Month of October
Diary: Social Stuff
I stayed in on Sat 2nd because I had surgery coming up that week and it didn't make much sense to go out drinking shortly before :oP Similarly, I didn't go out Sat 9th because I wasn't quite feeling up to it after surgery (mostly due to the drug side-effects rather than pain), bit of a shame because it meant that I missed nematri's party. Was pretty much back to normal by the Sunday though :oD Was out down Dungeon on Sat 16th with my younger brother, did go to a small 'after party' type thing but probably should have just headed straight back. Out again on Sat 30th to celebrate Halloween, although lots of the people I knew well headed off early so I left before closing myself. Meh, was okay though :o)
I stayed in on Sat 23rd and played Minecraft all night because I'm cool like that :oD
Was down Nermal's most Sundays playing Call of Duty, Battle of the Bands and Settlers, which was fun :o)
Diary: Hospital Stuff
I'd had my pre-op appointment at the end of the last month. The operation itself was on the 5th but they wanted me in the day before.
I don't think it really became 'real' to me until they put the cannula into my hand (tube in which they can plug other things), which looked very largely and bulky. It was only sore for the first couple of days mind and then I didn't notice it so much. Still, I'd gotten used to having lots of needles stuck in me and then taken out again but having a plastic tube put into my hand via a needle and left there felt very unnatural. Made me feel like a little bit of an invalid to walk around dragging a drip behind me too :oP
Still, hard to get too nervous when all I really had to do was sleep. It was a bit awkward being out of my element (not stayed overnight in a hospital before) but I still slept okay. I was taken away for surgery in the morning and, aside from a little bit of pain when they were injecting the anaesthetic through the cannula, that was also fine. Waking up was a fairly rough experience mind :oP Could barely talk due to my throat being so phlegmy and I felt very ill as soon as they gave me the nausia-inducing painkillers that I would have so much of through the week :oP
Still, very little pain through the entire week really. That's probably because I was so dosed up on painkillers, which just gave me constant nausea instead (I might have preferred the pain). At least pain can be ignored to a certain extent, it's much harder to ignore a constant desire to throw up.
The kidney went up north to Newcastle apparently. I'm told the operation went well over there. So I guess a week's worth of nausea was well worth it.
It hurt to breathe deeply and cough for about a day but got better after that. They took some of the wires (etc) off me on the Wednesday, at which point I was very eager to get out of bed. A bit quick but I was walking about without any pain and it gave me a chance to wash my face and brush my teeth (etc), which instantly made me feel more healthy and human :o)
The only problem was all the medication (and the other medication for the side-effects of the first lot of medication). It was very hard to eat much and keep it down and I had digestion problems all the way up to Saturday (I left hospital on the Friday). Still, by Saturday I was eating normal size meals again and wasn't having that much in the way of problems. I did take a short trip down to the gym to do an hour of light exercise on the exercise bikes but, because I couldn't push myself, I didn't really manage to burn many calories and it felt a bit pointless other than just to stay active.
As of the next Tuesday, it only hurt when I sneezed, so I promptly developed a cold and was constantly sneezing all day :oP
So basically, nothing long-lasting. The only permanent reminder of the operation will be the scares. They looked quite ugly at first because were so bruised but they don't look so bad any more now that the bruises have gone down and they should fade over time. I had a check-up on Wed 27th and the doctor was content that everything was fine and signed me off so I could start my driving lessons again :o)
Book: Charlie Higson's The Dead
I read Higson's 'The Enemy' a few months back and the story stops without resolution so I've been eagerly awaiting the next instalment. My mother ended up pre-ordering it and I borrowed it when she was finished reading; turns out that it doesn't resolve the storyline! :oO It's actually a prequel that doesn't revisit the central characters from the first book until the very end. Little bit disappointing in a way but only because I'd been expecting different; it does work very well in fleshing out the scenario and adding a little depth to the plot.
Mostly this book is 'more of the same'. The characters are new and in a slightly earlier stage of the zombie endemic that has turned everyone over the age of 14 into deformed cannibals and they face similar life-and-death situations during their travels to London, both books end (this isn't really a spoiler given it's an advertised premise of both books). We do get a little more insight into the nature of the disease that is plaguing the world, which helps explain a few scenes in the previous book quite well.
On a more spoilery note (though not much), it does add a new religious sub-plot to the story, although I'm not sure where the author intends to go with it yet.
