Read my Red Dwarf V DVD review here.

Alternatively, here’s the short version:

“It’s mega. Buy it.”

I was going to do something a bit daring at 8:30 PM last night, but I ended up going to the pub where I wouldn’t have been able to give it my full attention. Still, I did give it a go in bed in the early hours and it didn’t go too badly at all. It’s nothing dirty, if that’s what you’re thinking. It just could’ve gone a bit kRaZy. Fortunately it didn’t.

When I got up today, the first thing I did was clean the contents of my fish tank. This was so that I could use the rest of the day to finish my Red Dwarf V DVD review. I got as far as watching the documentary, making notes and taking photographs of the packaging. But then Chris T. phoned to invite me to the pub again.

I wasn’t going to go, as two nights running would’ve been mad. But then I remembered that Hob McD. was down for the weekend and that having missed him last time, I said I’d meet him the next time he was about. So, true to my word, I hopped on a bus in the evening and went to Brommers to see him.

On the bus, I sent text messages to both Chris & Matt L. to see which end of the high street they were. Neither replied, so I got off at the bottom end, chatted to Ben E. who was waiting for his mates, then found out when Hob phoned that they were all at the other end. So off I marched to O’Neills, where the bouncer bloke gave me a weird look, but let me in anyway.

I had a great time. Again. That’s not to say that this pubbing lark is going to become a regular thing for me. I just enjoyed catching up with the lads.

At times it was a bit weird talking with Hob, as he’d report on things that I already knew of - having read them on his blog - and vice versa. Still, we go back a long way and it was unbelievably great seeing the (now streamlined) dude in the flesh. Not that I didn’t enjoy Matt & Chris’ company - Hob’s hourly rate is cheaper, that’s all.

And now that I’m home, can you guess what I’m going to do? Yes, that’s right. And you can expect it up in the early hours.

Ooer.

Nout much happened at Racodac today. I went in, sat down for a few hours then came home.

At home, I’d planned on finishing my Red Dwarf V DVD review. But the moment I sat down to watch & make notes on the documentary, Tommy C. - home from uni for a few days - phoned to invite me out to a public house. I’m not complaining, I went and had a ruddy good time.

In the car on the way there, Tom presented me with a small bag containing gifts that he’d got me whilst travelling in the States. The first was a figurine of Dallas from Alien, which is great. But the best was yet to come - he got me a “Sheriff Blake” badge! Quite frankly, it is one of the coolest things that I’ve ever seen.

In the pub, Tom, James S. & myself sat on a comfortable sofa on the opposite side of the room to last time. A wee while later, Dan D, Matt L, Chris T. & Nick V. strolled on in to join us. Laughs were aplenty, I can assure you. I even had a game of Bogies! with James.

Also at the pub I saw Rob HT, whom I used to argue with at length in Cisco for the sake of banter. We managed to be civil on this encounter. Must be getting old or sommat.

Ken Livingston IS definitely getting a letter of complaint from me now. Forty-five minutes I waited in the pouring rain for the bus this morning. And the ordeal didn’t stop there - the driver kicked everyone off the bus halfway through the journey because he was no longer going the full length of the route.

“Livid” doesn’t begin to describe how I felt about this, as technically I was already late having waited so long for this bus. As such, I was really stubborn and refused to get off until the driver returned my fare.

What made matters worse was that I was unsure of whether I had a meeting with John L. about my Storytelling project or not. As it turns out, I did. Fortunately, I arrived a whopping three minutes before I was scheduled to see John. So I had the chance to get my breath back having RAN to Racodac all the way from the bus stop.

The meeting with John went well, although two of my group didn’t show up. Afterwards, Bekah B. and myself researched the origins of mythology on the ‘net. Fifty pages of plain text later and we decided to go away, read what we’d found out and come back tomorrow.

I decided not to go home straight away, as I made a fine start on a highly detailed review of the Red Dwarf V DVD yesterday and wanted to continue on it today. Instead of actually adding anything to it though, I sat talking with the ever-splendid Zehra A. for the rest of the day.

At home, I immediately set about running off a copy of Fritz Lang’s M. Racodac tells me that this is in fact legal because of a special licence that they possess.

So “ner, ner, ner, ner, ner” to all FACT people reading.

The bus took thirty minutes to show up this morning. I am sooo close to snapping, I tell you. And Ken’s going to be hearing ALL about it when I do.

On the upper deck of the bus, I did my usual trick of laughing when a lad of around the same age fell over. Fried gold indeed.

Racodac was Racodac. Only I spent most of the day tracking down Fritz Lang’s M on video without success.

In the library though, I saw Steve P. sitting at a computer. Approaching him from behind, I reached out and caressed his nipple. At first he didn’t notice, so I carried on until he did.

Whilst conversing with Steve about life, the universe and everything, Jordan A. walked past and groped my bottie.

Now, if you’re thinking that my day couldn’t sound any more homosexual, you’d be wrong…

When checking to see if M had been returned to the library at the end of the day, I saw Steve for a second time. This time it was from a fair distance, so we resorted to blowing kisses & waving at each other - something that an old ish chap caught sight of and joined in with. Bless.

My final anecdote for the day involves a ginger lass backing into me with great force on her wheely chair (when checking her work from afar). For those of you who were fortunate enough to see the video footage of the chair incident at RWS involving Rob B, Hob McD. & myself, today’s occurrence wasn’t too dissimilar.

