Can I just say that http://www.tacticalcorsets.com/ is an awesome idea!

Unfortunately they probably wouldn't fit me.

Also, I had a nice surprise when I was walking home from the shops today. I hear a roar, look up and a Vulcan Bomber passes across in front of me! For those of you who don't know, the Vulcan is a beautiful beautiful jet bomber from the 50s to the 80s that was retired shortly after its one and only bombing mission as part of the Falklands campaign. There's only maybe three in the world in flying condition and they are a sight to behold indeed.

So... Star Trek was awesome.

*Chuckles*

I'd been worried that it would be a huge disappointment but it was actually brilliant! They neatly explained the creation of a new, parallel reality, brought everyone together in a tiny, simple fashion, packed in the action and the comedy without missing a beat.

Yeah, they screwed up a few points but I think they have to nowadays or else the film-makers would get branded as geeks and never allowed near Hollywood again.

I can live with it.

Also, my proxy and its associated tunnels, after much annoyance and referring to manuals, is up and running correctly. I did have a few troubling minutes when it turned out I was under attack from hackers, but my Kung Fu is strong (And I'm not into Autoerotic Asphyxiation) so I think I'm safe.

So... I just saw a new trailer on the Apple site.

Sherlock Holmes.

This isn't the traditional stiff-upper-lipped British consulting detective. This isn't all poe-faced deduction. This is a moderate amount of insanity with Robert Downey Jr. playing the great detective and Jude Law playing Watson... I swear, the Homo-Erotic subtext oozes from the trailer. I have no idea what the actual film is going to be like but I feel sure Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle would never have recognised it. It looks like a cross between Iron Man, Sky Captain and Brokeback Mountain!

Hmmm... Y'know what it kinda makes me think of? Holmes played by House. Not Hugh Laurie but actually if you took House and Wilson back to the Victorian era and greased them up a little before telling them to fight crime.

Mild side-point - Holmes leaps from the Houses of Parliament into the Thames. They did it for style points but the Thames? In Holmes' period? Damn that's disgusting.

So apparently the BBC wants to make a Dr. Who movie with David Tennant later this year. I'm very OK with this, but for some reason I am absolutely dead-set on seeing Kristen Bell as his companion. Am I mad? Or am I having difficulty separating Kristen Bell from Veronica Mars? Because Veronica Mars flying around in the Tardis with Tennant's Doctor would be so mind-blowingly awesome that I might just... Just... Something.

A lot of something.

Obviously Kristen couldn't be quite as cute as a companion as Perpugilliam Brown, but she'd be close.

I'm annoyed by Star Trek. I want to go and see it at the cinema, but it's only showing at the Vue cinema and not the Arts, and I refuse to go to the Vue any more (I'm sure I posted about their bag-search policy).

In other news I'm working on implementing SSH and SSH Tunnelling along with a SOCKS5 proxy server between my Laptop and my Mac Mini Server. If it all works then I'll have an encrypted pathway between my laptop when I'm on holiday and the net at home. I have it in a limited fashion already because I can VNC into the Mac Mini via an SSH Tunnel, but that's pretty slow because of the image bandwidth overhead. I really want to use SOCKS5 rather than 4 because it allows DNS request routing.

I'm replacing my router. The old Belkin for some reason didn't support DHCP address reservations for individual machines which scuppered my use of DynDNS to allow routing to my home machine. If the power went off, even if everything rebooted, my Mac would often be assigned a different IP address and my virtual servers would forward ports to the wrong places. My old D-Link router did address reservation but I leant that to someone back when we were having Cable issues. Still, I got a cheap Netgear model from eBay that should do nicely.

Terry Moore's Echo: Moon Lake arrived today. I was surprised, I forgot I'd ordered it! He's a hell of a comic artist, although nothing about this work of his is at all comical. As it turns out, Echo: Atomic Dreams is coming out next month. I'll have to get it then.

I think that part of being a geek might be being a little bit too feminine. I like shopping. It makes me feel good. Admittedly, I don't mean shopping as in dashing around boutiques, checking out dresses and shoes, but still.

I've been trying to save money for the last year or two and for the most part I've been very successful, but today I had a bit of a blowout and splurged on ebay and amazon. It wasn't much. Well under a hundred, but still the buzz of knowing that there's all these little bits-and-bobs heading my way through the mail... And that I didn't spend a huge amount on them either... It feels really good.

Now where's my lipstick?

I finally figured out why my friends look at me askance when I'm in America, they're in pain and I offer them paracetamol.

