Steeeeve

I really liked the first half but the second half seemed a bit disjointed. Somebody mentioned before that they thought some episodes had seemed rushed but this was the first time I had felt that way this series. Still good though. I've kind of gone off watching Doctor Who Confidential after. They just seem to be padding it out a lot. Could do with being cut down to half an hour I think.

Yay! I thought I was the only one for a while there. I kind of want this trailer to be the last I hear of the film before it comes out. It seems like one of those films where the less you know the better. Hngfnhngghn so excited!

Everyone should pleeeaaaaase watch this trailer if they haven't already http://www.aintitcool.com/node/44995 I could not be more excited about a film. I'm hoping this turns out to be the epic sci-fi the trailer and Nolan's track record make me think it will be. Nolan given the budget to make any film he wants. Sigh. I cannot wait.

What's worse is when you tell the person that and they tell you to relax/chill out/not worry so much. As if they think they're just being a free spirit rather than an absolute *%&!

People telling me their life story. To be fair this one's usually saved for when I'm already in a bad mood. Obviously I don't mind friendly people but it always seems to be that when I have a million things to do at work a customer will grab me who insists on telling me about the work they're having done on their house, the ins and outs of life in their family and a thousand other things I don't care about. I have to keep telling myself they don't know they're holding me up and that I'm just being grumpy. It rarely helps my quietly boiling rage.

I'd agree with him on some stuff but not on others. There are a lot of deus ex machinas in Doctor Who (I have moaned many times about the amount of them in RTD's run) but I always found Moffat's episodes flowed more logically. Maybe his quality has taken a bit of a dip now he's writing so many shows rather than just one every now and again but that was kind of expected. I was thinking the Doctor was getting a bit god like and I think that's one reason why Moffat's had Amy and other characters saving the day sometimes. He is supposed to be a one man army still but then a few of the Timelords would be the same if they were still around wouldn't they? And, sorry, but this is Terry Pratchett complaining about a series being ludicrous and breaking the rules of narrative?...ok.

I learnt that jumping from heights accounted for less than 2% of reported suicides in the US in 2005 but over 51% of reported suicides in Hong Kong in 2006. Cheery. On a lighter note I also learnt this joke: How do you titillate an ocelot? You oscillate its tit a lot. I am a fan of stupid jokes.

Oooh I'm looking forward to getting The Stars My Destination now. I might make it the book I take away on holiday in June. One book I just finished which is in the SF Masterworks range is Grass by Sherri S. Tepper (I may be spelling that wrong but I'm in bed now, not going to move). It was absolutely superb. It kind of reminds me of the Coldfire series (don't let that put you off Raven ) but that may be because I haven't read much fantasy/sci-fi till this last year so I'm just reaching out for the most similar thing. Also when I say it reminds me of Coldfire it also very much doesn't...basically ignore me and just read the book. A nice mysterious planet which may hold the key to curing a plague along with a few other unknowns thrown into the mix. Tres good.

Read some of Grass by Sheri S. Tepper and bought Rock, Paper, Scissors: Game Theory in Everyday Life by Len Fisher.

Just finished The Angry Island by A.A. Gill. I was enjoying it until about halfway through when he just sort of became hateful. I mean the whole book mocks the English which is fine but then he was trying to say that the English love of gardening somehow proves we're kind of fascistic and other things like that. After that I found it hard to take him seriously, especially since he was contradicting himself and just stating mental opinions as obvious facts. It still had its moments though. Maybe the bits I didn't like were tongue in cheek and I just didn't get it.

I don't know if he considers himself British but I'm going to steal him anyway and say Richard E. Grant. And if he's not our national treasure (when written like that I can see why some people don't like the term) then he's at least someone I'd like to have a drink with. Of lemonade of course.

This is one of those films where they changed it completely. The second half of the film isn't really similar to the second half of the book from what I can remember. But I think they're equally great. The fact that Miyazaki did change so much means you can't really compare them, just enjoy each of them for what they are.

I voted no, and don't intend to. The storyline doesn't bother me but doesn't appeal to me either. It's just the fact that I picked up one of the books and read some of it and it was so badly written. There was no way I could have got through it. I read some **** so I don't know why it bothered me so much in this. Also I lied. The storyline does bother me. The fourth book (I think) does sound pretty hilarious though if what I read about it was right Edit: That censored word is only "cr*p". I'm not completely foul mouthed.

