After reading this:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/4614598.stm
I wondered if it’ll mean the little bastards will start reporting non-licence fee payers to the BBC?
Sunday, January 15, 2006
Saturday, January 07, 2006
Train Etiquette
Train Etiquette
I reckon that the audition went well and I've even managed to get back to the station early enough to beat the proscription on cheap-day return tickets from Edinburgh. As it happens, the train I'm on has been delayed from about an hour ago and it's absolutely stowed.
Yet the number of people trying to hog double seats is amazing. As is the number of people who will stand for an hour rather than ask any of these selfish morons to move themselves or their luggage. Being an awkward sod, I have no such compunctions and you should have seen the look I got from the business-type hoping that the old broadsheet trick would guarantee him all the space on this side of the table.
Actually, whilst I was sitting looking at the blank screen trying to think of something to write, his antics with the paper inspired this little diatribe. Since sitting, and whilst setting up the Axim and keyboard to write on, I've been shouldered, bumped and huffed at as he tried to dominate the now-shared space. When it became clear that I wasn't to be squeezed into the corner he then tried leaning across the table and the poor lady opposite practically got the top of the broadsheeet up her nose as his territorial expansion efforts shifted from the lateral to the forward. When that didn't work he leant out into the aisle.
It really has been quite funny and, in its way, identical to any ned trying to control those around him and intimidate them by intruding upon their personal space. Society looks upon the ned as some sort of anti-social delinquent with no idea of how to behave in public. They're brought up that way; noone teaches them any manners.
What's the excuse of the business-types etc who, despite the thirty-odd people standing in this carriage, are still hogging a seat for themselves and one for their luggage?
I reckon that the audition went well and I've even managed to get back to the station early enough to beat the proscription on cheap-day return tickets from Edinburgh. As it happens, the train I'm on has been delayed from about an hour ago and it's absolutely stowed.
Yet the number of people trying to hog double seats is amazing. As is the number of people who will stand for an hour rather than ask any of these selfish morons to move themselves or their luggage. Being an awkward sod, I have no such compunctions and you should have seen the look I got from the business-type hoping that the old broadsheet trick would guarantee him all the space on this side of the table.
Actually, whilst I was sitting looking at the blank screen trying to think of something to write, his antics with the paper inspired this little diatribe. Since sitting, and whilst setting up the Axim and keyboard to write on, I've been shouldered, bumped and huffed at as he tried to dominate the now-shared space. When it became clear that I wasn't to be squeezed into the corner he then tried leaning across the table and the poor lady opposite practically got the top of the broadsheeet up her nose as his territorial expansion efforts shifted from the lateral to the forward. When that didn't work he leant out into the aisle.
It really has been quite funny and, in its way, identical to any ned trying to control those around him and intimidate them by intruding upon their personal space. Society looks upon the ned as some sort of anti-social delinquent with no idea of how to behave in public. They're brought up that way; noone teaches them any manners.
What's the excuse of the business-types etc who, despite the thirty-odd people standing in this carriage, are still hogging a seat for themselves and one for their luggage?
It Never Rains but it Pours
It Never Rains but it Pours
Well, it's the final week to Xmas and I thought I was pretty sorted. The in-laws had visited at the beginning of the month so we'd done all the family shopping by then. My sister's gift was sussed and there was only the usual torment of trying to figure out my parents' pressies to do. Better yet, I had practically no work booked in for the month so everything I needed to do I had plenty of time for.
Then a role-play got added, then my agent talked me into doing a charity panto' and I finally got the appointment to go get the cyst removed from my head. All this week.
When I actually got to this week it got even worse!
An audition came in at the same time as the role-play, after several hours of running around re-scheduling another audition comes in, but this one's in Edinburgh. More reshuffling until its finally decided that I can't risk the vagaries of public transport so cancel the role-play and the first audition in favour of the newest one in Edinburgh.
It's always like this, though. Every time you think you're sorted out in this business you get times like these. Months without an audition, then several at once, usually timed and/or placed to prevent you from making both of them and all called at the very last minute.
I just want to know what the hell the Universe thinks it's playing at.
Well, it's the final week to Xmas and I thought I was pretty sorted. The in-laws had visited at the beginning of the month so we'd done all the family shopping by then. My sister's gift was sussed and there was only the usual torment of trying to figure out my parents' pressies to do. Better yet, I had practically no work booked in for the month so everything I needed to do I had plenty of time for.
Then a role-play got added, then my agent talked me into doing a charity panto' and I finally got the appointment to go get the cyst removed from my head. All this week.
