Messages

"As in the choice of being an addict or not?"

The choice to something even though we know it's bad for us, because we enjoy it? Fuck, yes.

Yes, because of the principle, and yes in practical terms because I don't want the next thing the Powers That Be decree to bad for us, and thus doubleplusungood, to be one of my few remaining vices ...

Cheers!

Jim

[all going to die]

Be in no doubt - the health nazis will be coming after the drinkers next. The BMA report on which the Government based its decision to implement the smoking ban also recommended a limit of three drinks per patron in all pubs and bars, but the Government realized that there would be rioting in the streets if they tried to impose that.

Nonetheless, you must have noticed the creeping rise in documentaries and discussion shows taking the "Booze Culture" theme, all of which contributes to an atmosphere of social unacceptability and creates an environment where it becomes feasible to restrict by legislation.

I'm particularly amused by the health lobby's frequent references to the number of "lives that will be saved" by the smoking ban. More accurately, should that not be the number of deaths postponed by an unknown period of time?

I fear the ever-growing reach of the nanny state. For God's sake - we are all going to die. In all honesty, those people whose lifestyles are such that they're likely to die young should be rewarded for their civic-minded determination not to be a burden on the state in old age.

I exercise regularly, literally never eat junk food, have stopped smoking, but I do like a drink ... why should I have opprobium heaped upon me, but some fat fuck whose diet consists entirely of Micky Ds and Pizza Hut is found more acceptable?

Here's a thought - leave us both alone, me and the Hamburger Kid. Either we're intelligent enough to know what we're doing to our bodies, and have decided that the consequences are an acceptable trade-off for the pleasure of our chosen vice; or we're fucking idiots and we deserve what we're getting.

Non-smokers want to have a pint without smokers? Fine - make the default state of pubs non-smoking, the same as it is with restaurants, but why not allow smokers the choice?

Sorry ... that turned out to be more of a rant than I'd planned.

Cheers

Jim

"I second Dark City, though. Brilliant film."

Damn straight. There are maybe a half-dozen films that have come out of mainstream Hollywood in the last twenty years that make you think: "How the Hell did that get made?"

Dark City is one of them. Sit down and try to put that synopsis on paper, and then try to imagine pitching that.

I have this mental image of someone saying:

"Jesus! Who's next?"

"I dunno - it's this guy with some script called 'Being John Malkovich' ..."

Cheers!

Jim

"Dark City, by the Wachowski brothers before they did the Matrix"

Eh? Dark City is directed by Alex Proyas, after The Crow but before I, Robot (which I haven't seen). Somewhere in between those two movies was the rumoured re-make of Quatermass and the Pit, which I would have given my eye teeth to have seen.

Cheers!

Jim

"there's nothing better than surfing the net while snuggle up in bed"

I have to say ... you can keep all your man walking on the moon malarkey. Greatest achievement of mankind? The ability to access the internet from your bed.

Cheers

Jim

"There is a lot of snobbery with mac users against pcs but the fact is they are superior but they cost a lot more than a pc so you get what you pay for"

No ... they actually aren't that expensive. Find a Vaio with broadly the same spec as MacBook/MacBook Pro and you'll find that the price is usually comparable to +/- £100 or so.

In fact, if you match most Apple specs on Dell's site, you'll usually come in with a roughly equivalent price.

A big chunk of the price difference, however, does come down to  intangibles - OSX, iLife, the purported lower maintenance overheads and ease of use.

For me, the intangibles more than justify a few extra quid*, but that's a call that's very individual to each person.

Cheers

Jim

*For context ... with a previous employer, I ended up providing IT support to an entirely Mac-based business of over 50 workstations and three servers. I did this single-handedly, with no more qualification than 18 months' experience as a user and a subscription to MacFormat.

... But off-topic by a mile!

