Category Archives: Idle Musings

If its not too important or it does not fit anywhere else there its in this category. What crosses my mind? Who knows…not me that is for sure!

Odeon Cinema – Epic Fail!

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Can't see this properly...you ain't the only one!

Can’t see this properly. Annoying ain’t it.

I had planned on seeing Resident Evil 5 at the Odeon Cinema in Kilmarnock on Saturday late afternoon.  But it was not to be.  After an enjoyable morning in Wigton at the book festival (more on this in a later posting) I drove the sizeable distance from Girvan and bought to tickets.  You might remember from my two previous film reviews at the cinema that it was this venue I travelled to for Total Recall (1st September 2012) and Dredd 3D (9th  September 2012) that there were problems with the showing of each film.  While I mentioned it (and blamed it on Eve Hallow!) for Total Recall where the screen went blank and the sound cut out I did not mention that the first five minutes of Dredd were out of focus leading me to miss the overfly of the city and its environs.  Well this time is was far worse.

My good lady and I sat waiting for the Undead carnage to begin and sure enough the sound started and then..no picture.  Ruddy Nora says me to the lady, three times in a row that is something.  Anyway twenty minutes later the six people trying to fix it gave up and the film was cancelled.  Being the only screen showing the film it was completely cancelled with no further showings.  After then standing in a que I was given a refund and two free tickets to any showing for the next four weeks.  I will not be taking this up personally as work commitments mean no cinny trips for me in October but it does mean that my eldest ‘The Thinker’ can go with his mother to see Paranorman next week.  So some good from it does come.

My point being that I accept technical failure in this day and age but I do have trouble with staff members having no clue as to how their projectors actually work and being unable to do anything about it except stand about slack jawed.  Three failures of varying degree for my personally across a month must mean that Odeon Kilmarnock has a big issue with its staff and or screens.  I hope they work it out before it really comes back to kick them in the ass.

Besides who needs cinema when you have wargaming!

GBS

‘Scratchers’ why would you do that to yourself?

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Botched Tatoo in Fife by a ‘Scratcher’

An idle muse from you all.  Last night on the Scottish News I saw an article on ‘scratchers’.  A Scratcher is a person who does tattoo’s on the cheap (or sometimes not so cheap) but who does not have the training and or skill to do a professional and safe job.  From the risks of poisoning to unsterilised needles and conditions less than sanitary.  Now I personally am not all that keen on ‘self drawing’ but my good lady and a number of my friend have ‘ink’ on them so it is something I have thought about.

Why would a person get something permanent drawn onto their skin by someone who cannot prove their track record or their skill or their qualifications?  It seems madness to me to do that just to save a sum of money and put yourself at risk of disease including Hepatitis B and C.   Once again the behaviour of people makes me question the rationality of their actions.  Be safe and if you cannot afford the work then wait until you can…it could be your very life that is at risk.

The article I saw concerned the rise of this in Fife and featured six or so images of botched and infected work.  A web search will show you many more.

Those interested can visit the STV News website for more.

GBS

Roadway Rock and Deer

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Roads and Hazards

The end of another busy week is upon me so its time for a little muse about life and this time its about driving and the roads here in not so sunny Girvan.  A few of you will know already that I had a very nearly bad accident in the middle of the week but no one yet knows of what happened only a couple of hours ago.  Let me fill you in.

Back on Tuesday I was puttering back home in the car along the some of the same roads I usually drive.  These roads are on the whole winding country roads with many little hazards such as blind corners, steep hills, tight bends, missing verges and the occasional insane tourist standing in the apex taking pictures for the folks back home.  On the whole this is ok as I know the roads and drive with care but on Tuesday as I listen to some Peter Green (upcoming music posting) there was a flash of red and then a bullet like crack before a splash of blood and broken bones shot across my wind shield.  I  did not see what I had hit as it jumped out of the forested verge and its head connected with my wing mirror.  After stopping (I was in the car on my own) I collected myself and after stopping went to investigate.  It was not a person….   I had hit a Deer.  Deer are common around here but I have not see many.  It had been killed instantly, its head obliterated by the wing mirror.  The car was not damaged at all aside from marks on the mirror.  I think myself fortunate for this as if it had been a fraction of a second earlier then it could have been through the wind shield or worse.  The poor animal and I met by fluke chance at that precise moment.

Today as I drove home…on the same road…another event took place.  Not as dramatic but potentially more dangerous.  The road in question is prone to weather related debris and this time as I rounded a bend I saw something in the road.  Small items like branches you drive around, likewise little rocks.  But this was a ruddy great rock sitting in the middle of the lane.  It had rolled down from the slope next to the road.  I could not in all good conscience just leave it there.  So I stopped and put all of my warning lights on; then went to move it.  So in the rain and mud I sized it up.  It must have weighed more than 70lbs and it took some effort to lift.  I pushed it down the opposite slope into the river.  Despite being muddy and wet and the risk of being hit by a mad courier driver or big rig loaded with timber I feel I did the right thing.  A bit of stone that size, in the dark, is invisible, and could easily cause a fatal crash.  If I had heard of this later, having done nothing, it would have been heavy on my mind.

