Morning peeps

A Scanner Darkly stuff on AICN here Looks like release next March and the whole film gets that creepy anim overlay treatment, which is going to be excellent but will definitely give me a headache. One for the bike lovers, the artocle talks about a scene they screened at the conference (Comic Con) in which Woody Harelson and Robert Downy Jnr get into an arguement about the number of gears a bike has. half way through it would appear that the bike gets annoyed and changes the number of gears that it has. Oh, and PKD turned up to the conference in person. He's dead, I know. read to find out...



Bomber out

Applied maths for the intellectually challenged.

I just had a fantastic conversation with Cathay Pacific's baggage bird. I'm flying to Brussels (well Amsterdam, but same difference) at the end of the month and will have the furry razor (one tabby, name of Mojo) in tow. Not having done this sort of thing before, I asked our agent to check the rules about putting pets on planes. "just turn up at check-in with the cat in a cage" she tells me "they'll charge him as excess baggage". Now, I believe the excess baggage bit but the just turning up on the day seems a little ad-hock so I called Cathay myself.

It seems that this is the one item that my frequent flier card thingy can't help me with, I need to call the "cargo Hot Line". Right-oh the Cargo Hot Line it is then. I spend 10 minutes trying to get through to them to be told that they can't help me and that I need to go through reservations. Hot as. OK, back to the main dial-in number and I get some girl at reservations. She tells me I need to apply for passage. "How"; I ask. She can do it for me, she says. Brilliant. I just need an estimate of the size and weight. 500x500x700mm and 10 kilos I tell them. Somewhat of a guess. She'll call me back in a couple of days. I leave my mobile number.

4 days goes by and nothing so today I call them again. "we've already informed your agent that we can't confirm" I am told. "but that's a bit ridiculous, I should just turn up at check in and you'll decide the day I fly if you can take the cat or just release him on the street?" "no" she says, "I mean we can't take him, the cage is too big at 500cmx500cmx..." "Hold on", I interject, "500 CM?!? you mean that you thought the cat's cage was 5 meters square and 7 meters high? Are you mad?" "How big is the cage?" she asks "500x500x700 millimeteres" I reiterate "and how many millimeters in a cm?" she asks. At this point I pass out from exhaustion.

Mojo will be pleased to know that Cathay believe they have just turned down transport for the largest cat known to man, an absolute beast of an animal who's over-awing power is second only to his need for tummy rubs and a propensity for catnip..

Bomber out

2 6 weeks left! Yeah ... errr

What have I done??!!?? My wife's gonna kill me! Actually, she's OK with it, but she should kill me, suicide being the coward's option and all.

The firm did what I thought they would and asked me to stay an extra month. Not wanting to turn them down flat I made several demands (politely, of course) and left for the weekend with Bubble thinking I'd made them an offer that the couldn't accept. Seems I was wrong; Monday morning first thing and the boss simply told me "we accept your proposal". Bugger. Essentially they'll pay me double to work the extra month so 4 more weeks of pain followed by wallowing in cash. Oh, and I still get the 2 weeks break in Brussels at the beginning of August to sort out the flat etc.

In a sad turn of events it seems that Jules can't get the second week in August off, which is a shame because I was looking forward to languishing at their pad in the S. of France for a week. Now we'll have to think of something to do with that week. Let's see ... I think we can probably come up with something. S&J; any chance of a 5th to the 9th type of thing? 4 days would be better than none.

Bubble left for Mongolia yesterday on her trans-mongo oddesy. She and 3 mates will be taking the train from Ullan Battar to Moscow then on to St Petersberg over the next 3 weeks. I am very jealous of the trip and get on with all the people she's travelling with but, frankly, 3 weeks on a train with 4 lady teachers and me would probably not turn out well so it's probably just as well I'm not going.

Last week, I realised after Bubble had left for the UK that I had put my controller receiver thingy and memory card in a side pocket of one of our bags "so I wouldn't lose them". Bubble had taken said bag to London. Having toyed with the idea of buying a new controller and memory card then playing the games I have kept constantly so I could catch up with where I was before Bubble got back, I then noticed the PSP sitting jewel-like on the table and thought "ahh, PSP". The week was over quickly.

The PSP took a bashing; Untold legends is probably about 1/2 done. Coded arms is about 20% through. Both of these are good demonstrations of the fact that their genre of game can be succesfully mounted on the PSP (RPG and 1st person shooter, respectively) but neither prove worthy really, both lacking in depth and originality. This is very similar to the birth of the PS2. Some of the titles back then were very good demonstrations of the equipment without actually being very good games. PS2 titles got better, I expect the same from the PSP. I also got Lumines and Twisted Metal. Luminies is like Tetris with a dimension added. It's still 2D (fully 3D tetris being purely for Tefal heads and masochists) but instead of shapes of blocks, they are all square, each with a 4 block combination of 2 different colours. The game is to make larger blocks of single colours by stacking them so. If there's a gap under one side of the 4 block set, one side will collapse to fill it. Sound stupid? Well; probably it is, but it's bloody adictive with it. TM is a fairly simple drive around an arena destroying other cars kind of set up. Again; beautifully rendered and fun enough but a little shallow on game depth. I'm sure the multi-player freaks will have fun having battles on the tube but the single player is essentially stunted. Waiting with baited scrotum for Grand Theft Auto, Liberty City Stories. Actually, I seem to recall that GTA3 was the watershed for the PS2, quality games wise, so perhaps the same will happen to the PSP.

Bomber out