The Distrustfulness of Old Age

This morning number one wife mentioned that she thought the dishwasher was leaking. The basis of her argument was that the carpet underneath it was wet. This premise was to me far too flimsy. There were lots of other reasons why the carpet might be wet, and so I took upon myself to investigate all of them first.

So, having dismantled the plumbing outside the house and run several tests on the washing machine I was able to conclude, to my satisfaction, that the dishwasher was indeed leaking.

I'm left wondering if as you get older you just assume that things people tell you are wrong, or whether this is something that I've been arrogantly doing all through my life.

The only good news was that the repair, cleaning the door seal, was actually very easy.

Xbox 360 for less than 200 quid

You can now get an Xbox 360, with a 60G hard disk, for less than 200 pounds. Twenty pounds less if you go to Amazon, where they are doing them for 180. This is quite frankly an incredible price. Over 10 years ago, when money was really worth something, I got a Playstation 1 for 400 pounds. Now you can get something far more powerful, which will also work as a media centre and has a genuinely useful sized storage capacity, for a fraction of that. And of course with XNA you can write your own programs for it. For free if you are a student.

Amazing.

The Life of the Solitary Writer

For the last few days I've been working at home on some XNA stuff. The idea was that I'd get a lot done by shutting myself away with no distractions. Apparently J.K. Rowling managed to finish writing the last Harry Potter novel by locking herself in a hotel room with a word processor and not coming out until it was finished. I can't afford a hotel, so I'm all alone at home trying to do something similar.

It did not go too well to be honest. It is unbelievable the number of different things that you suddenly find to do when you have to do some writing. Particularly at home, where there is always something to tidy up, put into alphabetical order, move to a different position, or eat.

I actually enjoy the creative process once I get started. I don't think that it is writer's block that I suffer from, more like a torrent of different ideas, each of which has to be kicked in our out of the project and then shuffled into its proper place. And I can tell when I'm near finishing, as I have a strong urge to take the whole thing to bits and start again. I also start to question the very tenets on which the whole thing is based.

I think on that basis I'm just about done....

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor

If my years on this planet have taught me one thing, it is that the secret to true happiness is properly managing your expectations. I had high expectations of the new Batman movie, and that paid off. I had somewhat lower expectations of the new Mummy movie (and I guess that the next Hellboy release fits somewhere between these two, expectation wise).

Anyhoo, I think  was just about right. The first Mummy was a great film. This one grates a bit, but is generally OK. There are some nice lines and reasonable set pieces, and it is quite relaxing to go and see a film where you can predict the happy ending after around fifteen minutes into the picture. Trust me, Batman is not like that. I got the impression that this one was done a bit on the cheap, but perhaps the lush visuals of the Dark Knight have spoiled me a bit in this respect.

There is talk at the moment about plans to stop serving popcorn in movie theatres as it makes a bit of a mess and is thought to be somewhat downmarket in these sophisticated times. That would be a pity, as it is the perfect thing to eat during films like this.

Go West

When I was younger (and even better looking - if that is possible) there was a band called Go West. They released a couple of good albums and then seemed to vanish. I later found out that they'd gone to the 'states and were writing music for films, which was nice for them, but it meant that the flow of music releases dried up.

Until now. They've just released another album, futurenow. Such is my respect for the band that I grabbed a copy as soon as I heard about it. And it was worth it. Very much a return to form. I've only really found one naff track on the album (although that track is really, really bad). If you like poppy, upbreat music with strong vocals then it is well worth a listen, especially the first track, which is brilliant.