A New Home, Kind of

Hello, hello. Just wanted to quickly let you know that if you follow this blogs RSS feeds or with Google Reader or anything, as well as just visiting whenever I suppose as people do, make sure you change your feeds to ‘http://www.toata.co.uk’ as I’m now enjoying the world of self hosting freedom rather than updating through WordPress’ domain and website. Woohoo!!

Everything will carry on as normal, just make sure now you visit http://www.toata.co.uk instead of here as that’s where everything will be and has everything archived so far from images to comments to everything. The WordPress url will forever stay with this post.

Easy peasy! You won’t even notice the change!

#182; Doctor Who Watch – The Impossible Astronaut

Finally, Doctor Who is back. After the months of silence following the Christmas episode minus a quick pop in for Comic Relief, we’re back with a new series and it was quite a way to kick things off with almost instantly the death of the Doctor it seems. Uhh, ok then. But this was what kicked off an admittedly confusing episode upon the initial watch as I got very overwhelmed by trying to work out what the hell was actually going on, but on second watch with a clearer mind and just having more time to observe the episode it was actually quite the episode to kick off the new series of Doctor Who.

First off, this was not your usual happy go lucky introduction to the new series whatsoever, if anything it was the polar opposite. The story was quite dark in it’s nature, almost political in it’s use of Richard Nixon’s infamous phone tapping ways of the past and harking back to that revolutionary time of man reaching the moon in 1969 but it was a pretty unique way for Doctor Who to return to say the least. The Doctor seems to have gotten a bit more mature in his ways too, not so clumsy or silly in his ways or so he seemed but more thoughtful, aged, almost as if he was a young man again reaching manhood and growing up. You can make your mind up whether or not this related to just the Doctor or Matt Smith as the Doctor…

Although it took me two watches to properly get my head around it all though it was nice to have a complex story with no festivities or charity silliness getting in the way but instead intrigue, mystery, suspense and of course that always present confusion. The initial negative confusion was replaced by good confusion though – who was that spaceman? (Later answered, or so we think…) Why was the little girl in a derelict building like that? Why was she in the space suit at the end? What’s with Amy’s pregnancy? How relevant will it be to the story arc? Finally, the biggest question for me coming out of this episode – What are the Silence going to do with the Doctor?

Is he smiling? I think he's smiling.

God, how creepy are the Silence? The concept alone of a monster who you simply forget about as you stare away from their presence is a pretty creepy enough idea but it seems Mr Moffat has found his new ‘Weeping Angels’. Quite right too, these bad boys freaked me out big time just as the Angels did on their original debut! It’s nice to have a new enemy of the Doctor too to observe and try to understand but I am happy to stand away from these guys as far away as possible. Furthermore, in terms of understanding things in the show, River Song returning added more wonder to her role within the Doctor’s life as well as her ever-seemingly-wife relationship that is still shrounded in mystery continues to be played upon and hinted at. We’ll know soon enough, I’m sure, but part of me does think they could have her popping up less and just added more to the suspense. At one point we had 4 companions in the TARDIS and it kind of felt like overkill, you know? I’m not totally over the idea of Rory, Amy and River accompanying the Doctor but we’ll see how it plays out.

As a story though it was what Moffat tends to do best – just totally twist things up as much as possible but explain it progressively so it starts to open up and make sense. This is only Part 1 and there’s so much more to answer as I mentioned earlier in this post so whilst I’m still kind of surprised at how dark of an opening episode it was, watching it again gave me a far greater appreciation of how good it was and how much we have to look forward to in this series.

Pros:
+ Exciting, shocking, gripping, you name it!
+ Doctor Who is back, isn’t that enough?!
+ Some fab little one liners that kept coming out from various characters
+ The Silence are bloody scary
+ Mr Moffat knows how to perfectly mess with our minds 

Cons:
-…The Silence are bloody scary!
- Storyline was pretty confusing at times but eventually started to even out
- Matt Smith seemed less… Matt Smith-y 

#181; The Real Way to play Guitar Hero

Rush are a great band. Guitar Hero has had some great games. YYZ is an absolutely epic song by Rush, and when combined with Guitar Hero, it can cause much fun. But there’s a video I wanted to share with you that I feel is the absolute correct way to play, nay, perform YYZ whether you be on a game, at a karaoke or even if you’re Geddy Lee on stage at a Rush gig.

If we ever see a sequel to I Love You, Man, Paul Rudd and Jason Segel absolutely need to have a bit of the film referencing this absolutely hilarious performance of YYZ on Guitar Hero. Part of me even wonders if the guitar will ever be necessary again whenever I hear YYZ after seeing this.

Enjoy…

#180; Twenty Twelve’s Great Surprise

The main Twenty Twelve cast, who are most awesome.

Mock-umentary’s seem to have an easy ability to win me over. One of my favourite things is of course one of the most famous examples of this genre, This is Spinal Tap, and when I heard about Twenty Twelve on BBC4 it sounded quite interesting so I thought I’d give it a go. This was very much one of those accidentally stumble across it on the iPlayer type of situations and just giving it a random go and I’m very much pleased that I did, as it turned out to be a fabulous little series and one I very much enjoyed watching getting better as it went on.

