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“The show has been resurrected by digital channel Dave for a two-part Easter weekend special, which sees the cast finally return to Earth.”
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Tag: Red Dwarf
*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:
Some of these we have taped off of the television to watch later, some we have watched on DVD, and here and there I have used BitTorrent to catch episodes that I forgot to set the video for.
We don’t “channel surf” at all, so these lists represent the vast, vast majority of our TV and film consumption this year.
Shows that Karen and I watched together
* Doctor Who (series 3)
* Frasier (series 5 to 11) ((some overlap with last year))
* House (series 3 and 4)
* The IT Crowd (series 2)
* That Mitchell and Webb Look (series 1)
* My Name Is Earl (series 2 and 3)
* Outnumbered (series 1)
* Peep Show (series 1 to 4)
* The Sopranos (series 1 to 6)
* Spooks (series 1, 2 and 6)
I haven’t included shows that we just watched a couple of episodes of.
Shows that I watched on my own
* Futurama (series 1 to 4)
* Mork and Mindy (series 1)
* The Prisoner
* Red Dwarf (series 1 to 3)
* Scrubs (series 5, 6 and 7)
Films
As well as the above shows, we’ve also watched a few films. I’d estimate 30-40. Favourite films watched for the first time this year were:
* Princess Mononoke
* Mulholland Drive
* The Ladykillers
* Brazil
* The Apartment
* The Station Agent
The worst was probably The Da Vinci Code.
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Stuff on my desk
*This is a companion piece to a similarly-themed article on Karen’s site which, all things being equal, should be published at roughly the same time.*
Here is my desk. It’s an Ikea Jerker that I bought about 14 months ago, when we moved into this house.
(Yes, the PNG is transparent, so you can overlay it on the JPG if you so desire).
1. Three boxes. One contains AC adapters, one contains receipts, and one is labelled “Misc crap” and contains all those little things that you don’t have a real home for. Mounted on the underside of the shelf below these boxes is a little OSRAM LED lamp.
2. Red Dwarf videos. I’m currently going through a bit of a Red Dwarf phase, reliving my teenage years. One, or more, of these VHS tapes may have been acquired at a reduced rate by switching price labels in WHSmiths. Such a rebel, I was.
3. Camera box. Nikon D40. Haven’t quite got round to putting this box in the garage or loft or wherever. On top of it is my camera case.
4. Books. One that I’m reading, one that I’m yet to read, and my 2005-06 and 2006-07 diaries. Older diaries are kept in a storage box in the garage, but I like having my last two to hand, just in case.
5. My pyro box. Lighters, matches, and an ancient pack of Golden Virginia.
6. Audio cassettes. All the live recordings, taped rehearsals, and early albums by my old band. On top of this little box is my bank statement book, and in front of it are my watches.
7. Pile of Terror. One of these boxes is also labelled “Misc crap”. Everything in this pile has no home, but hopefully I will rectify this one day. It’s a low-priority thing, and to be honest, most of this stuff could probably be thrown away, and I would never notice.
8. Postcards that Karen brings me.
9. Keyboard. It’s a Casio CTK-671.
10. Monitor. It’s a Sony. It’s a good monitor, but still… Sony. Ugh. Sorry. Tucked beneath it is a hefty reusable plastic bag. In front, a notepad with a comb on it, and to the right of that is the magnet that opens the drawers down to the side of the desk.
11. Man bag.
12. 8 track. It’s a Yamaha MD-8. I don’t use this much any more, so it now lives under here, and can be slid out if/when I need it.
13. Keyboard. It’s a Microsoft. It’s a good keyboard, but still… Microsoft. Ugh. Sorry. Behind it is a cheap plastic toy that my dad brought back from China. Its purpose is to spin round, light up, and play the Crazy Frog theme. It worked twice, then broke. So sad.
14. Photo of Karen. Whenever Bernard sees this, he points and says “Mama” about thirty times in quick succession.
15. Margarine tub containing a secret project that I’m working on. In front of it are my two coasters, by Marcus Gray.
16. Backup CDs and burned Linux ISOs.
17. A4 paper for the printer. To the left, empty CD spindles.
18. Printer. HP Laserjet 4L.
19. Some old envelopes for the recycling box. I just left them here while I took the photo to make the place look untidy. I am smart like that.
20. Second camera. Pentax Optio S30. Again, it doesn’t normally live here, but it gatecrashed the photo shoot. Behind it, an empty CD spindle. In front of it, the lens cap for my camera.
What else is on the shelf with the monitor?
* Two speakers (Harman Kardon Soundsticks II, the woofer is down there on the floor, glowing blue).
* Letter rack, containing things to file, things to do something about, and envelopes.
* A little pile with some post-it notes and Carmex lip balm on top.
* Pen pots
* Camera manual
* Some more pieces of paper to deal with
* Spindle containing blank CDs.
* Desk lamp.
* On the wall, some photos.
How has my desk changed in the last year?
14 months ago, it looked like this. Those two shelves at the top used to contain a lot of junk, so I moved one of them down to act as a monitor shelf. This gives me more space to work with at keyboard level, and also allows me to raise the speakers by six inches, out of Bernard’s reach (he likes grabbing them and playing with them. I can understand why – they are quite lovely). And the 8-track, as I previously mentioned, is now underneath that shelf.
You can also see that I’ve installed the second side-shelf, and used it to make a nifty little keyboard stand (the other end of the keyboard rests on my bass amp). This has been in place for quite a long time now.
And finally, here’s a photo of my desk at the previous house. It’s only six months older, so much of the hardware is the same.
Categories
My Teenage Years: 16
I was now a sixth-former. Initially, Adam was still my only real friend, though I was on good terms with his friends, including the gorgeous Nicola and the oft-mentioned Nathan. Early on in the year I attempted to woo the new girl, Cheryl, only to be turned down promptly. Upon reading my journal, it’s clear that I had been watching too much Red Dwarf, as I apparently emulated Arnold Rimmer’s romantic technique down to a tee. I also continued to lech after her for a few weeks, which must have made her incredibly uncomfortable, and if I had any sense it should have made me uncomfortable too. By now I’m past my phase of ranking girls according to fanciability though, which is healthy. I would tend to pursue one girl for a fortnight or so ((notable instances being Kay and Ruth)), eventually plump up the courage to ask her out, and then get turned down. I’d be miserable for a while and then the cycle would repeat. Meanwhile, I’d periodically go to a party, get drunk, and then get off with some girl that I had never met before, so it wasn’t a world devoid of contrast.
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My Teenage Years: 15
In my fifth year, my out-of-school social life takes a turn for the uneventful. Trips into the city with friends end abruptly. I can imagine that this must have been a pretty miserable time for me, but my diaries are too stiff-upper-lip for me to be able to confirm that. I spend more time at home, with my family, probably annoying them to high heaven with my surliness. In January, I buy this CD that has been out for a couple of months. It’s called Different Class and it tells me everything that I ever needed to know about my life. I retreat from the world, watching, nay, obsessing over Red Dwarf and inventing more imaginary girlfriends to keep awkward questions at bay. I also get obsessed with Pulp and hunt down their back catalogue.