I just picked up The Reality Dysfunction at work. Didn't really know much about it but it sounded interesting. The thing is on the cover it said it was unabridged so I thought I had picked up the whole Night's Dawn trilogy till I got it home. Then I looked it up and realised it was just book one. It's over 1200 pages long! It'd better be good.

I had a good day for finding interesting books at my shop today. Picked up: Roaring Camp: The Social World of the California Gold Rush by Susan Lee Johnson Which Lie Did I Tell? by William Goldman The Faber Book of Church and Clergy edited by A.N. Wilson The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History by John M. Barry Watching the English by Kate Fox The Reality Dysfunction by Peter F. Hamilton Woop! Also read some more of The Angry Island: Hunting the English by A.A. Gill.

Over 5000 people have complained about the cartoon Graham Norton dancing across the screen http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8643684.stm and this is the open letter the article refers to http://www.denofgeek.com/television/471290/open_letter_to_whoever_put_a_graham_norton_graphic_over_tonights_doctor_who.html Hopefully this will make the people who decided it would be a good idea to stop acting like cretins.

Just finished Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. I haven't read 1984 in a long long time but I remember enjoying it a lot more than I did this. Even though Brave New World is shorter I found it dragged more. It felt like a short story he had just stretched out. It was good. Just not amazing or anything. Maybe I'd have liked it more if I understood the ending

I thought it was a great episode. There's one thing that bugs me about this series though. Now I enjoy seeing Karen Gillan's legs as much as the next man but I wish they'd make her wear something a little more practical than tiny skirts. I watched the episode on iplayer when I got in so I didn't see the cartoon Graham Norton dancing across the screen to advertise the next programme. Since I didn't see it maybe it's wrong of me to have made a complaint but for the first time ever I have anyway. Some people say they didn't get it so...who knows. Either way I think it's absolutely idiotic for them to build up suspense over 45 minutes and at the climax ruin the tension by advertising the programme that's going to be on in under 2 minutes anyway. http://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/homepage/ is the place to go. Charlie Brooker mentioned it as well and I don't understand how it would be on some peoples' televisions but not others but if I'm wrong fair enough. They deserve the complaints for always talking over the credits anyway.

A lot of interesting ones in there. I may have to steal some. Also Banana is a great name for a human. I'm glad to see I'm not even close to having the longest list on here.

Hrmph. This episode already seems goooood and I have to go out. I think you were right about the writing for the Doctor Raven. Another Moffat episode and since this is kind of "his" Doctor the character seems a little more in line with Matt Smith's Doctor.

Raven reminded me of this in another thread - Pubs that don't have a dancefloor but still play their music so loud you have to shout to be heard. I don't understand the point of it. And it usually happens that the music will be quiet till a certain time then when it hits about 8pm they start blasting it out. Maybe I'm just an old man.

Only one crossover between our lists. I've decided to keep a tally. The person with the most crossovers will win my hand in marriage. Guys...where you going?....Guys?! GUUUYS?!?!?!

