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2,000 hamsters can't be wrong.

30 March 2009

More Synths, Please (and a Little Bit of Cowbell) 

Btw, did I link to Depeche's newest video? As a good, little fan, I have of course preordered the album.

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Posted by: Ingaroo / 16:42 

(3) confused specimen

I Take That Back... 

Re: my last post, and Erasure's dancing (well, Andy's dancing; Vince hasn't been dancing since pre-Depeche Mode, I think)...it didn't really improve over the years. I'm beginning to believe in the notion that white men can't dance. Not even flamboyant white men like Andy Bell. Ouch. (Yes, I've watched through most of the videos by now. Fun to see the changes over time. Excruciating to see the "special effects".)

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Posted by: Ingaroo / 15:58 

(1) confused specimen

OK...That's Just Wrong... 

Watching the DVD of the new Total! Pop thingie by Erasure, I noticed that they had had an appearance in 1987 on the Tom O'Connor Roadshow, which basically consisted of lots of elderly people in the audience. I know that this may not mean much; after all we all have different tastes and people can surprise you, but the probability of even 10% of those being the least bit interested in synthpop back in '87 is very low.

Luckily, Erasure could soon pick better gigs and dance moves. And I just discovered that even though I wasn't a fan from the very beginning (due to being too young and too non-UK-based, really), I have been a fan of them for 17 of their 24 years of existence, so I don't feel too bad about it. Also considering I genuinely own most of their back catalogue, including quite a few rare promos (one being a Japanese one I happened upon in a second-hand shop in Oslo back in the late nineties) and I actually listen to all of their remixes etc., I think I could call myself a proper fan by now (I am going to continue ignoring the fact that I have yet to see them live).

This morning I spotted the cover headline in the Metro saying "Soldiers in £250K MOT pay shambles". I thought this was rather weird; had they been fiddling with MOT papers or something? I thought perhaps they had been forging papers for their tanks or something. I then realised it said "MoD" (Ministry of Defence), not "MOT" (the Ministry of Transport's roadworthiness test for vehicles). I think my recent surge of interest in classic cars has coloured my ARS (Acronym Recognition Sense) (ok, so neither MoD nor MOT is technically an acronym, but "ARS" is funny).

I have to say the guys behind the Red Dwarf marketing are working overtime these days! There are lots of online virals and hidden extras lurking, and they even update these daily! Amazing. Of course, my head will implode soon if this keeps up. Only 11 days to go! (Start here if you're interested.)


The boys from the Dwarf urge you to click on that link!

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Posted by: Ingaroo / 11:43 

(1) confused specimen

28 March 2009

Is it Spring? Not Yet! 

This weather just cannot make up its mind. It's supposed to be spring, I think, but it's very cold and windy out. That magnificent-looking sun is just a red herring, believe me!

Well, I have the whole weekend off for once, and am going to enjoy myself (trying to steer clear of Red Dwarf for at least two days (happy b, btw, Chris)) - hopefully with a nice book and perhaps a few hours of playing Empire: Total War. Well, it's the thought that counts, I hear.

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Posted by: Ingaroo / 15:43 

(1) confused specimen

27 March 2009

Scandie London! 

We discovered a "new" Scandinavian place in London the other day and simply had to go there today, on my day off. They have a restaurant and grocery's in the same place, which is perfect.

On our way there, we spotted Sue Johnston, from The Royle Family and Waking the Dead, all depending on which series you value the most...well, to be honest, she's in both series no matter what you think.



My Chris Barrie obsession (there you have it, in print, finally, seriously undermining my gayness) is blooming, and I think I may already own just about everything he's ever appeared in (it helped that I already owned The Blackadder Collection, The New Statesman and Filthy, Rich and Catflap, being a fan of Rik Mayall's after all (11 years and still going reasonably strong, although I wasn't too keen about the Dangerous Brothers sequences during Saturday Live). OK, so I haven't got around to Spitting Image just yet (would any Norwegian slightly older than myself please confirm that this series was shown on Norwegian/Swedish telly at any point during the eighties, otherwise I would have to admit to the fact that I was hooked on British comedy before I remember having been introduced to it properly - I do remember, for instance, watching several series of The Brittas Empire (NRK being a BBC prostitute), but I'm not sure I remember Spitting Image merely from the Royal Variety Performance or The Secret Policemen's Biggest Ball (I am too drunk and lazy to look up if they were even present in the Biggest Ball Amnesty fest))?).

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Posted by: Ingaroo / 20:21 

(0) confused specimen

22 March 2009

House in Kent, Flat in London, a Couple of Classic Cars and a Private Plane 

...I don't ask for much, do I? I guess I'd have to win a bit more than yesterday's whopping two pounds on the Dream Number, but it's a start, isn't it? Also, I would need a driving licence and a private pilot's licence, but it'd be worth it, I'm sure! I've even picked out a couple of places in Kent where it looks nice. So do the prices! Not.

I think I may be a bit unhappy with being stuck in a rut, so I tend to dream about a better future, but I think perhaps it would need at least a minimum of effort on my part to actually get there, so fat chance that's ever going to happen!

In other news I have spent the last two weeks doing nothing but work, sleep, eat and watch Red Dwarf, The Brittas Empire, Tomb Raider (I fast-forwarded through the sequel and managed to cut the viewing time down to a nice twenty minutes or so), Petrolheads and Massive Engines--and yes, there is a link there--and now I'm just...tired. I actually didn't play MadWorld (commentaries by Greg Proops) until the day after I got the game, that's how obsessed I've been with other things lately. My inner geek...uhmm, what am I saying; I don't have an inner geek; it's all ME! Anyway; I am embracing my geekdom.

