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Month: April 2003

Guess That Movie: LII: Loser

Guess That Movie 52Kymberlie managed to only gain 95 points for round 51 as ph33r_m3 incorrectly guessed the movie “Barb Wire” by just 17 seconds before Kymberlie’s correct guess.

The screen shot was taken from a movie I hadn’t really watched before, but when I did lay down and watch it (ahh – the benefits of having a TV capture card and DVD player in a bedroom based computer), I really did enjoy “Jay And Silent Bob Strike Back” amazoncom:B00003CY67 [Order from Amazon.co.uk] . I really like “parody” based movies (hence why there has already been Austin Powers and Spaceballs featured here) and “Jay And Silent Bob” featured many parodies (Planet of The Apres, Charlies Angels, Star Wars, ET, Scream to name just a few of the obvious ones) and good lines such as “Call me Boo-boo-kitty-f*ck!” and “Don’t you recognise me? I’m the pie f*cker!/In prison, you’ll be the pie!”.

It’s a good film if you don’t mind swearing, sexual references, references to drug usage, references to bestiality, references to …. Yep, it can be a quite offence film 🙂

Anyway, now for round 52 – just guess which movie this image has been taken from and leave your details. Here’s a clue: there’s a connection between this movie and Jay And Silent Bob….

No “childrens lyrics” this time – sorry – I’ve got a pussy that needs stroking! And stop thinking smutty thoughts! A pussy cat is what I’m talking about (and have, in fact, pictured for this entry…)
A: Loser amazoncom:B00003CXK7 [Order from Amazon.co.uk] Correctly guessed by Kymberlie R. McGuire (200 points)

Techy: Kilobytes needed

SDRAM memory upgradeWell, it looks like i’m already pushing my new computer to its limits and I need to consider upgrading it’s Kb storage capacity. To think my first computer – a ZX Spectrum – had just 48Kb of RAM which lasted my father and I for 5 years and then my dear old BBC B with its 32Kb of RAM which lasted me over 6years, it makes it seem a bit funny that my new wizz-bang 261,124Kb (or 256Mb if you prefer) machine needs upgrading within a month of its purchase…

And the cost! For a DDR 333 RAM (which I need for my 533Mhz FSB P4 Dell) 512Mb DIMM will cost me a further £87.77 (excluding £9.40 delivery charge) – that’s one tenth of the price of the whole unit I originally purchased!

The price of RAM is bound to go down over time, but can I really put up with the…annoy…ing.. pauses that long?

Guess That Movie: LI: Jay And Silent Bob Strike Back

Guess That Movie Round 51Roaarrr! “Godzilla” was the name of the Guess That Movie image round 50 with “Dr G” picking up the points for that one (which you can buy via amazoncom:0767817478 or [Order from Amazon.co.uk] if you want) Perhaps I should have been a bit more strict and said that you had to specify exactly which version it was, but I’m feeling in a generous mood (whilst Kymberlie has been feeling a bit down – the two events aren’t related – but if you want to go and show her some love you can do so).

So round 51 has now come around and I had a whole selection of movies to pick from, but it was just selecting which one… I finally settled on this lovely image to the left which depicts a quite good looking blonde woman in a shiny black catsuit – I prefer brunettes myself, but if you want to go ahead and guess her phone number, feel free to forward it on to me!

Oh, sorry, it’s Guess That Movie isn’t it? Not “Guess The Womans Phone Number” – oh well, in that case just leave your name (or alias), email address (spam protected or not I don’t mind – only I’ve got access to the email addys anyway!) and the guess of the title of the movie you think the image has been taken from and away you go (to hopefully come back and find out you’ve picked up a number of points for the correct guess).

And now my “relive my youth” section with childrens cartoon lyrics (no extra points for recognising them though):

A: Jay And Silent Bob Strike Back amazoncom:B00003CY67 [Order from Amazon.co.uk] . Correctly guessed by Kymberlie R. McGuire

Personal: Income Tax, No VAT…

Hector - the old Inland Revenue mascotArrghhh! The other day I received my first “Self Assessment Tax Return” which means I’ve got to inform the tax office of all my income last tax year and let them know if I owe them any money or the other way round.

For the last 12months, I’ve either been employed (and paying tax via PAYE – pay as you earn) or unemployed (where the tax is taken off my unemployment benefit at source), and since I’ve been employed from mid-January I’ve been paying “Emergency Tax” (i.e. tax at a higher rate than normal) as for some reason my “proper” tax code still hasn’t reached my work.

However, I’ve also been running a small business which has been generating some income – around £2,500 to £3,500 at a rough estimate. But, alas, most (if not all) of that income disappears into business costs: I’ve got a dedicated web server in London which is a “necessary asset” to run the business: that’s around £3,000 I *should* be able to write off against the income, then I had to buy a new computer to conduct business on (another £880) and then there’s the dedicated work telephone line (only around £120 per year) and then there’s the internet connection – £300 per year. Total income at most: £3,500. Total expenses: £4300. So hopefully I’ll be entitled to a tax rebate or something…

However, I’ve got to double check 3×30 page documents before I’m even mildly sure I can claim some of that back (I may only be able to claim 40% of the cost of the new computer back for instance), but I’m hoping the whole process won’t be as complicated as it appears!

