“Disappearing into his clothes, hands buried in his pockets, greeting the world with glumness, he also captures a generation.”
John Marriott, AOL Film Critic on Eminem in 8 Mile.

That works really well. More in a bit.

Look…if you had…one shot…or one opportunity
To seize everything you ever wanted…one moment
Would you capture it…or just let it slip? (yo)

You better lose yourself in the music, the moment
You own it, you better never let it go (go)
You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to blow
This opportunity comes once in a lifetime (yo)
You better lose yourself in the music, the moment
You own it, you better never let it go (go)
You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to blow
This opportunity comes once in a lifetime (yo), (you better…)

From Lose Yourself by Enimem.

I’m feeling tired. I didn’t get to bed until just after 2 last night. I wanted to finish Good Omens and so I did. Started off on Laurell K. Hamilton’s Anita Blake series this morning so heads up in a few days time for postings about how shit the series gets.

Todays soundtrack so far has been Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon and JJ72’s I to Sky. Tonight if all is well I shall be watching new Angel and 24 and then perhaps read for a bit.

Text speak is NOT, repeat NOT an acceptable form of communication

Whats in a name?

As some people take great joy in pointing out my name is officially David. Its not really tho, I think both my grandmothers are the only people who call me that all the time. Other than that I don’t answer to it, I don’t usually notice. I’ve gone by Dave for as long as I can remember. Most David’s I know prefer Dave, in fact I only know one that prefers David.

Anyway I don’t know why, but my name is Dave and that’s pretty much that. Well, except for my immediate family. There is a shorthand we use mainly while talking in im or email, my sister Katie is ‘KT’, my sister Mairead is ‘MD’ and I’m just plain old ‘D’. But a while ago…and don’t ask me when we got into the habit of calling each other that. Pretty straight forward for Kate, just pronounce the ‘K’ and the ‘T’ heavier than normal and while it still sounds just like her name, you can tell the difference. ‘MD’ is just that pronounce the ‘M’ and the ‘D’. And for me, its just ‘D’.

This leads to another point and I do remember one friend asking me why in the fuck I did it as my name was short enough already. I tend to sign my emails (work and play), my message boards and various other things with a simple ‘d’. I’ve been doing it for a few years now but over the past year anyway its been that and nothing else. I guess I got into the habit when I had a standard signature going for work. It was something that had to be done and I never felt that anything I sent was finished and ready until I had signed it. This lead to the case being quite often that my pre-set signature began with:

Regards
Dave

and two lines above it would either be exactly the same thing I had just typed out. Or ‘cheers’ or ‘thanks’ instead of the ‘regards’. It was kinda silly and I’ve gotten rid of the that part of my sig. But anyway its now more than a habit, it is just what I do. I’ll sign whatever I’m doing with a ‘d’ or in many cases IE will autofill it for me.

And yes in lowercase. Again don’t ask me why. I guess it is just because I like the look of the letter (shrug), when I’m actually using a pen (or pencil which I prefer) the ‘D’ in Dave comes out as a joint lettering ‘d’ even tho I tend to write in a mixture of joint and print. It does have a couple of loops on it and will flow into the ‘B’ my initials pretty easily. On that note, it is worth pointing out my handwriting is shit and no-one can read it. The signature on the back of my plastic is a joke, none of them really look the same and despite efforts I have never really developed a signature. I’m sure some of my letters come across the same and an expert could easily tell but…

So um yeah that was a little more than I intended but I just sent an email to a friend. I had written it out and then decided I would in fact give her a call instead. I saved it into my drafts folder and rang. She wasn’t answering. So I went back to add a note to the top of the email to state I had rung, etc. and that the email was below and then despite having lines of text below I signed it ‘d’. I did delete it but it felt unfinished.

In the late 90’s British Telecom had a quite long runnind ad campaign staring Bob Hoskins. The tagline to go with it was “It’s good to talk”. Walking towards my bus stop this evening, the line hit home. It really is at times. Not something I would normally expect to come up with or realise myself, but today I just did.

Some things are going really badly in work at the moment and are driving me mad. When it all boils down to it, I guess it isn’t anything major but I’ve had a forced changeover of a technology and quite simply what I have to use just does not cut it. It’s really fucking pissing me off and I’m getting more and more frustrated by it and thats probably more than enough of that. Its just shit ya know, everything is set up and it works and you can work with it and then all of a sudden BOOM. Shit.

This week is kinda quiet. Nothing really planned until the weekend, then its shopping and a birthday party I believe.

The whole ‘mutual friends’ and ‘6 degress of seperation’ are all over the place now. I wonder are there some strange rays hitting the earth this week. It would explain some things. Oh on that note, the screen was locked this morning.

Why do we keep secrets? Just a note before I go on, the new title is unreleated to this. It is a coincidence. When I was reading about the Poe Toaster (see previous post), it was listed as a quote from Edgar Allen Poe and I liked it. Anyway why do we keep secrets? Isn’t it a good feeling to finally be able to let go of something and not have to bottle it up anymore?