Ooh, and we went to see Phil Nichol on stage on Wednesday. He was slightly more bearded and spitting than I had expected, but also very funny (and for any fans who weren't there: Yes, he did sing "The Only Gay Eskimo"). I was worried he would drag people up on stage, as we were sitting in the front row, but luckily he didn't deem me to be stage material. A guy called Mike got the dubious honour instead. Phew! Must remember not to book tickets that close to the performers in future. Much due to the increased risk of being spat at.

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Posted by: Ingaroo / 17:10 

(2) confused specimen

21 March 2009

Yes, please! 


Jaguar XJ6 4.2L


Jaguar E-Type


Jensen Interceptor Mk III

Or how about:


Jensen Interceptor convertible

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...although my conscience tells me "NOOOOOO!" because of the environment, and my common sense tells me "NOOOOOO!" because I actually have neither the money nor the licence! But a girl can dream...

This is also the first time EVER that I have tagged an entry with "cars". I'm moving to motorcycles next, and then: Helicopters!

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Posted by: Ingaroo / 16:17 

(4) confused specimen

17 March 2009

The Beeb Do it Again 

Wow, that new Yellowstone series looks good, doesn't it? It's more like art than a nature programme. Must be excellent viewing in HD (we only have Freeview, which looks good in itself). Highly recommended!

I'm being anal retentive again, and am linking one box set to another via cast members. It's actually just an excuse to be able to see all those comedy shows I've been longing to watch (again) for a long time but haven't quite got round to. So after the last two weeks' insane hyper-devouring of Red Dwarf, I started watching The Brittas Empire during the weekend (link: Chris Barrie), then I'll start watching

Green Wing (link: Pippa Haywood),
and then Black Books (link: Tamsin Greig),
How Do You Want Me (link: Dylan Moran),
Big Train (link: Mark Heap),
Spaced (link: Simon Pegg)
and Hippies (link: Peter Serafinowicz).

From there I want to venture into the world of film by linking Julian Rhind-Tutt to Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, where we can actually link back to Red Dwarf again via Chris Barrie. Hooray. I need a lie-down.

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Posted by: Ingaroo / 09:53 

(0) confused specimen

16 March 2009

Hmmmmmm... *grey matter boiling* 

Gordon Wellesley Brittas and Arnold Judas Rimmer both killed people on their first (and only) day working as a volunteer for the Samaritans. Coincidence? I think not.


Gordon W. Brittas.


Arnold J. Rimmer.

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Posted by: Ingaroo / 15:48 

(0) confused specimen

15 March 2009

Why? 

Just...why?

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Posted by: Ingaroo / 19:09 

(0) confused specimen

14 March 2009

Best Mamma Mia Ever! 

Last night's final, final sketch from French & Saunders ever (until someone manages to lure them out again, I suppose) was the definite version of the Mamma Mia! film. I was almost falling off the sofa laughing when "Pierce Brosnan" (Philip Glenister) did his big number. Excellent singing! And the fact that the part of "the Swede" was played by...a swede! I do believe Stellan Skarsgård is a better actor than any swede, though. Ooh, and Joanna Lumley playing..."Patsy". LOL!

I am in major Red Dwarf overload mode these days. It's basically all I watch, think about and even dream about. Thankfully I don't have to wait 21 years for the whole thing to finish, like many of the first, most hard-core fans have. The Back to Earth trilogy starts on Dave on the 10th of April and is released on a feature-packed DVD a few months later. I have to say that the Red Dwarf DVDs are exceptional. They're filled to the brim with PROPER bonus material (not just "animated menus" and trailers for other shows), and I have been watching EVERYTHING (which takes about three to four hours per series). Once I'm done with series eight I'll probably start watching it from the beginning with commentaries (proper commentaries from all of the actors, not just some obscure script editor who had nothing better to do). Maybe I should get a tattoo; either "Ace Rimmer - what a guy!" or just simply an image of Mr. Flibble.



Someone needs a break...

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Posted by: Ingaroo / 09:48 

(0) confused specimen

04 March 2009

Empire's Here! 

Empire: Total War came in the post yesterday (together with a parcel from Amazon I had my flatmate to open in case it was something I hadn't ordered, and it was, so I'll open it on my birthday on Saturday), and I was filled with glee. Unfortunately I was told as I was at work, early in the morning, so I spent the day looking forward to getting back home (more than usual, I mean :p).

A word of warning, if anyone googles "Empire: Total War" and "install" and other nifty words like that and browses through to page 6507* of the search results and decides to give this blog a visit: This does require a Steam account. And an internet connection on the computer you're installing to. And some degree of patience.

For all non-users of Steam: First of all, install it to the hard drive where you keep your games, because apparently there is no way to get it to install downloaded games etc. to a different location to where it itself is situated. Secondly, once you have started the installation, opened an account and can see the Steam main window where it is frantically trying to get in touch with the Steam server to start downloading, EXIT the program and then restart it by using cmd, typing in "steam -install e:" (where "e:" is the letter of the DVD drive where you keep the Empire DVD). It will then install from the two DVDs you got. Otherwise it will download the whole thing, which could take ages as it's 15GB in size.

The game itself looks awesome (a word I seldom utilise). I only got to play through the two tutorials (one for land battles and one for naval battles), then started a new a game and basically stared at the screen for about 45 minutes, reading up on all the different possibilities and moving only two agents and one fleet during that time. I didn't even end the turn before saving and going to bed. It's that massive. (Of course, one turn won't take 45 minutes from here on in, I hope, haha!) I thought Medieval II: Total War was huge, and this is even bigger. I am salivating just thinking about it (and because lunch is approaching).

If you don't believe me, here are a couple of screenshots to gaze at longingly.

*) Actual page number not available at time of publishing.

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Posted by: Ingaroo / 10:58 

(0) confused specimen

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