Given that when I first heard about this line of books I just thought of it as children's fiction with an interesting enough concept to be worth checking out, I'm quite pleased that I did take the time to buy and read them. They're actually quite well written and should be interesting for anyone of any age with an interest in zombie stories and probably a few more besides. Definitely worth checking out the first book and, if you like that one, then reading this one.
Film: Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel
I know what you're thinking; with a title like that, it's obviously going to be brilliant, everyone should watch it and there's not much more to be said. This is pretty much my thinking.
I have to admit that I found the first movie a bit hard to watch and I didn't end up getting through it all until I say down with Lacuna_Raze and we watched it together. Some parts of it were just too cheesy and awful to really sit through until you have someone else there to enjoy it with. However, when I first saw the trailer announcing a squeekqual complete with the Chipmunks performing 'You Spin me Round' (a full version can be found here) I knew that there was no way I could not watch this movie. This trailer here is pretty cute as well, especially with the Chipmunks singing the 20th Century Fox theme. (I was a bit disappointed that the copy I watched of the film didn't include that).
The plot of this film doesn't matter much really. It's got the Chipettes in it as a major part of the plot, although I read that they're not very accurate to their cartoon counter-parts. Dave has only a small role in this film so that they could have another love story with an adult male instead of a chipmunk (although it's not a very good one really; the resolution is rather random). Still, Chipmunks... singing You Spin me Round... in a 'squeekquel'... definitely has my recommendation. :o)
Tv: Sarah Jane Adventures
Being a fairly big Doctor Who fan, I've been wanting to watch through Sarah Jane Adventures for a while. I've been putting it off because I've not seen much evidence that it's any good :oP I am starting to enjoy it but the special and the first series did a lot to confirm my misgivings. I know it's supposed to be a children's programme but I don't tend to accept that as much of an excuse; children's media ought to be a high quality as well and it ought to have equal emotional depth and variety.
The New Years Special that kicked the series of, 'Invasion of the Bane' was pretty bad. Sarah Jane as a character is fine, just as she was in her earlier appearance in Nu-Who. It also introduces the child character 'Maria' who I find fairly annoying and two-dimensional; there's just something flat and uninteresting about her emotional reactions to everything, which seems to be inexplicable glee to everything (which I'm guessing it just over-acting). Her parents include a deliberately annoying and irresponsible (and two-dimensional) mother character designed as comic relief (but she just irritates me) and a father character that feels like he had potential to be interesting but never was given the chance. It also introduces another child character that they scrap before the main series and Sarah Jane's adopted son, who was introduced in such a way that it would take seasons before he'd get any depth or realism.
The first season adds 'Clyde' who is still in the show now. I'm starting to find the character interesting but it's taken this long, especially as he's slightly obnoxious and fairly rude in the first season. Clyde's parents aren't really big characters in the show so I won't worry about them.
Come the second season, Maria is replaced with Ranni, who I find more interesting as a character (possibly because I find the actress's performance to be better) and her parents seem more fleshed out and believable. They've decided to make the mother character a comic one as well but via such an annoying route, it also probably helps that the actress seems better (I had to look up where I recognised her from; it's Thin Blue Line). This alone made the episodes more watchable because there were less characters around that made me cringe.
Oh, and there's 'Mr Smith', a super-computer character with an annoying theme that's played nearly every time he turns on. The idea is okay (especially his eventual origin story) but the execution could have been better. Oh, and whoever thought up the idea of 'sonic lipstick' should be fired. The notion of 'sonic lipstick' is not only naff and a fairly sexist spin on the sonic screwdriver, I think I'd find it hard to accept even if it was a proper screwdriver. The sonic screwdriver (basically, a magic 'fix-everything' magic wand) is hard enough to believe when used by the doctor but for it to be at all believed then it's presumably a very complex device, not something just anyone can point at anything and it magically does what they want; yet that's how sonic lipstick is treated in this show.
The stories themselves are generally sub-Doctor Who standard but there are a few interesting ones. 10 appears in the third season, which is interesting but the episode was fairly bad and even Tennant struggled to make it interesting. 11's guest role in the fourth season was much more fun and much more like watching an episode of Doctor Who. :o)
Oh, and they also bring back the Slitheen. I'd generally say that the Slitheen are the worst nu-who creations. They're not scary and they're not funny, they're just annoying. Doctor Who was right to forget about them after the first season.
