The Daily Teaser …

Well …

That’s Christmas over, for another year … !

Well, apart from the inevitable finishing off of the few last presents. I know I’ve been given a copy of The Boat That Rocks I’m gonna happily suggest for a movie night.

Actually, it’s the same for Allison: being the John Wayne fan she is, she was feeling both pleased and grateful, about being given a copy of The Quiet Man.

You know, I don’t think think I’ve ever seen a John Wayne movie.

Adrian, Tim … ?

•••••

Moving on, yesterday’s Teaser saw Andrea, Trevor, and Tim, all getting 5 out of 5, with Andrea, bless her, reaching for the Ointment, after getting the Official First-In-Clap.

You go, Girl!!

Any way, here’s today’s questions, along with the ‘How to’ and License …

Q1) 29^th December, 1170, saw the martyrdom of which ‘… troublesome priest’?

Q2) Which cathedral was that priest in, when he died?

Q3) More to the point, which king unintentionally order the priest’s death?

Q4) 720 years later, 29^th December, 1890, saw a massacre of Native Americans: near which creek?

Q5) More to the point, which Native American tribe were massacred at this creek?

Q6) 29^th December, 1938, saw the birth of actor, Jon Voight: what’s the name of his actress daughter?

Q7) And finally: 29^th December, 1986, saw the death of Lord Stockton: Lord Stockton was better known as which former British PM?

And here’s yesterday’s questions and answers …

Q1) 28^th December, 1065, saw the consecration of which English Abbey?

A1) Westminster Abbey.

Q2) 28^th December, 1895, saw which brothers perform the first fee-paying cinema performance: by which brothers?

A2) Auguste Marie Louis Nicolas and Louis Jean Lumière.

Q3) 29 years earlier, 28^th December, 1836, saw Spain recognise the independence of which Central American country?

A3) Mexico.

Q4) A long time later, 28^th December, 2007, saw Nepal abolish what?

A4) The monarchy.

Q5) And finally … today in 1950 saw what turned into the UK’s first National Park?

A5) The Peak District.

Enjoy those, everyone. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m gonna finish making that Triple Berry Cheesecake.

That bloody Café World is getting seriously distracting …

An Entertaining Day

Now today’s been … entertaining!

Yeah, definitely entertaining!

Oh, yes!!

I mean, for starters, tinkering around in the Services preferences for Mac OS X 10.6.x, I’ve found that I can now do something I’ve been thinking would be a great idea.

Converting a text file into an mpeg4 audio file, and sending it to iTunes!

I’m a Mac, and Snow Leopard was MY idea!!

Apple’s also added the ability to send a file to a Bluetooth device, as well as opening a file in TextEdit, to the Services sub-menu: one of the sub-menus that crops up when you ctrl-click — or right-click — an item.

Given the ability of Quicktime X to upload a video to YouTube, and the amount of video conversion software on the Mini, you could be in for a treat …

Or a dippy animation, at any rate …

•••••

Tim, Adrian, Combom, would that scare people off?

Not that I worried, but I’d like an opinion, here …

•••••

Oh, and I think I was right about the monitor, by the way: remember me saying that the output from my display seemed a touch different, somehow?

I think — with the Snow Leopard installation — the Display preferences have been reset from the calibrated profile the Mini was using under Leopard, to the default one that Snow Leopard uses: I also suspect that the updated OpenCL graphics code that Snow Leopard utilises may have something to do with it …

•••••

At any rate, that’s not what I intended to write about …

Well, ok, maybe I did, just a touch … !!

But, at any rate, I know that Allison, I, my mother, my two sisters, Anna and Ruth, and some old friends of the family, Carol and Ben — who are mother and son, I should add — were in Basildon’s Empire Cinema multiplex, tonight, happily watching the Guy Ritchie directed film, Sherlock Holmes.

And came away impressed.

Well, maybe not impressed, as such.

But certainly entertained.