8 Mile and some general stuff.

So I met up with Nick as planned to find that the showing was sold out and the next one was not for another few hours. Grabbed some ‘food’ in McDonalds and headed to The Elbow Room for some pool where I played possibly the worst few rounds I have ever done. So pool and beers and then on to the movie.

8 Mile. Not bad. The best bits are of course in the trailers but the movie stands up pretty well. Not surprisingly backed up by a decent soundtrack and possibly surprisingly backed up by some decent acting. Ok maybe not hard to do in what is afterall loosely the story of your life, but still not bad at all. There is a comment in an IMDB review that whatever you think of Enimen in the last five minutes when he is on stage he is in his domain and he rules it. That is very true in parts of the movie and I think that helps to bolster his performance.

Long before LOTR, Peter Jackson make Heavenly Creatures. A lot of the same crew as LOTR including the writing team and the beeb are showing it now. So I’m checking it out.

Joel Schumacher is to direct an adaption of Jack Kerouac‘s On the Road. Francis Ford Coppola is onboard to produce it, I shall certainly be interested in seeing how this one turns out. I have reservations about Schumacher but nevertheless, something to keep an eye out for. (via Boing Boing)

It seems that boasting about being a drugs dealer on Friends Reunited is not the smartest thing to do.

Ralph Steadman, longtime Hunter S. Thompson collaborator has his own blog and the first posting has just kicked off. Added bonus is it’s illustrated.

Something strange the past couple of days. I’ve slept a lot less than I have been doing, I wonder how that shall go on. I suppose we shall just have to see if I make it into work on time in the morning! I wonder what strange dreams await tonight.

I’m re-reading Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. I’ve never really liked Pratchett. He seems to be on of those love or hate writers and well I hate him. Admitidly it has been years since I tried one of his books but I don’t intend to try again. Gaiman on the other hand I really like. The book is not bad at all, in places side-acheingly funny.

I’m going to see 8 Mile later tonight. I’m quite looking forward to it now. I could be really good. If it is anything like the trailers I am going to enjoy it a hell of a lot.

I had some very strange dreams last night but very vivid at the same time. It was quite strange but in a good way I think.

I found the missing connection for my camera so I really must start carrying it with me and taking photos. I need some gallery software at home, gonna hassle Iain about that during the week. The one he uses seems to be pretty good. All I need now are some batteries and I’ll have camera and discman working together and can get back into it…well nevermind the back part, can actually get into it.

I have a busy few weeks coming up. There is stuff on at least once if not twice a week for the next 6 weeks and not just the pre-planned now stuff. A few good gigs, a couple of parties and some nights out playing pool and a couple of other bits and pieces. Man I’m glad I have already payed for the gigs, this is a damn expensive month otherwise…not that it won’t be anyway.

I have 10 times the amount of beer in my place now than I did 6 hours ago and the party is over. I’m sure that is not right.

I think I want to go to bed right now. I will be warm, I will be comfortable and I guess I shall be happy. (EDIT: Don’t read this literally, words failed me and I did not manage to convey my meaning). It really would be nice to have those switches used in expressions in my brain. So I could just flip a switch and things would change.

I’m too tired to think right now. I want to and I want to share those thoughts but I don’t think I’m able to right now. Feb. 15 is going into my diary (well my work meeting schedule which I use increasingly to keep track of my own stuff) and I shall rail on about that at some stage.

I need to watch the rest of Amelie, perhaps tomorrow after I clean up the after effects of the party.

I finished The Great Shark Hunt earlier today. I want more, I shall have to look into getting some more books. I get paid Friday so books and comics next weekend sounds like a plan.

You know, were it on paper I would not read half the stuff I read online. Where it on screen I would not read half the stuff I read on paper. Isn’t that a funny thought?

Whilst I was at the shop getting some stuff in, I ran into an old friend. I had considered inviting him to the party but had decided in the end possibly best not too. Anyway we got to talking and ends up he is not only going to come along tonight he came back from the shop with me. Ladies and Gentlemen, you cannot have a party without my good friend and your good friend Mr. Jack.

Got a 6 pack of beer, a couple of botttles, 3 litre bottles of stella, half a litre of vodka (Irish vodka), a litre of Baileys and a half litre of JD. So added to that the beer and spirits everyone is bringing I can forsee tomorrow morning and more than likely after noon just not happening.

Ah well. The tvs and consoles are set up. I have to bring down a couple more chairs and thats pretty much it. (Oh and a little cleaning).

So far so good, the cleaning is going pretty well. Just got to sort out a few more bits, no more than an hour I reckon and then get some beer etc to add to the collection in the kitchen.

Hint of the day. When you send someone an im and you keep typing at them. Ensure that they are in fact just away from their computer and have not in fact forgotten to sign off when they left work and won’t get your message for four days or so. Oops, I hope that screen is locked.