Sleepypete's Pillow

I may have to lend you The Dish at some point … Mind you, I bought another copy for my dad ages ago and I'm not sure whether he's watched it yet.

Not done one of these for ages … either a music post or the old Thursday Thirteen.

Let’s do this one around : What have I listened to lately and what am I planning to listen to ? There’s so much in my library now that it can be many months before I get a chance to listen to some of what’s in there. Which is a shame, cos I’ll never get tired of listening to albums like Super Extra Gravity, Arctic Monkeys, Broken Wave, Fur & Gold, All About Eve, Illumina or Scarlet’s Walk.

Enough with the preamble ! What were the last albums I listened to ?

1 – Star Wars Episode 1. Ok, it was its turn but it does continue the John Williams tradition that’s been a highlight of the Star Wars movies over the years. Here’s Duel of the Fates, the signature theme of the prequels.

2 – Goldfrapp – Head First. This is Goldfrapp in boppy style. Have to admit that I think that Seventh Tree is their best but that’s just the style of music I prefer to chill out to. Lots of highlights on Head First, including the title track.

3 – Gorillaz – The Fall. Again, not one I think is their best but it’s growing on me.

4 – Avril Lavigne – Goodbye Lullaby. Think she got a little too taken with a couple of the tracks on here, my own favourite is Darlin. And the internet is going to be hunting that video maker down for the mortal crime (lol) of bad spelling.

5 – Hannah Peel – Broken Wave. Awesome debut album from the folky stunner. What haven’t I linked from this album yet ? I dunno – here’s the one that I linked on to Facebook the other day with the caption “I’m pausing everything ! Here’s why ” : Song For The Sea. It’s not just the vocals, it’s the interplay with piano and synth.

6 – Ennio Morricone – The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. One of the all time classic film soundtracks. I have the theme as my mobile ring tone. Does it get stares ? Yes. Which is why this is my ring tone (without the gunshots cos that would just freak people out even more). Classic movie too.

7 – Pink Floyd – Relics. This is like a greatest hits from their early days. Pink Floyd changed character drastically between the 60s and 70s and then again in the 80s after Roger Waters went his own way. I prefer 70s Floyd but there were some great songs from the 60s too, including Remember A Day. This version is in remembrance of the author, Rick Wright.

Ok – that’s what I’ve listened to, what’s coming up … Firstly, 3 albums I haven’t listened to for way too long :

8 – The Cardigans – iTunes Originals. The iTunes originals albums are essentially greatest hits albums but they also have band interviews woven in. While I avoid rebuying songs as part of greatest hits albums, I have been picking up the iTunes Originals for the interviews. Here’s Magnus’ favourite song : 03.45am No Sleep which some call sad but for me, it makes me recall nights spent nattering away to the Warcraft people (that’s you VR!) until everyone has fallen asleep at their keyboards.

9 – U2 – Rattle And Hum. Ok, they’re so mainstream they define mainstream (including cloning their own songs) but I will occasionally listen to them. Not a huge fan but I’ll sing along to tracks like All I Want Is You. (Which would kinda make up for singing along to a bad-feelings song when a partner was listening – doh). U2 are ok, they just allow their egos to make them say daft things and that turns me off them.

10 – Tori Amos – Scarlet’s Walk. Another one I mentioned up top 🙂 This one is filled with cracking songs including the title track (so wanna link I Can’t See New York again – doh!).

And yes – that was me looking for an excuse to sing along to I Can’t See New York again 🙂 (Bugs are improving)

Last 3 for this one – albums I haven’t listened to enough yet :

11 – Adam & The Ants – Kings of the Wild Frontier. This album’s a classic, with the title track being the strongest.

12 – Aimee Mann – Lost In Space. Bit mainstream again but that voice makes up for it. Here’s Pavlov’s Bell.

13 – Edie Brickell – Volcano. As Edie says it, “This song’s called Once In A Blue Moon.”

And I’ll leave it there for tonight – have a good evening everyone 🙂 If any Thursday Thirteeners spot this, leave a comment and I’ll add you a link below. I’ve not been keeping a close eye on Thursday Thirteen host sites but I’ll take a peek in a minute.

Linkbacks :
1 – Colleen’s Thursday Thirteen.

