It’s time to say goodbye to a pair of excellent companions. These Merrell shoes have been with me for around ten years and it’s time to let them go. These are the second pair of Merrells I have loved. They have been everywhere with me. The waterproofing hasn’t worked for many years, they are “air conditioned” and finally I think I have to admit that they no longer are cushioned at the heels. I spent a long time walking around in them at the weekend and my heels noticed every bump in the ground. It is a shame and emotionally hard to send these off to the great dump in the land but they need to go.
Farewell Old Friends
I’m slightly annoyed as the newer version of these shoes are shaped slightly different and fit slightly different and I am not sure I like the change. I’m going to have to wear them around the house to get used to them. Eventually I will put the magnet things on them.
The next one occurs in this country after I’m dead (probably) so I made sure to experience this one. I almost forgot but I had set an alarm and so I went outside around 1800 last night and spent ninety minutes enjoying the spectacle. As I only remembered quite late I grabbed a box from upstairs, dusted it, and made a pinhole. It worked quite well. Here’s the view at 1850 hours local time:
August 2026 Solar Eclipse
The box was highly textured and so that’s the bumpy look to the image but he occlusion is clear. Later on it got darker and cooler which was lovely – it’s been too hot here the last few days and the day of writing this it is going to be a lot hotter, damn anthropogenic global warming. The best the eclipse got for me was around 1913 hours and here is that picture:
August 2026 Solar Eclipse – As good as it gets
I remember an eclipse from the past, I think it was in the late nineties. I was definitely in the garden at the ancestral home and made a pinhole camera for that one. I think it was the one that was best viewed in Cornwall but my memories seem mixed about all that, emotional and picture memories aren’t lining up I think. Yes, I did briefly look directly at the sun, but very briefly I’m not a complete twat!
Went to one of my favourite places recently. Got a flight with Smith to Hannover Airport after meeting Huw and Ruby at Heathrow, then a train to Hannover Hbf. We met up with a friend in town after visiting the aircraft museum. That evening we had some food at a rooftop bar. The Friday morning we had to get to Hildesheim and we got the train after our stay in the Panorama Hotel next to the redlight district. The train to Hildesheim was irritating as it stopped at Barnten for about an hour, actually kicking us off before another train came along and took us to our destination. Wristbands were collected and the bus to the airport worked. We arrived set up our camping area and rested. Zoe joined us for the afternoon and we played some card games. I was very drunk after supping something in the queue for the merchandise. Smith looked after me, thank goodness, and he has a better tolerance than me!
Unzucht – M’era Luna 2026
As with previous years’ write ups I will transfer my notes from my phone to here just as they are:
Saturday
Mortes – main stage. Pretty boring goth stuff. Two blokes and a female dancer.
Xandria – main stage. Female singer. Operatic metal. Much better than the first band. Pretty standard for their genre. They played THREE consecutive songs with key changes – gah!
Back to tent for a rest and then alcohol.
Unzucht – main stage. Fucking solid. Loved it.
Hocico – main stage. Pretty shit. Left after a song.
Lunch – somewhere, something. I can’t remember.
Tyske Ludder – club stage. Heavy but not as good as wanted.
Megaherz – main stage. Sound issues in first song!! Fucking loud. Middling band overall. I was expecting better. Mid tempo rock. Played Rock me Amadeus.
Combichrist – main stage. Fuck Yes! Pit.
Birthday Massacre – main stage. Too drunk to notice. It was OK I guess.
Back to tent.
Nachtmahr – club stage. Great. Place was packed and couldn’t see the band. Met Huw and Ruby.
Front Line Assembly – club stage. It was ok but got a bit boring so went for shower.
Front Line Assembly – M’era Luna 2026
Sunday
Final Selection – main stage. Upbeat goth electronic. Pretty decent goth voice. No variation within songs though so left during third song to see:
Synth Attack – club stage. Hard fast, distorted electro.
Sotiria – main stage. OK goth metal.
Went back to tent for a drink. Could hear Eisenfunk.
Jesus On Ecstasy – club stage. Heavy goth metal. Enjoyed. Goth.
Food.
The 69 Eyes – main stage. Goth rock. Nothing special.
Neuroticfish – could hear from tent. seemed fine. Drank some.
Aesthetic Perfection – club stage. Fucking great.
Aesthetic Perfection – M’era Luna 2026
Die Krupps – club stage. Fucknig great.
Die Krupps – M’era Luna 2026
After that is was back to the tent to get kit, then walk to the bus, get the train and walk to the hotel. Monday morning was nicely relaxed. Breakfast followed by a walk to the station. Train to airport. Met SCOTT from Phoenix, AZ. He was loud but fun. Drank lots as it seemed I was dehydrated. Flew back to Heathrow, got the car, almost got charged an extra £495 for parking and had to press the button to talk to someone. It felt like that took forever but it was soon sorted and drove home.