I'd generally only recommend the Sarah Jane Adventures to really big fans of Doctor Who. If you're only mildly interested in Doctor Who, perhaps just watch the episodes with the Doctor in. The new season is rather good compared to the first but I don't know if it's worth watching through the first season for unless you're particularly bored. :o/
I stayed in on Sat 2nd because I had surgery coming up that week and it didn't make much sense to go out drinking shortly before :oP Similarly, I didn't go out Sat 9th because I wasn't quite feeling up to it after surgery (mostly due to the drug side-effects rather than pain), bit of a shame because it meant that I missed nematri's party. Was pretty much back to normal by the Sunday though :oD Was out down Dungeon on Sat 16th with my younger brother, did go to a small 'after party' type thing but probably should have just headed straight back. Out again on Sat 30th to celebrate Halloween, although lots of the people I knew well headed off early so I left before closing myself. Meh, was okay though :o)
I stayed in on Sat 23rd and played Minecraft all night because I'm cool like that :oD
Was down Nermal's most Sundays playing Call of Duty, Battle of the Bands and Settlers, which was fun :o)
Diary: Hospital Stuff
I'd had my pre-op appointment at the end of the last month. The operation itself was on the 5th but they wanted me in the day before.
I don't think it really became 'real' to me until they put the cannula into my hand (tube in which they can plug other things), which looked very largely and bulky. It was only sore for the first couple of days mind and then I didn't notice it so much. Still, I'd gotten used to having lots of needles stuck in me and then taken out again but having a plastic tube put into my hand via a needle and left there felt very unnatural. Made me feel like a little bit of an invalid to walk around dragging a drip behind me too :oP
Still, hard to get too nervous when all I really had to do was sleep. It was a bit awkward being out of my element (not stayed overnight in a hospital before) but I still slept okay. I was taken away for surgery in the morning and, aside from a little bit of pain when they were injecting the anaesthetic through the cannula, that was also fine. Waking up was a fairly rough experience mind :oP Could barely talk due to my throat being so phlegmy and I felt very ill as soon as they gave me the nausia-inducing painkillers that I would have so much of through the week :oP
Still, very little pain through the entire week really. That's probably because I was so dosed up on painkillers, which just gave me constant nausea instead (I might have preferred the pain). At least pain can be ignored to a certain extent, it's much harder to ignore a constant desire to throw up.
The kidney went up north to Newcastle apparently. I'm told the operation went well over there. So I guess a week's worth of nausea was well worth it.
It hurt to breathe deeply and cough for about a day but got better after that. They took some of the wires (etc) off me on the Wednesday, at which point I was very eager to get out of bed. A bit quick but I was walking about without any pain and it gave me a chance to wash my face and brush my teeth (etc), which instantly made me feel more healthy and human :o)
The only problem was all the medication (and the other medication for the side-effects of the first lot of medication). It was very hard to eat much and keep it down and I had digestion problems all the way up to Saturday (I left hospital on the Friday). Still, by Saturday I was eating normal size meals again and wasn't having that much in the way of problems. I did take a short trip down to the gym to do an hour of light exercise on the exercise bikes but, because I couldn't push myself, I didn't really manage to burn many calories and it felt a bit pointless other than just to stay active.
As of the next Tuesday, it only hurt when I sneezed, so I promptly developed a cold and was constantly sneezing all day :oP
So basically, nothing long-lasting. The only permanent reminder of the operation will be the scares. They looked quite ugly at first because were so bruised but they don't look so bad any more now that the bruises have gone down and they should fade over time. I had a check-up on Wed 27th and the doctor was content that everything was fine and signed me off so I could start my driving lessons again :o)
Book: Charlie Higson's The Dead
I read Higson's 'The Enemy' a few months back and the story stops without resolution so I've been eagerly awaiting the next instalment. My mother ended up pre-ordering it and I borrowed it when she was finished reading; turns out that it doesn't resolve the storyline! :oO It's actually a prequel that doesn't revisit the central characters from the first book until the very end. Little bit disappointing in a way but only because I'd been expecting different; it does work very well in fleshing out the scenario and adding a little depth to the plot.
Mostly this book is 'more of the same'. The characters are new and in a slightly earlier stage of the zombie endemic that has turned everyone over the age of 14 into deformed cannibals and they face similar life-and-death situations during their travels to London, both books end (this isn't really a spoiler given it's an advertised premise of both books). We do get a little more insight into the nature of the disease that is plaguing the world, which helps explain a few scenes in the previous book quite well.
On a more spoilery note (though not much), it does add a new religious sub-plot to the story, although I'm not sure where the author intends to go with it yet.