Correct……….

Ahhh – but which one are you missing ?

I have my money on the missing one being The Dish 🙂

Have seen 7 out of the 8 listed…. [lol]

This is another from the Facebook status update collection …

“question – what do you call a film that everyone has but which no-one would call a classic ? Thinking of things like Avatar or Clash of the Titans (either) which most people will have but you’d never put them with classics like Fifth Element or Arnie’s Conan.”

The real question is : What films have you got that other people SIMPLY MUST OWN. Or which films are the ones where you’ll wear the dvd out given chance. However … they can’t be films everyone has, they have to be the rarer or unusual ones.

From my own collection (and I haven’t watched most of these enough), I’d offer :

The Dish. (all links will be IMDB) This is about the first Apollo moon landing and a collection of people in Australia who supported getting pictures and communications back from the lunar lander. Lots of quite strange but very charming characters and it’s been way too long since I watched it.

Galaxy Quest. Ok, maybe not so rare but it’s still a classic great film in a way things like Starship Troopers won’t be. ST is a classic cos it’s bad, Galaxy Quest is a classic cos it’s a great take on the Star Trek world. And was this really 1999 ? I thought I watched this in the cinema with the Crazies !

Outlander. Came out at a bad time but was a well realised scifi action thriller with an excellent monsta. Oh and it also had the good enough to eat Sophia Myles. (Unless that is you’re a monsta with bad taste)

Evolution. Ok, this could be seen as pretty dire with a phoned in performance by David Duchovny. But it was also great fun. And that’s what entertainment should be : fun.

Mars Attacks!. But only because it had me in stitches from the opening credits to the end of the movie.

Red Sonja. I’d rate this movie higher than the Arnie Conan. And the Arnie Conan is an all time classic.

Spirited Away. This is an anime movie from Hayao Miyazaki. Utterly charming, great story. And how the hell has the dvd managed to stay in its shrink wrapping ???!!!?

I’ll finish off with the Dark Crystal. Possibly the best thing to ever come out of the Jim Henson puppet factory.

There’s others in the collection that I’d regard as classics – they’re not here though cos … everyone’s got Fifth Element by now haven’t they ? lol 🙂

Anyone got any more to add ? First ask – how rare is this film ? My list of favourite films would include films like Ultraviolet, Blade, Red, Hanna, Battle: Los Angeles, Roland Emmerich movies and a bunch of others but … they miss this list because they will be too popular.

Last thought – the Galaxy Quest motto of “Never give up, Never surrender” is a great motto to live by.

PS After getting worried over the last couple of days, I might be back in the cricket earlier than I thought … Leg has improved nicely today 🙂 Still have my chest bugs though, so I couldn’t have played in tonight’s game even if the leg was ok.

Meh. Very meh. Been bugged today. I seemed to be ok yesterday (outside of having to yawn to clear my sinuses) but today I’ve been struggling.

It’s just manflu really and I can hyperactive my way through it but it does take its toll on my handkerchief supply, the patience of the people around me {sneeze!} and I don’t think as clearly when I have bugs. But as soon as I get into my Tunnel Vision by getting my teeth into something for work, I don’t notice. Hell, I sneeze so much anyway that I rarely notice coughing from actual illness.

However – the same bugs that are in my head, chest and nose seem to also be in my legs :-(.

I’ll happily ignore a cold but I can’t ignore the legs deteriorating again. Left leg (the bad one from last year) is fine, couple of bad bits but nothing to worry about. The right leg started leaking again, which is something I can’t ignore. Especially as the leaky bit overlaps where my knee protectors have to go.

So no cricket for a little while until it gets under control again. It’s actually not too bad (a couple of bad bits about the size of 5p coins) but I don’t want what happened last year to happen again – where the bad skin got as big as the palm of my hand. (Before you gasp too much, I have little hands)

I suspect the same bugs attacking my nose are also having a go at my legs. Perhaps I should be in a :

Because part of why it’s flared up is because I can’t leave it unscratched.

That’s enough about the leg (for now though)

Tennis players – before turning over to the cricket, I watched the close of the Murray vs Davydenko match at Wimbledon. It took me back to the Size & Shape post with the thought being – I don’t want to be the shape of a GP driver, I’ll be the shape of a tennis player. As in :

Huge leg speed and agility to get around the court
No excess weight to slow them down
And enough arm strength to sort out rusty nuts and jamjar lids.

