Reruns

And a little bit of new stuff.

It's been a weird week. I can't honestly remember much of what I've been getting up to, although I have had lots of popcorn while watching stuff. So much popcorn that my next shopping trip needs to be to Tescos because they have the better popcorn.

(oops - incoming minirant)

If not the better rest of the foodstuff. I get my apples from Sainsburys cos they're bigger and usually taste better. Seriously, what's going on with the places we get our food from these days ? It's not a mistake to have beefburgers with more horse in than beef. That's pure unadulterated fraud. And it hasn't been an isolated incident. It's also not in the ultra low cost processed food either, every week we hear a new story continuing to show that what we come out of the shop with is not what we thought we were buying.

I wonder if it's to discourage us from asking questions. If we have to ask, do we want to know the answer ?

We've already had the stories about pork in halal meat breaking that taboo. How long before we hear something worse like animal contamination in vegetarian foods ? It's one where you don't want the suspicion confirmed but you know it's coming. We have that little faith in corporate entities these days, they're out for the fast self serving buck instead of being customer focused.

Erm - where was I ? Deep breath ;-)

Popcorn !

What's the popcorn been accompanying ?

Cricket - I've been taking more time at home lately because of this annoying skin thing. Some of it is working at home, Friday was annual leave so I could watch a bit of cricket and let my skin have a day off. No popcorn with the cricket, it's on a bit early.

Hunger Games - I remember coming out of this in the cinema with a sense of being underwhelmed. The set up takes a long time ... When it gets going, it's an excellent movie albeit with a hefty sense of deja vu for anyone who's watched Battle Royale. I enjoyed it more on blu-ray, perhaps because I knew there was a treat coming after the preamble.

Battlestar Galactica - I'm rewatching this after picking up the first season on bluray in a sale. This is another series that left me irritated and frustrated by the end. I suspect that's a testament to the quality of the first series. It's stellar. Series one keeps the action level high and the tension level through the roof. It's intelligent scifi. I guess I got frustrated because the intelligence got mired in the silly mysticism that infected the storyline. Saying that though, there's bits of that mysticism introduced quite early.

I'm watching box sets of dvds again, now that there's less recorded stuff to plough through on the box. Perhaps the original series of Battlestar will get a rewatching ?

Band of Brothers - oh this series was amazing. The action is all there. It's World War 2 with no holds barred on the violence level. As it should be. When it comes to the "censor it or show it" argument with video violence, I'm definitely on the side of "show it". Not because I want to see it but because I believe showing it warns people about the consequences. And this series shows a group of great characters having the horrors of total war thrust upon them. It's ordinary men being affected by their situation, you feel for them. And it's compelling viewing.

If you haven't seen Band of Brothers yet, please do. It's worth watching for so many reasons : historical, action but most of all the characters. It's one of those rare series which doesn't outstay its welcome. It runs for 10 episodes and could easily run for more. However, you don't want to see those characters suffer more so you're relieved for them that it's over.

Band of Brothers is the one I'm in at the moment. I may well watch From The Earth To The Moon next. It's from the same production group but is about the moon landings. Also compelling viewing, an adjective I wouldn't attach to The Pacific which was billed as Band Of Brothers - Pacific. The Pacific was a bit nasty. The action was all there but you couldn't identify with the characters. Perhaps that's how their situation shaped them ?

I'm also intending to watch through the Dungeons & Dragons animated series :-) That's one from my childhood. As is Ulysses 31, which I still haven't managed to watch through yet. Same with my Dogtanian dvds.

So many series, so little time to watch them in.

There's new stuff on as well, although I have to admit I'm only half watching it most of the time. What's keeping my attention is the real life stuff, like Ice Pilots and the other things from that stable (Deadliest Catch, Ice Road Truckers). I dunno - perhaps real stuff has more meaning.

Not gaming as much, I still have all the "new" ones from Xmas to try out. Borderlands 2 has been good. Given up on Skyrim, which is a case of a game being so big it has outstayed its welcome. A poor combat system is bad enough but when the game grinds your nose through 100+ hours for a playthrough, you ain't gonna finish it. Borderlands 2 is the opposite there, it seems to have removed a lot of the grind from the first game.

Music's getting there too - I've almost got the unlistened tracks down to 500. That's about a day of music that I haven't listened to yet. It's getting there :-)

And I'm wall of texting again ...

May what you eat be what you intended to eat !