Another week flew past, which started with Watchmen, middled with parentals' return and is ending with a lot of writing, mucho restructuring of the workspace and generally doing the organisational thang that I've suddenly found myself enjoying after years of 'pile-filing'.Friday was one of those days when I couldn't decide if I was being an old fogey or whether the world is just full of ignorant people. I got the bus into Leeds where two girls switched on their mobile phones and played music. Loudly. I've always wanted to kill the person who thought cell-phones that played music even without optional...

My parentals are now on the way home after three weeks in Orlando. They arrived there on the coldest February day on record, but thankfully it warmed up thereafter and they sound like they've had a good time and didn't get arrested for anything major. Their imminent arrival back in the UK means that I've bought them fresh milk and bread for their regulatory breakfast needs of a cup of coffee and toast etc immediately on their return early in the am - and that I will have to make sure I clear away any sign of the hookers, drugs and conservative party literature that was sprawled around their living...

So. I saw Watchmen on Monday. Half of the readers of this blog - for they are so many and I am but only one -will be pissed off they have to wait another week or so and the others will wonder what the hell I'm talking about. The latter half should get themselves quickly to a comic book store and buy the unfilmable graphic novel before seeing the apparently filmable film.My opinion: For what it's worth this isn't the kind of film that warrants a quick write-up. It's a complex movie which will divide audiences and is largely based on expectations going in. Those casual cinema-goers who pick it because...

Though people who know me well know and despair of my unique ordering and filing system, recent trips and perhaps other things have prompted me to be embrace my domestic god status more seriously.  I'm in a bit of an organising mode at the moment, partly through neccesity, partly because I just want to get things organised - my parentals always pointed out that if you can get the area you spend most in time at least reasonably tidy or structured then other things start to feel more...

Less than a week after that whole Carol Thatcher debacle, an even more serious news story is hitting the headlines which involves freedom of speech and the nature of taking offence.Geert Wilders, a Flemish man who is well known for his outspoken and candid opinions criticising the muslim faith - to the extent of apparently calling for the Koran to be banned - was invited by one UK politician to attend a screening of FITNA, his movie which cites many examples of Islamic Extremism. Many muslims said they found the film - and the very idea of the seventeen minute film -offensive and wanted it banned...

It's a Monday. I can feel it in my bones... or rather in the eyes and head which are aching just a bit annoyingly despite of - or perhaps because of - the new glasses (vaguely looking smug to the right >>>) for my laptop work. My get up and go has got up and gone, which is unfortunate as I have a list of stuff to do which doesn't seem to be growing shorter. HLWW guest announcements, the event brochure, last articles for Impact, bills and readying stuff to ebay.And a brand spankingly new...

Today, I picked up my glasses. Yes, after years of being the only person in my immediate family with 20/20 eye-sight, it turns out that it's more like 22/18. According to the optician I visited just before Christmas, it's not that I'm desperately in need of them, but that one eye is showing just a little more strain than the other and given the headaches I'll be prone to for a while, they suggested it was a good idea to help with general eye-strain etc.I'll only need them for close-up work on the computer or lengthy stays in front of a monitor, but looking in the mirror, it's going to take me...

In the UK we've had a bit of a hoo-hah about a conversation that took place in the green room of popular BBC chat show, The One. In a conversation after the show (and unbroadcast) Carol Thatcher, a roving reporter on the show, apparently compared a well-known black tennis player (who wasn't there) to a 'golliwog'. Complaints were made, the story leaked and over the last few days, Thatcher has been publicly condemned for her words and fired from the program. However that sacking created a controversy of its own and I have to admit I'm in two minds about how I feel about it.Carol Thatcher is the...

Well, it began snowing early yesterday evening and though it kept stopping and starting overnight - see picture currently to the right - there was at least a 2-3 of inches on the ground by morning and today's weather seems to be fluctuating between the sun coming out and the cold stuff coming down. This isn't Iowa -standard snowfall by any means, but it's the first significant snowfall of the year and naturally that means some major UK cities have come to a grinding halt. (London seeks a snow-flake and has major palpitations, oop north we're a hardier bunch and it takes at least a sever frost...