So there you go.  It ain’t all just wargaming and such for me.  Sometimes adventure awaits!

GBS

Big Man Japan (2007)

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This is not one of my normal reviews of a Japanese movie or anime.  Oh, no.  This is something far worse that I subjected myself to this weekend and kind of regretted it aside from a couple of moments of real genius in film making.  But hey, for a fifty pence download I gave it a Sunday morning go.   What I am talking about…Hitoshi Matsumoto’s Japanese mockumentary send-up of monster movies: Big Man Japan!

The Japanese are a unique people with a real passion for the creative arts but they sometimes create things which to a non Japanese (even someone like me who has studied that nation for years) comes across as utterly surreal.  Big Man Japan follows Matsumoto’s Masaru Daisato, an unassuming, sad man living in a Japanese slum.  His wife has left him, taking his daughter away, and he is despised by the people of Japan.  Why?  Because he carries on the tradition of his forefathers as a protector of the country.  Unfortunately, this involved being zapped with electricity and growing into a giant man in small shorts who fights odd monsters who attack the country.  These monsters are nothing like Godzilla and are in fact downright weird including a head atop a leg, a monster that throws eyeballs, a white and black rubber band man monster who has a comb over hair cut and many more.  The film cuts back and forth between fight scenes (highlight of the film) and Daisato and his dull as dishwater, crappy life.  The pace of the movie is all over the place and it is badly let down the by overly long and badly done ending tribute to Ultraman fight which as well as being shockingly shoddy is overly long and too violent to be funny (at least to me).  The film ends with a conversation over dinner between monsters and Big Man…well no idea there.

Below are a couple of You Tube links.  Be warned this is not for kiddies (due to its lack of sanity) but they will give you an idea of what this is about.  The first one is the trailer, the second one is one of the weirder fights with the rubber band comb over monster.

You can get the film from Amazon for a few pounds in the UK.


Lastly the moment of genius…what is it?  Well just before they blast Daisato with electricity in a Hammer Horror esq sort of way he stands inside a vast pair of underpants which he then grows into!  Only in Japan would you see that.  He might be mad and crude and weird..but he can’t be butt naked!

Watch it or don’t…but if you understand it..let me know.  🙂

GBS

A Pin for a Real Flintloque Fan

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My CCI Demo Team pin badge from the 1990’s!

Funny what a rummage turns up.  I thought I had lost my unique hand painted pin badge back from 1997 when the CCI Demo Team ruled the land and I was the cheery chap touring the globe playing Flintloque.  The pin above went with me to Salute, to Gencon UK, Gencon USA, to Poland and Italy, to many other places too and more stores than I can remember.  That pin depicting the ‘Grand Duck’ or the Colonel of the 105th Rifles Oswold Pebblekettle along with a gun metal grey shirt and the CCI demo set of miniatures graced hundreds of tables.  It was one of the first made, if not the first.  Possibly painted by Pete Knifton who did all of the early artwork for Flintloque in the 1990’s; it was a long time ago.

I am feeling generous though and perhaps might give this away to one REALLY lucky fan of the World of Valon.  I will go over to the Notables Yahoo Group and ask for suggestions on how to do it.

GBS

 

Remembering it for me Wholesale…minus the trip to Mars

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I heard last year that there was going to be a new version of Total Recall the story by Phillip K.Dick and the movie from nineteen ninety starring my childhood hero Arnold Schwarzenegger.   While the older film directed by Paul Verhoeven was only loosely based on the short story by Dick it is the version of the story that is ‘mine’ as I saw the film years before the read the original story and while Quail become Quade it did not matter to me.  So I was super happy that once more I would be heading into a tale of flash memory, assassins and a trip to the Red Planet of Mars.  But no!

It seems, having now watched the trailer for the new film, that not only is the man mountain missing but the whole ruddy Martian landscape is too.  That is correct, Mars will not be featured in the new movie!

This is a shame as I am planning to do some Martian landscape wargame boards with a distinctive red hue in order to play some games of USE ME.  Since there is no Mars I will have to look into other sources such as Red Faction and perhaps Ghosts of Mars for scenic inspiration.

I intend if I can to go and see the new film in August despite there being no Mars, Mutants or such and despite it starring Colin Farrell who is not an actor that I admire (anyone remember Alexander the Great, SWAT, Daredevil…I could go on).  If I do then I will post about it, perhaps I will be wrong and it will be a cracking near future action film.  Or it could turn out to be not quite as awesome as that.  So to finish off….

Here is the trailer for the new film.  Enjoy.

GBS

A week of Admin and Planning

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Am I the hand or the mite?