Which reminds me - I did ask for a copy of that footage for the site some time ago. (Hint, hint, Hob McD. Only if it’s not too much trouble, like.)

The final critique at Racodac for the infamous Typography project was long-and-drawn-out due to Keith G’s involvement with open day. This did annoy me at the time. But my piece, which was the penultimate one to be evaluated, received positive feedback all round. So the annoyance quickly subsided.

Two more things to mention:

• On the way home from Racodac, Elliot S. spotted an old man riding a bicycle with learner “L” plates on it, which really tickled the both of us.
• Where I’ve not cut my hair for a couple of months, my shadow cast on the pavement magically resembled that of Darth Vader in helmet & cloak.

Mwah ha ha ha.

Today was the second of my Adobe Photoshop training sessions at Racodac. I have an ambivalent attitude towards the exercise set, as although I enjoyed doing it, I didn’t get much out of it in terms of know-how.

The highlight of the session was undoubtedly when a chair that a non-Moving Image Design student was sitting on gave way, forcing the chap to jolt backwards. I couldn’t help but burst out laughing.

Waiting about for The AFS‘ screening of A Clockwork Orange, I added a few bits here-and-there to the Typography project that I said I’d finished on Friday. Technically I had finished. But over the weekend a handful of ideas came to me and it made sense to use the time to put them to use.

On the way home, my bus pulled up at the stop, the passengers got off, then the driver wound down a screen saying “Not in service” and drove off. So I had to wait thirty-five minutes for the next one.

At home, I mounted my printed work on the extortionately priced piece of foam-board purchased on Friday, cooking myself dinner at the same time.

Dinner consisted of two chicken burgers, four syrup-covered waffles and a pint of water. It wasn’t that good, it was supposed to be roast beef.

…they were stupid, it was careless. But being grumpy and tearful about it is getting it way out of proportion.

I didn’t get to bed until the excellently appropriate time of 5:05 AM this morning, as I was watching the first disc of my Red Dwarf V DVD. Not that I’d forgotten, but it reminded me exactly why Red Dwarf is the second best thing in the world. (The first being my family, despite how girlie that may sound.)

Going to bed as late as I did, I didn’t get up for today until 12:30 PM. Even then, I probably would’ve stayed in bed for a wee bit longer, but my parents were at it downstairs and the banging was quite loud. (Double “ooer”!)

Other than cleaning out my fish tank and its contents, I’ve not done anything particularly exciting today. And the cleaning process itself was only exciting because I managed to stop a small & irreplaceable bung of the fish filter from going down the plug hole à la Peter Parker of Spider-Man.

Mad adrenaline-rush over and I found myself bemused by a detail on the calendar: The 31st day of December falls in the fifty-third week of the year. Now, I was under the impression that there were only fifty-two weeks in the year. Fair enough, there are only fifty-two complete weeks. But this whole fifty-two weeks in a year thing is a little bit misleading, wouldn’t you agree?

After a bout on MSN Messenger I had another of my monumental visions. You know the sort - they once (perhaps unnecessarily) turned my site from v2 to v3. Rest assured though, a redesign is not what came to mind; it’s more a combination of ideas that I’ve been working on coming together in a big way.

Rushing back to my bedroom, I awoke my square-headed girlfriend to share the news. “Oooh, it’s going to be magical!” she said. Well, that’s actually what I said. She just kinda sat there thinking about it.

Still, when I’ve got the time to do it, it shall be good. They don’t call me “Clever Pete” for nothing. In fact, they don’t call me “Clever Pete” at all. They call me “Clever Blake”.

Posted on this here blog on 6th November 2004:

“I have got some fairly big things planned for the site. But as with everything at the moment, it’s all down to having the time. More information is likely to follow. (As & when.)”

It was because I knuckled down at Racodac yesterday and got my Typography project finished that I’ve a weekend to use as I please.

Sadly, Red Dwarf - The Movie isn’t among my DVD collection for obvious reasons. So instead of watching that, I made my very own site map.

I did actually start on it late last night. But at 3:06 AM this morning, I felt it best to get some shut-eye.

In fact, other than watching Columbo - which isn’t normally shown on Saturdays - and having a twenty minute snooze afterwards, I’ve done nothing else but work on the site map today.

The geek days returneth. Quality nice.

As for the rest of the night, is anyone up for a game of Put a Bit of Sellotape on the Fridge?

What is it with Eskimos versus Inuits lately? No matter what I watch, be it a television programme or a film, one character corrects another in saying that it should be said “Inuits” and not “Eskimos”.

Apparently the term “Eskimos” is considered offensive by many people. But why the sudden inclusion in so many productions? Have I missed a topical debate?

Anyhow, today:

I again saw Hannah D. at the bus stop, which was again rather pleasant.

On the way to Racodac, Ron Perlman’s identical twin got on the bus. Seriously, he looked *just* like him.

At Racodac, I cracked on with my Typography project, which I surprisingly finished & printed. This means that I can have the weekend off of doing work. Woohoo.

During the final stages of my Typography project, my Storytelling tutor, John L. spotted me and a couple of other Moving Image Design students, saying that we were an hour late for a lecture. So we hurried along to Broadcasting and entered a room full of second & third year MIDers. Hmmm. I’m pleased I went though, as the speaker did the special effects in Blade II, Die Another Day and Dinotopia. ’twas quite interesting.

On the way home, my bus pulled up next to a stationary double-decker bus which was empty save for the driver. I mention it, as the driver was immersed in a GameBoy game. So now I know why the buses turn up late.