Ok, so I'm always interested to see people's amazon wish lists so I thought I'd see if anyone wanted to link to theirs or post it here. To be fair I have way too much time on my hands so I don't know if anyone will. Here is mine. I'll give a cookie to anyone who gets past the first few lines (Note: this is not legally binding). At the end it gets a bit atheist heavy and I wouldn't buy most of those any more. Just thought I'd include all the books that are on there for honesty's sake. In fact I don't know how many of them I'd buy at all. I'm getting more and more into fiction now and this was started when I wasn't so much. Hmm. Should do a culling really. (Ooooh I just previewed this post and it's massive) -Ernie Pyle's War: America's Eyewitness to World War II by James Tobin -The Forever War (S.F. Masterworks) by Joe Haldeman -Gateway (S.F. Masterworks) by Frederik Pohl -The Stars My Destination (S.F. Masterworks) by Alfred Bester -I am America (and So Can You!) by Stephen Colbert -Through a Glass, Darkly by Bill Hussey -The Ladies of Grace Adieu: and Other Stories by Susanna Clarke -The Room by Hubert Selby Jr -Letters on England (Classics) by Voltaire -Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling by Ross King -The Time Ships by Stephen Baxter -The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution by Richard Dawkins -What Every Body Is Saying: An Ex-FBI Agent's Guide to Speed-reading People by Joe Navarro -Phantoms of the Card Table: Confessions of a Card Sharp by David Britland -This May Help You Understand the World: A Timely Book for Those -Confused by the Problems of a Troubled World by Lawrence Potter -Dry Store Room No. 1: The Secret Life of the Natural History Museum by Richard Fortey -A Mathematician's Apology (Canto) by G.H. Hardy -The Essential Batman Encyclopedia by Robert Greenberger -Paradoxes by R. M. Sainsbury -An Introduction to Philosophical Logic by Anthony C. Grayling -The Revolt of the Angels by Anatole France -Terry Jones' Barbarians by Terry Jones , Alan Ereira -The Crucible of Creation: The Burgess Shale and the Rise of Animals by Simon Conway Morris -Soul Searching: Human Nature and Supernatural Belief by Nicholas Humphrey -Trilobite! Eyewitness to Evolution by Richard Fortey -Cause of Death: Memoirs of a Home Office Pathologist by Geoffrey Garrett, Andrew Nott -Mutants: On the Form, Varieties and Errors of the Human Body by Armand Marie Leroi -Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach -On Giants' Shoulders: Great Scientists and Their Discoveries from Archimedes to DNA by Lord Melvyn Bragg -Behind Deep Blue: Building the Computer that Defeated the World Chess Champion by Feng-Hsiung Hsu -Science Confronts the Paranormal by Kendrick Frazier -Hollywood Science: Movies, Science, and the End of the World by S Perkowitz -Atheist Manifesto: The Case Against Christianity, Judaism, and Islam by Michel Onfray , Jeremy Leggatt -Patrick Moore: The Autobiography by Sir Patrick Moore -Norton Shakespeare by Stephen Greenblatt -Asimov's Guide to the Bible by Isaac Asimov , Rafael Palacios (Illustrator) -Asimov's Guide to Shakespeare by Isaac Asimov, Rafael Palacios (Illustrator) -Catastrophes and Lesser Calamities: The causes of mass extinctions by Tony Hallam -Alan Turing: The Enigma by Andrew Hodges -The Da Vinci Fraud: Why the Truth Is Stranger Than Fiction by Robert M. Price -A House Built on Sand: Exposing Postmodernist Myths About Science by Noretta Koertge (Editor) -An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding by David Hume , Eric Steinberg (Editor) -God, the Devil, and Darwin: A Critique of Intelligent Design Theory by Richard Dawkins (Foreword), Niall Shanks (Author) -The Atheists are Revolting! by Nick Gisburne -God, the Failed Hypothesis: How Science Shows That God Does Not Exist by Victor J. Stenger -Reclaiming History: The Assassination of John F. Kennedy by V Bugliosi -Who Wrote the Bible? by Richard Elliott Friedman -The Christ Conspiracy: The Greatest Story Ever Sold by Acharya S -Atheism: The Case against God (Skeptic's Bookshelf) by George H. Smith -The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt by Ian Shaw -The Story of Architecture by Jonathan Glancey -Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea by Charles Seife -The Salem Witch Trials: A Day-by-day Chronicle of a Community Under Siege by Marilynne K. Roach -Why Gods Persist: Scientific Approach to Religion by Robert A. Hinde -Nature's Oracle: A Life of W.D.Hamilton by Ullica Segerstrale -Jesus Puzzle: Did Christianity Begin with a Mythical Christ? by Earl Doherty -The Empty Tomb: Jesus Beyond the Grave by Robert M. Price, Jeffery Jay Lowder -The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice by Christopher Hitchens -Who Wrote the New Testament?: The Making of the Christian Myth by Burton L. Mack -Atheist Universe by David Mills

People who try to hum/sing along to a tune they've never heard or try to hum/sing along to a tune they have heard but don't know. You're just making noise! Shut your face.

Heheh. Funnily enough my Bible is the King James version. I just checked and it is true. I wonder which maniac figured that out. And also if it's true about his age at the time of writing. My fact: 420 is the lowest number that's divisible by 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7. I got that off cmb on Twitter. Blame him if it's wrong. I mean I know they all divide into it but I don't know if it's the lowest number.