So that was Christmas

Well that's crimbo over for another year, and this years tried its best to add a little variety!!

This year managed a first for me, the first time I'd ever woken up on Christmas morning in a chair in Prince Charles Hospital. Well that's not strictly true, waking up implies I slept at some point, which with an Ill baby at my side wasn't going to happen. Dylan was diagnosed with bronchitis and spent the night in Ward 31 with the wife, myself and mother Driscoll alternating cover to stay with him.

Then in the night, with loads to be done at home before we served dinner for 7 the following day, I stayed as let's face it, I'd have got fuck all done, or it would have been done badly, one of the two.

After some begging we managed to get discharged at 6:30 or so, then making it home in time to see Gracie open her presents. Words can not describe how gutted I'd have been to miss that. Big thanks to the Ward 31 staff! Christmas day then went on to be the rather good day you'd expect, only let down by me being wiped out in the extreme from the night before and having to take a nap (or two) to stop myself falling down.

Present wise, I got good stuff as you'd expect! This tablet (which I may have mentioned I had early), an N64 which I've acquired a few games for, Batman blurays, and loads more.

Extended period off now til Wednesday, nice to be round the house with the family etc!

New years eve next, off to Swansea with a couple of friends, should be a laugh! Then back to work... Joy... Looking forward to that.

Hmmm a late one but baby doesn't fancy sleeping tonight...

3D tax

I like going to the cinema, but aspects of it do piss me off.

As you may have worked out by now I live in the lovely valleys town of Merthyr Tydfil, sadly all we have is a Vue. We used to have nothing, and for years so it's progress and everything, but we did get stuck with the lesser of the chains. Always expensive, limited showings, only the most mainstream of films and not always at their best (no 3D showing, films only there for a few days, you know the kind of thing.)

But there are things I don't understand, there are possibly perfectly good reasons but what they are... not forthcoming. The main one is the couple of quid they chuck on the (already nearly £8) price for 3D films. I went to see The Hobbit this weekend with the good wife and £20 of tickets for the bog standard seating (if we'd wanted the nice seats it'd be the same price to get into the Odeon IMAX in Cardiff Bay) makes cinema going prohibitive. Plus generally the effect isn't worth it, in this instance it looked nice on a few landscape shots and looking into the Goblin city (no spoiler warnings, the book's been out long enough) but for the film as a whole, I could have done without it.

Do they need special projectors? (I assume so) Does it cost for to put on? Are we paying for those poxy glasses they demand back at the end? I've never seen a film which I initially saw in 3D back in normal 2D and thought... missed that 3rd dimension there. That includes Avatar and Avengers! As a gimmick its fine, as it was in the 70s and the 40s (I think) but it died then and may do so now.

If I wanted to take the full set of sprogs and wife... £8 extra. That's a whole extra person! On release weekend that cinema was 1/3 full at most. I'd imagine cost would be a factor. People wonder why films like Dredd 3D fail, the fault may be as much with the cinemas themselves as with the films.

People weigh up the excessive cost of going and the majority of the time things like cinema lose.

Oh and why couldn't we get an Odeon or a Cineworld... Sad face.

The film itself was good, didn't think it was great. Acting was OK, Freeman was good as Bilbo and it was good to see Sylvester McCoy in work but I found James Nesbitt highly annoying, but then again I always do. The first and last hours were very good but the middle kind of sauntered along waiting for something to happen. It's worth a watch but the 3D isn't a deal breaker.

Bits felt padded out/unnecessary and this didn't always work, it brings me back to other moans about a 300 page book being stretched beyond what is healthy.

I'll be watching the next two but I'm struggling to see how they'll fill 6 more hours!

£20 worth... Nah.

Roughly 1 year later...

This time last year (think it was January) I posted this:

http://andrewdrisc.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/hi-im-andrew-and-im-underachiever.html

Which has been described to me as a very frank and honest post about myself, it was even mentioned in my work appraisal! Well as much as January is the time for planning, December should be the time for reflecting, I've just read that post back and... Hmmm a mixed bag of results at best.

Let's start with positives! Oh yes fitness. Decent effort PB's at 10k and half marathon and big PB's too. Had a big stall the last 6 weeks or so with a broken arm but come March 3rd I'm confident I'll be capable of a sub 2 hour half marathon in Llanelli. Not bad for a fat asthmatic! Still plenty to do though, still fat but not as fat (my work pass photos were beginning to look like before/after shots). I was actually going to the gym today but mother Driscoll is coming down shopping and so I'm meeting her for lunch instead! Dedication!

On a personal level, good stuff. Child #2 (Dylan) successfully birthed and growing. I was actually fully aware of his existence at the point of the other post, but it was early pregnancy and we hadn't said anything to pretty much anyone, so me announcing it to the 24 (actual number) of people who read the last post would have been silly! I still have 2 houses etc and home like is still good (hi Cerys!), Gracie is doing well in school and dotes on the baby. No complaints there.

Ambition wise, not so great. My 'chance' to try out a senior role and then apply for it was a truly epic epic fail. Crashed and burned in style and what felt like my last chance to progress failed. I tried to join another department, bang in another fail, I tried to join another company... Hat trick! There's still a possibility going forward, but by now its pretty obvious where then problem really lays.

Am doing some courses though, maybe I'll learn something.

Don't get me wrong I don't hate my job and I work with some good people. Generally people who've been there less time than me and have passed me by though. There's even patterns in fractals (Google or listen too Mandelbrot set, Benoit has sadly left us though... Mandelbrot's in heaven..).

Writing wise, including this I've posted 40 times on here. That's not too bad. Some with decent number of views too!

As I said previously, all I can do is try and on times I've crashed and burned and on some things I've done quite well. Oh well power on!

The blogger app (still on the nexus 7, tis lush) just asked me to tag my location... Northern Europe was the best it could do... Don't think this pad has GPS but well done for trying! If you ever wonder where I am in the mornings, its easy there's only ever 2 possibilities, either on manor way while a stagecoach driver looks confused at traffic or on the A470 while some stagecoach driver looks confused at traffic. After Christmas I'm switching to train. I'll take overcrowding ahead of taking 2 hours to get to work.

EDIT: Sorry Nexus, you do have GPS. Should never have doubted you!

Crimbo come early!

After much deliberation following my pervious post, a decision was made. I am now the proud owner or a Google Nexus 7 which is the very location I'm typing from now, easy too. Well it would be if I could feel my fingers. How about some heat on drive??

Tis a very pretty thing lovely HD screen, light, shiny android 4.2. Cracking stuff. The downside is this may mean the end of the netbook. It's been 3 good years but you've been replaced. Its been fun, and you'll always have a job around the house...

