Some old pictures I found floating around on my PC. Taken at some point in 2001.

Firstly, some of the family. To say that some of them look nothing like this now would be a massive understatement.








The angels in the picture below are still sitting on my painting table unfinished. The only difference these days is that their wings are blue.


Since this I've changed the table for a wheeled cupboard thing, and the table top is a lot more cluttered with paints, brushes and tools.

Ships

These are some of the models I've recently painted. All they need doing now is to give them a spray coat of varnish.

Firstly, a Klingon D7 cruiser escorted by 2 F5 frigates (or small destroyers as they really are)



Next is some 1/2400th scale Napoleonic sailing ships.


Must admit, doing this post was harder than I expected. Picking photos seemed to place them at the top of the post, where I then had to cut and paste them where I expected.

I suppose I could always try reading the help pages next time.

Small surprises and TV

Couple of small surprises this weekend, nothing major but stuff I did not expect.

First was in the first episode of the new series of Dr Who, when Rose suddenly appeared (and then disappeared). Must admit, I did think that Billie looked haggard a bit, could be the expression she was meant to be showing.

Second surprise was when I opened the curtains and found the world was white. Looked a good 3 inches of snow covering the garden and car, but it was already melting.

Not that it bothered me, as my V+ box is over half way full, I thought I should sit down and start to clear some of it, so in order here is what I watched this morning.

Big Bang Theory - I really do like this American comedy, nothing really new in the whole premise, but it does seem to work.

iCarly - not actually recorded, but caught live. A Nickelodeon tweenie show that I have started to like. I just love the theme tune, and the show works by not having anyone be too annoying (unless that character is meant to be). Also, nice to have one of have a kids show that does not seem to go in for the massive moralising most of them do.

NCIS - probably my current favourite of the American cop shows. Avoids the CIS(s) odd ball death syndrome that has plagued them over the last few series.

Boston Legal - not one of the best episodes this week, too much of the Alan Shore does his left wing rant bit. Still good TV though.

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles - to be honest, remove Summer Glau playing Cameron and I would probably have stopped watching after the first couple of episodes. Her portrayal of the innocent killing machine is one of the best bits of acting I can recall, and the writing that provides the character is also spot on. The problem is, remove her and the show is average at best.

Moonlight (2 episodes) - the current "sexy" vampire show. Very much in the same vein as Bloodties, just without the mystical bits. A watchable show, even if the 2 episodes I watched really highlight my 2 problems with the show.
a) Sophie Myles - an OK actress, who is the chemical equivalent of Argon, no matter who she plays opposite there is no reaction. I know people rated her in the Dr Who episode "Girl in the fireplace", but I just do not see it. In the Moonlight episode she had to play sexy to get into a night club, run by Holly Valance. Sophie has a hard time pulling off sexy at the best of times, but to try it with someone like Holly on the show is just asking to look stupid. I can take Sophie as the lead, but as a dedicated journalist and not as one half of the main pair.
b) Coraline - Mick's wife. Not sure how it is going to play out, but now she is "back" then I can see a lot of episodes when Mick gets confused if she is Coraline or Morgan. Could get very old fast.

Writing the above about Moonlight has brought up an interesting point, it, Bloodties, Angel, Blade, all of them have a good "sexy" MALE vampire as the lead. I can not recall any show where there has been a good female vampire in it. Harmony on Angel is about the closest that comes to mind, and she was not so much good as rather incompetent at being bad as well as scared of Angel.

Funeral

Monday went to a mates mothers funeral, or a friends funeral as I got on well with her.

It set me thinking, as probably most people do in those circumstances, as to what I would like at mine.

Firstly, I would want a humanist one, I am not religious at all, so seems a bit hypercritical to go for the whole CoE thing. She had a humanist deliver her service, and apart from seeming a touch padded out, it went well.

Secondly, got to go for cremation, actually at that point you could just leave my body at the side of the road for all I care, but if it has got to be legal then turn me to ash rather than waste a bit of land on me.

