Toy Story 3

Yesterday we went to see Toy Story 3, in 3D.

And it was pretty good. I’m not a hardcore fan of the Toy Story movies, never have been – for one major thing, Tom Hanks’ voice just grates on me as being a whiny pain-in-the-ass, and that always detracts from a film. Ah well.

But it’s a good film – Pixar are stunning at telling the story, and the 3D works really nicely. I prefer 3D when it’s a subtle thing, when you only realise afterwards the sheer depth of some of the scenes, rather than the standard “Woooah, look, it’s 3D! Stuff’s coming out of the screen at you!” type thing.

For example, the credits – they’re all done in 3D, with the role ‘further back’ than the name of the person doing the job. It’s beautifully done. The same applies throughout the film – Herself was unimpressed with the 3D, expecting more “coming out of the screen” stuff, until we talked about it, and realised just how much of the depth was just assumed, taken for granted, and not done as a gimmick.

Personally, I wouldn’t go and see it again, which I suppose is always my benchmark – do I want to go and see the bits I missed, or just enjoy the film again? In the case of Toy Story 3, it’s a good film, but not one I’d repeat.

Up On The Roof

Not a great photo – the iPhone was the only camera I had with me – but I saw this and it amused me.

Duck on the roof of a house in the village

Yep, a duck sat on the roof ridge of one of the houses in the village.

Made me chuckle, anyway.

I Am Such A Tit

Yesterday I saw that one of my favourite authors, John Connolly is doing some book readings/signings in the UK in May in support of his new novel, “The Whisperers“.  The nearest event to me was in Bishop’s Stortford on Thursday May 13th.

By a happy coincidence, Alabama 3 are playing a gig in Norwich also on May 13th, so I thought I’d get a ticket to that as well.

Coming in to work this morning I’ve planned to book the entire day off, which’ll make it a good day out all told.

Except I can’t book it. Because I’m on  holiday that week already. In Malvern.

Arseing cock.

Potential Downtime

At some point over the next week, D4D is going to be offline for a while.

I’ve had an email from my hosting company, and they’re going to be moving my account over from the current server to a new one.

With luck it’ll all run smoothly and with no hassles at all. But it might be that things go tits up for a while ’til I fix them.

We’ll see.

Due Care and Attention

The A11, one of the main Norfolk roads near us, was closed for about four hours today. Fortunately neither of us were affected by it this time.

The accident was noteworthy for the sheer gobsmacking stupidity of it – a police car had stopped on the A11 to warn other drivers about a broken-down car a bit further on. Another car carrying five people ploughed into the police car, injuring the policeman as well as the five people in the second car.

Now seriously, how the hell do you manage to not see a police car – with, one assumes, lights flashing to warn other drivers – at that kind of speed? That sounds like they weren’t even braking at the time – or at least not with enough effort/time.  After all, if they’d had time, they’d have been slowing down even if the outside lane were solid traffic, and would be at a stop before they get to the police car.

Really the mind boggles about how an accident like this can happen. It certainly sounds like a case of “driving without due care and attention”, rather than just a run-of-the-mill accident.

Scary stuff, knowing there’s twerds like that on the roads.

Fixed It

One of my guilty pleasures this year has been the site There, I Fixed It, which showcases some of the most awesome bodges and hacks around.

It’s also a spectacular showcase of the inventiveness (if occasional stupidity/weirdness) that people exhibit towards fixing problems.