One odd thing I have noticed is the number of apps not ready for/compatible with 4.2. Obviously all of he Google stuff is (this blogger app being an example) but such things as iPlayer (flash issues apparently), come on BBC sort it out! I ran a bit of Netflix (Archer series 1, petty funny) and it looked fabulous.

One bugbare with my phone is the pure lack of any sense shown by the predictive keyboard, but this is much better. I'm watching typos corrected in front of me, while on my (awesome still) phone one letter off typing 'and'? The phone returns 'abducted'. But I am using the Liam Neeson dictionary.

Yesterday when I went to choose the present, I'd decided on a mini tablet and it was between Nexus 7 and Galaxy tab 2. No contest to be fair, the screen quality and build feel put this ahead. Nice red case that supports the thing at a nice typing angle and voila!

I have a feeling this could be an awesome present, cheers wife!

Crimbo presents

It's almost that type of year again, Christmas.

For the record I'm a firm believer in Christmas is 25th December. People with decorations up in October? Sorry I just don't get it, surely by having them up for so long you actually detract from the 'special-ness' (not a word) of them through over exposure. Companies with really early Christmas adverts... same to you, and people counting down 'sleeps'etc from about 150. Yes that is why I stopped following you on twitter/hid your facebook posts.

Oh and the to anyone who posts 364 sleeps til Crimbo on boxing day. Words can not describe how swiftly you shall vanish from my timeline(s). That includes retweets.

But this blog isn't to rant about premature festivities (my staff Crimbo party was in November this year, and was good!), I may do that separately, in fact I'm pretty certain I will. This is about myself, me, moi. I have no idea what I want for crimbo, and times a wasting.

The good wife asked me a good while ago what I wanted her to buy for me, I didn't know, which isn't uncommon but generally I think of something (to give to Santa in case Gracie is reading this, fat bastard gets all the credit) sooner or later. But this year I'm struggling.

I'm 30 year old so if I get not much, especially after being a pain in the arse about it, I'm not going to cry. But I'm a blank. It's me and I like gadgets so something electrical is an awesome idea. Do I wanted a tablet, the Kindle Fire and Google Nexus 7 are both pretty awesome little machines (wouldn't want to carry a 10" one round) and let's face it my 3 year old netbook is feeling it's age. But would I use it? I think so, especially as I do love my kindle and either could replace/upgrade that on everything except battery life. Possibility.

I did ponder the idea of splitting a Wii U between us (and my birthday) but jesus they're so expensive, even the games are £50 (in Game who you should know my opinion of by now). Cut the price Nintendo, one of the selling points of the original wii was the accessibility and affordability, at least of the basic pack. They still bummed you hard for a remote. So probably not a great idea.

Batman blu-ray set, check.

Ummm apart from that, I could ask for a 360 game, there's a new cheap PS3 out, but I don't really want another console. Something retro? An N64 would rock, but I haven't played the SNES as much as I thought I would, so it could be a dust gatherer. The wife has a 3DS but I can't see me getting the use.

So any ideas anyone, I have gadgety friends, who may or may not read this tripe. What's good?

Game... again...

These things are becoming a rarity of late! Two main reasons, typing with a broken arm sucks and I've started reading A Song of Fire and Ice George RR Martin, and those books are... substantial. I'm 80ish% the way through Game of Thrones at the moment. It's good, long winded, but good stuff. Poor Sean Bean.

Anyway I'm not here for an update, nobody cares that much, I'm here for a good old fashioned moan! Not for the first time, Game, you're up.

Game haven't 'made the list' as they are already there, I think they l;ist was invented for Game to be honest, as companies go they've always been among the worst and almost got their just reward last year. Maybe next hey ;)

One thing I've always wanted the usually pretty poor store that is Game to do is allow you to check their trade in values online. Well stone the peasants, they've done it! Or at least they seem to have pretended they have. 

Last week I traded in Zelda for the DS without knowing this checker thing existed, found it later on and found out they only gave me 44% of the onsite value for it. I complained and have had 1 email igored and been told 'tough' by their Customer Services.

Yesterday, I checked the price of Goldeneye 007 on XBOX, I kind of enjoyed it, but I'm never going to be arsed finishing it, so when £16.50 came up I thought decent, that'll help the wife get Mario Kart 7 (why'd they number that one, they've never been numbered before. Well except 64, but that wasn't a series number...)

Product Description		Barcode	Cash (£)	Trade-in (£)
	GoldenEye 007: Reloaded (XBOX360)	75030917105081	12.40	16.50	x

The wife goes to the store and the staff, you know the Scottish woman, that heavily balding bloke who I assume is some variation on manager. Not from Merthyr or ever go to the one remaining shop they have there? Then it doesn't matter.

This place. What's in the boxes? I can only assume the extracted morals of the staff...

Anyway they refused point blank to honour the quoted trade in price from their website, saying it wasn't definite and depended on stock levels. Offering her £3.50 less at £13ish

However the website says different, it says:

"The Price Checker will calculate the Trade-In value of the game. The Price Checker is always kept up-to-date with our latest Trade-In values, so you can be sure the price quoted is the game's current value." 


So, what is it Game? Your staff poorly trained/badly informed? Is it a deliberate ploy to shave a couple of quid off every one, before selling them on at twice the price? Either way it's shit and cost you a couple of sales off me. Not that that'd worry you as it's Christmas soon (it's not Christmas yet, it's not even December, pretending it is already is a surefire way to get you binned off Twitter/Facebook) so it's sell Call of Duty to 10 year olds via their Grandparents time, as it's "Not that violent" (actual quote from a game store employee!) or tell a parent their 4 year old can use the 3D for a bit on a 3DS, but only if they buy the bigger more expensive console, cos it's bigger and therefore easier on the eyes... (week before last in Game Cardiff).

I'm going to start recording some of the sales pitches, there's comedy gold waiting!

Anyway back on point, I've emailed the Game CS address (customerservice@game.co.uk) a couple of times no, I'll await a reply. Not holding my breath though.

Disney star wars?

My love of the Star Wars film has long since faded. Not due to the quality of the original trilogy, but more due to the constant reissue and amend, the 3 prequels that were made with the sole purpose of buying George Lucas a new gold cock ring (or something), and indeed the very poor quality of these films, there's what 30 mins watch able out of however long they are. Shit.

What do you think Paul and Storm?

So, it's vaguely good news that Disney bought LucasFilm and have taken away the direct responsibility for doing any more damage away from George himself. Now we may be spared the scene where we see Vaders sweaty cock rash.

