Sleep Interrupted » tv

A stange thing happened to me this weekend

Andrew — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 19:08:23 +0000

On Saturday, Louise and I were catching up on some TV, watching Jonathan Ross interview Hugh Laurie about the new series of House on Sky One. Now, I’ll admit I’d had a couple of glasses of wine by this time and something Mr Ross said — I can’t remember the exact details any more (telling!) — pissed me off, so I was right onto The Twitter whereupon I railed.

Just as we were getting ready to go to bed, I went to switch off the laptop. It was then that I noticed that Mr Ross had replied! Feeling slightly stunned and abashed, I responded, to which he graciously replied again. This gave me pause for thought, so I posted once more. I was about to call it quits for the night when, yet again, I got a response. Well I couldn’t leave it be by this point, so I thought hard and tried to sum up my position and then went to bed.

The following morning, with a clearer head, I saw there was a further response. I made a final response and that was that.

So, a somewhat surreal experience but perhaps one that illustrates the power of Twitter.

Bummer

Andrew — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 09:08:57 +0000

I missed Carol’s last show. I think Tim says everything I’d want to say on the subject.

They call me The Searcher

Andrew — Thu, 29 May 2008 21:11:25 +0000

The show I wish was available on DVD would have to be Danger Theatre. This was cult viewing while I was at university. My favourite section was The Searcher. If the opening titles aren’t silly enough for you, how about “Golfers! Hold your balls!”

Yes, that was Robert Vaughn. Hmmm.

Flight Of The Conchords

Andrew — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 21:51:43 +0000

Louise and I are really enjoying Flight Of The Conchords on BBC4. I was going to try and describe the program but I think I’ll use the power of YouTube to do my work for me.

Babylon Fived

Andrew — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 21:06:20 +0000

And so it ends. After two and a bit years of watching I have finished re-watching all five seasons of Babylon 5. Well, I say “I” but that should really be “we” because somewhere during the second season Louise joined me in the marathon. I hope she enjoyed rather than endured (as was often the case in the past but that’s her story to tell).

What tickles me is that my original estimate of how long it would take was right on the button. I don’t think Ben’s quite old enough to begin watching it yet, perhaps in a couple of years. I’m conscious that I don’t want to spoil or devalue the experience of Babylon 5 or other things I cherished when I was younger like Star Wars by showing them to him before he’ll appreciate them. I was about to say that he currently thinks that Transformers: Cybertron is the height of entertainment but then I probably would have thought exactly the same at his age. So perhaps I should stop being so precious… my preciousss…

Ahem.

I don’t think I’ll be doing a retrospective review of all of B5 either. I will say this, though: The effects still serve the story well and hardly ever take you out of the experience. The main story arc is still one of the best in television but the character arcs are even better. The fifth season is a lot better than I remembered it and the final episode, Sleeping In Light, still brings a lump to my throat.

My timing is pretty good, too, because I can roll right through and watch Babylon 5: The Lost Tales, which has only just been released.

Royal Institution Christmas Lectures

Andrew — Mon, 25 Dec 2006 10:04:42 +0000

Merry Christmas! Yes, I really am posting this on Christmas morning and probably too late for those it applies to: This year the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures are being shown on Five at 7.15pm, starting today — it seems Five at least realise they have something of value. The topic this year is “The Number Mysteries”. The science geek in me is really looking forward to this one.

No television

Andrew — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 22:51:00 +0000

Today I have watched no television whatsoever. Wednesday’s are generally pretty dead, but this is an exception for me, so I thought it worth noting. Maybe I should try it more often. Well, my MP3 player has finished uploading the latest Babylon Podcast, so I’m off to bed; analysis of this momentous occasion will have to wait for another day.

Vader Sessions (updated)

Andrew — Wed, 30 Aug 2006 20:16:36 +0000

Thanks to Pete for sending me a link to the Vader Sessions. That’s the funniest thing I’ve seen on the intarwebs in quite some time!

Update: Cripes! YouTube synchronicity! No sooner do I post this than I see Wil’s post on a Simpsons / Star Trek mashup. Urgh. Mashup? I feel dirty.

Hard drive wiping

Andrew — Mon, 14 Aug 2006 19:22:37 +0000

Watching tonight’s edition of Real Story about fraudsters picking up bank account details from peoples’ dumped hard drives was certainly food for thought. The one time I dumped an old PC I made sure to wipe the hard drive but this will certainly make me more methodical in future.

Of course the show didn’t give any advice on how to wipe a drive, just a warning that not doing it was bad. The linked article above at least has some help in this direction. Bare in mind that just deleting files or reformatting a drive is insufficient; it doesn’t take much to undelete the data. My recommendation would be to use the free DBAN utility. If I know you, I’ll come round and do it for free. For anyone else it’ll be a tenner. Companies are more than welcome to get in contact and I’ll do them a quote.

Blatant product placement

Andrew — Fri, 23 Jun 2006 21:26:16 +0000

Louise and I have just finished watching the final episode of season two of Desperate Housewives. Enjoyable but the reason I mention it here is because we couldn’t help but laugh out loud at the truely blatant product placement by a certain car manufacturer who will remain nameless. Usually I’m fairly oblivious to this sort of thing but… wow. It left me expecting one of the characters to say, “I’d just like to take this opportunity to say how great the ride in my Pissan Nathfinder is!”.