They've never heard of it and are a little leary.

Why? Because in the US it's called Acetaminophen.

I'll try to remember that in future.

N.B. Remember not to bring Codeine to the US. Apparently it's a controlled substance there.

Has anyone ever run across a video of a Television pilot called 'Ultra'? It was a comic series from a few years back that I just came across on IMDb purely by accident. I think it was something like Global Frequency where they did a pilot and then abandoned the whole thing. It's a shame because I'd like to watch a TV series with superheroines trying to get through their lives, having the same problems as regular people. Kinda like "My Super Ex-Girlfriend" but where the girl *isn't* batshit crazy.

I can't find a torrent or anything, which is annoying. Oh well, maybe someday.

I'd just like to take a moment to say that priceofamemory and  purplecrayon01 are teh AWESOME!!!!!

I'm now the proud owner of a copy of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer comic Omnibus Vol. 6 SIGNED TO ME BY AMBER BENSON!!!

Woo Hooo!!!

Thankyouthankyouthankyou So Much!

The weather the last few days has been awesome. Bright sunny sunshine but not too high temperatures, a little breeze to cool us down and barely a cloud in the sky. Paradise couldn't get much closer than this.

The QuinQuennial Review is on at work which, for the last three days, has meant me running about the place like a blue-arsed fly trying to keep up with insand demands from scientists. Guys? When we say the latest time for handing in Powerpoint presentations so we can get them up on the seminar-room computer and checked out for the presentation is 4pm yesterday? We don't mean 12pm today! Fine, if your presentation explodes in your face and gets you fired? That's fine by me.

I want to get the Sanyo Xacti HD2000. I've had a couple of its predecessors but this one records 1080p Hi-Def video at 60fps and takes 8.2mp snapshots. It also has a slow-mo mode, a really good picture quality and an f-1.8 lens that would be excellent for dim hotel rooms and nightclubs without flash.

No Ballerinas on the lawn yesterday unfortunately. They did come in and I met one briefly but that's it. Maybe I could snaffle some images off of the CCTV (I love having full control of all the building security systems) but that might be considered naughty.

Ok so... I'm writing a Castle smutfic.

I like Castle and Smutfic just popped into my head. I haven't really written anything in a while.

Would anyone be interested in reading it or should I just file it under 'stuff I wrote'?

And no, it's not slash.

Or incest - get your minds out of the gutter!

It's been a pleasant Easter really...

It started with a trip to the dentist (Which I'd been fretting, I always fret about the D nowadays) that went absolutely fine. That segued into a brief shopping trip in town. The best sort of shopping trip, the sort where you spend virtually no money but still feel like you have and you have a big pile of stuff when you get home. I got everyone Cadbury's Cream Eggs for Easter. Who doesn't love them!?

I discovered that a little item I bought a week or two back had turned up... A little explanation here, I found Zombie Squad a while back. The group that tries to encourage disaster preparedness through the medium of Zombie movies. A massive resurgence of the Zombie flick in the 21st century has certainly provoked a love of the genre. Anyway, a popular topic on the ZS forums is tools for the Apocalypse, most of which end up being cheap swords and axes produced by the ton in China which aren't much good. Anyway, a group of bladesmiths in Missoula Montanna (We know that name, don't we Angel fans) started their own little business making weapons designed specifically for the Zombie Apocalypse. And they're good! Take a look if you don't believe me.

From a male, blade loving perspective? They're beautiful, functional and artistic. They were recently offering an unusual implement - a Mark 1.5 version of their Urban Bone Machete. Now all of their pieces are unique because of the artistic wax-and-acid-etch process they finish with. But this one stands out even more. Slightly differing in proportions to the rest of the line, they've created something more akin to a cutlass or short-sword than a machete. I'm going to assemble a Lexan or Acrylic display case for it and put it on show. You never know, it might be worth quite a bit in a few decades.

Oh! I discovered "Castle"! I like it! Nathan Fillion is always awesome and he's been given some truely great scripts in this crime drama. Then again, I think he could sell a sucky line just as well. I'm not so sure about the actress who plays the cop though. She pulls off the American Accent very well but I'm not sure I like her face. Still, I'll give her the benefit of the doubt and see how it goes. The young actress who plays his daughter is rather awesome. I hope she's in the show a lot.

I finally got Kismac to run properly with my GPS module on the ride into town on Saturday. The anti-sleep software I installed didn't do its job but all the rest rocked. I picked up several hundred wireless networks within just a few miles. Needs more cowbell.

