watch tHe skies

So as our company owners have now sold their shares to a PLC and disappeared in to the sunset with millions of quids, they have left us lowly employees with a nice little bonus. Both Jen and I get the bonus and she’s used some of hers to buy a Canon Ixus 60 and SELPHY 710 photo printer with which to document every moment of baby Ben’s life.

And yet I haven’t turned bonus in to gadget. Why?

Because I can’t for the life of me think of a gadget to get.

I KNOW!! Unbelievable.

There are a few gadgets that I’m interested in, such as the Sony Reader and \ or the Sony Ericsson 950i, but neither of them are available yet and this whole gadget desire needs relatively immediate satisfaction.

I could get myself an Xbox 360, but I’m not sure that I will get much of a chance to use it with a baby gadget like Ben.

So what else is there? A Sanyo Xacti C6 pocket video camera would be cool but as I am still getting around to editing the footage from our Egypt holiday 2 years ago I dont see the point in taking loads of footage of Ben, particularly as he doesn’t do much else beyond sleeping, soiling, feeding and farting.

Andy suggests a HD Plasma \ LCD TV, but as our 36″ Panny is only a couple of years old it would be a crime to replace it until we have had it long enough to cover the depreciation on a CRT TV, even if it is a thing of beauty and considerable weight (100kg).

What is more although my original iPod is now looking a bit worn and battered, I don’t need a new one because I rarely fill my Nano to brimming and the iPod video screen isn’t a patch on my PSP so no need. Apple haven’t brought out a new gadget for ages so no joy there.

I even contemplated a sky gnome but it just seems like a lot of money for very much and it is probably on 2.7ghz which would interfere with the wifi. What is a man to do?

So for once I sit here with money to burn and no gadget to burn it on. It’s horrible situation I must say. Usually I have too many gadget desires and not enough money to get them all…:(

Whilst X-Men 3 conquered the box office in the US with an astounding $44 in one day, I sat down to catch the movie myself. This is a logistical challenge with a 2 week old baby, the details of which I won’t go in to, but believe me when I say getting to the cinema whilst keeping the family happy was interesting.

Still, I finally caught it this afternoon, in a completely full theatre. Any good? Bloody great mate. It’s much faster paced than the previous two, but manages to balance a lot of plot with a tonne of action and a basket full of plot twists that I didn’t see coming at all. Special effects are excellent throughout, on top of great performances across the cast.

If I had to complain about anything I would say that I suspect that Brett Ratner was a little over-enthusiastic in the cutting room at times, whilst leaving in a couple of redundant characters or sub-plots, in particular Angel, who seemed to serve no purpose at all to the film overall. He is also the basis for an annoying continuity error - the X-Mansion is in New York, right? How does Angel get from NY to San Francisco in the same time as the X-Jet?

Anyway grumbles aside this is a great addition to the series and if it ends there, then an excellent conclusion to what must be the best superhero trilogy until Spiderman 3 arrives in 2007. I do hope that we see an extended cut on DVD just because I feel that a slightly slower paced movie would do the characters a little more justice and fit with the previous movies.

All in all, get yourself to see it, if you liked the first two you will love it, if you haven’t seen the first two then sort it ahht!

Well it has happened at last.

The most eagerly awaited DVD release of a cinematic flop in history; Blade Runner, the ultimate cult sci-fi movie has a past so troubled it could have a movie made about it, particularly with the finale in sight.

Filmed in 1982, directed by Ridley Scott, starring Harrison Ford and Rutger Hauer, and based upon the Philip L. Dick novel Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?, the movie had problems before cinematic release. The movie has a troubled history. When Scott ran over budget, completion bond guarantors took control of it and made substantial changes before its 1982 theatrical release, adding a voice-over and a happy ending. That version was replaced by the much better-received director’s cut in 1992, but Scott has long been unhappy with it, complaining that he was rushed and unable to give it proper attention.

Although the movie bombed at the box office, it has a devoted fan base and sells big on every format that it is released on. All that has been available on DVD is the 1992 director’s cut with 2.0 sound, yet now, finally, it looks like there is an end in sight.

Warner have been planning a special edition release for some time, with Ridley Scott having admitted preparing a real director’s cut, restoring the movie to his ultimate vision, yet when Warner realised that their rights to the movie were due to expire, it was shelved last year. Now, with rights reacquired, the movie is being released as a remastered 1992 director’s cut 2 disk later in the year, for a limited 4 month release.

That’s not the good news, though, for in 2007 we will see Ridley Scott’s brand new Final Cut, released theatrically and followed with an ultimate DVD release along the lines of the recent Alien Quadrilogy release. Allegedly containing three to four versions of the movie, and brimming full of deleted scenes, commentaries and documentaries, this movie is finally getting the attention it deserves. However I’m not getting too excited until the movie is actually in my possession…

Check out wikipedia or BRZone for more information on the movie.

The other day I was talking with a mate about luck. My view is that luck is an opportunity to blame somebody or something else for what has happened to you in the past. In other words it is a way of absolving responsibility for your current situation.

Why do I think that?

Because only people who believe that they are unlucky harp on about other people being lucky. So they blame their bad luck or lack of luck on their situation rather than doing something to improve their position.

Dr. Richard Wiseman, head of psychology research at the University of Hertfordshire in and author of “The Luck Factor: Changing Your Luck, Changing Your Life: The Four Essential Principles”, was curious about people who are consistently blessed with good fortune. For eight years he studied 400 people who considered themselves either particularly lucky or unlucky. As a result, he has proved scientifically that luck isn’t a coincidence.

