To me, to you!

Current Song: Johann Johannsson - The Sun's Gone Dim and the Sky's Gone Black

For those of you who aren't familiar with the song/artist, it was the trailer music for Battle: Los Angeles. The artist's music is a little odd, with the particular album this comes from being a concept album built around an old IBM manual, but it's good for just sitting back and listening. Atmospheric.

First off, I'd like to get a RIP out of the way, for a man named Harry Morgan - star of, among other things, M*A*S*H*, where he played Colonel Potter. I loved the series when I was younger, and it's sad to see he's passed away (aged 96). Thoughts are with his family and friends.

Finally managed to take advantage of some late night Christmas shopping with El last week, which was nice - the weather wasn't particularly great, but it held up alright for most of the evening. Snagged a couple of gifts for various people, and got some ideas for others. Just a handful of gifts left now and I can concentrate on the other Christmas traditions - getting a Tree, sending Cards, etc.

I can definitely say it's the season for me now. I hate the commercialism of Christmas, but wierdly it still isn't quite the season until I see the Coke ad. After avoiding it for ages, I saw it twice within a couple of days. Bother.

Current Song: Bear McCreary - Kara Remembers (BSG 4 OST)


While on the subject of music, it was good to see Moonlet and the Lovemonks busking in Truro last night as well, even if we could only hang around for a couple of songs. They were gathering a small crowd by the time we moved on, and as always the band looked like they were thoroughly enjoying their work. Visit their site, buy their EP, or just sign up to their Facebook page and go see them live sometime!

Current Song: Murray Gold - The Sad Man with a Box (DW 5 OST)


Wow. The phone's really loving the soundtracks today.

I don't know how many of you have watched Transformers: Dark of the Moon, but every time I find someone who has, I ask them whether they noticed the  "What the Hell, Hero?!" moment about two thirds of the way through. Most haven't, but the ones that have seem pretty gobsmacked at it. If you've seen the film, read on, otherwise skip down to the second set of asterisks.


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So the world's gone to hell, the Autobots are presumed dead, and the Decepticons are turning Seattle into their own private playground. Within the space of a night, they've wiped out most of the city's population, and are prepping to bring Cybertron into our atmosphere.

Just when all hope is lost, the Autobots turn up, doing their usual kicking ass and taking names bit. Optimus Prime's reason for not turning up earlier? "We wanted you to see that the Decepticons could never be trusted".

OK. So, Optimus, let me get this straight. You let an entire city get wiped out (somewhere around 600,000 people according to their last census) just to teach humanity a lesson? Yeah, real heroic of you.

Yes, I know it's just a film and all that, and it's probably pretty bad to be outraged by it, but still, it seemed pretty harsh to me. Thoughts welcome.





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Anddddd....we're back. Not really much else to report for now. Couple of things though, I saw this on the BBC News website the other day:

How close are we to a crash proof car?

It's an interesting read, as more and more technology is brought in to try and improve road death statistics, and cope with the occasional human error, lapse in judgement etc. It does raise the question of who becomes responsible in the future if there's an accident though - is it the person behind the wheel, the person in the other car, the technology which failed, or the manufacturer?

I saw a program a couple of months back on Channel 4, hosted by Steven Hawking, called Brave New World. They detailed a man in America putting together a driverless car at the moment - review here, the first three paragraphs - who's working towards its completion now. After huge amounts of tests in real world situations, taking it out on the road, even joining a busy motorway from a slip road (deemed to be one of the hardest things to get right, given that there's so much judgement involved), there's not been a single accident while the car is driving itself.

Brief news story from CBS here about it.

Most manufacturers could learn from this car. Hell, I'd love to get one myself - program in the destination, and kick back with a cup of tea and a good book. Can't wait!

Until next time, onwards!