But the problem is while before everyone was fearful Lucas would anally penetrate the series a bit further with more films now we know Disney will, and frequently. Disney like making money above all else, they're a corporation, that's as it maybe should be, so Star Wars (and maybe Indianna Jones, Lucas only shafted that with the 1 dreadful film though, less to come back from) will now be sold everywhere and on everything. But I can live with that.

The concern is the new films will be made to be marketable, sci-fi is rarely marketable. It'll be full of safe Disney stars that kids will pay money to see regardless of the quality of the film. I can easily see such people as Miley Cirus (sp?) and Zac Efron being in what is essentially a rom-com set in space.

It maybe ok, Disney owns Marvel and some of the avengers films were ok, particularly the Avengers itself. But regardless, I wont be watching episode 7, not on DVD or cinema or anything. I've still got the silver DVD boxset of eps 4-6, that's all the franchise ever needed. Now I think about it, it better not be fucking reboot...

Efron as a 'cool' Skywalker who breaks into song regularly? Cyrus as Leia who's also a cheerleader? Some fucking Jonas brother as Han? And no Leia, Luke kiss, as the family thing is why Disney declined back to the future!

I always preferred Star Trek anyway.

And I'm spent...

Running season is over, for now anyway. last weekend was the final run of my 3 leg September/October jaunt round Swansea, Cardiff and Aberdare(!). Personal Bests tumbled, knee joints crumbled but after a roughly combined 242 minutes of running, I'm done.

As a result of my efforts, Barnardo's has a little more money and I have...

A truly epic collection of event t-shirts and participation medals!

My favourite shifted this year too, usually the Swansea 10k is my fav race, but this year it was Cardiff. This was helped by Swansea being horrifically wet and windy, but the crowds etc in Cardiff did spur you on, plus I wasn't struggling as much as before so could take stuff in! Aberdare? Fuck me, hardest first mile and a bit ever, but quite pleasant apart form that. Think I'd like to do it quicker, but the main issue was my brains unwillingness to let me run quickly down steep hills.

Given my standard of coordination I'd have been picking up my teeth from a rock half way down if I'd gone for it! Still worth a go though and the t-shirt from that was the nicest!  

So what now? Time to sit on my arse over crimbo and get fat... well to a degree. I've classed myself as injured at the moment as I am walking like I've shit myself due to swelling on my foot and a ropey knee, but give me a week and I'll be back in the gym on lunch times, I've kind of agreed with my pointless and demon run co-person to do the 5k 'santa' dash in Cardiff in December. It's 5k, there are no concerns there, but it'll keep me going.

Further more there's then a 8 mile road run in Newport in January (let's face it if I'm in Newport, I'm going to be running, to save my trainers from chavs at least) which looks like a great warm up for the Llanelli Half Marathon in March, which is supposed to be a nice and quite quick course. Sub 2 hours anyone? I doubt it too but I'm going to try.

Long term goal is apply for London 2014... but calm down for 5.

Then next year I'll do it all again! Well maybe!

Either way the slightly smaller version of me is more manageable and less likely to die horribly from a heart attack or related illnesses, so the exercise levels should at least stay the same, and to be fair do need to get picked up further. Particularly on distance, must run further at a time.

But for today... where's me burger?

Cardiff Half Marathon

Well that was fun, the only dry day in about 6 months, contrasting the Swansea 10k drastically, freezing temperatures to start but warming up nicely, and improvement on the course they used last year. The Cardiff Marathon was a nice day out:

I went in with a target time of 2:10, hoping for 2:05 and for the second race in a row, I hit the better target! Moving my oversized gut round the 13.1 miles in 2:03:58. If anything a bit frustrating I was closer to 2 hours than I was expecting while still falling a bit short.

A slow first mile people dodging (10:40ish) didn't help, and there was also a massive flap at around the 8 mile mark all of which cost me quite a bit of time of course. But I think with better training 2 hours should be my target come Llanelli in March.

Not a bad couple of races, taking 6ish mins of my 10k time and 19ish of my 1/2 marathon and judging by how I feel, there'#s more to come on both. Sadly my knee doesn't seem as willing as the rest of me and is rather useless at the moment, as a result I'm now officially doubtful for the Aberdare Demon Run this coming Sunday, as long as it feels ok by Wednesday I'll be raring to go, but I think I quick check up on it may be in need tomorrow.

Next year though, sub 2 hour 1/2 is on, and I also fancy a go at a 26.2 miler at some point, but maybe 2014.

So, why is the website cheaper?

There's always been an issue of website prices vs instore prices, for stores who offer both anyway. Typically, a couple of years ago buying something off someone's website would be a decent amount cheaper than going in a shop and picking it up.

This is bollocks.

I've always thought it was bollocks and many companies have now caught on to this and realised 1 shop, 1 price is the future for fairness. Bravo to the likes of HMV, John Lewis, Argos, PC World/Currys, Comet et all who do this and I think for the most part most stores do, or at least be willing to meet the website price when challenged.

There are exceptions though, there are always exceptions, and one of those exceptions is usually Game. My darling wife would like a Nintendo 3DS, and with the big 30 coming up, a Nintendo 3DS she shall have. Game were selling these little things, pre-owned, for £99.99 on their website, reasonable, probably a decent profit for them too as chances are they gave some chav about £60 trade in for it a couple of weeks ago, they do love a good profit margin.

However, in store they came in at a not massively dissimilar, but nonetheless more, £109.99. Now I'm against paying £10 so a gorp from game can hand it to me instead of my polite and efficient postman, so I asked quite nicely if they'd no it for the website price, it's only a tenner after all.

No, apparently they're different shops, but if I speak to their customer service team they may do something. OK, what's the phone number? No, no phone, online chat only... great. While not known for their level of customer service, not being able to ring is pretty shitty.

Anyway on to my shiny, new, still fast, PC I go and then to the Game site to speak to an Indian with a UK sounding 'name' (I assume). The conversation goes slowly as they carefully select predesignated phrases from a list to match my questions and basically I'm getting nowhere, basically it's getting to the point where it's not worth £10 of my time, but I do enjoy this kind of thing, so fuck it and off we go. Once the handler is clearly confused and I'm starting to border on breaking out the sarcasm. (In response too 'it's on the website prices may differ', I think I could have made about 15 one liners, but resisted) So I ask to speak to a manager and after only the 2 attempts to stop me (Unavailable, they'll only tell you the same thing) I get put through to 'Sammi'.

After initially making me repeat myself (thank you copy n paste) 'Sammi' is a little more helpful and offers me £5 credit on my Game card, but can't change the price, so I suggest giving me £10 credit so it's the same... no movement. I queried whether they'd lose the sale over £5, and 'Sammi' was happy too.

