Tag: CSI

What I’ve watched this year

*Oooh, I did it last year too!*

I got a big hard drive in December last year, exclusively for storing videos on. I haven’t needed to delete anything all year, but I will have to quite soon. The upshot is that it’s really easy for me to list what we’ve watched this year, because it’s just anything that’s on the hard drive that we didn’t watch last year.

On the one hand, I can look at this list and think “wow, that’s quite a lot.” But on the other hand, if I’m able to list nearly everything we’ve watched on TV this year, then it can’t be that much.

Shows that Karen and I have watched together

* Blackadder (series 1)
* Criminal Justice
* CSI (series 1 to 8)
* Doctor Who (series 4)
* Gavin and Stacey (series 1 and 2)
* Heroes (series 1 to 3)
* House (series 5)
* Merlin (series 1)
* The Mighty Boosh (series 1 and 2)
* That Mitchell and Webb Look (series 2)
* Outnumbered (series 2)
* Peep Show (series 5)
* Respectable
* Sapphire and Steel (series 1)
* Spooks (series 3 to 5 and 7)
* Torchwood (series 1 to 2)

Anything that we started watching last year, and continued watching this year, is not listed a second time. Likewise, anything in the above list that we haven’t finished watching, will not be listed if I do this again next year.

Shows that I watched on my own

* 3rd Rock From The Sun (series 1 to 6)
* The Mighty Boosh (series 3)
* My Name Is Earl (series 4)
* Red Dwarf (series 4 to 8)
* Spaced (season 1)
* Top Gear (series 12)

This section should probably actually be entitled “things that I am watching on my own”, because with the exception of The Mighty Boosh and Red Dwarf, I am in the middle of a series for all of these.

I also watched the first three episodes of The Brittas Empire before concurring with Karen’s assessment that it is unwatchable shite.

Films

Again, we’ve probably watched 30-40 films. And they’re all on my hard drive, so there’s nothing to stop me giving you an exhaustive list. Haha.

* 12 Angry Men
* American Gangster
* Big Fish
* Boyz N the Hood
* Casino
* City Lights
* Crash
* The Dark Knight
* First Blood
* The Fisher King
* Gandhi
* Heavenly Creatures
* The Ipcress File
* Juno
* Knocked Up
* Leon The Professional
* Mr Smith Goes to Washington
* National Treasure
* No Country For Old Men
* Notorious
* Once Upon A Time In The West
* The Prestige
* Rebecca
* Rocky
* Taxi Driver
* There Will Be Blood
* The Third Man
* To Kill A Mockingbird
* Vertigo
* Walk Hard The Dewey Cox Story
* Zorba The Greek

(We also managed to get about 5 minutes into Metropolis before giving up because it didn’t have subtitles)

And these are the ones that I watched on my own:

* Cloverfield
* Crank
* Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
* Dr Strangelove
* Futurama – Bender’s Big Score
* Futurama – The Beast With A Billion Backs
* Futurama – Bender’s Game
* Hitman
* Resident Evil Extinction
* Stardust

And, as Karen reminds me, this is the one that I’ve watched with Karen and Bernard:

* Ratatouille

Categories
DIY Gaming Gardening IAMOWIM Music Gear Parenting

What have I been up to lately?

Not blogging, that’s for sure.

Music

I’ve got a couple of new toys, a Squier Vintage Modified fretless Jazz Bass, and a Zoom H2, which is a nifty little recording device that contains 4 internal microphones and records WAV and MP3 files to SD cards in startlingly good quality. It’s loaded with bells and whistles and is just what I’ve been looking for all these years. I’ve also restrung my acoustic guitar and have purchased a set of strings for my Epiphone SG. This happens quite infrequently. I’ve also got my guitars up on wall hangers these days, which means that I have to spend less time picking them up off of the floor and retuning them.

Coffee

I have a new Krups coffee machine, the XP4020 ((the Krups website is antler-scratchingly bad, so I refuse to link to it)). I’m getting superb espresso out of it but it’s still taking some time to get used to. The grounds are very wet after use (which is supposedly due to the grounds not being tamped down hard enough, but I’ve tried a range of forces between featherly and elephantine and it’s making no difference) and I can’t get a decent foam on my milk. It will come in time, I’m sure. I’m really appreciating how much more quickly I can make a good cup of coffee these days. With the old machine I’d spend a fair amount of time waiting, but now I can do the whole process with no wasted time.

Cycling

Haven’t been doing much of this, though on a couple of occasions lately the three of us have cycled round to some nearby brambles and gathered up kilos of blackberries. That’s damn good fun.

Playing Tomb Raider 2

As mentioned recently. Ah, they don’t make them like they used to. I’m playing in little bursts, half an hour or so every other day, and I’m currently a short way into the 40 Fathoms level.

Watching CSI, 3rd Rock From The Sun and Sapphire and Steel

Thanks to Mr Hg for the latter. We’re currently half way through season 5 of CSI, and we’re working our way through them at a rate of approximately one season every month. I think that we’ve seen most of seasons 6 and 7 already but we’ll enjoy re-watching them, and we’re definitely looking forward to season 8 which we haven’t yet seen. And I’m watching 3rd Rock in order too – I’ve just started season 4 and I think that for the most part I haven’t seen any episodes in seasons 4 to 6.

Reading

I’ve actually been reading more recently, getting through about a book per week. It’s not the most readious period of my life to date, but it’s definitely well above average.

Chilling

Wandering around parks and playgrounds, taking photos of things and sharing mischievous smiles with Bernard. His language development is currently at a stage which I would describe as “explosive” with new words being added to his vocabulary daily. I’ve also organised all my photos from the last few weeks, so there will be a photo-based post on this site every evening for the next week.

