"Nothing but the rain"
I rated this film a 6 on IMDB. See this page about my scoring system.
I went to see this film expecting something that I knew would be a terrible film but great fun at the same time. That is what I got.
It’s an obvious adventure with some laughs and great cameos. Worth a watch but don’t expect to be intellectually challenged.
I love my new Nikon camera. It takes great photos, is easy to use, has brilliant settings and feels great in my hands. It’s a great bit of kit.
I like my iPhone camera. It’s small, pretty much always on my person and, surprisingly, takes pretty good low light photos.
The problem is that my iPhone camera is getting on a bit and has flaws in every picture it takes. Normally these can’t be seen because there’s plenty of detail in those areas. However, when there is a steady area the flaws show up a lot. Just see this photo of Whitby and spot the problem areas.
I’m not sure if these can be cleaned away or if they are internal. I also can’t be bothered to find out.
I spent a week recently on CCF Annual Camp at RAF Linton-On-Ouse. It was a busy week, travelling early one Saturday and returning late the following Saturday.
Here’s a rundown of the activities:
Some things of note:
One evening we saw two V22 Ospreys fly over the base.
There were two fire alarms in the officers’ mess. One was about 0630 and we all left the building in whatever state of dress we were in. The next was later that day as we were all sitting down to dinner. No one moved for quite a while, we were all quite sure that it was not a “big thing”. Eventually someone told us to get out of the building and we wandered out the front door just as the firemen were walking in [they had driven from the other side of the airfield] I don’t think they were too happy with us!
Here are a selection of photos from that camp:
Here’s a couple of amusing things, just because there probably isn’t enough humour on this site [it’s mostly me moaning about things].
This was a question that came up on some crappy Tv show I saw when I had a spare ten minutes just before dinner one evening:
Here’s a picture that I tweeted not long after a visit to Dishforth. This is probably the best toilet I’ve ever seen. It’s not glamorous but it does have a magazine rack!
Also, here’s a running route I did. It was a standard PTI route I found when I was in the station gym.
Awesome.
I loved this film. It had a perfect mix of beautiful, funny, space-stuff, action, characters and trees. I rated this film 10 on IMDB, however, see my ratings guide. I cant’ wait to see it again and also watch it with my family.
After the first few minutes I was worried that the rest of the film was going to disappoint me as the space scenes looked gorgeous. I was concerned that the quality was going to drop over the rest of the film. It didn’t.
There’s one big thing that annoyed me. It doesn’t really have anything to do with the film rather than censorship. The character played by Peter Serafinowicz is meant to use the word “asshole”. However, for what I can only consider reasons of censorship he says “A-hole”. It just didn’t fit with the rest of the film, especially when you consider the word “shit” was used a few times. What is it about “ass” or “arse” that can’t be said when the word “shit” is used anyway? It bugged me when it was first said and then the second time “A-hole” was used I just found it very strange. What a strange world we live in.
This is a picture of a path at RAF Linton-on-Ouse. Either they ran out of money, expect people with very longs legs to use it or are just plain lazy.
Perhaps, as this base is where they train future fast jet pilots, it’s a lesson in looking forward and being aware. All I know is that I don’t understand how this could be considered logical.
It’s been a while but here’s the latest Lego model:
This was a much better film that Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes which I watched at the weekend and was just not fussed by it. I went to see “Dawn” last night because it was the only thing on at the cinema worth watching and I wasn’t even sure I wanted to spend the time going. It was only after I looked at the IMDB Critics’ Metascore that I decided I would see the film because it had scored 79, which is pretty good.
The animation was stunning. The acting was stunning. I believe ape culture was reproduced accurately. I thought the whole film was a good piece. It showed just what assholes apes and people can be, this film could be attached to any of the trouble spots around the planet at the moment and used as an allegory. The film is worth watching.
This film is really about two groups who know little of each other and how they handle the first encounter. All of the behaviour is brilliantly human. It quickly descends into violence. Just look at human history and what we have done to each other over the years. Overall this is a sad film commenting on how crap humans treat each other.
SPOILERS
I had a couple of issues with certain points of the film. I was happy to accept intelligent apes, that’s the main premise. I wasn’t particularly happy with three people being able to get an hydro-electric dam working again after 10 years of non-service. That seemed rather unlikely to me, but it was a minor thing.
I was also rather unsure of Caesar’s final conversation with the man. I felt that Caesar wouldn’t have accepted that war was an inevitable part of the future. It didn’t quite fit with the rest of the film. It was exactly at the point that the two characters needed to stand up and be leaders and organise peace. Two cultures can exists next to each other but there has to be movement and discussion. There is always a need for negotiation. As an example I give you the fact that all the time the IRA were bombing the shit out of the UK in the 1980s the government [we do not negotiate with terrorists] were secretly negotiating with the IRA. It is the only way to make progress, to allow differing cultures to live together. Forgiveness needs to be learnt by all to allow healing and future cooperation.
Here’s a few photos taken by son #1 while we were walking around Rochester Airport. I think he has a pretty good “eye” for the shot.
This is a copy of my official OIC graduation photograph. It shows me receiving my Commission scroll [the actual one unlike my degree ceremony] from the Group Captain.
I know, I know. This is just another list of stuff!
So very true, but this is the biggie. This is why you join the cadets. If you want to see the other communications in this series then click here.
Just before I enter the list you may or may not be interested to know that aerobatics really messes me up. I positively enjoy the experience of aero but it will make me sick and turns me into a useless lump of cells for a few hours as my body recovers. I will go green and then white, I have headaches and everything spins for ages. After anything up to five hours later I will become very hungry, that signals the start of my recovery. I really enjoy flying and aerobatics but I just have to be aware of the consequences.
My total time is just over 21 hours. That’s not bad even if it includes two flights to Cyprus which I’ve counted because I was flying “on duty”.
I also recently had a flight in a Grob Tutor while on camp at Brize Norton. I got around a 40 minute flight, it was a much better experience than the chipmunk.