When I actually got to this week it got even worse!
An audition came in at the same time as the role-play, after several hours of running around re-scheduling another audition comes in, but this one's in Edinburgh. More reshuffling until its finally decided that I can't risk the vagaries of public transport so cancel the role-play and the first audition in favour of the newest one in Edinburgh.
It's always like this, though. Every time you think you're sorted out in this business you get times like these. Months without an audition, then several at once, usually timed and/or placed to prevent you from making both of them and all called at the very last minute.
I just want to know what the hell the Universe thinks it's playing at.
Shotts Panto
Shotts Panto
I mentioned this panto briefly before. It's the second charity panto' I've agreed to do this month, but the only one I'll actually be doing.
It's for prisoners and their children at Shotts Prison and I think that it's a great idea. Many of the cast seem to think it's wrong to do such a thing on the behalf of convicted criminals. Of course, none of them have ever been in prison and they have enough faith in the system to believe that everyone in prison deserves to be there. Oh, and apparently the loss of liberty and dignity associated with it isn't enough punishment; we should be taking any kind of relationship with their children away from them, too.
I've had the misfortune to spend some time inside. I know that there are people for whom there is very little sense of punishment associated with it and that in many ways it is not harsh enough. Whatever your opinion of the prison system is and whatever you think of the prisoners, I'm doing this for the children who are deprived of their fathers at what should be family time of year. They're not to blame and shouldn't be made to suffer any more than is unavoidable.
The sound was dreadful, we were rather under-rehearsed and I think we knda lost the audience after the interval. However, we got a lot of really positive feedback and there were a lot of happy-looking kids when we left.
I’m really glad I did this one.
I mentioned this panto briefly before. It's the second charity panto' I've agreed to do this month, but the only one I'll actually be doing.
It's for prisoners and their children at Shotts Prison and I think that it's a great idea. Many of the cast seem to think it's wrong to do such a thing on the behalf of convicted criminals. Of course, none of them have ever been in prison and they have enough faith in the system to believe that everyone in prison deserves to be there. Oh, and apparently the loss of liberty and dignity associated with it isn't enough punishment; we should be taking any kind of relationship with their children away from them, too.
I've had the misfortune to spend some time inside. I know that there are people for whom there is very little sense of punishment associated with it and that in many ways it is not harsh enough. Whatever your opinion of the prison system is and whatever you think of the prisoners, I'm doing this for the children who are deprived of their fathers at what should be family time of year. They're not to blame and shouldn't be made to suffer any more than is unavoidable.
The sound was dreadful, we were rather under-rehearsed and I think we knda lost the audience after the interval. However, we got a lot of really positive feedback and there were a lot of happy-looking kids when we left.
I’m really glad I did this one.
Ho Ho Ho!
By Erik KirschbaumTue Dec 20,10:39 AM ET
Drunken Santas on a rampage in New Zealand, armed German robbers in Santa disguises, a British St. Nick wanted for flashing, and a Swedish vandal in a Santa outfit are giving the big man in red a bad name this year.
Reports of "Bad Santas" breaking the law or otherwise wreaking havoc have been circulating around the world.
Armed with a gun, a man in a Santa outfit held up a furniture store in the German town of Ludwigshafen Saturday and forced two cashiers to open the safe. He filled his sack with cash, locked the two women in the safe and escaped.
He is still on the loose, but police in Tuebingen were able to nab a bank robber armed with a machine gun in a Santa costume with the aid of an infrared camera and helicopter. They found him hiding in a ditch in a nearby forest.
"The machine gun was fake," a police spokesman said. Dressed in a Santa cap, beard and wearing sun glasses, he was wanted for stealing 500,000 euros in four separate bank robberies.
One Santa was stopped by police for driving 150 kph (90 mph) on a northern German motorway, 50 kph over the speed limit.
"He said he was in a rush because he still had packages to deliver," said a spokesman for the police. They gave Santa a fine and took away his license.
Last week an inebriated half-naked Santa disrupted a Christmas market in Dabringhausen before police intervened.
That incident paled in comparison to what happened in Auckland Saturday when 40 drunken Santas rampaged through the city center, stealing from stores and assaulting security guards in a protest against Christmas becoming too commercial.
In Britain, police said they were looking for a Santa acting suspiciously -- a flasher who exposed himself to women.
Officers in Swanage on the south coast of England said the flasher had struck a number of times since December 6, and a week later exposed himself whilst wearing a Santa Claus outfit.