Gardening and DIY

A little of this, but not too much. The occasional carefully-chosen task, selected for optimal benefit:time ratio. That said, the garden and allotment are both in reasonable condition. So it must be a case of working smarter, not harder.

Contemplating felines

We’re pretty much decided on this one, actually. We’re intending to go round to the rescue shelter tomorrow to see who is around. All three of us are cat lovers, so we’re unanimous on this one.

Complaining about my wrist

10 days ago I woke up with a very sore wrist. I wore a support bandage quite a lot over the next few days. People would put on concerned faces and ask me what happened, and I had to sheepishly respond that actually I just slept on it a bit funny. Karen thought that it was RSI from all the Tomb Raider I’ve been playing. After 5 days, it was not getting better. As an experiment, I took the bandage off, and kept it off. It’s been getting better ever since. I’ve decided to attribute the persistence of the discomfort to muscle atrophy, and what the injury needed was not rest, but exercise.

Categories
About Me

Run for your lives! A mem!

Four jobs you’ve had in your life:

  • Barman
  • Website designer (but then who hasn’t?)
  • Desktop publisher (hey, that doesn’t mean that I was actually any good at it though)
  • Computer programmer

Four movies you could watch over and over:
Over and over, eh? Well, here are four movies that I like quite a lot. Not sure about “over and over” though.

Four places you’ve lived:

  • Lincolnshire
  • Warwickshire
  • Surrey
  • Berkshire

Four TV shows you love to watch:
Oh stop it with the unnecessarily passionate language. No-one really “loves” to watch TV shows, do they?

Four places you’ve been on vacation:

  • New York
  • Prague
  • Budapest
  • Dublin

Four websites you visit daily:

Four of your favorite foods:

  • Chilli con carne
  • Pistachio nuts
  • Opal fruits
  • Pizza

Four places you’d rather be:

  • The pub down the road
  • The pub across the road
  • The pub up the road
  • The pub on the other side of the roundabout

Four albums you can’t live without:
You’re doing it again. Stop it. I like these four, but I would find a way to soldier on if for some reason they were taken from me, never to return. Get some perspective.

Four magazines you read:
I can’t tell whether this is “read” in the present tense or past tense. So I’m opting for the latter, otherwise my answer would be a bit short. I’m also assuming that it is specifically asking about paper-based periodicals.

  • NME (up until quite recently)
  • Bassist (a few years ago)
  • Look-in (a few decades ago)
  • Dandy (a few decades ago)

Four cars you’ve owned:
This survey seems to be aimed at people who have either been driving for a long time, or are quite bad at it. I’ve taken a liberty with number four.

  • Ford Sierra
  • VW Golf
  • Vauxhall Astra
  • A small square of car-pet

Four people to do this meme:
What do you think I am? Some sort of clairvoyant? Stuff off.

Categories
About Me Food

Memes beat whinging any day

Snaffled from [Pix][]:

[pix]: http://www.pixeldiva.co.uk/memes-beat-whinging-any-day.html

> Welcome to the 2005 edition of getting to know your friends. What you are supposed to do is copy this entire blog entry and paste it onto a new blog entry that you’ll post. Change all the answers so they apply to you, and then publish! Leave a comment if you do this.The theory is that you will learn a lot of little (random) things about your friends, if you did not know them already.

1. **What time did you get up this morning?**
8:25am
1. **Diamonds or pearls?**
Diamonds, I guess, but I’m not particularly enthusiastic about either
1. **What was the last film you saw at the cinema?**
Wallace and Gromit in the Curse of the Were-Rabbit
1. **What is your favourite TV show?**
I don’t really watch anything religiously. I quite like CSI and Frasier.
1. **What do you usually have for breakfast?**
Honey nut corn flakes
1. **Favourite cuisine?**
Pizza
1. **What food do you dislike?**
I don’t like the texture of broad beans.
1. **What is your favourite CD at the moment?**
I’m pretty big into [Funeral][] by Arcade Fire, but generally I’ll listen to lots of stuff in rotation rather than one album a few hundred times over.
1. **Morning or night person?**
Night
1. **Favourite sandwich?**
Cheese and pickle – it’s highly practical.
1. **What characteristic do you despise?**
Hypocrisy.
1. **Favourite item of clothing?**
I wear Levi 501s most days, but I’m very attached to this particular pair of brown shoes that I own.
1. **If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where would it be?**
I’m not a big holiday person, but I’d like to go back to New York sometime.
1. **What colour is your bathroom?**
Pale green
1. **Favourite brand of clothing?**
I prefer my clothes to have as little branding as possible.
1. **Where would you retire to?**
Not planning on doing so. My mum’s mum is still working, and she’s the only one of my grandparents who is still alive.
1. **What was your most memorable birthday?**
I think birthdays should be low-key and sophisticated.
1. **Favourite sport to watch?**
Hahahahahahahah! Oh, the joys of generic questionnaires.
1. **Who do you least expect to complete this?**
Me.
1. **Person you expect to complete it first?**
Pix. She’s already done it.
1. **Person who is least busy?**
Okay, this is getting stupid.
1. **When is your birthday?**
August.
1. **What is your shoe size?**
11 or 12
1. **Pets?**
Just the girlfriend.
1. **Any new and exciting news you’d like to share with us?**
Yes, but you’ll have to wait.
1. **What did you want to be when you were little?**
Cool.
1. **What is your favourite flower?**
Paeonia Lactiflora.
1. **What date on the calendar are you looking forward to?**
20th June 2006.
1. **One word to describe the person who you snaffled this from?**
Female.

[funeral]: http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0006ZRX86/