar" Lucas.

Now the reason I didn't mention Star Wars in either of the above lists is simple, it's both! The 'first' 3 films amazing, the 'second' lot of shit was an insult to my eyes (apart from the last hour of episode 3). The news broke yesterday that he must need some new UPVC windows put in on Skywalker (seriously get over it) ranch so guess what's coming out again... Star Wars, all the way from 1-6 starting with the crap and fighting it's way through to the good, only this time...wait for it... I'm building up pointless tension as everyone has no doubt already read it... in 3D. Ever wanted to really get a good look at Mark Hamills scarring? Ever wanted to get so close to Wedge you'd be the one telling him to cut the chatter? Ever wanted to get so close to Binks you it feels like you could destroy him? No? Me neither. Well maybe the last one. It's another hopeless cash in and I don't like it!

Over the years I've bought the Videos, the widescreen videos, the special anniversary edition remastered DVDs, I've paid money to watch in the cinema (eps 1-3, how old do you think I am??). Now good old George wants me to pay the cinema cash plus 3D supplement again, then no doubt buy the special edition DVDs. The only 3D Star Wars I ever want to see is the 3 minute segment from the Family Guy episode, and I already have that on DVD too! FFS.

It's not just him, only a few weeks ago a friend emailed me to ask if I wanted to go see Avatar that night in the cinema. Now I saw Avatar when it was in first, yes Pocahontas in space it was, but it was a damn good Pocahontas in space, and the 3D element really helped it along, overall well done, enjoyed it. But this was the special edition, sit through all 2+ hours again, but this time with about 9 mins of extra CG shagging added. Ummm no thanks. A perfect example of cashing in.

Tomorrow Back to the Future is out in cinemas again. Back to the firigging Future FFS,  a remastered special anniversary edition too. Will the slightly tarted up graphics help the film, did the film even need any help, it's a work of art, a masterpiece. Will I go see it... yeah probably.... Well it's only it's first reissue, and I don't have them all on DVD...

God I'm such a hypocrite on times.

Life begins to end at 30??

Apparently, according to the BBC mid life crisis time begins in your 30's these days. That's a concern now isn't it. I'm 28, I think we can call that late 20's but am not yet feeling the urge to buy a motorbike and pretend I'm 18, but those urges may very well be just around the corner.

To be honest when I was 18 I never had half the interests that 18 year olds from round by me had. Yes I liked a drink, and girls but I see people of that age round now, and indeed then and I just think/thought, what's the fun in that?

I live in sunny(?) Merthyr Tydfil and one of the favourite past times for the teenagers is to sit around, in pretty high volumes, in car parks, in their cars (always pays to have a mate who can drive) and.... do nothing in particular as far as I can tell. I mean honestly, there's a pub over there, if you wanna sit and talk with bad music on in the background, do it in the warm and have a pint. That has to be better than sitting in a mid 90s Corsa with a bodykit and a pointless exhaust.

I was always happier inside, I'm not a poor outdoors person, I like running, I like outdoor events, I competed with 3 mates in the Velindre Excalibur Challenge this year and we came 3rd and I enjoyed every second (even when the fact my upper body strength is the same as a gnat was exposed) , even doing so much harm to my knee at one point it resembled a misshapen beetroot when I got home! I was going to do the Swansea 10k and Cardiff Half Marathons this year, but my appendix had other ideas and after a few complications I'm still not allowed to train (another few days, sorry velindre!), but I have ambition in the next year of posting around 45 minutes for 10k in a race and there's plenty of stuff I'd love to do. But I'm most at home, at home! 

I never wanted to hang round on corners or in bus stops, generally it's cold, why would I want to do that? I never felt the urge to cause trouble for the sake of it, it'd just come and bite you on the backside at some point, why give yourself the hassle?

But on reflection I was always quite unpopular and considered (fairly) a bit of a geek...

But back to the point, a mid-life crisis in your 30s just seems.. premature. I can honestly say I can't see it happening to be til at least 40/45 (should I start saving for the motorbike now?). I know a number of people in their 30s or fast approaching and they seem, generally, like well rounded individuals. There are some though that make me wonder.

In other news, i hear from twiter (@andrewdrisc) mince pies and Christmas decorations are already on sale in some shops. Now THIS is premature, it's September people for gods sake! It's almost like 2010 is having a mid year crisis.

Pay Day!

Woo hoo it's pay day! This signals a very special time of the month, there's a gap, not a huge one but a gap nonetheless, between the 28th (Pay Day) and the 1st (Bill Day)

During this little period it's like living in a whole new financial bracket, the bank looks healthy, you don't feel a sense of intrepidation on approach to a cashpoint. The bank itself saves a fortune on red ink, but it's not all environmentally friendly as they tend to use more black.

