I started watching the TV series of Flash Gordon. It startted off as very hokey and tongue in cheek humour. Just incase you were thinking that they were being serious and it was just a case of bad acting or writing, they played nonsensicle music that could have found a home in a carry on movie.

IMDB had it as 4.4 out of 10. All the reviews seemed to poo poo on it. I have to say though, I have really enjoyed it. The early episodes reminded me of the early episodes of Sliders.

Once it gets to the later half of the show, it gets less hokey and more serious. The less comedic episodes are hardly noticeable as they have lured you into liking the characters. I always thought the Flash Gordon character as a bit silly. Yeah he saves every one of us because he can run fast, not just fast but really really fast. Well not super human fast but you get the point.

I only have two episodes left and I know they won't have more so as long as they wrap it to a semi sort of ending, I will be happy.

The phd student of colm's has been given his one months notice. He was grilled for by two academics with his cv in front of him. Conditions for letting him stay were out in place.

Colm contacted me today saying that one of the conditions was to pass the training of the microscope. He asked If he could see me tomorrow to sort a schedule out. I went up to see him and said that it would be pointless to do this training.

After discussing with Colm, I then sent an email to the two academics that had grilled the student refusing the training and let them know my reasons. My line manager, who was cced in the email, replied backing me up.

Don't know what he is going to do for the month though as he has been refused access to his temporary lab.

I suppose I will find out soon enough.

Had my 18th Japanese lesson tonight. Only two left to go. One next week and the last in 3 weeks time.

GRRM has started screening comments for his post. Good on him I say. He started his LJ less for updates about his next installment for ASOIAF and more about his love of american football and little bits about various projects as well as publicising the HUGO awards and new writers to watch out for.

Instead, every post he gives tended to have a comment complaining that Dance of Dragons was years over due. some people have even said that he is old and fat and they think he should hurry up and finish the series before he pulls a Robert Jordan. If you don't know, Robert Jordan died recently leaving his wheel of time series unfinished.

I like reading GRRM's LJ, even his posts on american football as it shows a human side to him. When I read his works now, I can think of the person and his life of the person who created it. His Dreamsongs book, with was a collection of short stories throughout his career was broken into sections. before each section, he would have some pages of what he was doing with his life at the time so you can see how the stories can relate to what was happening at the time.

The people that are complaining about him not finishing Dance, will be the same people who will be the first to complain about when Winds of Winters is coming out. Considering he mentioned somewhere that it was originally going to be a trilogy, we should be thankful that we are getting 4 extra books in the series.

So hats off to GRRM for coming up with a compromise by screening comments rather than getting fed up of the minority of fans who are complaining with rather callous remarks and deleting his "not a blog" and the other fans losing out on peering through the window into his life!

I just saw one of the most fantastic films in my life. IT is called as the subject says "He was a quiet man". What seems pretty straight forward to begin with becomes a really good film with twists. Christian Slater is fantastic in his role. Probably one of his best to date.

Unfortunately I can't really go into why it is fantastic because it would spoil the whole movie. The special effects are not great but you will understand why at the very end.

Stupidity and luck makes a hero. If someone is stupid but have no luck then they will die. if they have luck but are not stupid then they would not even try.

Mark Harmon's interview with Craig Ferguson said it best though (you can find it on youtube). Mark Harmon had rescued a couple of teenagers from a burning car outside his house, although he was classed as a hero, he did not want to be seen as one.

I would visit my right era, no wait my left era. Did I hera the question correctly?

I have many dream jobs

1. 'Science Fact' is stopping me as it would be something to do with science fiction jobs

2. Lack of drive: as I would love to work the dolphin language and studying how they can understand ours and create complex sentences.

3. Job offers: I am offered for what I am qualified in which sometimes is not necessary what I want to do.

Not telling otherwise it wouldn't be a secret identity and my family could get kidnapped by my nemesis who will use them to stop me from stopping him in his quest for world domination and I would then have to choose whether to save my family and sacrificing the planet or saving the planet and losing my family and all because I answered the question on Livejournal in fact this could all be a plot by my nemesis and he has taken over livejournal which with some of the things they have done recently could be seen as pure evil all to find out my secret identity very cunning but I would have fell for it had I not been so smart ah yes you never counted on that did you mr nemesis you may be smarter than me my nemesis with your powers of full stops and commas and since all arch villians are always super geniuses whilst superheroes just always get lucky and are not really too intelligent but i do always wonder what you guys would do with dominion over the world as it must be a pretty tough management job but alas i have you beat for now and i am now going to beat you at your own game and use the power of the comma, as well as, the full stop!

Damn it! you win this time nemesis!

Denmark interview went well, should hear by end of next week the outcome as they are interviewing the last candidate on Monday. Copenhagen is a lovely city.

That's all just now as only 25% battery remaining.

My name is Dr Hfuhruhurr, only one person has been able to pronounce it correctly and that was Miss Uumellmahaye.

I had a great entrepenurial idea when someone dropped a piano on my head. Now that was a profound musical impact!!

How would you describe your personal style?
Very old T-shirts, misshapen jumpers and jeans. Bad laces on my shoes. I don't take much pride in my appearance.

