Happy Birthday Nathon Fillion

Happy Birthday Nathon, 36 today. And because one picture is never enough...

You will always be the Captain. Stay shiny.

Happy First Birthday Mango & Tottie

Happy Birthday Mango and Tottie. 1 today. Hope you have a good one.

Book pledge: 23/150

Happy Birthday Angel

Today would have been dear Angel's 18th birthday, were she still with us. I hope she is running joyfully through the fields of heaven, with Muffin, Cino, Sheba and dozens of cats in tow.

Superscan Trek

Shopping, the final frontier. These are the voyages of the trolley, Murphy, and its weekly mission to shop where no one has shopped before (cue music)

Superquinn in Dundalk has introduced Superscan, the new way to shop. You scan your reward card as you enter and you receive a scanner (similar to that pictured above) to scan your items as you do you shop. You pack your goods as you go around the aisles and then hand in the scanner at a special till, pay and go. It is quick, simple and FUN!

Yes, I said FUN. Shopping is finally fun. The scanner reminds me of the tricorder from Star trek, and it is so cool scanning all the bar codes as you go around, looking at the price of each item and how much your total is as you shop. I know that the novelty will wear off eventually, but for the moment I am Mr Spock (a short, chubby, female human Mr Spock, I admit) to my mother's Captain Kirk. :D

The 50 Greatest TV Dramas - according to C4

I caught a bit of this on Saturday night, but I was too tired to watch more than a few minutes. However, my interest was piqued by the fact that I had seen a clip from The Prisoner on the ads for the programme and I wanted to know where it placed. I was sure that Channel Four would put the list on their website, as they have with other similar minded shows, but they haven't as of yet. However, I have found the list (posted by some kind mortal on their blog, and from there to a forum) and I discovered that

a) The Prisoner ranked #38

b) Doctor Who ranked #26

c) The Sopranos ranked #1

The thing about the list is, I wonder what they define as a drama. It had things like Hill Street Blues, and The Sopranos, yet was predominately British. It had Pride and Prejudice, Z Cars, Roots, Band of Brothers, Bleak House, Shameless - rather an eclectic mix for dramas, don't you think? And where are The X Files? Also, I think both The Prisoner and Doctor Who should have ranked MUCH HIGHER than they did.

Book Pledge: 20/150

Sunday night movies

I was watching Channel 4's Sunday night movie double bill last night. First there was I, Robot with Will Smith, based on a short story by Isaac Asimov.

I saw this movie in 2004 when it came out and I enjoyed it, but I never really thought about watching it again and I only took the time to catch it on the telly because the robot, Sonny, is voiced by Alan Tudyk (Wash from Firefly and Serenity). In 2004 I didn't even know who Wash was! Imagine. I watched the movie again primarily to listen to Sonny's voice (and all I had to do was close my eyes and I saw Wash) but I got engrossed in the movie and really really enjoyed it. I would watch it again without hesitation. It has a good (although simple) story, good special effects and likable characters portrayed by competent actors. Definitely better than other Asimov adaptations (Bicentennial Man anyone? Shudder). Why is it that Philip K Dick (whose books I find difficult to read) makes such great movies (Bladerunner, Screamers) and Asimov (whose books and stories I love) makes such so-so movies?

Anyway, the second movie was 1995's Johnny Mnemonic with Keanu Reeves.

I remember watching this movie at the time and hating it, but I thought I would give it a go as a nostalgia trip. I couldn't believe how BAD it was! It was only made 11 years ago, but it is so creaky and dated, the quality of the film looks like it is twice as old. Keanu Reeves - a good looking guy with VERY limited acting skills - is SO BAD as the title character that I don't know how he got away with it. His delivery of hackneyed, corny lines is so inappropriate and devoid of modulation that it is hilarious. For anyone who doesn't know the plot, he is a data courier who uses his brain to smuggle downloaded secrets. His normal capacity is 80GB (which doesn't seem all that great) but he doubles his capacity to 160GB. I chuckled my way through the cardboard rubbish of the first ten minutes or so, but then I turned it off because it totally lost my interest.

In conclusion, two very different science fiction movies, with almost ten years between them:- one movie is good, engaging, entertaining and captivating, the other so bad it deserves to be sent into the dark dungeon where stinkers are left to disappear into oblivion.