Sunday Night, Monday Morning

It's been a strange old time recently. I have felt rather tired for long periods of time, but except for Friday when I turned in around midnight, an almost unprecedentedly early time for a confirmed night owl such as myself, I find that I get to sleep no earlier than if I go to bed at around my usual time of 1.30. The upshot is that I have slept a lot these past couple of days, particularly in the mornings.

Happily, what with bank and privilege holidays I don't have to go back to work until Wednesday, so I can catch up on my rest unhindered. It is a summer thing, this inability to sleep: I don't sleep quite as deeply as I once did - there was an instance when I first came down to London and was living in a hostel off the Cromwell Road, when I managed to sleep through a fire drill at 3am with the fire bell directly outside the bedroom door. I was awoken by my room mate's return when he switched the light on so he could reveal my recumbent and baffled form to a number of friends who had just been paraded and counted in the street outside and who didn't see why I should get away without having my night's sleep suitable fractured when they had had to endure it. No, summers are rarely my friend in the sleep stakes. Daylight from just after three in the morning and often too warm to doze off before two (this weekend thus far's chilly night time temperatures not withstanding). No, I fare much better in the winter, when I am allowed to hibernate.

I confess that the one thing I am NOT looking forward to when we move into our new flat is the fact that the bedroom windows face due east, so early morning sun will hit me directly. I might have to buy a blindfold...

On the entertainments front, we have finally completed the marathon watching of every episode from the nine seasons and the movie of the X-Files, which I am gratified to say Furtle likes (the odd episode apart, but that is true of all long running shows). We are now ready for this summer's release of X-Files: I Want To Believe. Tonight we started out on Alias season 1. We have all five to watch and now the tables are turned; Furtle had only seen the occasional X-Files and I have only seen the occasional Alias. I tried to watch it some time ago, when rumfuddle lent me the first season, but I ran out of steam after about six episodes. It seems to be going better this time around - clearly company is the key.

We still have to finish watching The Prisoner, we have the final two seasons of West Wing to get through, Season one of The Wire and a planned reacquaintance with Twin Peaks. I still hold out the hope that I shall be able to interest Furtle in Stargate SG-1, but we got maybe a disc and a half into season one some months ago and stalled. I'm not certain that we shall un-stall, which is a shame. Either way, with that lot, plus 4/5s of Babylon 5 on VHS to revisit and a number of movies as yet un watched, we have televisual entertainment to keep us going for some time to come, even though we seem to have run out of new stuff to drag down off the torrents.

Between times I am rereading old comics and reminding myself why I loved the old four-colour stuff so much when I was a kid. I have read some old Captain America, Thor and am now reading early Iron Man. Awaiting my attention are a couple of volumes of Atlas era reprints from the 1950s, featuring the original Marvel Boy, powered by his Uranianic Pills, where everything new is atomic powered. The first attempted relaunch of Captain America and Bucky as scourges of communism, the strangely homo erotic Human Torch and his youthful sidekick, Toro who wore naught but green speedos regardless of weather and circumstance, and of course, the equally under dressed Sub Mariner, who had and still has the excuse that he lives under the sea. For a few golden months in the 1950s, the company that would later be reborn as Marvel tried to relaunch the superhero genre that had died out after World War Two. There is a simple charm to these stories and they are generally better produced than their earlier counterparts, but they were too early, The time was not yet ripe and Marvel had top wait until the successful launch of the Fantastic Four in 1962 for the superhero genre to come back full force. These Atlas era creations disappeared into a world soon to be dominated by the horror genre, with some science fiction thrown in. But they were fun while they lasted.

Sunday Night, Monday Morning

It's been a strange old time recently. I have felt rather tired for long periods of time, but except for Friday when I turned in around midnight, an almost unprecedentedly early time for a confirmed night owl such as myself, I find that I get to sleep no earlier than if I go to bed at around my usual time of 1.30. The upshot is that I have slept a lot these past couple of days, particularly in the mornings.

Happily, what with bank and privilege holidays I don't have to go back to work until Wednesday, so I can catch up on my rest unhindered. It is a summer thing, this inability to sleep: I don't sleep quite as deeply as I once did - there was an instance when I first came down to London and was living in a hostel off the Cromwell Road, when I managed to sleep through a fire drill at 3am with the fire bell directly outside the bedroom door. I was awoken by my room mate's return when he switched the light on so he could reveal my recumbent and baffled form to a number of friends who had just been paraded and counted in the street outside and who didn't see why I should get away without having my night's sleep suitable fractured when they had had to endure it. No, summers are rarely my friend in the sleep stakes. Daylight from just after three in the morning and often too warm to doze off before two (this weekend thus far's chilly night time temperatures not withstanding). No, I fare much better in the winter, when I am allowed to hibernate.

I confess that the one thing I am NOT looking forward to when we move into our new flat is the fact that the bedroom windows face due east, so early morning sun will hit me directly. I might have to buy a blindfold...

