Originally published at The Apochrypha. Please leave any comments there.

Being a non-American the only impact the writers strike is currently having on me is I’m living with the knowledge that there are several films in the works that I quite fancy seeing that were either rushed to get them finished before the strike happened or are being hamstrung by being unable to change whats in the script if something better comes along.

I won’t even pretend to know the ins and outs of the strike other than from the sound bites I’ve picked up over the last week or so on the internet. It’s just not as big a deal here in the UK as far as the daily news goes as it is in the USA.

Of all the things I’ve seen and read though on the matter this has been the one that seems to show the effect its having in it’s simplest form. Click the pic to see the vid.

‘Beautifully fucking illustrated’, as Sick Boy said in Trainspotting.

No tag for this post.

Does anyone remember Fluff?

It was that sickly sweet marshmallow spread for putting on your pieces. Used to get it about 20 years ago and then it suddenly stopped appearing on the supermarket shelves. I’ve been told you can pick it up from any one of the many online US sweet shops but as much as I like it I don’t think I’d spend that sort of cash.

I have however found a substitute. Or rather I may have found a substitute. Lidl’s sell what can only be described as mutated tunnocks teacakes. They are twice as high, have a very thin chocolate flavour coating and a wafer base. The thing is they only cost a pound for 12 of the buggers and theres enough mallow in them to fill up three or four Fluff jars. Not entirely sure how to go about removing the chocolate thogh as its so bloody thin. Then again the mallow is that sweet you barely taste it.

Think I may have to give this one a try very soon to see if it will work.

I’ve felt a bit out of it this last week. It’s not so much Erica arriving but more that I’ve not been at work since a week past wednesday and to be honest all we’ve really done is recieve visitors, veg in front of the TV/laptop watching West Wing or some other US TV show or sleep. I had many plans for my time off that included sorting out Erica’s room now that we had found homes for all the Kittens that were going, sorting out the livingroom and the garden and with a bit of luck finishing off tidying the bedrooms and making a start on decorating them. So far we’ve managed to tidy the living room a few times.

I feel at times as though I’m letting Vonnie down by not getting the things done. I can’t really blame it on lack of sleep as to be honest since Erica’s arrival I’m actually sleeping better as when I’m bnot awake with her feeding I’m actually getting quality sleep rather than tossing and turning every five minutes. I know that physically I’m knackered so it’s understandable that I’m not getting it all done but I’d like to think I at least got something accomplished while I’ve been off other than making sure Vonnie gets through the first two weeks without doing herself an injury running after the kids.

So tonight I sent Vonnie to bed to try and get through her toothache with some heavy duty painkillers. I’ve kept Erica in her moses basket in the living room where some deity was shining down on me and she slept all night and will probably wake up soon for her last feed of the day. This has meant that I could throw on Henry Rollins Shock and Awe DVD on teh laptop in the kitchen and get some stuff done in there. Managed through most of the dishes although theres a few bits and pieces I’m leaving until the morning, repotted all the seedlings we had into larger pots and managed to find space for them in the kitchen. Rearranged the top of the freezer and sorted out a few completely filled cupboards and drawers. Yes its boring I know but it makes a hell of a difference to my life now I can get to alot of things.

With a bit of luck I’ll finish off what I started tomorrow and if the weather holds I’ll get the grass and hedges cut tomorrow. My god I’m getting domesticated

Got talking to my brother earlier tonight and he’s got me thinking. Doing HR admin for the goverment was never where I seen myself when I left school. To be honest if I’d got my degree or HND that I went for I wouldnt be doing a job I’d enjoy either. The arty side of designing websites I really enjoy but can never put enough time or effort into anything I touch to make it great. Photography and such things always struck a bell with me but I neverfollowed them up but now I’m at a stage in my life where I don’t think I could feasibly jump ship and try and find something I enjoy even if I wasn’t very good at it or needed qualifications to get into. I have responsibilities now that I never dreamed of having anytime soon several years ago, and wouldn’t change that for a second, but I can see the employment rut forming ahead of me and I don’t know if I should be trading in my scooter for a 4×4 so that I ride out the rut and come out better off on the other side or take the next side track and see where that takes me.

Ach forgive me, I’m at the stage now where I’m too tired to sleep but I’ve got enough caffiene in me to ramble. *shakes fist at the 2L bottle of Irn Bru*

Now you guys know I like my military history but this one is slightly different from the norm. This book follows the history of the breaking of the german codes during WWII and focuses mostly on the naval enigma code. For a book about codebreaking it managed to fit a surprising amount of war into it. If you’ve ever seen the film Enigma you’d maybe think that it was the folk at Bletchley Park that cracked the code single handedly but thanks to Hugh Montefiore you soon realise that folk from Poland, France and the USA all had a hand in it at some point in time although most of the plaudits do go to the UK codebreakers. You also find out just how close the Germans were to realising the code had been broken which would have been a disaster.