Those of you who come regularly to this blog will have noticed that my usual rate of a post or two every couple of days has slowed. In fact a few emails have arrived asking after me so it seems only fair for me to tell you all what is going on.  Simply put for the last week or so I have been working on a few needed but not creative projects which include mailing lists for 15mm.co.uk (see the Mail Chimp post), catching up with paperwork, clearing the inbox at work in the email, learning new web software, speaking to a professional webmaster and lastly my wargaming blogger blog.  It has left me with little ‘oomph’ for posting.

While all this is tedious and you do not wish to hear about it the last one on that list I just gave is fun, fun fun.  I will post about it properly when ready but for now I will say that I am now on Blogger and have amassed a few postings and pictures and I am working on some scenarios for use on Barking Irons Online.  The game…HOF Fire Team.

So normal service will be resumed soon….I assure you all.

GBS

Olympic Torch passes through Girvan

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An event that has seemed so far very far away and often irrelevant to life in Girvan has just passed through our little town.  The Olympic Torch procession made it’s way through Girvan today  just after seven in the morning.  Myself and the rest of the family were up super early and out in the street to see it.

The Crowd Gathers in the Early Morning

Luckily the rain held off and the turn out was very good.  Many of the local children were there and most were waving self made torches and little flags.  The procession began with the normal clearing of the roads and then a number of corporate sponsored vehicles handing out their wares, playing music and generally trying to incite an atmosphere into a slightly damp and sleepy crowd.  It worked well though and by the time the local runner (a man from the village of Mossblown which is up past Ayr) went by everyone was cheering and waving madly.

Cheer the Mascot!

The Torch!

So while the Olympics are happening far away they were, if only for an hour, part of everyone here’s life.  I greatly enjoyed it and the chance to see the ‘torch’ in person and for the children it was the culmination to a week of school based preparation.

The Warrior having Fun!

Oh…and I got a little bottle of free Coca Cola.  Nice and Sporting.

Excellent  🙂

GBS

Sunshine Superstar

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Blazing Sun and Sand...Spain...no Girvan!

Come to Scotland and see the verdant green, the deep blues and the slate grey skies of a celtic land.  But not this week!

Due to a coincidence of  weather fronts the normal warming of May has given way to a much more intense heating that has given South Ayrshire, Scotland and actually Girvan in particular (my town was named the hottest place in the land at one point on Friday and I could believe it) temperatures of 25c to 28c across the middle of the week to this weekend.  While this temperature is not unknown here it is rare and it is even more rare to have happened in May.  In fact while attending my children’s school fete yesterday afternoon two of the kids actually fainted from heat exhaustion.

From the Promenade to the Beach on Tuesday. Volleyball Tournament on Sat 26th, see the net?

Promenade looking to the south at the Carrick Hills back on Tuesday afternoon

So the play park, the beach and the sea.  I took a few pictures so you could see what I mean.  Some people say to me ‘why live in Girvan, it is so cold and icy in the winter’…well its cold and icy anywhere in Scotland in the winter but in good weather…well you don’t get scene’s like this in Glasgow or Edinburgh!

The above images were earlier in the week when I took some time to walk the prom to have a thinks and a ponder on certain things while the kids played.   But moving on!

Today was also the Volleyball Tournament on the beach and it had a really good turn out.  No, I did not play in it but I did sit and watch for a while before heading home…bare foot…across the roasting tarmac.

Volleyball on the Beach!

A hundred plus cars and coaches in the beach facing car park and not a space left anywhere.

I just have to get all of the sand out of my pockets and put some aftersun on now. Scorchio!

Oh, and the tiddler in the top picture…that’s my little warrior!

GBS

Eurovision 2012 – My Prediction

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It is that time again that makes me realise another year has passed like lightening (very much like the annual London Salute wargame show does), Eurovision is  to be held this Saturday!

For those who do not live in Europe or if you do those of you who live under a rock and manage to miss this event each spring Eurovision is a talent show of massive proportions where a musical act from every nation in ‘Europe’ (the definition is rather loose with Russia and Israel taking part for example) takes part and then all the nations vote for a winner.  The semi finals are underway now to whittle down the acts to the final group that will sing live in Baku 2012 this weekend.

I LOVE Eurovision and watch it every year but its not for the music.  It is for the little party I have in the house and for guessing the winner and for laughing out loud at some of the frankly sublime and crazy acts from every corner of the continent and beyond.  I have done this since the mid nineteen nineties and each year I sit up late for the telecast votes to come in.  This time we in the UK are represented by musical legend and super heavy weight Engelbert Humperdink.  You can see our entry from him below.

So my prediction for this year?  Good fun, good laughs, a lot of not so good tunes and the winner…well unless there is a major upset it will be yet another Eastern European state courtesy of the ‘perhaps we should all block vote for each other’ mantra.  Chances of it being the UK or any Western European nation…slim indeed.

GBS