Then the first comes round... Direct Debits shrink the balance back to where I belong and things return to normality and instead of marching into <insert generic game shop here> and demanding a latest release, it's back to hanging round in the preowned section or gazing through the window longingly like Charlie Bucket in the Roald Dahl classic. Gamestation have asked me not to, apparently my saliva running down the window doesn't help their sales.

Now don't get me wrong I'm not on the breadline, work doesn't exactly pay me money I have to carry home in my diamond encrusted wheelbarrow, but it's enough (Anyone wanting to offer me megabucks leave a comment, I'll have my people call your people... OK I have no people but if it creates the right image I'll get my mum to call and pretend she's my PA).

Speaking of stuff I can't afford, has anyone seen the new keyboard add on for Rock Band? Looks mighty classy, but is weighing in at £110 with the game. Looks like it's going to be a choice between that and Natal/Kinect (£120). I'll prob go for the rock band, Kinect still seems slightly gimmicky to me, despite a wise mate singing its praises. Plus the other half (an accomplished guitar hero player herself will love it, as she's also a piano player!) The clincher would be releasing some Ben Folds for it. Do it harmonix, do it now!

Anyway, I better be off, it's getting to the busy part of the train route and some stinking hobo will sit next to me at any moment doubtless.

Catch ya later!

Is it really so hard??

I've done the who customer facing job thing a few times. A few years behind a bar, can't avoid the customer there. A few years delivering pizzas, can't avoid the customer there. A move to a call centre and then a call centre complaint handler, can't see them but can hear them, so can't avoid them there.

Luckily (depending if you enjoy that kind of role I suppose) those days, for now at least, are behind me, but I'm still close by. Right, pointless opening? Maybe, but it does set a scene that I have some experience in service.

My point is, why do I seem to encounter incompetence or downright laziness wherever I turn? I'm not going to comment on the service the company I work for gives, too many people have hung themselves like that, I'm neutral on it, as it should probably be in my kind of job (still complaints but backroom complaints), but I can at least say I always tried my best when I was customer facing.

But of late, everyone seems to conspire against being as helpful as they can. My first rant is against Plusnet, a perfectly adequate company if you never have to communicate with them. I recently moved home (or am in the process of, see earlier blog) and out Internet provider, having never caused us hassle before was going to accompany us. Went to the website to change the address and... nope can't do it online... annoying but oh well to the phone I go, and I wait, and I wait... Now Plusnet's opening hours quite closely match my working ones and they don't do weekends, so my big chance to ring them is my breaks and a chunk out of my lunch, none of these are long enough time periods to get through.

So after trying for a couple of days I go "Screw you Plusnet I'm cancelling, Sky can do my broadband!" I go to their website and... phone or post cancellations only. Now they do have a online help thing and I post on there, want to cancel can't get through on the phone can you please call me, to which they reply, you have to phone. Yes I know this but I can't. There's no email option.. to an ISP...

Their response to this query was OFCOM make us give you two options, and phone and post are the two, the slowest and the one they can charge for. It may be compliant to their regulatory body, but it's doing enough to get by and still being as obstructive as they can, obviously cancellation isn't ideal for them. Stuff them I've logged a complaint with their ombudsman (CI something or another) and notified OFCOM of my thoughts. That'll make them sit up and take note... or not.

Next on the list, and the last one I'll mention today (ooooooh it's a long long list) is KFC. Specifically KFC Merthyr sodding Tydfil. Now I love Merthyr, it's my homeland, but we have a habit of doing things half arsed, the number of times McDonalds staff haven't quite comprehended 'No cheese', shop staff not quite sure of what's going on, that kind of thing. But tonights KFC incident did my swede right in.

I arrive late, I've been painting, I'm hungry, the OH is hungry, we want 2 fillet meals. But they have no bread... oh (partial) burger place has no bread, not a good sign. OK the OH has crispy strips and I decide on a toasted twister meal. But because of the time (As you can see the bread fairy had already been) they couldn't toast it, so it was really just a twister, for the same price. But I was hungry and it was 35 yards to McDonalds and I didn't have the patience for the cheese argument tonight, so I took it. Then it took 10 minutes to arrive (it's late.. blah blah) I mean I understand they want to go home closing time, but if you're not willing to offer the service til closing time, change the closing time. Rather than my boring soggy wrap I'd rather they would have said, sorry we're closed.

On the up side, I picked up Lonely Avenue by Ben Folds/Nick Hornby today. Give or take one stinker it's damn good, in particular From Above, delightful song. I would recommend it to anyone. Oh and for the record the HMV staff who served me was a dream, not that much can go wrong scanning a CD...