Boo! How did you celebrate Halloween?
I didn't do anything different than any other time.

Whether it's in an election or just in a fun poll, what's getting your vote this week?
Democracy is like 10 wolves and 1 sheep voting for whats for dinner, so I don't vote as I am inevitably a sheep.

Tell us your current favorite: book, movie, CD, video game.
A Storm of Swords by GRRM, difficult to chose one movie but i will say Muriels wedding as was talking about it earlier, CD-one that i can use as a drinks coaster, Zelda for video game.

What comedian makes you pee your pants laughing?
Harry Hill, British comedian, used to be a GP (general practitionar)

What's the worst pickup line you've ever heard?
More like what is the worst pick up line I have used. "What's your favourite flavour of wood?" It is debatable whether it is the worst as it has worked 100% of the time. Ok it's true it was only used once and the lass ended up being emotionally unstable but it still worked.

What's on your Top 5 video games list?
well Zelda:twilight princess (Wii), Rayman Raving Rabbids (wii), Zelda: Link's awakening (Gameboy), Flashback (Sega Megadrive) and Driver (Playstation)

What song makes you rock the karaoke mic?
haha, me rock...erm...NO

If reincarnation were inevitable, what would you come back as in your next life?
A human, then i would track down people that I know now and start telling them things that about them that only my old self would know.

What's your method for calculating a tip?
Depends on service. A tip is to be earned not given just because. I would like to give it at the start of the meal as it was traditionally done plus I would also like to do that thing with an initial tip that you add to or take away of they do something right or wrong (what was that from?)

What are 10 things you are thankful for?
VETO - I think i am allowed one Veto. Plus to list ten things would take too much thinking time.

What character in a book can you connect with or relate to the most?
The only book I have been transported into is Lord of the flies in the final chapter, my heart rate was sky high as i read that.

What's the most drastic change you've ever made to your appearance?
Probably the addition of weight as I was a skinny wee blighter, and it is so drastic i doubt i will ever be that skinny again.

What's your favorite Thanksgiving dish?
Never eaten a thanksgiving dinner before

When do you start your holiday shopping?
I tend to not really buy anything around the holiday but if i did the week before.

Have you ever Googled your own name? How do you feel about the results?
I get me and me only, I think it is scientific papers and acknowledgements of my help as well as the Chemsoc page. My handle will normally result in Kenyan runners since the name is Kenyan.


And here endeth the marathon

Subject has nothing to do with the post, just always wanted to use the line.

Yes I am back in St Andrews and so I give my obligatory livejournal post since my posting has been really erratic and I always say that I will change it but I will blame Zelda and work. Nah, I can't blame Zelda, it is too nice.

I have just become a dominatrix in Zelda. Not quite but I do have a dominion rod. STOP IT YOU, with your dirty dirty mind, IN YOUR CORNER!!! It is an object that makes you able to control statues. I was just heading for those statues when I had to come up to St Andrews so need to wait until I come back down on sunday.

Have to break for lunch today, as I am going for a celebratory meal with Gemma, her sister, Stewart and her group as she passed her viva a week or so ago.This might mean a later finish for me tonight but I can sleep later tomorrow as I am not picking up Caroline (someone I gave a lift to who works at the university but owns a house in St Andrews) until 11 and will be travelling straight down anyway.

Did a round robin at wii play with Stuart yesterday on the Wii. Got totally trounced but managed to avoid getting grannied by winning at billiards. The billiards is not billiards though but 9-ball. 9-ball is obviously a lot easier anyway as it is on an american pool table so the pockets are so big you can drive a bus into them.

I saw on the front page about the NaNoWriMo, wish I paid attention as I would quite like to have done it. Is anyone reading this doing it? It is basically writing a 50,000 word novel in a month. Quantity is what matters though not quality, then again read some stories on here and bebo and it is obvious it doesn't matter joining a group for critique as everyone will gush over it. If you don't gush over it and leave a comment with suggestions then you will be labelled a troll or jealous or "you couldn't do any better" or something along those lines. It would be really funny if a proper writer had done this and cited all his books as a response. I was gonna say authopr instead of writer but realised that I am a published author, albeit in scientific journals.
Then again, I doubt I would be able to find time to do this, especially with my new creative project which was to create a game proposal on a very well known TV show. This however got scuppered after a quick check on imdb, although the writer's strike in america may save me and make me my millions :D.

I updated my CV the other day to apply for a job. I hadn't done it in a while and I had to add too many papers to it. My CV is now 4 pages long, and if I carry on in Academia then it is only likely to get longer. I now have about 15-20 papers, although some are only submitted, but we also have a few more in the pipeline.

Right I better end this as it is getting quite long and the machine has just finished ramping. Hope everyone is well.

Bit bored today so thought I would write something on here. I am about halfway through the Zelda game on the Wii and almost already planned the next game (90% sure Prince of Persia) I will buy. I will probably wait until I am almost complete Zelda. At the moment, I am in the desert and just entered the desert prison. When I save the game, it logs hours of game play which is about 25 hours at the moment. This is likely closer to 28 hours as I got stuck in several parts and stopped the game without saving.