So she(?) did. Cerys wanted games too, so Game essentially cost themselves £130-£180 for the sake of a fiver. We did pop down for a look at them and for the sake of £5, Game's 'they'll buy it anyway' plan could have worked, but also their entire stock of 3DS had been battered the shit out of. Guessed as much when the shop dude, got the box and went to seal it without giving us a look at it.

Instead the money went to Amazon, where as there was a free game, we even managed to acquire the XL model. Lovely!

I know some sites such as Tesco and Amazon ship from reduced tax areas from their website, this is a reasonable reason for different prices, different tax levels. But I doubt Game are doing this. It's easy too see why a store like that ended up with the administrators in previously when they don't seem keen to move stock, no matter how many pretend discount sales of their pre-owned games they have.

Oh well Game p'd me off and lost my Football Manager pre-order, I'll just get it form Steam instead!

Dylan!

Four n a bit years ago, I was lucky enough to become the father to a somewhat temperamental but all round awesome little girl that goes by the name of Gracie, increasing the family unit from 2 members to 3.

Well today the final increase took place and my son, Dylan TBC Driscoll (if I remember I'll edit in the correct middle name when decided) was born at 4:03 yesterday afternoon.

There they are, the Driscoll kids! Nice pose Gracie!

So far Gracie has been brilliant, despite a half arsed effort at holding him! They should be home at some point today and then the sleepless nights can start!

Job done on the kids side of things then...

I've had quite a strong reaction on Facebook/texts/etc, and would like to take this opportunity to thank whoever passed on their congratulations, I can't reply to all I've received, there's lots and lots of it and I get confused easy.

Running again!

So, how do you spend your lunch hours? Quick pint? Food? Sounds good to me, but lately I've begun using the hour, and the free gym work provides, to get a bit of exercise in!

For the last few weeks, I've been banging in a quick 5km, which let's face it is more than I was doing anyway, not hard to do more than 0! Oh and when I say quick, I'm fully aware than just under 26 minutes isn't quick, I don't mean it like that, was a bit disappointed with yesterdays 5.85km in 30 minutes though.

This year I have 3 events planned:

• Swansea 10k
• Cardiff Half Marathon (21.2km)
• Aberdare 'Demon' Run (8km, but apparently over some nasty terrain)

So as you can imagine running my 5km repeatedly is woefully inadequate, but it's a start, bit of weight may come off so I won't look quite so much like a blimp in a Batman hoodie!

Maybe Val should join me!

Sorry, have to reuse it, love that pic!

Batman (Part 4)

So the Dark Knight Rises has been seen and verified as awesome! No matter where the Batman film franchise goes from here, it's safe to say there are 3 more cracking films to go with the 80s/90s ones. Tom Hardy was as good a Bane as he was a Shinzon (cracking) and bar a few suspensions in belief and one cheesy bit, the film was really good, but you know that as by now you would have seen it too. You haven't? What's wrong with you, get down the cinema. Don't make me come over there...

Anyway, as I said this final post in a stupidly over long series of posts is to do with the aspect of the Batman stuff I've probably spent the most time with, games!

I can only comment on the ones I've owned/played obviously so here we go, I'll start on... SNES!

Batman Returns: It's 1993 and 16 bits rule the gaming world! Movie tie ins were frequent and shitty, but this film was great, could the game be? They took Final Fight (a classic) gave it a Batman skin and a driving stage and voila, awesome game! Good work guys!

It controlled well, looked and sounded good and was fun to play. Can't ask for much more than that! Quite fancy getting it again for my SNES now...

Batman Forever: OK, the film wasn't as good, but use essentially an updated of the game and it'll be ok, surely! Well not quite, this game was more based graphically and by the way it controls on Mortal Kombat and could be a dark, cryptic pain in the arse at times. Still looked ok, but didn't play anywhere near as well.

You'd not quite know where you could walk, enemies would seemingly take a week to put down. Not good at all, a waste after the last game. There was a Batman & Robin game, but I can only imagine the shit that was, I never had a ps1 so never played it.

I had a bit of a gap then, I did play the PS2 Batman Begins briefly and it didn't seem great although not a total write off, nut I never got going on it. Then the games and film went their own ways and we were presented with:

Batman: Arkham Asylum: Mark Hamill is an awesome Joker voice isn't he? And this is an awesome game! Giving Batman an almost open world set up to roam and complete missions in, good, giving him loads of gadgets, doing well, big selection of enemies (Ivy, Joker, Scarecrow, Croc, Bane, Riddler etc) outstanding, the Scarecrow levels being possibly the best thing I've ever played, bonza! I could carry on, for days!

Graphics were good, sound was good, voice acting was superb, the hidden puzzles hard but achievable, that's what I'm talking about! There's something quite satisfying about silently clearing a room of armed 'goons' so they never knew what hit them. 

If you wanted to pick holes, the difficulty wasn't always steady, Croc was a piece of piss for example, and the combat could be got by on through a bit of button mashing, as opposed to learning the various tricks that are available, but some would say in that way the game is what you make it.

Not played this? For shame, get on with it, and get the 3d version. Bound to be cheap by now.

Then there was:

Batman: Arkham City: I know, lets take Arkham Asylum, work of art as it is and ramp it up so it's bigger, more headline bad guys, more puzzles, more gadgets etc... ummmm ok then!

Arkham City is essentially the same as Asylum only bigger and better. The plot is superbly written, there's so much to do (maybe too much with the riddler trophies). I'm sure I've gone on about it before so I won't overly extend this blog.

Some of the same moans exist, the fighting is similar in particular. You get variable characters, this time you get to play as Bruce Wayne (yes I know), Batman, Catwoman and (in an expansion) Robin in the main story. This then becomes the exception that proves the rule that Robin spoils everything.

Going forward? There are cliffhangers in Arkham City so a 3rd game is inevitable, I for one welcome it as it'll be awesome. Just hope it's not next gen though, I'm not keen on shelling out for new hardware. 

Anyway, lets leave it there, no more Batman I promise!

Batman! (Part 3)

Part 1: http://andrewdrisc.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/batman-part-1.html

Part 2: http://andrewdrisc.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/batman-part-2.html

Time for the modern films!

It's Batman eve, for me, I'm not seeing The Dark Knight Rises until Sunday, but there have been people in midnight showings, early ones tomorrow, Saturday etc and if any one of you gives me even the slightest hint of a spoiler I promise I'll go postal. (This has since happened)

So anyway back to the point I started making about 2 days ago...

Batman Begins: Reboot! Turn it off and back on again time! Batman Begun some time ago I hear you (me) cry, well the name refers to the plot more than anything which essentially is a origin story for the Bat. It was touched on in Batman how he got pissed off to the point where he donned a rubber suit, spent gazillions on gadgets and kicked ass, but this film is far more detailed, including his training, trying to give us more of an idea of Waynes past. Fair enough. Then he kicks some behind and it all goes well... ish.