So the forms that are sitting on my desk awaiting completion: New Credit Card application form (4 pages), Mortgage transfer form (8 pages), Tax form (30 pages), 2 letters to return to the bank (to close “dormant” accounts) and I’m sure there’s quite a bit more paper work to do. *sob* I hate doing paper work – don’t these people understand I’ve got a cat that needs fuss? (hey, I wonder if I use Smokey as the “company mascot” whether or not I can get a tax-rebate on her cat food and litter? It might be worth a try 😉 ).

(obligatory disclaimer: nothing in this post should be interpreted as any sort of tax or financial advice yadda yadda yadda. I am not a lawyer [IANAL] and I have never played one of those on TV or on stage…)

Books: Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix II

Harry Potter And The Order Of The PhoenixWhilst I may have come in for a little bit of stick by just the way I presented the facts about the new Harry Potter book back in January, I thought I’d just revisit the subject and do a quick summary of what more information has become available regarding “Potier De Harry Et L’Ordre De Phoenix” (and, no, I don’t know if that is the correct French translation of “Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix”).

“The Order Of The Phoenix” is available in two editions: the childrens edition and the Adults version. The childrens one is currently on “pre-order sale” at Amazon.co.uk [Order from Amazon.co.uk] for just £8.49 (saving 50% off the normal retail price) and is a hardcover book with 768 pages due to be released on the 21st of June this year – the cover shows a golden phoenix bird emerging from the flames and is the first childrens edition book cover not to feature Harry Pottery himself on the book design.

The Adults edition (which has a much darker and blacker cover with a silver Phoenix) is also available at the same price [Order from Amazon.co.uk] in the same format with the same number of pages – the only difference between the two is different cover artwork (so don’t expect any nude Harry Potter pictures from the Naked Quidditch Match)

The US variant, however, is available in two different formats. The “Standard Edition” amazoncom:043935806X currently at $17.99 (equal to £11.46) is a hard cover version and has 896 pages – somehow you are getting an extra 128 pages for the extra £2.97). I’ve got no idea if it’s just larger type, smaller page sizes or quite how they’ve managed to squeeze and extra 128 pages out of the same Harry Potter story – but it’ll be slightly interesting to find out. Oh the cover is also different from the UK version – it shows 15year old Harry holding his wand in-front of a number of doors and is drawn in midnight blue, indigo and flame blue (making it look a lot more “dark” than the brightly coloured UK version).

There is also a “Collector’s Edition” available for $42.00 (£26.75) amazoncom:0439567629 which is a “cloth-covered deluxe edition featuring full-colour printed endpapers, a foil-stamped title on the spine and a full colour slipcase with an exclusive book jacket design”. Worth an extra $24? I’m not sure, but if you are an avid fan with money to spare why not order it for June 21st?

The book (which has 255,000 words and is rumoured to be in 38 chapters) has already sold half a million advanced copies and will be released in USA, Canada, UK, Australia and in many other English languages on the 21st of June (which is the longest day of the year) right after midnight British Summer Time (GMT/Zulu +1) – and would be approximately two and a half years since the previous Harry Potter book “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” was released (which helped bring the total number of “Potter” books sold to over 192million copies).

Ok, that’s enough of the release date – but what about the contents? Well, thanks to a leak from the American publishers and other “leaks“, the following is known:

  1. The first two sentences of the book are:
    “The hottest day of the summer so far was drawing to a close and a drowsy silence lay over the large, square houses of Privet Drive.

    The only person left outside was a teenage boy who was lying flat on his back in a flowerbed outside number four. ”

    I would guess the “teenage boy” is Harry himself.

  2. Harry confronts “the unreliability of government and the impotence of the authorities at Hogwarts”
  3. Whilst on the subject of Hogwarts, another little leak gives us the snippets:
    “Dumbledore lowered his hands and surveyed Harry through his half-moon glasses.

    ‘It is time,’ he said, ‘for me to tell you what I should have told you five years ago, Harry.”

  4. Ron Weasley (Harry Potter’s friend) becomes keeper of the Gryffindor Quidditch team
  5. The new defence of the dark arts teacher (a woman) has a personality “like poisoned honey”
  6. Professor Lupin will be back with “a lot of old friends”
  7. They’ll also be a venomous, disgruntled house-elf and the end-of-term Ordinary Wizarding Level (OWLs) exams
  8. Harry has nightmares about a single door in a silent corridor which is “more terrifying than every other nightmare combined”.
  9. There will be a new Sorting Hat song
  10. They’ll be a bit more of characters such as Mundungus Fletcher

There’s no doubt the book will be a huge success, but will the latest Harry Potter book live up to the hype or has its readership grown up in the intervening years since the Goblet of Fire…. Only time will tell….