30 Days of night? Right....

Today I strolled down to the local cinema to watch a film.

The horror film, 30 days of night.

First, a word about the plot. The concept is simple - a town in the far north of the US, which every year experiences 30 days of solid night. Vampires in the area get a little hungry.

The plot - and a lot of the basic ideas - are very solid. Interesting location, a good logical reason for isolation, even an implied reason for the existence for the town.

Most of the character work is good and the lack of CGI effects is excellent. So far, so good...

But there are two ways of building fear and terror in a horror film.

There's the easy way - cheap shocks, vast amounts of blood and guts, excessive on screen violence and the application of unremitting action, never allowing a moment for true fear.

Alternatively, there's another, better way. You build up tension. Slowly, carefully build up a sketch in the views mind. The terrible picture of fear drawn in stress, uncertainty and glimpses. Hints of the enemy, traces of evidence...

The second approach builds upon the uncertainty and fear in the views own mind - and no one can know what they fear more then the view themselves.

But alas, 30 days takes the first route - the easy one.

Ultimately the film is an acceptable horror film, but not a good one.

For a better vampire film, go watch underworld.

It is a better film.

Drug madness

Yesterday I enjoyed "The Headache from Hell" - which was lovely on my last day off before work.

The whole works - even glare from the laptop was painful. And I was out of drugs.

So down to the mall I go, avoiding those deadly rays.

Now, my pain killer of choice is paracetamol - or acetaminophen as its known here.

Now, in the UK you're limited to buying 16 tablets at a throw - or 32 in a pharmacy. This is because of the drugs repeated use in suicide attempts - and they also long ago mandated that it had to be sold in blister packs rather then in handy bottle. This is supposed to make it slightly harder and take longer - more time to regret your decision....

Anyway, I strolled into the drug store and picked up a small pack. Of 100.

Yep, thats right - enough to overdose a small family.

And I didn't even pick up the biggest pack - I've seen packs in the HUNDREDS - there were packs of 120, 200...

But the maximum daily dose for an adult is 4000mg - or 8 tablets. So I've got 12 days worth of extreme PAIN, with a few left over. Where as in the UK you can buy...2 days worth.

So you feel like your dying. You feel as if your brains are slowly dribbling out though your nose, your eyes are slowly expanding into the iron splinters of the air...and you have to walk to the shops for a little relief.

Just...don't leave a mess on the pavement.

Blogs I read

By request, here are the blogs I tend to read...be warned, the last is NOT safe for work. EVER.

http://burningourmoney.blogspot.com/ - A blog concerning government waste, excessive tax and the insanity of modern politics. Be warned, he is conservative - with a small c.

This isn't a bad thing, believing in smaller government, efficent public services and honesty from politicians - but I'm giving the warning.

http://coppersblog.blogspot.com/ - A police blog that (until recently) told of the thoughts and experiences of an unknown police officer somewhere in the UK. He's now been revealed and is moving to Canada, to a new police job. But go read the achieves.

http://nhsblogdoc.blogspot.com/ - The NHS Doc blog, written about health matters in the uk is a very unflattering view of the NHS, government targets and management madness.

http://more-to-life-than-shoes.blogspot.com/ - A often amusing blog written by a show obsessed madwomen with Distinct Views on a number of things - heels, Europe and Independence...

And finaly, http://devilskitchen.me.uk/ - WARNING - this is a swear blog, with distinct anti-labour, pro-UKIP leanings. It often has descriptions of politicians that...well, there's a post involving Allistar Darling, ky jelly, Gorden Brown and Sooty. And that's all I'm saying :)

The barbar- parents are here!

Much could be said about the parent's visit.

Washing mugs, frightening the poor, little....ok...slightly over sized cat...

But that's not the topic of the day. The topic is sin - last nights sin. And I didn't sin alone - Ali, myself and five others sinned together.

No, NOT like that Helen.

We took a friend to a pub on his 21 birthday, and bought him a drink.

Each.

Water wasn't on the menu.

After drinking we took him back to his mother, where he made a small mess.

After letting someone else (who was sober) clear up, we dragged him off to John's place for cake, music and slaughter.

The sin?

Oh yes - mine was a tequila slammer.


For someone who never drinks.

How the mighty have fallen

Last year, in the delightful company of Helen and Rob, usual over dinner, we watched "Eureka", also known as "A town called Eureka".

It was a quirky program, with odd turns and strange occurrences.

A house that spirals into depression when you try and leave it.

A funeral is held for someone. Who shortly turns up, puzzled as to why they received flowers and commiserations.

The puncturing of childhood dreams - no, those arn't real moon rocks...
If you believe that I've got a sheet of mint penny black-
Stop it....

Anyway, it was good. However...

The first season was good. But the second, 13 episodes in has had...well...maybe a dozen good moments. It's clear that the writers have been trying to drag the show in the direction of a great big, over arching plot - which doesn't work for the show.

Some shows are canceled before they're ever given a chance. Firefly, Crusade, Threshold...and others that would have been better not going to a second season.

They're killing the show by inches.

The cost...

I'm stepping out in a minute, to pick up some catfood and things.

But, before going, I looked at the uk news and saw the fuel price rises here.

Petrol prices are about a pound a litre. Which is a hell of a lot. When I started driving petrol was only 83 pence a litre. And that wasn't that long ago - only a few years. I know it was this low - I've still got the spreadsheet I used to calculate my cost per mile.

Prices didn't stay that way long, raising quickly.

But you remember the fuel blockades a few years back? Prices are a third higher now, then at the time.

Still, fuel in Canada is 1.20$. So about 60p.

I have a problem.

As many people have said before, from alcoholics anonymous to WoW Anonymous, the first step of resolving a problem - any problem - is admitting it exists.

Hi, I'm 4400 miles from home, and I have a problem.

Just the one?
Stop it you, this is my blog!

The problem today is t-shirts.

I've got many t-shirts - half olive green, the rest an assortment of non-colours. White, black, grey...but nothing bright, nothing lively.

The problem is how I acquire them.

I can count on the fingers of one hand (that's 4, not 31) the number of times in the last 3 years I've gone into a shop, browsed, searched and sought a t-shirt. Pick them up at an army base? Acquire them from running events? Taunt someone from Microsoft?

These I've done. For a free one, I'd run miles.

Today, it was about 3.1 miles, in 28 minutes.

This was not about raising money for charity - not for me. The thousand and more others might run for charity...but not me.

This wasn't about a chance to chat up pretty girls while running an easy 5k, even if there was quite a few rather cute ones. Even some b-- no, I'm not saying it Helen.

This wasn't even about training for another run - 5k is straightforwards to run. Most people could do it, if they really wanted to.

No, it was the T-Shirt.

I am 4400 miles from home, and I'll do almost anything for a free t-shirt.
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Nb - the photo's will be here as soon as I can find a really, really small screwdriver. Otherwise we're stuck with IR.

Oh, and I'm somewhat happy that I pulled a curry back from the brink of disaster today. It was even edible.