Dark themed Batman is definitely back, and thank science for that. Sadly it appears new Batman, Christian Bale:

Had some kind of throat infection before filming his suited up scenes, giving him a kind of gravelly, almost John Connor-y sound to his voice...(The woeful Terminator Salvation was much later, I'm being nasty and that was still better than Batman and Robin).

As part of my Dark Knight Rises prep, I of course revisited this and it stands up as a good film easily, and fixed the... issues caused by BnR. To be a worthwhile franchise it needed a reboot and the style on display here is plentiful., Nolans direction is good and while not my favourite (we've been through this) Bale is a good Batman, if a smarmy and not always comfortable Bruce Wayne.

Liam Neeson is a good, if miss-pronounced Ra's Al Ghul and he'll be back in the finalé. The other choice of enemy is both random and genius, Scarecrow is one of my favourites and works well here (works even better in one of the games, but that's for later on). Victor Zsasz (mis-spelt Zsaz, honestly the continuity checker was the weakest person on the film) is on screen but only plays a brief part of the film, maybe he needed to... 'sit down' (5 bonus points if you get that).

Good start to a new series, trilogy if you will. If only the first films had been a trilogy hey!

The Dark Knight: First up, a great viral marketing campaign, the use of the Joker was outstanding and sadly cut short for reasons I don't need to go into.

Who wouldn't want to see a film advertised by that??

Heath Ledger was outstanding as Joker, and while the Oscar was pushed by circumstance, you'd struggle to justify a reason why he didn't deserve it. Two face is also used, but quite clumsily. The Dent character is well developed, but the CG a bit stupid (how does he talk exactly), but lets face against, against Tommy Lee Jones' effort, it's outstanding. Scarecrow is also back very briefly.

The film itself is once again well written and directed and the ending was wonderfully set up for a further film. It makes the claim that they were dubious about making a third hard to believe.

I have to be upgrading to blu rays of these, my Batman Begins doesn't even work...

Going on then...

The Dark Knight Rises: I'm not as oblivious to detail as I'd like, thanks to people who will be unfollowed, blocked and preferably kicked in person etc on twitter as soon as I've seen the film and I log in next. But tomorrow (well today now) I will see the film and conclude the trilogy, it's going to be awesome.

There is a part 4, nothing on TDKR, only dick give spoilers, it'll cover games!

Batman! (Part 2)

And so I go on, and on, and on....


Following me covering the 60's, 80's and first 90's film in part 1 (which can be found http://andrewdrisc.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/batman-part-1.html <--- there) let's move on and cover the rest of the 90s!


Batman Forever: No Michael Keaton? This isn't a good start is it? As I said previously Keaton is my favourite, so you should have worked out I see this as a negative. So who took over...

Val Kilmer... looking good Val!!


The villains were a very mixed bag, in the shit corner we had two-face, Tommy Lee Jones, giving one of the most over the top and uncomfortable performances of his career. In previous instalments Harvey Dent had been played by Billy Dee Williams, but they paid him off to cast a bigger name (Calrissian is a pretty big name), I think they should have left him do it.


In the awesome corner Jim Carrey as the Riddler, giving one of the most over the top and somehow just right performances of his career. To a point it's maybe a little true he was just essentially playing himself dressed as the Riddler, but it worked in the generally over the top setting Joel Schumacher had chosen to take the franchise.

The plot is further 'out there'than the previous too films, which plays into Carrey well, but doesn't sit well with Tommy at all. Val Kilmer is... ok, and obviously not as... porky... as above and then film introduces Robin (Dick Grayson version)! Rule of thumb with many things, Robin spoils them and he doesn't go well here, but he goes a damn site better than in the next film.


Overall, it's a step down from the first 2 'modern' films, but it's still fun to watch, I'd have rather they stuck to the dark Batman films, kept Keaton and Burton, but key ho. It could get worse.


And it did...


Batman and Robin: What the mother fuck is this shit?


Who thought this was a good idea? Who was at the script writers/casting meeting and OK'd the ideas:

• Arnie plays Mr Freeze and delivers 80% of his dialogue via the medium of cheesy pun.

• George Clooney is Batman??!?!?!?

• Robin worked so well, let's make him even more moody and annoying, and wait, let's introduce Batgirl as well... that'll alloy Alicia Silverstone to give possibly the worst performance by anyone... in anything... ever. But not the normal Batgirl/Oracle, well change the name and back story a bit so it fits better.

• Bane? We'll just turn him into a almost mute moron who just follows an overacting Uma Thurman, who's making Tommy Lee Jones effort look like an oscar winner, round like a puppy. Let's be thankful The Dark Knight Rises hasn't taken that approach to one of the best recently created DC villains.

• A Bat Credit Card?? Yeah I love product placement, it really enhances my viewing experience... 

It's like people only do these things because they can get paid. And that's just really sad. 

• A Robin signal?????

Look at them, what the fuck is that supposed to be, and what's Robin wearing? Why do the men have nipples but not the woman? Who designed this shite?

I made myself sit through this as part of watching Batman to prepare for Batman. My tweets during were more like a cry for help.

The film killed the Batman franchise in this form, it took the best part of a decade and a reboot to save it. But luckily that reboot was pretty damn good, but I wanna go bed now so I'll do them tomorrow. 

Batman! (Part 1)

Of all the superheroes created by graphic artists/geeks/propaganda campaigns over the years, I can honestly say Batman is my favourite and by some distance.

So, with The Dark Knight Rises due out on Friday and my IMAX tickets booked for Sunday (baby permitting) I thought I'd share my thoughts on stuff he's been in, today... films!

He had been represented on screen many times over the years with a varying degree of success. I'm ignoring the 1940s serials, as I've not seen them, and I'm ignoring animated stuff as there's bastard loads of them and I can't be arsed.

Anyway to the 60's!

Batman: The 60s TV series is a thing of legend, its was good fun and spawned a 1966 feature length version, which wasn't great quality, but is fun to watch and contains some very funny scenes, particularly the 'Some days you just can't get rid of a bomb!' line

Genius!!

Adam West was... special as Batman and will always have that kind of funny/campy interpretation to himself, it fitted the tone of the series and the time perfectly. The series itself is still very watchable and will remain so, the film struggled quite a bit and is relatively poor, feeling like an episode stretched out for twice the length.

The film just had a blu-ray release, £8 on amazon. It is tempting... Very tempting...

Batman (1989): Enough of fun Batman, this was the birth of 'dark' Batman, and good it was too! Michael Keaton was and will always be my favourite Batman, he plays off the bit of a rich cock Bruce Wayne and the moody Batman superbly and Jack as the Joker isn't bad either!

