A blog post! Yep, I'm still here.

Ok, I know I owe you guys a Falklands post with loads of photos, probably a post covering all the exciting things I've done since then (but not mentioning getting so drunk at an official function that I embarrassed myself completely. Crap, forget I mentioned that!) but for now I'll slap some photos up from last weekend.

Sarah (house mate Sarah, not any of the other ones) had her parents and sister in law visiting with her sister in law's dog Gary. We went over to Channory Point to try to see some dolphins. Nope, no dolphins but I did manage to get a few pictures of the dogs that came out quite well. Maisie is the ginger Cocker Spaniel, Gary is the other one.

On the way home we stopped off at Brodie Countyfaire for tea and a cake which was nice and nowhere near as expensive as I was expecting.

On other matters I've been to see Sherlock Holmes 2 (again) and loved it, Underworld in 3D and enjoyed it (don't go unless you've seen the others and liked them!) and Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance. I'll say this, the flame effects in Ghost Rider were superb, the 3D was very well done (although I was expecting the chain to really fling out more) and the bike was cool. For the rest, I think it may have been one of the worst films I've seen for a very long time. Not sure what it was, just didn't like most of the film and normally I love Nick Cage in silly popcorn films.

Flood - or "Bad Meteorology"

A storm surge associated with a low pressure system hits the north of Scotland, runs down the east coast and hits London.
First things first. It's a drama, it needs a bad guy and in this case it's the Met Office, shown as a bunch of model following incompetents. The only people aware of the danger are private companies, and if you're not attached to the office, you'd probably enjoy it.
Now, a couple of things. The facts as stated in the first sentence are true, large storm surges happen and are one of the things that we monitor VERY closely. The Ops centre (not shown accurately) do have lots of models but they also have satellites and actual reports to look at. They've also got us. All of the outstations would be watching this and all of us would be working on it separately, if we thought the Ops guys were wrong we'd sodding well tell them! The office would issue warnings for what might happen, as has been shown recently - and like I said, east coast surges are a sore point. We're often criticised that we issue too many warnings, but it's better to be warned.
Having said that, sometimes things do go wrong and sometimes forecasts go wrong, but on that scale? For us to miss the possibility by that much is a bit much.
This is the thing I'm not liking about the program - we're shown in a pretty shit light. Apart form that, it's actually not too bad. They point out the 1953 floods when exactly this happened, it was the highest peacetime loss of life in Britain for a very long time.
People don't like to think about storm surges, they're scary, but they are real. You get (roughly speaking) one metre of surge for every 10 mB drop and about one metre of wind wave for every 10 knots of wind, so to get the 50 odd foot you'd need a central low pressure of about 900 mB and winds of about 80 kt. Possible. In fact, statistically, likely - given a long enough time frame. But not this week. In fact we've had two big storms that threatened to do just this within the last two years, one on the west coast and one on the east. In one case the surge hit at low tide and for the other the pressure wasn't as low as could be and went further off shore, allowing the flood defences to work.
It's just how they show the Office that sticks in my craw. Trust me, if I'd seen a storm like that heading for the coast I'd be looking at it HARD. We'd be one of the first groups hit so we'd be signing the clarion call at the top of our voices!
By the way, as with pretty much all British disaster films, they get COBRA wrong. It is the emergency group but it actually refers to Cabinet Office Briefing Room A. It's a room they use; or at least was originally. I may put in more as the film progresses, depends on how annoyed I am.

Convergence

A lager advert on the TV has Violent Femmes as a sound-track, which made me pop onto iTunes and grab it, as it made me think about Grosse Point Blank, one of my 20 favourite films (come on! "I killed the president of Paraguay with a fork, how have you been?" Lines don't get much better). Riding back from Inverness today and the same tune came on my iPod, I think "must watch that film again soon" and lo and behold, right now on UKTV Gold, it's Grosse Point Blank.
*edit to add* just seen one of my favourite scenes on film. As a single guy I have a certain image to maintain as a climbing, boarding, kayaking, martial arts blokey bloke but the bit in the film with Robbie (at the reunion with Under Pressure in the background), it's just fantastic. If you've seen the film you'll know it. Just gets to me, you know. ;D */edit*
Score!
Tis a good day.

Also managed to get a few pictures of Scotland today as well, this is one of the better ones.

You know, I'm really lucky to live up here. I was faced with the dilemma of do I go snow-boarding, to the cinema, walking on the beach or walking on a snow covered mountain on my day off. Woosed out, went to the cinema, saw 21, not bad. Grosse Point Blank's better though. Mountains later, wine now.

Predictions of the future

I'm watching Johnny Mnemonic and it's interesting in some ways, the VR headset he's using looks a bit like the Video goggles, but not much (hint for Christmas there :D ). Laughed to myself when he was barking instructions for the bits of kit he wanted, including a "Thomson i phone." Might have been "eye-phone" but was worth a giggle.
Nowt much else happening. I think I've managed to finish half of the remaining NVQ units, going to try to finish the rest this week (said that before) and I've been told I can sign off the hours at the gym, which is a good reason to go more.
Got a bit depressed when I realised that I have one friend on XBox live, even my fish have more of a social life than I do. On the plus side it's been good catching up with Danni on Facebook.
Wow, that actually is a fair summary of my week. Bit sad really.

Answers to the film quotes thingy

I've put the answers to the film quote quiz at the bottom of the entry, if anyone wants to still try it, just don't scroll down too far.

The film quote thingy

So, with apologies to Darc and Traxer (and everyone else)...
Rules are:
1. Pick 15 of your favourite movies. (Not necessarily in order).
2. Go to IMDb and find a quote from each movie.
3. Post them here for everyone to guess.
4. Fill in the film title once it's guessed.
5. NO GOOGLING/using IMDb search functions to answer!