The whole idea behind the show was watching the ‘Olympic Deliverance Committee’ prepare for the London 2012 Olympics, dealing with constant problems, delays, and meetings going nowhere that are so utterly British about how we prepare for things. What I enjoyed the most about the show I think was how subtle it was in how it created it’s comedy – the constant use of bullshit-speak you see from politicians and important people refusing to give a clear answer, Jessica Hynes absolutely hilarious role as the ‘Head of Brand’ PR person stealing pretty much any scene she took part in, and I think in general how much it showed Britain can just laugh at itself even as we prepare for this huge Olympic event. The show just absolutely ozzed everything that makes British humour so special and unique I thought and all for the better too.

I’ve already mentioned Jessica Hynes as the ignorant, image obsessed PR part of the team but it was her fantastic scene stealing ability as well as Hugh Bonneville’s role as the leader of the team that were the definite highlights constantly. Bonneville played Ian Fletcher, and his role of head of the Olympic Deliverance Committee saw him dealing with constant problems within the committee and preparations, whilst seemingly never actually answering questions from the camera despite constantly being asked. The two were the stand out characters of the show and Hynes in particular makes the show worth watching just for her hilarious ignorance. There were also cameos from the likes of Sebastien Coe who so famously has constantly been spreading the message of London 2012 and it was this kind of stuff that made it even more appealing, this ability even for the people actually preparing for the games to just poke a bit of fun at themselves.

The true Olympic Clock. Much better than the real one.

Obviously the show is quite a topical subject with London 2012 approaching so quickly (just over a year away now, bloody hell!) and with the subject constantly such a talked about area of the future of our country and our preparations for the games it just kind of made me think how bad we can be with these things. It’s not just a British thing I suppose, other countries have had plenty of delays in the past, but it just kind of made me laugh how many little things make it so brilliant to be British sometimes. The clock scene as depicted above in the photo saw the team bringing together the idea of a clock that doesn’t count down to London 2012 but also does count down to it (you’d have to see it to understand!) but of course instantly broke down as they launched it. What happened a few days after the broadcast of this episode? The actual Olympic clock broke down in real life. Love it!

Although the series has finished now (again, we go back to the whole issue of British TV shows only seemingly having 6 episodes a series – why?!) there’s already been an announcement of a second series which is fabulous news and news I’m well pleased with. It seemed to do quite well on BBC4 which pleases me, so bring on the second series. As far as I know the series is still available on the iPlayer and it’s worth a watch I reckon just to have a chance to sit back and have a laugh at ourselves for how melodramatic and brilliantly useless us British can be sometimes.

#179; Little Things

Isn’t it funny how the littlest things can have the biggest meaning or consequence to them? Today I’ve just been thinking of the little things that make me happy and get me through the day, or just little things that perhaps say a lot about me and who I am. Anyways, feel free to blog yourself what little things that really do matter to you because everyone’s different and I suppose some people may not get just how much power the smallest thing can have.

• The cold side of a pillow is always the best. When you’re laying in bed and getting comfy, the cold side brings a whole new world of comfort!
• A glass of orange juice can cure all ills, I swear. Just a few sips of that glorious liquid can do a world of good.
• Worrying only causes annoyances. Why worry about something you can’t change? Something I am constantly learning and feeling much happier knowing.
• Red apples are the king of apples. Green apples you are nice and I will eat you but red ones, you have a first class ticket to my belly.
• Tuning a radio then finding the perfect frequency with no crackles deserves a self high five.
• Just smiling can make a day miles better. Sometimes that’s all you can do and it makes things so much more tolerable!
• Even in a bad mood, saying ‘thank you’ always helps.
• There is quite frankly absolutely nothing like staring into the eyes of someone you love.
• Skipping off an escalator is always necessary. You never know when they could suck you up like a vacuum.
• See the above, but with trains too. Although that’s just because it’s fun!
• Always make sure when going for a bath or shower, if wearing a towel around your waist, that you’ve actually tied it tightly.
• Beating someone on FIFA and getting ridiculously competitive is absolutely necessary. It’s the only way to play FIFA.
• There is something about blue skies and sunshine that makes everyone relax more. Quite rightly, too!
• I don’t care if it’s in the dictionary, I’ve never heard of that word and you can’t use it in this game of Scrabble.
• There’s no point in saying I won’t drink much on my birthday. It never happens.
• It’s compulsory to know the Arthur the Aardvark theme tune, and it will always result in being sang when brought up.
• If it’s possible to have a man crush it’s definitely possible to have a sportcrush. It’s not my fault F1 is that awesome.
• Saying goodbye never gets any easier.
• Why is that guy always following me when I look at shop windows?
• Saturday Mornings were made for SMTV and Live and Kicking no matter what today’s listens say.
• No matter how long food takes at a restaurant it’s always worth it when it finally arrives.
• There is something oddly therapeutic about twirling my hair when reading stuff on my laptop.
• The sound of snooker or pool balls hitting each other is brilliant. Every single damn time.
• It can be so tense when pouring a fizzy drink but how amazing is it when it *just* reaches the top then goes back down? Achievement unlocked!
• Oh, the combined sight and noise of Achievements being unlocked on the Xbox is also amazing. BLIP!
• Wearing new socks for the first time. So satisfying. And very soft!
• There’s always a shiver up my spine from the sound of hearing someone else’s heartbeat.
• The awkwardness of working a 9 hour shift and then realising your fly was open never changes.
• Opening a new gadget, whether it be something big, small, new or old, is absolutely amazing. Just exploring them, feeling them, staring at them in awe.

These are just some of my little things, most good, some not so good, but all little parts of life that all come together for me for a whole range of emotions. Maybe I’ll do a follow up with more some time but for now I thought I’d share what I could think of that make my little life special to me!