Can I just say that I'm having my first laptop experience with this 'ere new MacBook, and I'm loving the living daylights out of it. Wireless networking lets me mooch around the house without losing internet access, and this machine is chewing up Photoshop, InDesign and -- to my surprise -- some fairly demanding Cinema 4D jobs without choking.

I gots me new toys ... I's a happy chappy ...!

Cheers

Jim

"Yep-it was posted a while ago "

Well, kudos to the Jockster ... I'm actually kind of pleased that it wasn't HWSNBN that unearthed this.

Since we're pissing away bandwidth by duplicating threads, I'd also like to agree with Mr Jock that the Arkham 'trailer' on the same site is also rather splendid.

For a somewhat less literal, but rather entertaining take on another comic book fave (and hopefully not a hopeless rehashing of an existing thread) try the link below. I don't seem to be able to link directly to the movie, so visit the page and click as directed ...

Cheers!

Jim

Link: http://www.animwatch.com/Spotlight-BatmanHelpMe.php#" target="_blank">Holy Animated Shenanigans!

... But this quite remarkable for a fan piece, IMO.

(Scarier still, I picked up the link from a quick sweep past alt.comics.2000ad for the first time in many months, and it was posted by He Who Shall Not Be Named.)

I say - give the guy $60 million and a translator, and let him get on with it!

Cheers

Jim

PS: My apologies if this has been brought up before - it was certainly new to me.

Link: http://www.miguelmesas.com/fanfilms/PlaySLAINEsubtitled.htm" target="_blank">Blimey!

"Anyway, Stront should be in colour - its it's destiny, only hampered by horrible management decisions from its inception."

You are, of course, entirely correct ...! Apologies for the lack of a cite, but didn't Carlos have some really ground-breaking stuff planned for the art on the original Starlord run?

I'm sure I remember reading that he had all kinds of ambitious ideas for combining painted artwork and photography that got scuppered when Da Management scaled back the budget for paper quality and repro ...

Cheers

Jim

"I wasn't online when this was on the go and got to wondering about what others thought of Carlos' (or someone else's) decision to go B/W on it. "

If memory serves (which -- as ever -- is a somewhat questionable qualifier) didn't Andy Diggle offer Carlos his full colour page rate for doing b/w on Roadhouse?

Sadly, I think Andy got screwed on that particular deal ...

However, you're totally right about the sound effects and, when I'm Supreme Emperor of the Cosmos, there will be a reckoning on this subject.

Cheers

Jim

"Offensive? Isn't that a bit strong?
Surely at the very worst it was just silly panto bollocks, like much of the series in general."

Horses. Courses. I felt that the contempt for the audience which dripped from every lazy plot hole, every third rate cliche, every yawning chasm in story logic, was offensive.

In the grand scheme of things, yes, there is plenty of stuff going on in the world that I could get much more worked up over. This, however, is a thread about Doctor Who, and this episode was not just shit, but shit that insulted it its audience.

Bah.

Jim

"Anyway pure shite, so much I disliked that it'd take forever to list."

Agreed. I thought this episode was so bad it was offensive. I actually feel like writing to the BBC and asking for part of my license fee back.

Cheers!

Jim

[ON]

"Maybe mrs saxon picked it and the master just decided to go along with it"

Wise man, that Master.

For some reason, I now have visions of the season finale being the Doctor and the Master squaring up in a pub car park while Martha shrieks "Go ON -- kick 'is 'ead in!" and Mrs Saxon wails "Leave it, 'arold ... 'e's not worth it!"

Well, it'd save a couple of quid on the FX budget, anyway.

Cheers

Jim

"The spheres contain the spirits of Time Lord children who looked into the VOrtex, in a Neitzsche kind of "they looked into the Vortex, it looked back" stylee. This explains why they talk and act like children, and the cold, dark thing they are afraid of is the vortex."

This makes a lot of sense, and would set up a "you must destroy your race AGAIN" sort of thing that I could see RTD going for in a big way ...

Cheers

Jim