I might get perfect service somewhere tomorrow, but as Ben sings and Nick wrote, "You know what hope is? Hope is a bastard"

Night!

Should humour have boundaries?

I was reading posts on facebook (yes I know...) yesterday on a Newsarse article about footballers and their slightly extreme history of being implied in rape cases. The latest of course being Sunderland superstar Titus Bramble, but the article was an older repost and not directly about him (although one followed).

Some of the comments on the post were quite offended about the nature of the humour, insisting there is nothing funny about rape, which of course is very true. The defence of the site was firstly, and indeed accurately, the article wasn't poking fun at the act, which is a terrible thing, but highlighting the footballers continued connection with it. But also it was mentioned, should anything really be off limits to humour?

For a start I believe humour is a skill, a talent which some people will never be capable of (see some of my previous efforts if you want evidence of that) and some topics should be handled very carefully. But is it true, for comedy, is it all on, or not on. By picking and choosing topics people can be light hearted about isn't that making the taboo topics seem worse again? Giving them a status that may add stigma to them?

I immediately thought of Brass Eye (as was mentioned in the topic also) and the paedophilia episode. A horrible horrible topic (speaking as a father), but comedy was able to address it thanks to some near perfect writing, and if that's the case surely it can be done for other topics too.

Generally the standard of writing on satirical sites such as newsarse it quite high, but it needs to be, there's a risk of offence with most things approached in satire.

There are cases where the humour is badly intended, by no means is all humour acceptable. Frankie Boyle and the Downs Syndrome parent is an example. Frankie was going for a cheap laugh, as he usually does and it got the stick it deserved. But I feel that's the difference, someone using a situation for a cheap laugh, making light of the situation, could almost feel like they are degrading it, that's bad. While, if someone respects the seriousness of a scenario, like Brass Eye did, I think that's not a bad thing at all. But lets face it how many of us are as clever as Chris Morris, not me for one.

Look at me sounding all serious!

Am I getting old or is music getting crap?

Or possibly both...

One thing is for certain, I am getting older. By no means am I old and I don't think I'm majorly close minded about new music, films etc, infact some of my favourite films have been of the last few years, but of late I can't help but think music is shite.

As I'm typing this I'm also nosing through the top 40 UK singles chart, yes I know that's a gauge of popularity not quality, but people must believe in the quality to buy is surely. All I seem to be seeing contained within said charts is a combination of reality TV stars, rappers talking about 'da club' some rude things they'd like to do to a possibly uninterested female, and celebrities with questionable musical/vocal talents that 12 year olds seem to like/want to be.

It's not all hell, the script are bearable and the manics make an appearance in the top 30,, but even they seem to be trying too hard to sound like what they think people want. Lads, I have Everything Must Go (and what an album!), if I want to listen to that I will, do something else!

I heard recently about what will be, for all intents, the death of Red Dragon FM in Cardiff, can't say I was even vaguely disappointed. The dull radio station with its 5 track playlist will not be a loss to me. I seem to these days not even be able to listen to radio 1, as they play the same repetitive style of music, then the ego fuelled DJs rave on about how great they/it is. Don't even get me started on Moyles rant (newsarse didn't use my story, but a slightly better one, I'll post my effortlater) ! Thank god for little stations such Nation Wales for keeping the rock alive, and I even find myself listening to Radio 2 to seek out decent songs.

Fair enough the 'bangin tunez' is a legitimate genre, people obviously like it, so it deserves a place on the airwaves, but why does it dominate so? It makes me think of request shows where people ring in and request songs off the playlist the station has played 12 times already that day. Do they like it cos it's good, or do they like it cos it's all they know?

Next week sees the release of Lonely Avenue by Ben Folds, an unusual collaboration between him (one of my favourite musicians) and one of my favourite authors Nick Hornby. It should be an absolute treat, but I can tell you now there will be 0 airplay for him and not many more sales. I encourage everyone to check him out, he's on iTunes, spotify etc no doubt.

At least I know I'll be able to get the album without risk of it selling out.. (yes that means an actual CD)

Later!

Let's get this straight from the start, I'm a simple guy when it comes to food. I'll try just about anything but my favourites always remain the same, and without fail their generally simple foods. Pizza, Burgers and the like.

Well today I was presented with the menu for my office Christmas party, what a pile of self satisfying pointless drivel. It was like the chef had a tug into a piece of paper and this was the mark it left!! I would have respected a menu saying maybe Choice of Beef, Turkey, fish or risotto for main course. But no, everything had to be embellished to the point where it sounded like random words out a Delia Smith best seller.

Now I'm sure when it gets put in front of me I'll enjoy it, the standard will no doubt he high, but ordering it took 3 visits to wikipedia to check what things were!