Lucky people think and act with specific behaviors that open the way for good things to happen.

Lucky people expect success, moving beyond the “glass-half-full” power of positive thinking. They are skilled at noticing and more open to new possibilities. One way Wiseman measured this was by asking all 400 subjects to count the number of photographs in a newspaper. At the third page was a large advertisement that boldly declared, “STOP COUNTING! THERE ARE 43 PHOTOGRAPHS IN THIS NEWSPAPER.” Lucky people noticed, laughed and asked if they should keep counting. Yes, they were told, keep counting. Further along there was another advertisement that read “STOP COUNTING! TELL THE EXPERIMENTOR YOU’VE SEEN THIS AND WIN 150 POUNDS.” Once again, the people who considered themselves lucky consistently noticed the advertisement. In contrast, the ‘unlucky’ ones flipped right past them. What would you have done?

Brian Tracy suggests “If you want more luck, take more chances”, and this is really the crux of luck. Another adage, “Fortune favours the bold” suggests that those that have a go get the chance. A good example here is uberthickie Jade Goody. I took a real dislike to her when I saw in one of those trash celebrity magazines that she has a Porsche Boxter. I told myself that she was just lucky; after all she is thicker than many amoebas and yet she is a millionaire off the back of getting on Big Brother.

The fact is, she took a chance and it paid off. Lucky or bold?

Believing in luck, particularly bad luck, is simply an excuse for not taking responsibility for who you are, where you want to go and how you are going to get there. Unfortunately I think that it is becoming a public malaise, thanks to the likes of the Lottery. I stopped doing the lottery when I noticed that I was daydreaming about what I would do with the money if I won. Basically instead of focusing on what I should be aiming at, my goals, that I should be working towards all of the time, thinking about the lottery takes your eye off the ball and leaves you waiting for the world to act on you rather than you acting on it.

So I have resolved to disbelieve in luck and believe in taking opportunities. Perhaps you should to.

Lehmann off, Pires gone, great goal from Sol, rearguard action for 60 minutes. Admirable performance the boys did themselves proud.

But it wasn’t meant to be.

Well done lads we are proud of you.

Still, at least we knocked Spurs out of the Champions’ League

It’s my own fault really. If I hadn’t gone and done that Social Science course with the Open University I would have continued to be blissfully ignorant of the damage that the human race continues to do to its own home.

Scientific and political consensus is coalescing around the need to reduce climate change emissions by about 60% over the coming 30 – 50 years. Later this century, we will likely find new technologies to help tame climate change – probably based on hydrogen power and nuclear fusion, supported by nanotechnology applications.

However – right now – emissions are actually growing at their fastest rate ever. Regulatory responses such as the Kyoto Protocol and the European Union’s Emission Trading Scheme are a start. But in the short term, irreversible damage will surely occur in the most vulnerable areas of our planet.This concern now plagues me daily and whilst I know that I should be more active in making the world a little more careful, I thought that the best place to begin change is at home. So I wandered upon the carbonneutral site.

The site includes a CO2 calculator to help you work out your emissions. Once you have done that, the site offers plenty of ways to neutralise your emissions by planting new trees, dedicating trees to people, you name it.

So, my plan is to work out how much CO2 I am generating, and neutralise it through the planting of trees. Could be cool, could be expensive, could be too expensive but in my eternal quest to reach the pinnacle of Maslow’s triangle, it may bring me one step up the ladder of self-actualisation. Watch this space.

Carbon Neutrality - it’s the new black!

Aaah how beautiful is our Karndean floor? Looks like tiles yet plates bounce (allegedly) and it’s nice and warm. Plus, if you ask for samples from Karndean, you can get free coasters that match you floor…how sweet is that? And they say that you don’t get anything free in this world…well when you pay that much for a floor I don’t think that they care about a few measly samples.

Here are a couple more shots if you are interested (click to open)

Here’s a better closeup of the new member of the family…

11.2am today saw the arrival of a new membe of our family. Weighing in at 8lbs 1oz, Ben William took the best part of 14 hours to arrive from the time that Jenny and I arrived at the hospital, but it was all worth it when he finally turned up. We hope that you like the photos. Click to enlarge.

So episode 3 of Lost finally gives us some answers at last. The island is owned by the Hanso foundation
and some sort of testing is going on there. Locke and Jack see a training video that refers to psychological experiments, and name checks BF Skinner, a Behaviourist who pioneered the concept of operant conditioning.

Operant conditioning suggests that punishment does not prevent repetition of the deviant behaviour. He suggested that reinforcement, a change in the subject’s environment is the best way to alter behaviour.For example: you give your dog food every time it sits when you tell it to. If the dog becomes more likely to sit when told to, sitting is considered to have been reinforced by the administration of food contingent on it. Note that it is the behavior that is reinforced, not the dog. The food serves as a reinforcer, reinforcing or strengthening that behavior, only to the extent that sitting subsequently occurs more often or more quickly because of it.

So what is the relevence of name checking Skinner? Well entering the code in to the computer could be construed as a Skinner-esque experiment in reinforcement, or even a kind of Milgram experiment? So is the countdown actually to prevent armageddon or is it part of a huge psychological experiment? The training video carefully avoided explaining the consequence of not pushing the button, or the significance of the 108 minutes.

Another great episode and the plot thickens even more!