posts

Five Superheroes We Can Live Without

Posted on 2011-05-05  ·  4 min read  ·   ·   · 

The other day while writing some rather self-pitying notes in my blog book (yes, I handwrite all this rubbish before I go to bed at night!) I came up with some useless superheroes, or rather the only superheroes that a washed-up guy in his early thirties could hope to be. Because I haven’t got any ideas for “five things on the fifth” this month, I decided to flesh out a few of these. Last month I began the five on the fifth meme with five things to try if you can’t sleep and so this is a rather forced attempt to keep it going. I promise that I will try and think of more interesting posts on these lines for months.

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Why I Love Betty Blue

Posted on 2011-04-06  ·  7 min read  ·   ·   ·   ·   · 

I saw Betty Blue (original French title 37,2 Le Matin) for the first time in 1996 shortly after having read the book and it remains one of my favourite films to this day. Although there are many obvious reasons why a sixteen year old boy might like it, I think it does stand up to scrutiny beyond the sex and nudity. This post is a brief explanation of some of the obvious and not-so-obvious reasons why this is a film to be loved and cherished. (It was quite interesting to write this defence of a sexy film!)

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Five Things To Try When You Can't Sleep

Posted on 2011-04-05  ·  5 min read  ·   ·   ·   ·   · 

Facebook is wonderful for keeping in touch but I’ve noticed that quite a few of my friends tend to use it to tell the world that they can’t sleep. Here’s some advice for you if you find yourself unable to sleep one night. I’ve often had to try these out myself! Note that these are just things that work for me and your mileage may vary, particularly if you are fortunate enough to have a partner next to you! You may need to appease them if you wriggle around too much.

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Favourite Culture Ship Names

Posted on 2011-04-03  ·  2 min read  ·   ·   ·   ·   · 

As I mentioned before I am re-reading the novels of Iain Banks and this weekend I managed to finish Consider Phlebas. A little post about it will be coming up soon. One of my favourite things about the Culture novels is how the ships are named and having found a list on Wikipedia, I thought I would share ten of my favourites with you!

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Understated Classics #8: Second Light by Dreadzone

Posted on 2011-03-17  ·  6 min read  ·   ·   ·   ·   · 

In the understated classics series, I try to alternate between pop/rock and electronic albums. Keeping with this trend number eight is the wonderful dub-infused album Second Light by Dreadzone. Released in 1996 it was well-received critically and four of its tracks featured on John Peel’s best-of-year list that year. Little Britain received a lot of radio play, a popular choice for that flag-waving period of britpop and assorted other demons.

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Album Digest, February 2011

Posted on 2011-02-28  ·  10 min read  ·   ·   ·   ·   ·   ·   ·   ·   · 

February, the shortest month, harbinger of such delights as Groundhog Day and Valentine’s Day. Could it possibly produce any good albums? Well the candidates are the eponymous début album by James Blake, Zonoscope by Cut/Copy, Let England Shake by PJ Harvey and Smart Flesh by The Low Anthem. Furthermore, there was an unexpected bonus when Radiohead announced that their new album would be out and available to listen to this month too.

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Programming an UNO game, part 2

Posted on 2011-02-02  ·  6 min read  ·   ·   ·   ·   · 

It turns out that programming the UNO game is not that complicated once you start designing the thing. This post will get the rules and game elements clear.

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