A break for the border

Hey dawgs and dawgettes.
So me and Gill spent this entire weekend watching all of 24 series 3 (since they moved it to sky and we couldn't watch it anymore) on DVD. It was sheer bliss, I have to say, and I would happily do it every weekend if I could. I'd heard a lot of shit-talk about how bad this series was and how it was all going downhill. The people who said this, I need hardly say, were wrong, and this series can proudly stand toe to toe with the best of the first series (the second was a bit crap, truth be told) on all fronts including story, cliffhangers, preposterous twists and graphic torture. Next series I'll be heartily disappointed if Jack doesn't kneecap a blood relative and skullfuck them to death before noon, such is his psychological trajectory.
In response to big gay gareths' yammerings, I haven't seen standalone complex, but I have ordered it on ebay on the strength of his recommendation, so if it bites he'll be getting further public humiliation on this very forum. Of course Thundercats is shit. To this day you don't have any taste, why do you think that as a youngster you would? The quality lies in the mythology and the character archetypes (though not the script)- there are the bones of an incredible story there, which is why I wrote a remake- if it was as good as I used to think it was, I wouldn't have bothered with reimagining it. I'll not have you dissing Cowboy Bebop- I notice you never actually said if you'd seen it or not, so if you're pulling that shit where you read up on something on the net then convince yourself you've seen it and base your opinions thereon, think again. And what the fuck is an IMO?
Work continues unabated, though I'm more confortable here now that I know how things are done.
Better get back to it though...

What ho!Sorry if I've been neglecting this blog of late, its been quite hard to get online since I've been working in broomhill, for a start, all the computers are shitted up, and also I tend to take my cue from the folks who already work there, and none of them spend time mucking around on the tinternet for their own amusement. They didn't at Hillsborough either, but they do spend a lot of time slacking off and dodging work, so I didn't feel so bad about it. Anyways, the library itself's fine, so are my colleagues, but the customers there are for the most part, a shower of tools. They are civil as long as you serve them as a butler might, but as soon as they learn you're not actually there to spoon feed them any and every curiosity they may harbour, the overpriviledged streak comes to the fore and they storm out of the building muttering about how they're going to stop paying their council tax or some such bullshit. There are those who believe that the internet is killing off the skill of real research, and the discovery of facts within context, rather than having them glibly defined by a two-minute google. To the good people of broomhill even this expenditure of time is too much for their fragile social schedules to bear, and if I can’t tell them, they can’t be bothered knowing. Shitheels.Onto merrier things, I really must tell you all about 'Cowboy Bebop'. Apologies if you've already seen it (I'm sure Gareth at least has heard of it), but I recently picked up a copy of the TV series (not the movie) of eBay for a tenner (Chinese imports, you see, not the exorbitant reg.2 versions) thinking that it sounded pretty good, and I had a hankering for some Anime anyways. It is simply marvellous. We finished watching the final 2-part episode last night and though I didn't actually cry, it was a near thing. Not that the ending was sad (nor am I saying it wasn't- you'll have to watch it and find out), nor even that it was over, just that it had, over its 26 episode run, totally won me over. Straight in to my top 5 TV shows ever without a doubt (see addendum). It had everything from superb music (a lot of jazz, which I would never have dreamed of listening to otherwise), some of the best animation I've seen, and fight sequences that put not just live action shows to shame, but whole swathes of anime too, to overarching lovestories and fantastic bite-size adventurettes. I'll stop now, I'm in danger of overselling it, but track it down if you can, it may take a few episodes to win you over, but it will. As Gill says: "Why are the Japanese so cool?"On the other end of the joy spectrum we have a sequel to 'My Big Fat Stupid Ugly British Bird' aka Bridget Jones' Diary (Tagline: Women... Duh!) in the offing. I only mention this because I was walking down Abbydale road yesterday only to be confronted by the poster for it in the middle of the pavement on one of those flyboards (For those who haven’t seen it yet just imagine Zellwegger's head looking suitably clueless/obnoxious and you're probably not far away from the truth) and was overjoyed to see some genius had drawn a hairy phallus in her mouth, complete with balls! I chuckled the rest of the way home. But later in the evening something clicked into place- I tried to imagine the sort of mentality of those who deface public places in such a way, and kept coming up with a picture of Gareth. Then I remembered that Gareth is never without a pen, usually a big fat black permanent one... Please feel free to take this opportunity, Gareth, to come clean and confess to why you actually spend so much time wandering the streets of Omagh on your own, pen at the ready. No one will judge, I for one will have more respect for you than I currently have.
Until again,
Aido 'I live sweat' potato.


Addendum: 9 other shows that probably are in my top 5 somewhere. (along with about 50 others)
Buffy (every season except 6)
X-files (seasons 1-3)
Twin Peaks
Spaced
Vids
Bad Girls
CSI (before Grissom went all smart-ass)
Northern Exposure (Before someone removed all the content, replacing all the actors and sets with sweating sacks of animal offal and hoped no-one would notice)
The Word (only kidding)

Wotcha
Sorry for getting cut short the other day, pressures of new job and that. So Far its been going well, though the travelling to and from work is an unwelcome change to my routine... Ho hum.
Anyways, our film festival. We kicked off with three viewings of Shaun of the Dead, which I got for me birthday. It really is an amazing show, and I am truly inspired by Simon Pegg. He makes exactly the kind of TV show/ Films I wish I could, and he seems like a decent bloke into the bargain. I think I've mentioned before that Tim Bisley (his character in Spaced) is probably the fictional character I identify with the most.
We then watched Braindead (always a pleasure), and finished the day off with 28 Days later, which I hadn't seen before and was duly impressed by. I thought it a little meandering towards the end, where they just sort of forgot about the zombies, but overall, quality won the day. Great cast, too. Brendan Gleeson is apparently playing mad-eye moody in the next magic harry movie, and the Cillian Murphy bloke is playing scarecrow in the Batman Begins flick (no doubt his costume will pale in comparison to mine, but thats life).
Got a camcorder today, bought of someone at work who's upgraded to digi. £60 for a three year old samsung with all the trimmings. Not a bad deal, now I just need to see if it works.
Better go, the vultures are circling...

High all. Long time no blog, for this I apologise, but its been halloween and any free time I've had has been consumed by going waaay the fuck overboard on my costume.
This year I was the scarecrow from batman (the 'No Man's Land' mythology, since you ask) and I was very pleased with the result. Gillo dressed up as Medusa and looked rather kinky, marybeth done a red riding hood (with severed wolf head in her basket) and Jonno done the ironic thing with a t-shirt reading 'My parents moved to the USA and all I got was this lousy urge to kill myself. He had a big cleaver sticking out of his belly, slashed wrists and a ropeburn round his neck.
Quick round up of other news- had a mini-zombie film festival last weekend at home, and I've started work at broomhill which, after a tearful farewell to hillsboro, is going rather well. Except I can't hang around and write my blog. I'll finish all this on thursday hipefully, You'll all just have to contain yourselves till then.
smoke my a kipper etc...