On the entertainments front, we have finally completed the marathon watching of every episode from the nine seasons and the movie of the X-Files, which I am gratified to say Furtle likes (the odd episode apart, but that is true of all long running shows). We are now ready for this summer's release of X-Files: I Want To Believe. Tonight we started out on Alias season 1. We have all five to watch and now the tables are turned; Furtle had only seen the occasional X-Files and I have only seen the occasional Alias. I tried to watch it some time ago, when rumfuddle lent me the first season, but I ran out of steam after about six episodes. It seems to be going better this time around - clearly company is the key.

We still have to finish watching The Prisoner, we have the final two seasons of West Wing to get through, Season one of The Wire and a planned reacquaintance with Twin Peaks. I still hold out the hope that I shall be able to interest Furtle in Stargate SG-1, but we got maybe a disc and a half into season one some months ago and stalled. I'm not certain that we shall un-stall, which is a shame. Either way, with that lot, plus 4/5s of Babylon 5 on VHS to revisit and a number of movies as yet un watched, we have televisual entertainment to keep us going for some time to come, even though we seem to have run out of new stuff to drag down off the torrents.

Between times I am rereading old comics and reminding myself why I loved the old four-colour stuff so much when I was a kid. I have read some old Captain America, Thor and am now reading early Iron Man. Awaiting my attention are a couple of volumes of Atlas era reprints from the 1950s, featuring the original Marvel Boy, powered by his Uranianic Pills, where everything new is atomic powered. The first attempted relaunch of Captain America and Bucky as scourges of communism, the strangely homo erotic Human Torch and his youthful sidekick, Toro who wore naught but green speedos regardless of weather and circumstance, and of course, the equally under dressed Sub Mariner, who had and still has the excuse that he lives under the sea. For a few golden months in the 1950s, the company that would later be reborn as Marvel tried to relaunch the superhero genre that had died out after World War Two. There is a simple charm to these stories and they are generally better produced than their earlier counterparts, but they were too early, The time was not yet ripe and Marvel had top wait until the successful launch of the Fantastic Four in 1962 for the superhero genre to come back full force. These Atlas era creations disappeared into a world soon to be dominated by the horror genre, with some science fiction thrown in. But they were fun while they lasted.

Brrrr...

If ever there was any doubt about it being a bank holiday, just look out of the window - if you can see out of the window with the driving rain coming down. That's north London weather anyway. May 26 has a feeling of November 26 about it this year and I doubt that I shall be venturing much further than Waitrose to buy milk and taters.

Anything good on the telly today?

Brrrr...

If ever there was any doubt about it being a bank holiday, just look out of the window - if you can see out of the window with the driving rain coming down. That's north London weather anyway. May 26 has a feeling of November 26 about it this year and I doubt that I shall be venturing much further than Waitrose to buy milk and taters.

Anything good on the telly today?

New York Stunt

A friend of mine sent me a link to this stunt pulled a while ago in Grand Central Station, New York. Some 207 people froze in place simultaneously for 5 minutes before dispersing and carrying on with their lives.

I think it took place either sometime early in 2007 or 2008, but I've not yet found an exact date. Pretty cool, though.

New York Stunt

A friend of mine sent me a link to this stunt pulled a while ago in Grand Central Station, New York. Some 207 people froze in place simultaneously for 5 minutes before dispersing and carrying on with their lives.

I think it took place either sometime early in 2007 or 2008, but I've not yet found an exact date. Pretty cool, though.

...and breathe!

There is nothing quite like a catastrophic keyboard failure in the middle of an online game to get people racing around trying to sort it out.

The batteries on Furtle's Mac keyboard upped and died (fortuitously) during a break in a Warcrack Raid. Our infinite supply of AA batteries seems to be infinite no more. We needed four and found two. Scrounging from a number of sources, including a rarely used transistor radio and the remote for our Freeview box, which currently only lets us watch Channel 5 increased our selection, but the keyboard remained stubbornly inactive.

I have a spare cordless keyboard that works by some other system rather than the Mac's bluetooth, but having spent several months in a corner with a plug adapter sitting on it, it seems that the batteries therein were flat, too. Happily, THAT keyboard only requires two, not four AA batteries and after some faffing, the raid continues. Tomorrow we buy more batteries. New ones for Furtle's keyboard, plus several spares and some replacements for my rarely used tranny. I may not bother replacing those in the freeview remote. I can get Channel 5 on analogue...

...and breathe!

There is nothing quite like a catastrophic keyboard failure in the middle of an online game to get people racing around trying to sort it out.

The batteries on Furtle's Mac keyboard upped and died (fortuitously) during a break in a Warcrack Raid. Our infinite supply of AA batteries seems to be infinite no more. We needed four and found two. Scrounging from a number of sources, including a rarely used transistor radio and the remote for our Freeview box, which currently only lets us watch Channel 5 increased our selection, but the keyboard remained stubbornly inactive.

I have a spare cordless keyboard that works by some other system rather than the Mac's bluetooth, but having spent several months in a corner with a plug adapter sitting on it, it seems that the batteries therein were flat, too. Happily, THAT keyboard only requires two, not four AA batteries and after some faffing, the raid continues. Tomorrow we buy more batteries. New ones for Furtle's keyboard, plus several spares and some replacements for my rarely used tranny. I may not bother replacing those in the freeview remote. I can get Channel 5 on analogue...