A British agency recently issued a code of conduct to root out substandard Santas. "Santa is a magical and cuddly man, not a fat, smelly slob," said James Lovell of the Ministry of Fun agency in London. "He must not smell of drink or body odor."
Last Christmas, a shopping center in south Wales installed a webcam dubbed "Santacam" in his grotto to overcome parents' concerns after several high-profile pedophile cases in Britain.
Drunken Santas on a rampage in New Zealand, armed German robbers in Santa disguises, a British St. Nick wanted for flashing, and a Swedish vandal in a Santa outfit are giving the big man in red a bad name this year.
Reports of "Bad Santas" breaking the law or otherwise wreaking havoc have been circulating around the world.
Armed with a gun, a man in a Santa outfit held up a furniture store in the German town of Ludwigshafen Saturday and forced two cashiers to open the safe. He filled his sack with cash, locked the two women in the safe and escaped.
He is still on the loose, but police in Tuebingen were able to nab a bank robber armed with a machine gun in a Santa costume with the aid of an infrared camera and helicopter. They found him hiding in a ditch in a nearby forest.
"The machine gun was fake," a police spokesman said. Dressed in a Santa cap, beard and wearing sun glasses, he was wanted for stealing 500,000 euros in four separate bank robberies.
One Santa was stopped by police for driving 150 kph (90 mph) on a northern German motorway, 50 kph over the speed limit.
"He said he was in a rush because he still had packages to deliver," said a spokesman for the police. They gave Santa a fine and took away his license.
Last week an inebriated half-naked Santa disrupted a Christmas market in Dabringhausen before police intervened.
That incident paled in comparison to what happened in Auckland Saturday when 40 drunken Santas rampaged through the city center, stealing from stores and assaulting security guards in a protest against Christmas becoming too commercial.
In Britain, police said they were looking for a Santa acting suspiciously -- a flasher who exposed himself to women.
Officers in Swanage on the south coast of England said the flasher had struck a number of times since December 6, and a week later exposed himself whilst wearing a Santa Claus outfit.
A British agency recently issued a code of conduct to root out substandard Santas. "Santa is a magical and cuddly man, not a fat, smelly slob," said James Lovell of the Ministry of Fun agency in London. "He must not smell of drink or body odor."
Last Christmas, a shopping center in south Wales installed a webcam dubbed "Santacam" in his grotto to overcome parents' concerns after several high-profile pedophile cases in Britain.
Review Harry Potter & the Goblet of Fire
Review: Harry Potter & the Goblet of Fire
The Harry Potter Express trundles on and the latest effort hit the cinemas last week. I actually saw it three weeks ago, but I’ve been too busy conquering the ancient world and being visited by the in-laws to write about it. So, other than to say I think it’s the best in the series so far I’m not really going to review it. It’s tight, thrilling, probably too scary for a great many of the children who will be taken to it (I saw it first at a private showing full of RBS staff & their children and there were a great many whimpers of fear during certain passages). Most of the flab has been cut right out – and this was a flabby book that needed a lot more editing than it got – though some good stuff is missing. Neville’s enchanted shoes for one thing.
What I am going to discuss about it is the queasy feeling some scenes gave me. Both scenes regard the sexual undertones between some characters and the age differential between them.
The first, and least worrisome is that between Hermione and Viktor Krum. There’s nothing even slightly worrying about this in the book. However, the choice of actor for Krum makes it a bit disconcerting under the present political climate. He’s too old for her. Now, there are only a few years between the characters. I’ve had bigger age gaps in many of my own relationships and in both directions. Somehow, this just seems wrong. He’s so much more mature looking than any of the other male students in the film, perhaps the addition of a beard adding to that appearance but more than that is Emma Watson’s appearance. More than any of the other girls in the film, when she turns up in her ball gown she looks like a little girl dressed up. Combine his seeming maturity to her look of immaturity and it’s just a little bit off-key.
That disparity pales into insignificance when put next to the Harry/Moaning Myrtle scene in the bath. I can see the attempt at humour of having this ghost turn up and be trying to get a look at Harry’s tackle in the bath. The kids in the audiences I’ve seen it with thought it was funny enough when they caught it. The trouble again is in the casting as the actress playing Myrtle is in her thirties rather than being a teenager. Having her come on to a fourteen year-old in the bath made me feel very uncomfortable. And that was before I found out just how old she is. The sexual overtones in this scene are quite out of place in a film for young children.