Given that when I first heard about this line of books I just thought of it as children's fiction with an interesting enough concept to be worth checking out, I'm quite pleased that I did take the time to buy and read them. They're actually quite well written and should be interesting for anyone of any age with an interest in zombie stories and probably a few more besides. Definitely worth checking out the first book and, if you like that one, then reading this one.
Film: Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel
I know what you're thinking; with a title like that, it's obviously going to be brilliant, everyone should watch it and there's not much more to be said. This is pretty much my thinking.
I have to admit that I found the first movie a bit hard to watch and I didn't end up getting through it all until I say down with Lacuna_Raze and we watched it together. Some parts of it were just too cheesy and awful to really sit through until you have someone else there to enjoy it with. However, when I first saw the trailer announcing a squeekqual complete with the Chipmunks performing 'You Spin me Round' (a full version can be found here) I knew that there was no way I could not watch this movie. This trailer here is pretty cute as well, especially with the Chipmunks singing the 20th Century Fox theme. (I was a bit disappointed that the copy I watched of the film didn't include that).
The plot of this film doesn't matter much really. It's got the Chipettes in it as a major part of the plot, although I read that they're not very accurate to their cartoon counter-parts. Dave has only a small role in this film so that they could have another love story with an adult male instead of a chipmunk (although it's not a very good one really; the resolution is rather random). Still, Chipmunks... singing You Spin me Round... in a 'squeekquel'... definitely has my recommendation. :o)
Tv: Sarah Jane Adventures
Being a fairly big Doctor Who fan, I've been wanting to watch through Sarah Jane Adventures for a while. I've been putting it off because I've not seen much evidence that it's any good :oP I am starting to enjoy it but the special and the first series did a lot to confirm my misgivings. I know it's supposed to be a children's programme but I don't tend to accept that as much of an excuse; children's media ought to be a high quality as well and it ought to have equal emotional depth and variety.
The New Years Special that kicked the series of, 'Invasion of the Bane' was pretty bad. Sarah Jane as a character is fine, just as she was in her earlier appearance in Nu-Who. It also introduces the child character 'Maria' who I find fairly annoying and two-dimensional; there's just something flat and uninteresting about her emotional reactions to everything, which seems to be inexplicable glee to everything (which I'm guessing it just over-acting). Her parents include a deliberately annoying and irresponsible (and two-dimensional) mother character designed as comic relief (but she just irritates me) and a father character that feels like he had potential to be interesting but never was given the chance. It also introduces another child character that they scrap before the main series and Sarah Jane's adopted son, who was introduced in such a way that it would take seasons before he'd get any depth or realism.
The first season adds 'Clyde' who is still in the show now. I'm starting to find the character interesting but it's taken this long, especially as he's slightly obnoxious and fairly rude in the first season. Clyde's parents aren't really big characters in the show so I won't worry about them.
Come the second season, Maria is replaced with Ranni, who I find more interesting as a character (possibly because I find the actress's performance to be better) and her parents seem more fleshed out and believable. They've decided to make the mother character a comic one as well but via such an annoying route, it also probably helps that the actress seems better (I had to look up where I recognised her from; it's Thin Blue Line). This alone made the episodes more watchable because there were less characters around that made me cringe.
Oh, and there's 'Mr Smith', a super-computer character with an annoying theme that's played nearly every time he turns on. The idea is okay (especially his eventual origin story) but the execution could have been better. Oh, and whoever thought up the idea of 'sonic lipstick' should be fired. The notion of 'sonic lipstick' is not only naff and a fairly sexist spin on the sonic screwdriver, I think I'd find it hard to accept even if it was a proper screwdriver. The sonic screwdriver (basically, a magic 'fix-everything' magic wand) is hard enough to believe when used by the doctor but for it to be at all believed then it's presumably a very complex device, not something just anyone can point at anything and it magically does what they want; yet that's how sonic lipstick is treated in this show.
The stories themselves are generally sub-Doctor Who standard but there are a few interesting ones. 10 appears in the third season, which is interesting but the episode was fairly bad and even Tennant struggled to make it interesting. 11's guest role in the fourth season was much more fun and much more like watching an episode of Doctor Who. :o)
Oh, and they also bring back the Slitheen. I'd generally say that the Slitheen are the worst nu-who creations. They're not scary and they're not funny, they're just annoying. Doctor Who was right to forget about them after the first season.
I'd generally only recommend the Sarah Jane Adventures to really big fans of Doctor Who. If you're only mildly interested in Doctor Who, perhaps just watch the episodes with the Doctor in. The new season is rather good compared to the first but I don't know if it's worth watching through the first season for unless you're particularly bored. :o/