I recently realised that I have some reward points in my X-Plane shop account. It looks like I’ve spent enough money to get some “free” extras. So I purchased the L29 for X-Plane. I’ve been flying around in it and it’s nice and smooth. It doesn’t react to anything as fast as the other military planes I have but it’s nice.
L29A – X-Plane
The picture is me flying from Hildesheim to Hannover checking out my new scenery files. Now, it turns out that the title of this communication is a reference to a Monty Python sketch that is about an albatross. The problem is that the L29 is really called the Delfín and it’s the L39 that is the Albatross. Oh well, maybe I’ll get the plane correct next time!
I went to the cinema to see this film. There aren’t that many films on at the moment that aren’t made for kids because it’s the school holidays and Cineworld are catering to that audience. I might even go and watch The Odyssey again just to have a few hours in the cold – it’s been extremely warm recently. I might even have to see Evil Dead Burn just to get a few hours out of the house. Anyway, I think it was low tide along the estuary, I’m writing this quite a while after actually going to the cinema. After watching the film I rated it on IMDb, there are rules to this to ensure consistency so you should read those before complaining about my score. Controversially I rated this film 7/10.
I enjoyed this film. I’ve been watching a lot of older “classic” films recently, having started The Godfather series. Raging Bull was a good film. It feels like these types of films, historical epics I would call them had the time to develop characters and understanding. I can appreciate how the film was made and that it was very good. It just affected me less than I was expecting. I don’t know why.
For whatever reason a while back I decided to build a “big thing” in Minecraft and I kinda broke my own rules while doing it. Until this point I had made it a mission that all builds shouldn’t be able to be seen from the main base on the shoreline. I failed to do that with this build:
The “Platform” in the Minecraft world
So, I am going to build some sea cliffs to hide the superstructure of the platform. I’ve started the basics of the sea cliffs and we will see what happens. I’m looking forward to it, but I’m also scared at the same time. There’s a lot of work to be done.
One of the weekly events that happen in Gran Turismo is a time trial around a particular circuit in a particular car. When I logged in recently there was a timed lap challenge around Spa-Francorchamps in a Porsche. I always try and do these events as they are an easy way to make some in-game money. With this particular circuit the game seemed very strict with track limits – there were bollards on some corners and if you touched them it invalidated the lap. Here is my laptime result:
Gran Turismo Spa-Francorchamps Online Time Trial Result
The world record is 2:30.316 and then levels of greatness are done in terms of percentage time added on. I managed to get a GOLD time on this circuit. This makes me very happy. I’m normally somewhere around a mid-silver. I’ve only had two gold times before. I think this will bag me a million in-game credits.
Gran Turismo Online Results
Above is my overall results from the online challenges and races. I don’t really enjoy the races because it’s quite common to get bumped off the circuit and all your qualifying practice and time are just ruined. The time trials are more interesting and a better way to compare yourself to others.
The weather is, currently, terrible. It’s about the third week of heat. Two weeks ago it was mid-30C. This week it’s low 30s. Fortunately at work I am in air conditioned rooms, but I do feel guilt about that, the electricity use and carbon output is high. So, as the world warms we use air con which creates more energy use and more carbon. When I leave the buildings at work I enter an oven. I’m fed up with sweating in my own house for no reason other than weather. I’m fed up with my head feeling hot, it’s very annoying. I’d like to be able to sleep in a nice cool room. Given the terrible weather it’s worth seeing a film just to spend a couple of hours in a cool room. Towards the end of this film I almost felt chilly!
This trip to the cinema was slightly later than yesterday’s. That means that the tide was almost highest as I drove in. There was a tiny little bit of mudbank that looked like a little beach, inviting to all. I will admit that the river and the view of Rochester the other side was very pretty. On leaving the cinema the tide was at its highest and no mud could be seen. I was stuck behind someone driving around 30% the speed of normals so I used the time to observe the water.
After watching this film I rated it on IMDb and, of course, there’s a system. You can read about that system here or if you want to can refuse to learn anything and be annoyed with how things turn out. I rated this film 6/10.
I actually enjoyed this film. I am not a fan of superhero movies, I think they suck artistically and morally. But I did enjoy this one. The story is pretty standard. But the filming was ok and I thought the script was decent. I was happily surprised that it didn’t take place on Earth although the girl in the film looked remarkably human with oddly human morals and attitudes. I guess I shouldn’t worry about realism in a superhero film.
Why do baddies in films always have face-art? The main baddie in this one had tattoos and metal pins in his face. When this person arrived I kinda hoped they were going to make him a nice person, you know, shock the audience with a “don’t stereotype people” vibe. But, no, he was the baddie and not particularly interesting at that. Leather, tattoos and piercings don’t make you a baddie. If anything they tell of emotional worries. Please, please, please can we have some heroes that have face art or look ugly or are just slime. I guess this film is trying to please the masses in a time when all the baddies in the world are white old men.
