Monthly Archive for April, 2006

Bradford

Published on April 30, 2006 10:50 PM - 0 Comments

Went up to Bradford for the weekend, it is always great to go see friends and family. Ended up going to Preston as well, since Imran needed to get his visa sorted for his trip to India next week. Started out on saturday morning, hit Bradford at about 11am. Relaxed a little bit then headed up to Preston.

The purpose of the whole trip was to see Miriyam, my cousin’s new daughter who I had not seen until then. I did get some pictures, so I will post them on flickr when I get them.

So as far this week this week is concerned I have managed to clock up a fair amount of miles. Spent 2 days up in Newcastle earlier in the week, then Bradford and Preston. I get to visit all the glamourous places.

Exchanged

Published on April 28, 2006 1:42 AM - 0 Comments

At last I have exchanged contracts on my new place. Yipee after many weeks of delays and issue we have finally got there. We have set a completion date, May 19th not as fast as I would have like, however the delays are due to the fact the vendor is now in the States.

Update

Published on April 16, 2006 2:37 PM - 0 Comments

Haven’t hit publish on anything in a while, so I have done a bit of cleaning up to some of the film entries I had written. Still working on changing the site a little, fixed the Flickr problem so stay tuned for some pictures soon. Also have been playing with YouTube and S3 so I might utilise them in some cool, way haven’t quite worked out how yet, Have some TV ads I want to post, however YouTube’s content guidelines prevent me from doing that.

Any how what have I been up to the last couple of weeks? Well that is easy, work mainly. Closing out this financial year has been great, my schedule is fully booked. Don’t know how I’m going to get the May release out in time, but I will. Nearly completed on buying my place, exchange was due ages ago but there were issues they have now all been resolved and it should happen in the next couple of days. Been delayed now because the vendor’s solicitor is on holiday before and over Easter. I’m in no big rush, though I do want it done with now. The last month has been a bit expensive to say the least with all the fees starting to stack up etc.

Firewall

Published on April 16, 2006 2:29 PM - 0 Comments

Watched FIrewall last night, not much to say really. Not a bad film, good to see Harrison Ford out of his rocking chair, if only to prove that he can still pull of Indy 4 next year. Another thing worth noting is that Paul Bettany can play a bad guy, he should do more leading pieces like this.

The summer blockbuster are going to start hitting in a couple of weeks, MI3 will be the first then X-Men 3 and Da Vinci Code. Next month is going to be interesting that is for sure. Looking forward to 16 Blocks as well, another New York centered Police story featuring Bruce Willis out next weekend so I’m sure I will bother with that.

PSP – Yeah You Know Me

Published on April 13, 2006 11:35 PM - 0 Comments

I got hold of Street Fighter 3 Alpha for the PSP last week and I have been playing that. I only decided to get the game because v2.6 of the PSP Firmware can be hacked to run Homebrew software without a hitch. Since I don’t really care much for UMD emulators I decided to do the update. I also learned that SF3 Alpha has also got some exploits in it that will allow for further enhancements to be made in the PSP hacking scene.

On another note I have been looking at the PSP Python project, with some luck soon PyGame and SDL should be running as well, which would mean that we can write games in Python on the PSP, which would be quite neat.

Crash

Published on April 9, 2006 1:54 AM - 0 Comments

Finally got around to sticking Crash into the DVD player earlier this evening. Something I should have done weeks ago, but it is funny how things turn out. This coupled with Inside Man have made my weekend.

I now understand why it got Hollywood standing behind it. Crash is a true LA Story. I think there is something that people in LA can relate to, however that is not the point of the film. It’s message is much more universal, with current state of world affairs I think everyone should see this film.

The film is set in LA, centering on a number of characters that randomly collide with one another, hence the name Crash. I’m not going to go in to each of the stories or analyse each one if I did it would make for a very long entry. However I will talk about some of the key characters. The acting is great, all of the performances are top notch. The intermingling of the characters is clever, the way in which prejudice is manifested in each story is smart. Then how the writers counter it in each scenario is even more so.

You can’t help feeling sorry for Matt Dillon’s character, throughout the picture he is depicted as an anti-hero, but in the end he comes out as the good guy. On the other side, his partner played by Ryan Phillippe is the total opposite, the good guy trying to do the right thing, but suffers in the worst possible way. One of the most central scenes has to be of the American-Iranian shop owner confronting the locksmith he believes was involved in ripping his store off.

Again all I can say is watch this film.

Inside Man

Published on April 9, 2006 1:38 AM - 0 Comments

Went and finally caught a late showing of Inside Man starring Denzel Washington, Jodie Foster and Clive Owen. Another smart film, in fact the best film of the year so far.

Inside Man is a crime drama set around a bank job which seems to have gone wrong. Without giving to much away the background story is quite contraversial, but used to effect well. The performances and the plot line work really well can’t wait for this to come out on DVD so I can watch it a few times more.

Amazingly this film is directed by Spike Lee, which is unlike the usual subject matter Lee tackles, which shows how great a director he can be. Please do more films like this Spike.

Updated : Just remember Lee was behind 25th Hour, starring Edward Norton which was on par with this, and just as highly recommended if you have not seen it.