Sherlock Holmes sees Holmes — played by Robert Downey Jnr — and Dr Watson — very well played by Jude Law — racing against time to defeat the machinations of the evil Lord Blackwood, played — with a lot of menacing flair — by Mark Strong, of The Long Firm and Rock ’N’ Rolla fame.

Who, actually, was a touch overshadowed in this, I thought.

Strong did a great job, actually, but he was up against the impeccable Robert Downey Jnr — who really CAN’T spell the family name right — as a Holmes who compares very favourably to Jeremy Brett’s TV version back in the 1980s.

Very favourably, actually, I thought.

Granted, I think his performance wouldn’t’ve worked in the TV version’s true-to-the-book take on Conan Doyle’s detective, but with-in the context of a blockbuster movie, like this?

It worked very well indeed.

Actually, so did Jude Law’s take on Dr Watson.

Ok, now, granted, a lot of what we saw on screen tonight was a combination of writing, directing, effects and lighting.

But I’ve got to give credit to Jude Law, here, for a nice piece of work.

I don’t know if showing Dr Watson with the limp that the books logically imply he has — according to A Study In Scarlet, Watson was injured in the Battle of Maiwand — was the idea of the actor or writers, but well done to whoever for thinking of it!

And to Rachel McAdams and Kelly Reilly as — respectively — Irene Adler and Mary Morstan, the two love interests in the film.

Overall?

Overall, I’ve got to admit, I’m pleased to have seen Sherlock Holmes, tonight.

I’ll be the first to admit it’s not an intellectual, art-house movie, intent on explaining the place of navel fluff in an existential, post-modern world.

But, my lord, it’s FUN!

Adrian, I think Guy Ritchie’s thought outside the box …

•••••

Phew, don’t I go on?

Now I’ve also got to admit I’ve caught something else, tonight, as well.

The first episode of the two part, BBC Wales slant on John Wyndham’s classic, The Day Of The Triffids.

Hmm …

With extra Mmmmm …

You see, this is competently done.

And I’ll be taking my hat off to Dougray Scott as the troubled Doctor Bill Masen, Joely Richardson as radio presenter, Jo Playton and especially to Eddie Izzard, as the ambiguous — but clearly power hungry — Torrence.*

But I’m thinking here that this version of The Day Of The Triffids is good — Eddie Izzard, alone, is worth time I’m investing in this — I can’t help but get the impression that this feels like a two part pilot.

Something I’m positive the original novel can’t support.

Nor the actual paceº of what I’ve seen, so far.

It’s not bad.

Given the necessary tweaks to bring the story into the 21st century, it’s not bad at all.

But I can’t help but think that it’s re-telling a familiar story, when doing something original — or, like Wyndham’s The Midwich Cuckoos, not seen on TV, before — would’ve been nice.

❈

* Villains, Bad Boys and Bottle Coves, you’ve got to take you hat off to them, sometimes, haven’t you?

º A lot faster than the BBC serial version of Day of the Triffids, back in the 1980s. That’s understandable, given the difference in format.

The Daily Teaser …

Oh, now HANG ON!

Back in the day, when I was running leave pub quizzes, I always used the phrase “We Have A SITUATION!” whenever we were looking at a tie-breaker.

I thought I’d mention it, as I’m tempted to use it now.

Because we had Tim, Andrea and Trevor, all getting 5 out of 5, in yesterday’s teaser.

But Tim and Andrea BOTH getting the Official First-In-Clap, as BOTH got their answers in at the same time.

Go look at the time-stamps, if you believe me.

But of a first!

Anyway, lets see how people can with today’s questions, shall we? Here they are, along with the ‘How To’, and License …

Q1) 28^th December, 1065, saw the consecration of which English Abbey?

Q2) 28^th December, 1895, saw the first fee-paying cinema performance: by which brothers?

Q3) 29 years earlier, 28^th December, 1836, saw Spain recognise the independence of which Central American country?

Q4) A long time later, 28^th December, 2007, saw Nepal abolish what?

Q5) And finally … today in 1950 saw what turned into the UK’s first National Park?

And here’s yesterday’s questions and answers …

Q1) 27^th December, 1979, saw the start of a Soviet backed coup: in which country?