I’m prepared to admit that my feelings about these scenes has more to do with the conditioning even I seem to be picking up from the politically correct lobby, but when I’ve mentioned it to others they agree. These are fairly trivial incidents and concerns. I’m actually more concerned with wondering about the effect the conditioning I’ve mentioned and whether or not it is actually colouring my judgement. The recent stories about teacher who have lost their jobs and been criminalised because they snogged boys in their late teens has really made me think about this sort of thing. In the most recent case there was only about five years between the two, there was no implication of anything more than a kiss and, indeed the teacher, said that the second time it happened the boy had forced it. True or not why was this woman turned into what our society sees as the worst type of criminal, the sexual offender?
Any teenage boy who managed to get a kiss from a pretty, young teacher would once have thought of himself as privileged and would have cherished the memory for the rest of his life. It is clear to me that this boy turned this into a complaint of sexual assault in a fit of pique after being rejected.
Put young men, and let’s be clear about their being young men and not children as the press likes to report them (I was pushing six feet at fourteen), and young women in close proximity and there will be occasions where they end up having some kind of relationship. These will either fizzle out or may go on to become a real, actual, affaire. We have to look at the circumstances, the age gap and the maturity of the student before we go stigmatising people for life. Especially when we live in a society that insists on sexualising children through advertising and example at ever-earlier ages.
The Harry Potter Express trundles on and the latest effort hit the cinemas last week. I actually saw it three weeks ago, but I’ve been too busy conquering the ancient world and being visited by the in-laws to write about it. So, other than to say I think it’s the best in the series so far I’m not really going to review it. It’s tight, thrilling, probably too scary for a great many of the children who will be taken to it (I saw it first at a private showing full of RBS staff & their children and there were a great many whimpers of fear during certain passages). Most of the flab has been cut right out – and this was a flabby book that needed a lot more editing than it got – though some good stuff is missing. Neville’s enchanted shoes for one thing.
What I am going to discuss about it is the queasy feeling some scenes gave me. Both scenes regard the sexual undertones between some characters and the age differential between them.
The first, and least worrisome is that between Hermione and Viktor Krum. There’s nothing even slightly worrying about this in the book. However, the choice of actor for Krum makes it a bit disconcerting under the present political climate. He’s too old for her. Now, there are only a few years between the characters. I’ve had bigger age gaps in many of my own relationships and in both directions. Somehow, this just seems wrong. He’s so much more mature looking than any of the other male students in the film, perhaps the addition of a beard adding to that appearance but more than that is Emma Watson’s appearance. More than any of the other girls in the film, when she turns up in her ball gown she looks like a little girl dressed up. Combine his seeming maturity to her look of immaturity and it’s just a little bit off-key.
That disparity pales into insignificance when put next to the Harry/Moaning Myrtle scene in the bath. I can see the attempt at humour of having this ghost turn up and be trying to get a look at Harry’s tackle in the bath. The kids in the audiences I’ve seen it with thought it was funny enough when they caught it. The trouble again is in the casting as the actress playing Myrtle is in her thirties rather than being a teenager. Having her come on to a fourteen year-old in the bath made me feel very uncomfortable. And that was before I found out just how old she is. The sexual overtones in this scene are quite out of place in a film for young children.
I’m prepared to admit that my feelings about these scenes has more to do with the conditioning even I seem to be picking up from the politically correct lobby, but when I’ve mentioned it to others they agree. These are fairly trivial incidents and concerns. I’m actually more concerned with wondering about the effect the conditioning I’ve mentioned and whether or not it is actually colouring my judgement. The recent stories about teacher who have lost their jobs and been criminalised because they snogged boys in their late teens has really made me think about this sort of thing. In the most recent case there was only about five years between the two, there was no implication of anything more than a kiss and, indeed the teacher, said that the second time it happened the boy had forced it. True or not why was this woman turned into what our society sees as the worst type of criminal, the sexual offender?
Any teenage boy who managed to get a kiss from a pretty, young teacher would once have thought of himself as privileged and would have cherished the memory for the rest of his life. It is clear to me that this boy turned this into a complaint of sexual assault in a fit of pique after being rejected.
Put young men, and let’s be clear about their being young men and not children as the press likes to report them (I was pushing six feet at fourteen), and young women in close proximity and there will be occasions where they end up having some kind of relationship. These will either fizzle out or may go on to become a real, actual, affaire. We have to look at the circumstances, the age gap and the maturity of the student before we go stigmatising people for life. Especially when we live in a society that insists on sexualising children through advertising and example at ever-earlier ages.
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