Thirdly, the music. About the only certain one I want is during the committal (the bit where the coffin goes behind the curtain), I want the original Thunderbirds theme. The whole bit always reminds me of something off the TV series.
The rest of the music will change as my tastes do, but for now, the following apply.
The entry - The original Battlestar Galactica theme tune. Great wallops of soring string music.
The end bit when everyone leaves - A St Trinians mix, start with Flash Harrys theme off the original movies (the piano picking out the notes one), which moves into the Girls Aloud St Trinians theme (off the new movies). A bit of a silly song as people start to move, into a nice full of life song with some good lyrics about being yourself.
The middle bit - currently not decided all that much, either Debbie Gibson's "We could be together" which I love, especially the line "If you said jump, I'd say how high", which seems to be how I've ended up living my life, or Suzanne Vega's Marlene on the Wall, which I also love, and was (still is?) the only song I knew all the lyrics to. Plus it is also semi sad sounding, and I want tears at my funeral damn it :)

As for the rest, I suppose a wake back at a pub somewhere, seems more "me" than something at a house. Be nice if people stayed to get drunk, rather than having a polite drink and leaving.

V+ box wish list

Had a bit of a thought as to what I would like added to the software on the V+ box.

1) If I am recording 2 programs that run one after the other on the same channel, be clever enough to use the one tuner and split the small cross over point into the 2 separate programs. Gets annoying if I try to record 3 hour long programs, 1 at 9 on a channel, 1 at 10 on the same channel and 1 at 10 on another channel, one of the 10 ones will fail due to the over/under run additions bit.

2) Give me an easy way to select where in a recording I want a program to start, to do it at the moment I have to start watching, stop watching (after 1 few minutes), select to start again, and then mess about on the start from when I left off bit to choose a time.

3) Lose the times 2 bit on the fast forward, I never use it.

4) Allow in pause mode, for me to return to pause mode if I have hit creep forwards. Hitting play/pause just restarts at the normal speed.

5) Most important. Return to the old style favourites, where hitting the favourite button cycled through them, not bring up some menu for me to select from (with the delay between channels now, I am not sure if it would work as well)

For all I know, most of these might somewhere be in the system, can not seem to find them though.

V+ box + TV oddities

I've had a Virgin plus box for about 3 months now, and generally I really do like it.

Major point in its favour is series record, just means all I really need to do is notice when a series starts and tell it to record it. Of course, that does throw up some occasional problems, such as telling it to record the new series of Flash Gordon on Sci-Fi, and finding it had recorded the movie as well.
Going to be interesting to see if it automatically catches the fact there is an additional showing of Torchwood on Good Friday.

The box is not perfect though, I have noticed some strange quirks on the software. Most annoying is the fact that the sound occasionally blips out for a second on recorded programs, mostly on stuff off Living, but sometimes on other channels, but never on the main 5. Asking around friends and family who have a box, they also get the same problems.

Had a different sort of bug this morning; yesterday I left it with about 47 hours free, it recorded 2 hours worth last night. This morning it says 55 hours free (nothing seems to have suddenly vanished). I watch one of last nights programs, deleted it, and the box then says 54 hours free! I watch and delete another hour, and it goes to 55 hours free.
Not a major problem in itself, just a bit worrying what will happen if I get to around the 5 hour free mark.

I notice a new series of House starts this week, on a Thursday, the same night I am trying to record Terminator:Sarah Connor Chronicles, Boston Legal and The Big Bang Theory.
Although the box has the ability to record 2 things at once, taking into account the 2 minutes added onto the time (to allow for over runs), this does mean at a couple of times I am trying to record 3 things at once.
Now, it is not that hard to get around (The Big Bang Theory can either get moved to the Ch 4 plus 1 showing, or I get it on E4 the day before), but this does lead to a rather annoying thing I have noticed in the past, the fact that if a new series starts that I want to watch, it has at least a 50% chance it will be on, on a Thursday.
Not sure why, obviously series start on every day of the week, just the ones I watch are more inclined towards Thursday. A certain percent can be covered by the fact that they are new series of existing shows, which were on a Thursday before, but that still does not cover why that day in the start.

I noticed this week that Michelle Ryan is over here touting her Bionic Woman series. I assume she must be under contract to do this, as it has been canceled in the States (or if not officially, most people seem 99.999999% sure it will be). Must be hard on her, trying to build up something that has failed, and taken her best chance at Global stardom with it; in hindsight, I should have watched the interview to see if that was mentioned.
I did catch the first 2 episodes on a download site, nothing really wrong with it, but nothing that made me want to catch any more.

Things not to do when painting wargames models.

I was trying to paint some 1/2400th ACW ships (Tumbling Dice) while attempting to catch up on some of the stuff I'd recorded.

The program I picked was Bottom Live 3: Hooligans Island (I know it is old, but managed to notice it was on Dave, and decided to record it).

Gave up on painting after 20 minutes, doesn't really work when tears are streaming down my face.

Good show, very funny, but I've got to wonder how much of the "mistakes" were genuine, and how many were scripted. Especially some of the prop ones.