Noticed a quirk with my car over the 2 long runs this week and last. It’s a proper hybrid, so it can run on either its engine or its motor or both together. Above 45mph, the engine always has to be on because of speed limits on the motor. However … that doesn’t mean the engine has to be going quickly. Normally at 70, the engine will be spinning at 2000-3000rpm, higher revs if you’re going up hill or charging the battery. It’ll settle to a 2000rpm cruise which is extraordinarily low for a petrol engine.

Unless you’re on a downslope … Enough of a downslope will make it think “I don’t need my engine to help” and it’ll disengage the engine and set it to idle. It’s not quite as subtle with that as with its other Engine -> Motor -> Engine -> Both transitions … It was kinda “wtf is my car doing” disconcerting when I first noticed it. It’s a bit like dropping a manual gearbox car into neutral at 70mph with no throttle.

And of course, you know me – now I know there’s a funny quirk, I’m trying to reproduce it wherever possible.

Cricket – think I’ve jinxed one of my sides. In the first game for them this year, I paid twice cos of lack of change in a “it won’t matter after next week’s game”. Not played for them since …

Finally – gotta send a hug to someone I know is going through a rough time at the moment with depression. I’m teetering on a depressive cycle at the moment too, due to the bugs and the leg. I’d hoped the leg infection problem was behind me, so seeing it develop again over the past week is … meh. Very meh.

Everyone could do with a hug. I could do with a hug.

But for now I’ll settle for dinner … (guess who’s dinner bell is going nuts!)

I’ve been reading Tomshardware again.

“NOOOO!!!!” I hear you cry ? Well, it’s actually a sensible article about something that could give us back some of the potential that gets baked out of our computer bits.

Here’s the article – it’s about a curious development in cooler technology.

This Acer laptop has been pretty good in its 2.5 years. It’s stayed reliable, whereas the HP it replaced died in under a year (funnily enough – cause of death was cooler failure). It handles all I throw at it, which includes photo editing, iTunes streaming, web browsing, messenger, email and other stuff. It’s my main Office type PC. However … where it’s started to struggle is video playback.

BBC iPlayer – seems fine actually 🙂
Youtube up to 360p – is fine too
Youtube at 480p and above – works ok for a few minutes, then really struggles
(480p and other bigger numbers mean more pixels for a sharper image)
ITV and other streaming video – struggles

It’s a reasonable spec laptop – Athlon II X2 M300 that is supposed to run at 2GHz. However, for battery saving and apparently heat limits, it’ll cut itself back to 800MHz if it needs to. I’m not asking it to do much at the moment (Blogger’s editor is quite cpu hungry) so it’s not getting too warm.

Ok. So back to these revolutionary coolers.

Why Should We Care ?

The reason why this laptop struggles with higher res video is that it pushes the machine a bit too hard. More work for a PC means it gets hotter. My desktop runs cool but will go 25+ degrees C warmer when it’s pushed hard. The internet video pushes this laptop so hard that I believe it’s bouncing off its heat limits.

It slows itself down to avoid cooking itself. And the video playback goes choppy.

With the desktop, cooling isn’t a problem. There’s enough space in a desktop case to put a massive cooler in to keep it cool and quiet. I used the bigger version of this Zalman cooler at Novatech that just about fit in the box. You can’t use anything like that in a laptop. Space is very tight and it needs cleverness to package everything in.

So if you can get a cooler in there that’s way more efficient for its size, you can keep the machine cool enough to do what you want it to.

And that means we get our video playback as it was meant to be 🙂

PS I’m back to wondering if I’ll be playing cricket again this summer. Not cos of the weather – more the legs. My left leg was the bigger problem last year, that’s ok. It’s my right leg where the weak and leaky skin problem seems to be coming back. I suspect I need a Cone Of Shame !

Cheers 🙂

It's been easier since the cricket season started. It's been a "should I really still be doing this?" effort but it's shown that the weight loss has been worth it with me getting my speed back 🙂

weight loss is so difficult, especially if you do it sensibly and maintain it
bravo kid 🙂