26.point.1

Valkyrie

// January 29th, 2009 // 1 Comment » // Reviews

Über scientology nut Tom Cruise tries to convince us he’s German (slipping in and our of a very good american accent at times), as do the rest of the supporting staff with their faux German (sounding very British/Yorkshire) accents… Very good movie let down by a couple of major flaws. Besides the accents that is.

The first being that our ‘hero’ and his wife both have brown hair - and their 17 children are all little nazi slave kids with blond hair and blue eyes… The second being that we all know there were no nice Germans during the war - or at least not in any part of the war where the Germans seemed to be doing well and I resent being told that there were… The Germans were bad (this is more a gripe with history than the movie though I guess if this really is based on a true story).

Thirdly, we kinda know the ending already… how much suspense can there really be? Anyone seen the blooper reel for history where Hitler died? No, thought not.

Originality is under-rated

// January 28th, 2009 // 2 Comments » // Random Stuff

I just got this years batch of 19 CV’s from Huddersfield Uni asking for the chance to join twentysix for a years placement in 2009/2010… Why is it that noone can think outside of that mythical box and come up with something more for a personal statement than…

“I am a self-motivated, hard working, enthusiastic and trustworthy young (wo)man…”

Please boys and girls, and men and women too… It’s supposed to be a personal statement, throw something actually personal in there - EVERYONE is hard working and enthusiastic. When they want the job that is, as soon as they’ve got it then it’s often a different matter.

Drunkard ramblings of an athiest

// January 28th, 2009 // No Comments » // Random Stuff

Standing drunk in the world it’s so easy to understand why people believe that there has to be something that is responsible for this chaos - otherwise how else is it that the world is so perfect. Rain, fire, heat, sun, earth, sentience.. it’s all a bit too much to handle as an athiest. While drunk I can conceive something beyond the wonder of me that maybe does control all that I see, hear and experience.

In the morning I shall be more rational.

GeekUp January

// January 22nd, 2009 // 1 Comment » // Random Stuff

Having missed the last 4 GeekFests I have started afresh in 2009. Was good to both see the old gang (DOM, and Rob, and Debs, and Alex, and Tim, and … Helen?) and also meet some new people I’d never had the pleasure of shaking hands with before. From Johnny ‘the doc’, through to Ben ‘the student with the stupid hat’, and Neil, Neil, Stephen, Charles, Ben and … well, too many to count. Mind, it was supposed to be a quiet evening, 2 pints then home … so strange then that at 10:30, and after 5 pints, I was planting seeds for a GeekUp February ‘After Party’ called Geekoake… yes, Geeks, singing. It will be amazing. Very possibly amazingly bad, but amazing nonetheless.

Oh, and Helen did a very good job with her 20-20 talk.. didn’t once mention that she was leaving her job.

Obama-mania

// January 20th, 2009 // No Comments » // Random Stuff

“There is a musical interlude. Cellist Yo-Yo Ma, violinist Itzhak Perlman, pianist Gabriela Montero and Anthony McGill on clarinet play an arrangement by John Williams. Another huge cheer goes up at the piece ends. The inauguration is running several minutes late.”

Is it really too much to ask that it’s the theme tune to Superman?

My Bloody Valentine

// January 19th, 2009 // No Comments » // Reviews

A technology led movie - as it should have been in 3D if my cinema was any good - which puts little interest in story, acting ability, or story - choosing instead to shower the viewer with gore, lingering (way too long) shots of eyeballs, pick handles and sharp jabby things meant to impress upon us a feeling of depth to the screen (which we all know would be better if we were at one of the 7 global multiplexes showing it in 3D), and some bouncy breasts to boot (about the only thing I would have been interested in experiencing in 3D).

Crap story, shit actors, and so many plot holes it could be a pair of fishnets… And “valentine red” coloured ones at that!

Oh, and let’s not mention the ending eh? It’s like Shrooms all over again…

hexBox

// January 18th, 2009 // No Comments » // Random Stuff

My xBox is cursed.

At least I can’t think of any other reason for why every time I play a game for more than 15 minutes it keeps bombing out and cheerfully telling me to clean my disc. It seems like every time I’ve gone without saving an epic RPG battle then the thing spazzes out.

I hate my hexBox.

Old Year’s Resolutions

// January 2nd, 2009 // No Comments » // Random Stuff

Last year at around this time I looked at my life and decided I needed change. And that it would be the year that I did something about it… The promises went something along the lines of:

Sort out my tooth-ache.. Having been addicted to Codeine for most of 2007 I promised myself I would sort it and go to the dentist. Tick here, I can honestly say it’s been well over 8 months since I’ve had ANY tooth pain. Go me… 1 for 1.

Cut out 90% of my Coke intake.. Well, 1 out of 2 is still 50%…

Lose 1/4 of my body weight.. Okay, well 1 out of 3 is still 33% isn’t it? That’s still good right?

Become financially viable.. Well, I’ve made massive inroads into clearing the debt - so much so that 1 of my loans and one of my credit cards were cleared in the last year… so I’m now at 50%…

Blog… Hmmm, after about February I think I forgot how to log into MattsReviews/RandomDays… but that leaves me at 40% accomplished, more than acceptable!

Anyway, that was last year… and in 2009 I’m going to be trying very hard to get my debt level down to 10k, my waist down to the low 30’s, and maybe cut out coke altogether - unless it has vodka in it.

Wagamama screw up vouchers… Again!

// January 2nd, 2009 // No Comments » // Random Stuff, Reviews

Which is to say that just as last year, Wagamama spent the entirety of December giving away vouchers to people inviting them back to enjoy 2 for 1 main meals, as well as vouchers to get a free side dish with any main meal. These deals in themselves are great - it’s just that (and this is possibly just confined to the Leeds restaurant) they totally forget that they’ve done this and expect absolutely no uplift in the number of people coming into the place.

This means that when you arrive you have to wait over 10 minutes to be seated, even though there are plenty of empty seats. This means that your drinks take ages to arrive. This means that your food takes even longer, and if you’ve got a starter it also means that if you want to enjoy it as a ’side dish’ then it will probably be cold before your main arrives. It also means that when you ask staff for anything that they just ignore you. And then look grumpy when you don’t tip them.

All in all, totally not satisfied.

A cool New Year

// January 2nd, 2009 // No Comments » // Random Stuff

For the last few years my new years have been spent either with people I hate, or watching the fireworks on TV alone… welcome to my sad life. So, this year I decided that in leui of any friends actually wanting to go out and got wrecked that I’d do something I’d not done in over 13 years - go home and spend New Year’s Eve with my parents, my brother and all the associated family and friends of which that entails.

I’ve learned something - my parent’s are possibly the coolest people in my neighbourhood - or at least it seemed that about most of the people (those that were able to walk without their zimmers anyway) were there with vodka bottles in hands - most of them in crazy fancy dress, and most of them more than a little on the way to annebriation.

I’ve also learned that most everyone in the world thinks that of me and my brother, I’m the boring one. This has upset me greatly - and although inevitably this is due to the fact that I live 60 miles away and noone ever see’s me, or even really knows who I am… yes, it still upsets me.

That’s why I went all mission-worthy and not only got quite drunk… but also donned an inflatable donkey costume and played bad guy to the neighbours inflatable sheriff.

The night ended at 6am on New Years Day and was officially one of the best new years in the history of me…!