Zelda reminds me on the gameboy version Link’s Awakening, which was the only other Zelda game that I have ever played. What makes this one greater is not only is it a 3D version and larger rooms, but I get a horse. I also get to use a hawk too and I turn into a wolf, at the start involuntarily but I am at the stage that I can control it, through the use of Midna. Midna is a creature that helps you out in wolf form and was irritating to begin with as he/she kept chatting away but after you learn the controls he/she shuts up.

Will be playing it tonight, got to get as far in this dungeon as possible as going out tomorrow night to take a visiting academic out for dinner. Not much else happening, completed the story mode of Rayman but got a long way to go with the score mode.

Just a couple of different TV series that I have been watching. The first was Brimstone, Scifi series back in 98 that got cancelled after 13 episodes. The actors carry a somewhat run of the mill episodes which can only end in one way each time. In fact, it is pretty much like a lot of series when you are able to work out how far in the episode you are by what they are revealing. John Glover is brilliant as the devil though, a very camp devil.

Sinchronicity, a british show from BBC Three, is about Nathan, who works for a porn mag, who sleeps with his best friends girlfriend, whilst he needs to cover for his best friend that has just started an affair with a doctor. Along the way, he bumps into a catholic woman who thinks he has been sent from god to be her boyfriend and an episode on who gave who the Clap. Was it the catholic girl who gave nathan, who then gave it to the girl friend, who then gave it to her boyfriend who then gave it to his boyfriend? It was most amusing and reminded me to the good old days of "As If", which was helped by the fact that it had two of the same characters from it.

I was trying to find something else to watch this weekend and I saw Damages. Mistakening it for the eddie Izzard tv show called the Riches, I clicked on it. I soon realised my error as it is about Lawyers. With the series starting with a murder and a flashback to six months previously, the series kept me hooked for the 13 episode run and ended with a satisfying conclusion. Instead of it just being a case on case episode, it turned out to be a really good conspiracy, with bad guys being not as bad, good guys being not as good and an apparently obvious story line being full of twists and turns. The series is also good in the fact it shows that it isn't always about getting to the truth as it is getting the most money for your clients. Well worth a watch, if you want something that you need to pay attention to. It also has Ted Danson and Glenn Close in it.

I now own a Wii. Mate had a spare one and sold it to me.

Woohoo

I was going to give a more serious entry as I normally write an entry in St Andrews but have ran out of time as the machine has ramped up now. The memes took too much time, as they always do.

I had to do the last meme though, otherwise I would not have laughed uncontrollably when I did not encounter any potholes on the M6 on the way up on friday.

I did not have to imagine everyone's reactions, I saw them!

I can't remember if this was ever aired on UK TV but I am sure at least the americans will know it. It was a sitcom about a NY cop, squad and family. I have only watched the first five episodes of the first series but have so far been very impressed.

It really sets itself out from the normal run of the mill sitcoms, although it was made in 1975. The main cast has the largest amount of ethnic diversity i have seen in a program and it handles quite a lot of issues that most comedies skirt around.

I found it quite close to reality, the main character is responsible with his weapons, it has racism and prejudices but these people are normally frouwned upon. hopefully more will appear online so I can watch them.

It is not a laugh a minute, but i have found myself laughing out loud at a few bits and i really like the stories in the episodes. There has been 8 seasons as it ran from 1975-1982, so i am surprised that I had not heard of it before.

Anyway, will watch the last few that are online tomorrow and hope more will follow.

Cooker died last night. seems to be just the heater though but the fan works. so no longer a cooker and more just a blower i suppose.
Not going to report it until after the weekend as want to make sure it is nice and clean.
And no I don't wash my rubbish!

Do excuse me for the people who are more along than the first season.

But hands up if you think that Matt's (the cops) wife looks like what Katie Holmes will look like a few years down the line.

Its a while since I did a Hands up post. Then again it has been a while since I have done any post.

Anyway, Hands up if you remember when Dog poo lined the streets as it was the norm for people not to pick up after their dogs, before they brought in fines?

*puts hand up*

It used to be that you would just step over it and think nothing of it, but now you do notice it sitting there since it is unusual to see it. Even more unusual is the sighting of white dog crap, that has been sitting so long it turns white.

~That was the headline on the BBC website.

I thought maybe it is a brain op to sort out his bushisms. Or Maybe his eyes to sort out his bushisms. Or Maybe it is something to do with his speech to sort out his bushisms. after i click on the link, I found it was a colonoscopy. Probably to sort out his bushisms as he always has talked out his arse!!!

Alan Johnston was released YAY.

I been waiting to hear about it for months although i feared the worst each time i opened the bbc news in the morning.

I doubt that the government will thank Hamas though as israel may frown upon that, and you know what our government is like with israel. "yeah bomb a country, we won't condemn it"

Just found out that the lesbians that I have been talking to for the past month in the chatrooms are not actually lesbians. When asked why i thought that, i said that they just acted like an old married couple. To be fair they ended up being best mates.

Got hit by an msn virus, sorry to all who got affected by it. luckily most people were more sensible than me.