The plot is good, the casting and acting bang on. Tim Burton does a fine job directing, as to be fair he usually does. The film came out when I was a massive 7 and it was one of the films I grew up watching, that may make me slightly biased towards it (and it's sequel, but patience), but everything here felt right

Some would moan that Batman kills in this film, where in the comics he doesn't. Well he used too, so maybe that's hankering back to old comics. Yeah that'll do. And the fact the joker has a name? Shouldn't really happen, but hey, minor points.

So... have you ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight?

Batman Returns: 3 years later and Keaton was back for the sequel, and in my opinion the best of all the Batman films. I'm not entirely sure where Batman was returning from, but he did indeed return!

Penguin and Catwoman provide the enemies, but hats off to a stand out performance from Christopher Walken as Max Shreck, the man's awesome.

Look at him, he even looks deranged!

The plot is darker than the first film and was considered more mature at the time, but it's still good comic book action. Having 2 (well 3 with Max) super villains working together made it a bit more frantic. It had some memorable scenes, my favourite being the, 'It could be worse, my nose could be gushing blood' line!

Go on Danny, take a bite!

Once again under Burton's direction everything about the film works and feel right, the dark tone suits Keaton perfectly. All of the positives of the first film carry over, and while neither De Vito or Pfeiffer play it as well as Jack, combined they work just as well.

This is my favourite and while Friday's release has the potential to take over, it's a tall order. Who knows!

The 4 Blu-Ray boxset of the first 4 films is justified by these 2 alone, they are superb films and the standard all superhero films that followed has to live up too.

Anyway that's all I can be arsed with for today, part 2 tomorrow (or Thursday) and there will be swearing as I venture into Kilmer/Clooney territory...

Games

Now I have a fairly decent size xbox games collection. By no means is it huge but there's a good few titles in there, maybe 40 or so? However of late I find myself struggling to really find anything I can be arsed playing. I mean I have driving games, sports games, kinect games, sandbox games, role playing games and shooting games (oh so many bastard shooting games).

I have games that are considered amazing, for example I've been trying to play Skyrim, which I'm assured by everyone is amazing and immersive and one of the best there is. Personally I have just killed a giant spider and then continually die on the next bit, doing the same section over and over again isn't interesting and I didn't want to play it any more.

Yes, this is down to me being shit at it I accept, but I enjoy other things I'm shit at, football, playing the piano lack of ability is no boundary there, Skyrim (like Fallout before it until I had some kind of epiphany and suddenly loved it) not happening mate, someone else can save your kingdom, or whatever else the fuck is going on.

But not just picking on Skyrim, games as a rule are very generic, there's so many FPS games, all produced just because Call of Duty sells, I'm sure they make up 60% of the software base. I just someone would release something new and good. Deadly Premonition would've been ideal but it's a bitch to control and looks like hell.

Minecraft is my salvation at the moment, I enjoy a bit of minecraft, maybe I'll do a blog just about minecraft soon. Maybe.

New toy time! - Samsung Galaxy S3

More of a forced upon me change this one, but I still do love a new toy as return readers and/or people who know me already are well aware of, but usually I seek them out rather than them being forced!

I've had some issues with the three network over the months, their poor signal, poor service, the disaster of a phone call trying to cancel my mobile broadband... it's all built up.

The mobile signal was the ongoing issue though, and finally, after my 5th time of referring it to the 100% outsourced call centre, they agreed the product wasn't for me and allowed me to return the phone and go elsewhere. Bye bye my lovely iPhone 4, I enjoyed using you, if not using you particularly quickly or at all in areas with poor signal quality.

But what now? I need a new phone and fairly quickly as my three stuff ends today.

Come sunny Sunday morning, after some online research and asking on facebook/twitter (@andrewdrisc!) to Carphone Warehouse we headed to have a moment of hands on with the shortlist:

iPhone 4s
Samsung Galaxy s3
HTC One x

It took me about 14 seconds to make the decision, it was a Galaxy all the way, not this galaxy

Or sadly this one:

but this one (in blue):

I've now had it for a couple of days and I'm impressed, some of the things that made me android wary aren't really issues at all, their app store is good, I'm not missing anything I use regularly and have found new stuff, it runs easy is simple to use and their version of iTunes, while it doesn't sell stuff, runs... just like iTunes. 

The phone itself is great, the screen is lovely, its responsive and while the battery isn't great still, in it's infancy it's easily adequate (and if needed you can take it out and replace it!!). There'll be some getting used to it, but as of now I'm very happy with my purchase.

The contract comes with unlimited data and tethering (which I'm using right now!) and the signal... well there is some, I have signal! This feels a bit weird after about a year of cutting out calls and no 3G. Bravo T-Mobile/Orange.

Now I've never been a tech snob, any brand has a shout with me, it's all about the quality of the product, but I did like my iPhone(s). The iPhone 5 is coming i know and I'm sure it'll be lovely and shiny and new a feature packed, but I had to choose now and by the looks of it I've made a cracking choice.

I will take this opportunity to have a last swing at three though, honestly people these are best avoided. The signal can be poor, obviously not everywhere, but everywhere I wanted and the service is worse. Avoid!

Twin Peaks

Generally I'm not a massive fan of television. Quite allot of it is shite, there's no denying it. I'm thinking of the Big Brothers, the Geordie Shores, The TOWIEs of this world as the absolute dross. Then follow that up with the 3,457 singing and dancing shows and that's probably about 40% of the TV listings covered already. Sometimes it feels like clever, inventive TV has died, and now only only production value that matters is appealing to the lowest common denominator so lots of chavs will watch then go on twitter saying how lush Fred is cos like he's so like cool. That strategy works, they do, and that the lord my twitter allows me to filter out and ignore keywords. It's like soooo awesome.

Occasionally I find something I like though. Generally it's long after it was on TV and using the media of DVD, Blu Ray or Netflix. Such media has presented me with the likes of Dr Horrible (not really tele I know), Firefly (I never got round to watching it at the time, but now I know 'tis awesome) and many more. Most recently I watched Twin Peaks.

Now I was 8 when it was on first, I wasn't getting it then, I watched it half heartedly in the late 90s, but never saw it all. So now I thought, let's go, who did kill Laura Palmer? 30 episodes later I finished what must be one of the finest TV series ever made, it was funny, clever, dramatic, sometimes confusing, usually a bit odd, but of the highest quality. David Lynch and Mark Frost, take a bow.

I'm not going to post anything potentially a bit spoiler-y, although out of context not much would help. So I'll leave it with just a recommendation, go watch, it's a decent reason to get the Netflix free month on its own.