Why oh why oh why can't I meet a girl like this:
That whole bedroom thing wouldn't have happened if you hadn't tried to explain Quantum Physics

Also, a little late but Rest in peace Andy Hallett. I'll sing a verse or two in your memory.

They said that this was the episode when Fox let go of the Dollhouse and let Joss do it his way.

I can believe it.

Up until now "Dollhouse" has been... Weak. Entertaining enough but it's been popcorn. Nothing to grab you. Even "Train Job" was better. Now? There's something there. I won't deny that at least one twist was predictable but then there's only so many ways to tell this story.

Let's see where it goes from here.

I've been hunting for a broken Griffin Amplifi on eBay for ages now. My actual Amplifi (Also bought on eBay, but fully working - it was just an ex-display model) is fantastic and I love it, but as most people know I like to modify stuff. The old system won't charge a 3G iPhone and I think I could correct that with a few components and a little bit of soldering. The downside is that the thing was put together with glue. It has no screws. That means I can't get the thing open to make the modifications. Well, since we've got the new workshop in usable shape now, I thought I might find a nice protect to try out in there.

Project Modifi!

The big problem is the glue. There's no way I was going to try forcing the original open and wrecking it, but this broken model (£21 including shipping) is fine. I'll take a chisel to the joints and I reckon it'll just split down the seam. Once I'm in, repairing the electronics should be simple and upgrading the power supply should be child's play. Then I just need to stick it back together and I have TWO amplifis. The new one can live in the workshop and that will let me have music while I work.

I may even record the project and put it on Instructables.com.

On a side note,  the weather here's been beautiful over the last few days. Sunny but not too hot. Not bad when you consider it's still officially winter!

"Maybe what you do is OK,
Maybe what you do is fine,
If you take what's yours,
I'll take what's mine,
Maybe we're all saints,
Born in the wrong time,
So let's be sinners instead,
Let's live our lives,
Give what you receive,
Live what you believe,
We'll be OK,
We'll be fine,
You'll see."
 - R.K Milholland

Oh BTW, the other day when I posted about the great weather? I walked back to work from Cambridge and happened to stop in along the way at the Haunted Bookshop. It's one of those little hole-in-the-wall places that is just stuffed with books in every nook and cranny. Literally you couldn't swing a cat in there. Hell, you could maybe fit four people in before it was full! It's a historical cambridge shop tucked away behind the arts theatre and I'd never been in before. I'll certainly go in again. I found a book I've been looking for for years, a nice 1924 edition of Rudyard Kipling's 'Departmental Ditties'. Maybe I'll pop in there again this week and see if they have 'Barrack-Room Ballards' too.

(It's odd to see the Swastika on the cover and know it has *nothing* to do with Germany, Hitler, anti-semitism or anything like that.)

Mum and Dad just headed out for the airport. Two weeks in Egypt. The first on a slow boat up the Nile and the second in Cairo and Luxor looking at Pyramids and the Sphinx. I couldn't sleep last night worrying about them going... Either that or I just couldn't sleep and that made me worry. Who t he hell knows.

Egypt. Not my first choice of a holiday destination. Too close to Gaza, primarily muslim with quite a degree of disrespect for women. Terrorism on the rise, Avian flu having claimed several lives in the last year, street crime rather higher than the UK...

Meh, they'll be OK. I'd prefer if they weren't big softies but then I'd have enjoyed the last 29 years less.

I'm curious. Does anyone else on my friendslist read the Season 8 of Buffy comics? They are, after all, canon.

I only ask because while the last month wasn't up to much (Harmony's great but she doesn't deserve her own comic), this month's is just t'riffic. In fact so was most of the first score of comics and the ongoing Dawn saga is both hillarious, poignant and jsut plain cool. I want to see where Joss is going with Xander and...

Dammit, if I can't have Buffy TV then Buffy the comic is a pretty good second place.

People may not understand but I grew up with Stephen Fry on the television. He did lots of comedy and other things and I think a lot of Brits would vote for him as Prime Minister if he ran. He's very well respected here, like David Attenborough or the Queen...

So when you look at his Twitter page and it has "w00t ! I haz wrapt, innit - goodbye Bones. I shall miss you all." It's like... A tremor in the force. Not necessarily in a bad way, just in a weird way.

The idea of Stephen Fry using the term "w00t !" is... Odd.

Imagine an elderly grandparent using the term Fo'shizzle and you get close.