Like I say for a book based on codebreaking and one that has a surprising amount of maths in it its a very easy read.

So yeah. Doctor Bob or Mr Mummy as he’s known to his friends made a series of lectures for some well known US home learning company a few years ago. And its fascinating. Bob Brier has this knack of being able to explainthings about ancient Egypt in such a way that it all makes sense, possibly because of his background of growing up in The Bronx maybe?

Each lecture is approx 30-40 minutes long and neatly cuts up Egyptian history into digestable sections. In fact I spent an extra week just going back over the lectures I found most interesting. It’s a great ‘read’. Heartily reccommend it to anyone with the slightest interest in the Period. Even if all you want to do is hear about the Greek Egypt era and Rome.

I’ve had the Black Hawk Down book kicking about for a long while and never read it. I’d seen the film and thought theres no real way the book could live up to it and I knew the the film had been used jast a tad by the US military as propaganda as they’d changed a few bits so they didnt look so bad to the world.

Finally picked it up the other day and started to read it. I don’t think I’ve been able to put it down. How did these folk manage to get through that? Unlike the film the book gives you the side of the Somalian people, Mark Bowden seems to go to great pains to let you know why the people of Mogadishu felt and did what they did. The interviews with the US Rangers highlight just what they were going through…How many people are able to deal with an enemy that uses woman and children as human shields in battle?..How many people are able to deal with an occupying force using the downdraft of their helicopters to literally blow away houses and kill, as far as they feel, innocent bystanders during firefights. The Americans just couldnt understand why people would run to witness a battle rather than find a safe place.

It also explains more about why it took so long far a rescue mission to be launched and that it wasnt just Rangers and Delta that went in. One of the original HUMVEE’s was driven by a bunch of SEALs and the rescue helicopter was manned by airforce parajumpers as well as Delta. The 10th Mountain brigade sent in a convoy as soon as they could and the Pakistanis jumped at the chance to help out rather than being dicks in the film and being intentionally slow…they just couldnt move fast because they had to organise thier tanks to go in.

Like most books of this type you spend most of the time trying to pick your jaw up off the ground as you read about hellish scenes left right and centre only fo ryou to burst out laughing at the stupidest things. An example being the Ranger of probable polish descent whos name the other guys in his squad didnt like tryiong to pronounce so they called him “Alphabet”.

The violence is no worse or better than anything i’ve read about in the WW2 history books I have but the style of writing just puts it in your face so matter of factly that its hard not to read it and be affected by it.

Anyway…halfway through it so far and I’m sure ill be finished in a day or two…

I had the weirdest dream last night. Well not really but it had some cool and some freaky things in it.

Basically Firefight Scotland fell on its arse and noone could step up and either buy it out or fill the void it left behind. I think the guys from the Fort actually laughed and rubbed their hands together as they were the only real alternative near central Scotland for us all to go to (CQB Scotland didnt exist in the dream).

This meant that during the height of summer Bobz Squad and a few stragglers heading up to Aviemore for a camping trip for the weekend. Somehow we got invited up to the Lonach Highland Games despite them not being held until late August. We were at Kirsten Pantgirls families place when Billy Connolly andd his celebrity mates came along behing the highlander on their wee walk to get a few drams on the way to the games. Seems we got talking to Robin Williams, Eddie Izzard and Ray Mears (wtf was he doing there?) and told them of our airsofting plight. Robin asked if we knew of anywhere that would be perfect for playing and I piped up that there was a place in Glen Etive that was perfect for it but it was on land owned by Ian Flemings trust or whatever it is. Ray piped up that he knew them and sent some smoke signals up from a nearby campfire (he did actually do this in the dream…Glen Etive is on the other side of the country from Strathdon…) and then said it was all sorted. He’d bankroll the initial costs if we could let him and his celebrity mates play for free the next day.

We headed back down to Aviemore to sleep that night but stopped off at an arcade to play a new game that came out that had been raved about all over the computer magazines. Your normal point a pink gun at teh screen time crisis kind of thing but it was based in a room rather than in an arcade box and the graphics were fully 3d and lifesize. Stoo got ate by a zombie in the game and we never seen him again :S

Next day we headed down to Glen Etive to start the site and get a few practice games going. When we got there it had already been set up with a dedicated safezone and toilets etc. The game area included the farmhouse and its outbuildings right along to the boat shed and the jetty at the end of the road. The terrain was perfect and the ‘beach’ and banks of the river made it feel like a completely different kind of site. Somehow the celebities turned up and morphed into crazy US box office commando clones with lots of airsoft gear. Its one thing to have Ernie sneak up on you but its completely different when Eddie Izzard slots you with a sniper rifle from extreme range…waves at you and then Ray Mears stands up from behind a twig 4 yards in front and smiles an evil smile :S