Why doesn’t Supergirl just laser-eye all the baddies? If she has that power, and she does, then would it be more efficient just to sinter them all from a distance and with accuracy rather than fist punching them all into buildings that then crash down endangering all the innocents? I didn’t care for the Supergirl costume, but I guess that’s gospel according to some pictures that a bloke drew fifty years ago.
Overall I enjoyed the film. Probably won’t watch it again but there are definitely worse ways to spend two hours when it’s 32C outside.
So, the weather is pretty hot here at the moment. I’ve been lucky that I’m mostly in rooms with air conditioning this week. We have activities running and I’m teaching kids how to race in Gran Turismo. But, when I leave school it’s still a touch hot. The car said 33C just now as I drove home. So, for a couple of extra hours in the cool I went to see Obsession at the cinema. There had been screenings before today but they started late and I didn’t think I wanted to be out that late as I might fall asleep! Today’s showing started at a sensible time. The tide in the river was rising but not highest, it was saving that for my exit from the screening as it was high tide when I headed home.
After watching the film I rated it on IMDb and there is a whole level of thought that goes into that. You should read this communication to understand how the system works. I rated this film 6/10.
I enjoyed this film. Although there were supernatural elements they were very superficial and didn’t really have any effect on the whole story. A wish coming true can be considered a small thing. I liked how the film coped with the obsession of a person by someone else. The pain for the obsessor when they felt spurned was really highlighted. Not that I’m defending obsession itself, that’s a terrible thing and not healthy. Another thing I enjoyed was the lack of jump-scares, these I find childish and atmosphere ruining. This film had a couple but they weren’t played to be massive jump-scares.
I would say the film was a touch dark. I guess it’s meant to be. It’s detailing the worst of human behaviour and the shadows and silhouettes dehumanise the characters. Maybe that makes it more comforting for the audience. If the lighting was bright and pretty there would be large incongruence with the mood of the film. Overall this was finally a good horror movie done well.
This trip to Strood was more to get out of the heat and to be somewhere environmentally comfortable than to actually watch a movie. Also, I have just finished some extra-curricula work marking mathematics exams for an exam board and this was my first evening of freedom for a while so it needed to be noted in some way. I noticed that the tide was middling on my way to the cinema. I parked in the shade but neglected to take account of the lack of hills in the distance so, although I was aware the sun would move, the car was in the direct sunlight when I left to drive home! It was around 34C in the outside air but because the cinema can be a bit chilly sometimes I did carry a fleece with me to the showing, just in case my legs got cold.
The custom since around 2013 is that I rate each film I’ve watched on IMDb and there’s a system to it to try and make my ratings consistent with something. You should read about that system within this communication. I ended up giving this film 6/10. In the past I would have tweeted my result, but I left twitter when it started to become a cesspool and I’m glad I did. So, no embedded tweets within these pages anymore.
The film itself was childish, stupid and very much in a category of “american stupid humour”, a categorisation that I use for this genre. The forth wall was broken within a minute and without it’s self-referential themes this film would be nothing. I kinda enjoyed it and it made me chuckle a few times. There was a lot going on visually as well as within the script and it kept me busy looking around for the jokes.
The n-word is used a lot in this film but in appropriately suitable contexts and never in hate, even so it still made me feel slightly uncomfortable – I think that’s probably some type of white-guilt that I feel. There were many jokes about a gay character and they were funny but I wasn’t sure if they amount to homophobia. The character isn’t aware that he is gay, but it’s obvious. There wasn’t any hate towards that character I think the jokes were more playing on his saying inappropriate things at the wrong time. Part way through the film I found myself checking the jokes and then decided whether I should find them funny. It removed me from the film a little bit.
One of the characters is a less-mentally-developed person and, again, there were jokes around that. But, I don’t think any of them were aimed at the disability. The stereotype was harsh, as all stereotypes are, but again, this removed me from the movie and made me consider the ethics of what was happening on the screen. As it happens this character had some of the best and most pertinent lines in the movie, pointing out the stupidity of the current government of the USA.
The film was full of references to popular culture and I’m sure I didn’t spot all of those. There were jokes about the state of social discourse in the USA along with sketches that highlight the inerrant racism in the american culture and government agencies. Overall I enjoyed the movie and the way it took the piss out of the USA. It certainly has made me think about what is appropriate to be shown on the big screen.
There was a trailer for the last Jackass movie and I think I will go and see that. I tried showing my kids some scenes from the film and they just didn’t find people deliberately getting hurt that funny. I was crying! maybe it’s because of the era in which I grew up.