Then once you're done with that there's the film. A prequel! Fire Walk with me just had a new Blu-Ray and DVD press just for when I finish the series, what are the chances!?!

I shelled out my cash and I have a copy, it's flawed, technically I mean the audio track slows down randomly a few times, which isn't ideal but it doesn't bother actually watching it. It's much... harsher than the series, the tone is darker and it shows things (violence, nudity) the series generally only hints at. Nevertheless it's good stuff and well worth a watch, but series first or it'll spoil the who-done-it part of the series. And it'll make little sense at times.

OK it makes little sense at times anyway, but it all pulls together in the end. Plus for some reason Kiefer Sutherland, Chris Isaak and David Bowie all turn up (briefly).

Go on, give it a go. They really don't make TV like this any more. Plus with Lynch cold on the idea, can't see it happening again, even though there is a line in the script which leaves it wide open.

New stuff - SNES, Pi and the bunny

Over the last week or so I seem to have acquired stuff quite quickly.

My Raspberry Pi has arrived, about 4 years after I placed the order, but to be honest, all enthusiasm for the little thing has long since perished and if anything it seems a waste for me to hold on to it.

That is my hand and no I'm not a giant, it really is quite small. But the task of gathering equipment, power lead (actually have that) HDMI cable, SD card reader, SD card that works, etc, is seeming as attractive as jumping into some chemical waste and becoming a super-villain. Hmmmm.....

At the moment it's as likely to end up on eBay as actually being used...

But better than that, which seeing as I'm completely unenthusiastic about it isn't overly hard, is the new pet the child has come into the possession of! She has wanted something quite fluffy for a while now and we considered Hamsters (vicious little bastards, fuck that), Guinea Pigs (look a bit like fat rats?) but eventually settled on a rabbit. It's her 4th birthday on Saturday, so last weekend we went and picked one up with me and mother Driscoll fronting 50% of the cost each. Pets at home staff, I have to say were quality, told us what we needed, including a back story on the rabbit and a few hours later et voila:

We have Rosie the rabbit at home, in a nice wooden hutch. Cute aint she?? Shits all the time don't she?? Had her outdoor (now indoor as a result) hutch attacked by a cat first night didn't she?? What stupid animals cats are, just bog off moggy haven't you got some birds to pester?? Stupid animals, feed them all to dogs I reckon! 

And yes that is a USA football top, I like it, it's a nice design!

Finally my favourite new possession is this little beauty:

Oh yes, that is a remarkably good condition PAL Super Nintendo, wanted one for a while and eventually just went and bought it, £40 with 2 games (Super Tennis and Flashback) both of which I used to have and love back in the day. 

The source of this purchase was the lovely Otakuzoku in Cardiff, a cracking little shop on Sailsbury Road in Cardiff, much recommended as they had loads of stuff. (I'll take my fee now...) Only down side was they wanted £23 for Super Metroid, I want Metroid, but not for that cash.

I got a component cable connection for it for £3 on ebay and it looks and plays fabulous. I'm now on the prowl for games on eBay. There is a possibility that these old games may seemingly suck now, but I'm confident my happy 16 bit memories will still hold up, they have on the first 2 games at least. Super Tennis is awesome! I've experienced annoyance with the Mortal Kombat collection on the 360, so some caution will be used though. I also need to invest in a 2nd controller.

In addition a Game Boy pocket has turned up, complete with Tetris game and has seen some use already, although sadly the battery back up in the cart is dead so no scores are saved. Tetris is still a fabulous game though.

Oh and Twin Peaks rocks, everyone watch.

Olympic Partners and Pomp

This doesn't refer to athletes shaggin' in the village, although I'm sure that does go on.

The days of the Olypics being an amateur event about sport are obviously long gone.  It seems to now be an odd trend between pointless ritual and money, with some events thrown in the middle somewhere. Let's face it, the games themselves are about 3 weeks? Just over? While the worldwide cash in campaign is months, if not years.

Companies (the partners of the title) will throw any possible amount of money at the organisers just to get their name associated with the event. Some of these just don't make sense. Two obvious one's stick out, McDonalds and Coca Cola, two things criminally bad for health, I enjoy partaking in both, but in no way do I think Big Mac meal with a coke, let's do some triple jump!Is unhealthy food really who the IOC want to be associated with? Of course, as they have the most money to give them.

Others on the list just make you think, why? P&G are on there and it's plastered all over their adverts. But once again... what's the association? Are the risks of Paula Radcliffe shitting on the pavement again so high, they've got the manufacturers of pampers in just in case? Or have they got some discount Ariel out of the deal and the athletes wash their (hopefully not shit stained) clothes in it?

UPS? Well I suppose if I was an athlete I wouldn't want to use bastard Yodel either, who would? Fucking Yodel.

Visa? Naturally the more active or accurate or... ummm, of the payment methods...

Nature Valley? Will those business people falling into the haystack on the advert be being replaced with water polo players?

There are some obvious matches, Airwave a radio supplier, going to need them. Ticketmaster, yep going to need someone to sell tickets, addidas, sportswear... yeah cool, technogym, running to techno music? I not sure but it sounds like something that makes sense.

Basically any company with enough cash and the urge to have their name associated with such a global spectacle of an event can become an Olympic partner, I don't like that.

Then there's all the pointless ceremony. Friday I've taken the day off work, the reason? A good percentage of Cardiff will be closed while people run through the streets holding the Olympic torch, so everyone can get to see it. Wow, a torch. Yeah, I'll hang round for that...

Then the bastard thing is following me and will close bits of Merthyr Saturday, for gods sake I've got things to do!The idea that this torch thing has to go within x distance of everyone's house baffles me. I understand it some attempt to involve the whole country, but I don't give a shit. I don't want to see the torch, I don't want a T-Shirt, I don't want a mouse mat, or a mug. I momentarily thought about getting tickets to the football, but as my beliefs are no Welsh players should be involved (Bale, Ramsey, Williams, Allen, etc this means you) I thought no, plus they were expensive!

There'll be an xbox game, it'll be crap, they're always crap, so I don't want that.

I also don't want to watch drug cheats such as Dwaine Chambers compete, but looks like I'm stuck with that too. I won't celebrate if he gets a medal, luckily he shouldn't.

I'll watch and enjoy the Olympics, don't get me wrong, but all the BS that comes with it, I can do without. I'm now resigned to however many decades of having this shit stuffed down my throat. It should be about the athletes, not cash.

What a moron!

And for once the carrot in question is me! I forgot to 'publish' this Friday so read it from the context of that day!