1. “Is it really worth the price?” “I pay it gladly.”
2. “Oh, fuck off, grasshopper!”
3. “Bogies my ass, them's Bandits!”
4. “That was bad! Bad Intelligence!”
5. “Does it come in black?”
6. “Sort out your boobs man, you look like a bleedin' Picasso!”
7. "And the great whore will suckle us until we are fat and happy and can suckle no more.”
8. “I am, however, wearing full body armour. I am not a moron!”
9. “I love it when a posh bird talks dirty!”
10. "Do I look like I give a damn?"
11. “But you did not say “God bless you” when I sneezed!”
12. “What do stars do?”
13. “Who? Who is but the form following the function of what and what I am is a man in a mask.”
14. “Every time they run, we take a shot.”
15. “That punk is either in love with that guy's daughter or he has a new-found respect for life!”

So there we are, some of the films are better known than others, some of the quotes are easier than others (anyone gets number 3 and I'll be impressed!) and there are a few other films that the only quotes I could use would be too easy. Leave your answers as comments and I'll be able to give credit where it's due. First come first served for credit but if you answer without looking at other people's answers we'll know you were good. And that's what matters.
Enjoy.

*Edit* That was fast, Sian's got 7 of them. I'll leave the answers in the comments section until either they're all got or I think that everyone that's going to try has done. :D

I think I might have a week of night's coming up soon, and if so this could well be my program for what to watch. Although I'll need to buy one of them, and another isn't out on DVD yet (bit of a clue).

Well, only one person gave it a try, which says quite a bit about the number of people that read this ;( and Swiral has put up one of her own, which is much more of a challenge, so here's the list of films. I'd recommend them all, and they're all now out on DVD.

1. Equilibrium
2. Hot Fuzz
3. By Dawn's Early light - 90's nuclear war film.
4. Team America, World Police
5. Batman Begins
6. Robin Hood: Men in Tights
7. Gladiator
8. Serenity
9. Dog Soldiers
10. Casino Royale
11. Dogma
12. Stardust
13. V for Vendetta
14. The Incredibles
15. Grosse Point Blank

So there we go. 15 of my favourite films. A couple of them are less well known (By Dawn's... in particular) and the quote from The Incredibles was one of the more obscure, but it was fun to do.

SMIDSY

Or "Sorry mate, I didn't see you!"
From the Biker Banter section on Petrol Heads, they linked to this video from the Devon council.
Brilliant.
I'm a bit concerned because my brother has taken up the two wheels, which is great, but he hasn't done his CBT yet (he doesn't need to for the twist-and-go scooter he's got). I'm only concerned because his helmet is second hand and I think it would be better if he did some more training. I know he's planning to do so, but tempus fugit. In October the test changes and it becomes not only more difficult but borderline silly.
There's a new meme I might stick on here as well, you pick your 15 favourite films, find quotes from them (IMDB etc) and post the quotes up for people to try and guess the films WITHOUT using IMDB/Google. Darc's RCSI journal on Livejournal had the first one of these I've seen, I'd link but owing to some evil gits on her comments she's put the journal on friends only, which is a shame but I can understand it.
The challenge for me will be to find quotes from my favourite films which won't be too obvious. For example, I could say something like "The greater good!" but that might be a bit too easy.

It depends on what you are expecting

I've been to see a few films recently, one major one on DVD and five on the big screen.
The DVD one was at work with Si, Blood Diamond. Not a comfortable film for anyone wearing a diamond that is anything less than certain about it's origin, but a truely excellent film. 92 %
Then we have:
Shrek 3: I liked it, there were a number of jokes about relating to a younger generation, and the characters didn't develop any stupid new traits. Nothing radical but if you liked the first two (and I'll assume you did) it's good fun. If you (or someone you know) has had kids recently, or is expecting, you'll find parts of it funny in a way that is impossible to explain to the other people in the audience. 70 %, rising to 88% if you know someone with young children.
Die Hard 4.0 (pointless .0 really, even if they release a directors cut as 4.1, is anyone going to be awed?), what can I say, it's a die hard. And it's fun, everything you'd expect from a good franchise, cheesey at times but great fun, and if the F35B can do what they suggest in the film the guys up here will have kittens of fun. 82 %
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix: Felt like someone had the plot explained to them while drunk and they were putting what they could remember on film, although they knew the characters and made the film with love for the original. If you haven't read the book, 85%, if you know the book like some obsessive fanboy (like me), 70 %
Transformers: Slammed by the critics, which is always a good start, it depends on what you're expecting. If you're looking for high art - WHY?!?!? It's TRANSFORMERS!!! If your childhood was formed by cars and planes and trucks that were more than meets the eye, you'll LOVE IT! Not a remake of the cartoon movie but there are moments of similarity. They get a couple of things wrong (It was ESA not NASA/JPL that sent Beagle 2, and there's the whole magnetic field thing), but great to watch. 82%
And finally,
The Simpsons
Okay, it's hard to describe, but it's not an extra long episode, there's things in the film that would NOT be in the series (such as gratuitous nudity), the story has more arc than a two part episode and the jokes are generally more grown up than the usual episode ones. Which is saying quite alot from me. 90% if you like the Simpsons, 88% if you don't (I refuse to believe that people exist that don't like it), I mean, Green Day doing the opening music and then a Titanic moment, it's genius!!
(For reference, Equilibrium was a 98%, Hot Fuzz a 94%, Merchant of Venice 88%, Gladiator 70% and Robin Hood Men in Tights 89%.