Today I received my new toy - a Sony MiniDisc deck for my PC. It was a bit of a nightmare getting it delivered, but I won't go into details (let's just say I will think very carefully before using AVLand again). Aside from that, they didn't deliver my free Walkman (Sony delivery problems, apparently) but the MD deck is cool. And as an unexpected bonus, I can play back MDs through the PC now :-p
I've just installed the Sony OpenMG software that came with it, hmmmm, not terribly impressed. (Certainly pales in comparison with the likes of Winamp 3). BUT, after saying all that, it does do what I want, copies my MP3 files from my PC to a blank MD in double-quick time. And it is deeply preferable to the god-awful RealOne Jukebox that came with the Panasonic SD75...

At the moment I am listening to Deep Dish. In my opinion the worst thing they ever did was get that bird out of EBTG to do vocals on Stay Gold and change the name of the track to "the future of the future". Pants. How to ruin a perfectly nice track. But hey, I never liked EBTG. It's probably her annoying voice and even worse hair that just make me hate students even more than normal.

Last night I watched Ice Age on DVD and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. I have to say at this point, I do like animated DVDs (check out the "My DVD collection" link to the right) and I thought Ice Age was going to be another Atlantis - a kind of "take it or leave it" animated film. But Ice Age is different in style to both Pixar's and Disney's recent releases and that alone is enough to make it stand out. A couple of times I found myself being very impressed by the realism of the animation, especially the water effects... The storyline is a re-hash of an old story (what isn't?) but the voice acting and animation are first-rate.

Staying with DVDs, I saw this story today and found it a bit surprising. Can you sue a studio over a 'defective' DVD? More pertinently, can you win such a case? If so I am thinking of going to court over my Goodfellas DVD (it's a flipper). I think I need at least �10,000 in compensation... And then there's my copy of Dark City where the special features list on the back shows "Subtitles". For emotional damage alone, I reckon that must be worth at least �50,000. I could go on...

At work the other day we got into a conversation about the Art Of Noise and subsequently, Max Headroom. This sent me off on a jaunt down memory lane and I realised that apart from the raved-up FON Mixes, I don't own any AON CDs. A bit odd really, I was quite a big fan at the time. (But hey, I used to like the Thompson Twins and I don't have any of their CDs either - luckily I gave them all away in a moment of clarity). But back to the AON thing - Candi hadn't even heard of Max Headroom, can you imagine how difficult it was to describe him to her? I think I've got the movie somewhere on VHS, maybe I should make her watch it sometime? Nah, she's not into SF stuff and would prolly get bored after the first couple of minutes.

Someone sent me a nice story about lateral thinking. Which reminds me, I've got a new issue of New Scientist to read. See ya!

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I know I'm guilty of not writing anything here for too long. I've been a bit flat lately and thinking of something to write isn't the easiest of things. Also, nothing of interest has happened really, so that's not helping.

First, I feel it is my duty as an Englishman to complain about the weather. It's been damn cold these last couple of days, so cold I am expecting to see snow any time soon. Not nice at all. We've got through about a ton of wood in the real fire at home, but it's nice to have it.

Talking of cold, we watched a cool programme last night about extreme cold - a mad volunteer was put into a cold chamber (-5C) wearing nothing but boxers. Then they made him do mental and dexterity tests until his body temperature went down to 35 degrees C - the threshold of hypothermia. He lasted about 2 hours. After he had recovered, they put him in again, but this time the air temp was -25C and there was a fan blowing cold air over him. He didn't even last an hour and it seemed much much worse for him. The surprising thing for me was, he said his brain was alert and functioning all the time, so if you did bite it because of extreme cold, you would definitely know you were going to die... not nice.

I've got all my Xmas presents bought and wrapped. I never used to be like this, I was always running round like a mad thing on Xmas Eve, but recently I've been a bit more prepared and got it done early. I take a bit more of an interest now as well, I like to get people presents they will love, but didn't necessarily know they wanted. I think I've done quite well this year. Talking of presents, I did this Secret Santa thing and got sent my victim, er sorry, giftee yesterday. Quite a boring wish list (here's mine in case anyone is feeling generous!) but on the upside, he's got a funny website so I'll let him off. I got him a CD he wanted... hope he likes it... wonder what I'll get... if I'll get anything... how exciting! I may have just blown �15 on a total stranger!

All the local newsagents have the little signs outside showing todays headline. But I've noticed recently how the 'default' headline - the one that's normally underneath - is the same in all newsagents and it reads "More jobs to go at Pru". Something they can count on in the event of no other news I suppose...

I can't think of anything else to write so I won't even bother. I'll try and have something vaguely interesting for you by the end of the week.

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