I stroll onto the bus this morning (Friday) brandishing the weekly 'Megarider Gold' ticket Stagecoach peddle me for more than it's worth each week. To my knowledge there's no MegaRider Silver, I think the name may just be pointless fluff to make them sound better than they are when 'Weekly' would suffice. I hold up, the same ticket I've been using all week, and the soon to retire (by the looks of him) bus driver calls me back, points out the back that the ticket expired some time ago.

Pointing it out is fine, but this old nob end decides to speak to me in a way I'd be embarrassed to speak to Gracie in. Bet he didn't consider the literally 9 hits this blog would get. Ha who's stupid now. Actually there may have been more people in the queue behind me than that...

I stand there confused, convinced that I bought it on Tuesday, but unable to deny the fact the ticket has indeed expired. With insufficient funds upon my person to get a ticket I'm forced off the bus and begin searching my stuff for the correct ticket. I was there Tuesday, I remember buying it. But the bus leaves as I head to a cashpoint to get ticket money.

Upon my return to the bus station i get a thought, an idea, just in the back of my mind. Where did I see a bus ticket? Open the front pocket of my faithful Targus backpack (with cushioned section for the very netbook that brings this blog to you) and low and behold, stoke the fucking crows, boil a bastard geordie, there is is all flat and shiny and expiring on 21/5.

Ha, fuck you old codger, told you I had one.

Keep on running

It's that time of the year again, the time of year I try to do something I'm physically incapable of to raise money for charity (well not only for that, I do it so I don't become a 30 stone monster as well, beefcake!), this year I've used all my imagination and done exactly the same as last year, the Cardiff Half Marathon, plus probably the Swansea 10k as a warm up race.

This year I'll be joined by my friends Brad and James (or so I'm told by Brad, don't count numbers til the start line), here's the classiest photo I could find of myself (the floral number) and Bradley (the little black/grey dress) from my stag night. Ignore the bald one, we always find it best.

Anyway, running requires preparation, something which traditionally I suck at as much as the running part. So this year I've started earlier (well it can't be any later than last year as I barely did anything, lazy motherf...) so Rhydycar gym will actually start earning the £9,500 a month it takes from my account. So far I've made 2 visits, on the first covering 4 miles and doing a bit on the bike and the second 5 miles, both at pretty decent pace too, so I'm pretty confident I'll be able to do 13 by October.

The main issue at the moment is feeling the urge to stop at even the faintest hint of fatigue. Knowing rest and relaxation is just a large red stop button away is quite tempting, to the point where on the 5 miles, I could have easily have carried on, I wasn't feeling that bad, but just thought, "That'll do fatty, go get a burger." Which of course I didn't.

Luckily I get myself into a mindset that once I'm going I do tend to really enjoy training. Headphones in, decent music, bit of adrenaline or something pumping, sense of achievement when you get there, it's good stuff.

Equally my choice of charity is still open, traditionally of late I've fund raised for Velindre, a very worthy cause. But with a new sprog on the way (have I mentioned that? I have now anyway) the temptation is there to support a kids charity, such as the NSPCC who I ran for on my first half marathon, also with Brad but no James, ended with quite a nasty knee injury...

Any suggestions, I have a comments section....

I may keep this blog updated periodically with training updates, I doubt they'll be that interesting, but it's my blog and I'll post what I like! I'm planning on hitting the gym this very evening, 5 miles again is the target, see how I feel when I get there. I'm still far to heavy to make a decent go at it, but I'll get there. I even have Special K for Breakfast this morning! Not out of any weight-loss plan, I just really like the red berries one. 

Also is it wrong I'm really fancying a kebab at the moment?

American Pie: Reunion

From previous posts, you may know that I dislike it when people bleed a franchise for everything it's worth, and the American Pie franchise has seen it's fair of bleeding. Namely Band Camp, Naked Mile, Beta House and Book of Love (Shame on you Eugene Levy, even though he apparently did the DVD ones on the cheap).

So excuse me if I was a little blasé when it came to American Reunion, or the 65 other slight variations on that title. It looked generally more of the same as the first 3 (and maybe the DVD ones, I haven't seen anything bar the first), same characters, same setting etc, could work, may not... It was also billed as the 4th in the series, excommunicating the straight to DVD stuff. Ha!

But it looked worth watching, purely for an element of nostalgia, and the wife wanted to see it too so bingo, we're off.

                  

Some of it felt tired (hmm I wonder if Jim'll end up in an awkward situation... oh yeah, there he goes) and to be fair the film was exactly what you'd expect, almost frame for frame. Some of it felt... wrong (no spoilers). However that isn't necessarily an entire negative, as it was easy and familiar to watch and enjoyable throughout. But please don't make any more.

Oh and why was Oz not mentioned in the 3rd film at all, not even a breath, he vaguely mentions it here but still...

Oh and there were tits, of course there were tits it's american pie. Oh and Jason Biggs cock (or stunt plastic variation). No pie though... but well worth seeing.

Merthyr Town FC Champions again

Saturday afternoon I took my semi regular trek through the gates on Penydarren Park to watch my beloved Merthyr Town play Infracombe in the knowledge a win would confirm they win the league and return them to the Southern League, now just 1 division below where they were when Merthyr Tydfil went bust.

They beat this side 5-0 away not 1 week before, surely it would be simple! When is it ever simple?

After a considerable period of being unable to hit a cows arse with a banjo, eventually the significant proportion of the play Merthyr had paid off they scored and won 1-0 (Goal by Ryan Prosser), keeping them a point clear and with second place Bitton having no games left... game over. There was a nice trophy prsentation after and much sparkling white was sprayed around the field. Nice trophy too:

Western League trophy

Two promotions in 2 years is nothing to be sniffed at any level and while the Western Football League wasn't exactly of blistering quality, it was entertaining at times! Next years return to the Southern League (in a regional division) should be a notable step up in quality and I doubt three on the bounce is really on the cards, but you never know! Next year will see the return to some more familiar teams such as Mangotsfield, Tiverton, Taunton... Still pretty obscure, but better!

I'll be there next year, and judging by the turnout at a few of the later games this year, there's potential for quite a few others to be there too, just need to carry on doing well to keep the crowds in. 725 my arse. Even got their mugs on sgorio. Da Iawn!

Worst part is, despite the season being done, champions decided etc, 2 teams have not played the full 34 matches, Merthyr and Wells. The games been abandoned once and postponed once and now... doesn't matter much (Unless Merthyr score 5 to get their 100 goals for the season, or if Wells win they come 11th not 12th). It's now scheduled for the 8th, I doubt too many of the players will be up for the 4 hour round trip for little/no reason. Call it a draw?

Stuff like this just confirms to me even more, while an Arsenal follower I'll continue to be, I'm a fan of Merthyr.