A1) Afghanistan.

Q2) 27^th December, 1977, saw the UK premiere of which science fiction film?

A2) Star Wars. (Or Star Wars Episode 4: A New Hope, if you’re feeling really geeky!)

Q3) 27^th December, 1921, saw the Japanese Imperial Navy ship, the Hōshō, become the first of which type of ship to be commissioned?

A3) Flat decked aircraft-carrier.

Q4) 27^th December, 1945, saw 28 nations agree the creation of two institutions, at the Bretton Woods conference: name either.

A4) The World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund.

Q5) And finally, today in 2007, saw the assassination of which political leader?

A5) Benazir Bhutto of Pakistan.

Enjoy those, everyone …

I’ll catch you all later!

Exploring the Darkness …

You know, I must confess, I’m rather impressed, I really am.

I’ve just been using Quicktime X to do some trimming.

And I’m rather pleased about that.

No, seriously.

But more on what I was actually trimming, later.

I know that, for the moment, the basic trimming facility will come in handy.

Granted, doesn’t have the full on features of iMovie, but it does seem to be able to trims the ends of a TV show I’ve recorded.

Whether it could trim out adverts, I don’t know.

I’d imagine if one couldn’t, then something like MPEG Streamclip, or iMovie could.

That’s if one were planning to record films on TV, trim out the adverts and then either save them to an exterior drive or burn them to to disc with something like iDVD.

Not that I’m condoning it, I’m just giving you an example of something that’s best described as a legal grey area.

But suffice to say, I’m impressed.

Impressed enough to wonder how the YouTube sharing feature works …

•••••

To other things, now, if you don’t mind?

Well, you might, but I’m going to chatter, anyway.

One thing I know I haven’t managed to do is tell you I saw Part One of The End Of Time, on Christmas Day.

Actually, it’s getting to be something of a family tradition, by now.

Well, I saw family …

Bless ’em, Allison and Liz vanished upstair’s to watch Emmerdale, but tentacles, aliens and thing’s going ‘BOOM’ aren’t necessarily everyone’s cup of tea.

Actually, remind me to ask Allison and Liz how that episode went. I’m not a fan, but I’d rather look vaguely interested …

Say’s I, burbling …

But at any rate, The End Of Time, Part One was damn good stuff!

Seriously.

Right from the opening scenes, which see the late Lucy Saxon coerced — in a scene I found reminiscent of Dennis Wheatley, only on a better budget — into helping revive her late husband.

And, yes, if you’ve been following the show, you’ll realise I’m talking about the John Simm version of The Master.

And — seemingly as a result of the improperly performed resurrection — the Master is both damaged and even more psychotic than in his previous appearance in The Sound of Drums and Last of the Timelords.

He’s back …

And I can’t help but think that John Simm must have had a whale of a time, on this job.

Part One sees’s the Doctor called to the OodSphere, by Ood Sigma, and specifically warned of the Master’s return. And dashing to Earth, where he’s joined by Donna’s grandfather, Wilf: played, again, by Bernard Cribbins.

The Doctor and Wilf end up following the Master to the offices of businessman, Joseph Naismith.

And he’s got something The Master becomes interested in: a piece of alien technology Naismith calls the Immortality Gate, which lets its users heal either a person …

Or the population of an entire planet …

You can see the appeal, can’t you?

Now I’ve got to admit, I liked this episode, I really did.

It was — as, perhaps we’d expect for the first half of what is a regeneration story — both emotional, and dark.

Because the Tenth Doctor is expecting to die.

He is.

But those of us who both know the show, and watch the various news sites know what’ll happen on New Year’s Day.

Apart from the shock return of the Timelords, complete with Timothy Dalton.

But I’ll also think I’ll be sad to see the back of David Tennant.

•••••

And just as a final thought, you might just want to have a look at the video.

Remember me saying about the Snow Leopard version of Exposé being a touch less jerky than the Leopard version?

Well, I’ve just uploaded this to YouTube …

Just to show you …