Now I know I'm being unreasonable... it happens, but why do posh restaurants over word everything? Do they think it throws up some air of sophistication? Do they think it makes them sound better, or set them apart from TGIs? Or is the chef trying to justify his no doubt high wages somehow? I'm no more likely to order something just cos it fills 3 lines on a menu. Pumpkin soup with cheese will sell to me just as well as Roast Pumpkin soup with <forgot the name of the posh cheese> , crusty croutons (not real wording) and almond oil.

I was just gutted I wasn't allowed the steak :(

There I feel a bit better now!

On a lighter note I just finished catching up on Series 4 of the guild which, although brief, remains an absolute delight! Bravo!

Later!

The wonders of being homeless

Ok, ok I'm not homeless in the have nowhere to live kind of vein, and using the term is probably as melodramatic as I could humanly be. But it's still a pain in the arse!

To clarify, I recently bought a new house (woohoo) which had somewhat been left go to crap by the previous owner (boooo). As a result significant work was required to bring it up to the 21st century, honestly I think some would have been needed to bring it up to the 20th!

In the meantime, as we epically failed to sell our old house, we decided to rent it to a lovely local couple with a sprog on the way, but they've moved in now, relegating me (+2) to my either the mrs' fathers back bedroom, or my old bedroom in my folks house. Now I'm eternally grateful for this on every level, but I'm used to my own place now, and this is somewhat of a culture shock!

Of these my parents is the most extreme! No Internet is something, and their taste in TV is a bit... yeah. To be fair my mother watched Castle last night which is superb, Captain Hamm... I mean Nathan Fillion, an absolute delight to watch as always (except for desperate housewives) and I quite liked Silent Witness but the One Show?? Has such an awful cheesy idea been used since the 70s? It's like a TV version of Butlins entertainment, only on occasion I like Butlins entertainment!

The place hasn't even got an alarm clock, I have to use my phone where the alarm tone is the Bad Horse Chorus from Dr Horribles Sing Along Blog. Which one day this week led me to not walking up, but starting a dream where I was standing at the top of the stairs and the BHC were serenading me, over and over again from the bottom. I then woke up feeling very freaked out... and humming the tune... Anyway I digress...

We're pushing towards the end of the second week of work in the new abode. We have a wall knocked down, we have plastering done, we have new central heating, we have a full rewiring, redesigned back and a fully tiled kitchen, so it's getting there, but it looks like another week of house hopping is on the cards. I know it'll all be worth it in the end and we'll rock Heolgerrig (a place in Merthyr) at the house warming party. Patience Andrew, have some patience.

Anyway that's enough of me feeling sorry for myself, even the freaky train guy sat next to me who keeps reading all this over my shoulder (obviously I don't think he's dangerous or I wouldn't refer to him as freaky train guy ready for him to glance over my shoulder and go all hulk on my ass, he's just old weird and smells slightly of urine, he's also wearing a hat that's as close to a deer stalker as I've ever seen in real life) is looking bored.

So I shall leave you now, I'll write something later, or at least post a rejected newsarse article, I submitted one yesterday evening on the very unfortunate Chris Moyles and his lack of overpayment for the last 2 months, no word if it'll be used yet, but if it isn't... it'll be here. If it is (unlikely) it'll be there so I wont bother beyond a link on my twitter (www.twitter.com/andrewdrisc)

So TTFN

The end

Hello everyone/anyone.

I've considered doing a blog for a while, convinced that nobody will ever read it. I'm still convinced of this but I thought I'd do it anyway. What else am I going to do on a train to work when the WoW server is down and internet signal limited? (Who said read a book you geek?)

Anyway, I'll occasionally update this with whatever I can think of, random thoughts, rants stuff that's took long to put on twitter or too meaningful to put on Facebook.

I won't pretend I think I'm particularly interesting, I don't even find myself that! But I can be occasionally amusing. I've even had a whole 2 articles published on newsarse.com (out of about 562 attempts!) http://newsarse.com/author/andrew-driscoll/ if you care to have a gander, I may even use this blog to vent a few of the rejected stories as, let's face it, I thought they were ok even if people who know what they are talking about didn't!!

I work as an analyst for an insurance company, once again not going to propel me up any 'must follow' or 'most interesting' lists. I'm a self proclaimed geek (plus a few people in school may have mentioned that fact, but that was years ago) and happy being so, but this is the internet so I'm hardly going solo on that.

If anyone does read this I can also be found on twitter (@andrewdrisc) where I post largely inane things to by huge and loyal following of about 6 people (once you remove all the spam).

Anyway that's all for now, the train just pulled into sunny Pontypridd so it's time to gawk at the locals.

You stay safe internet