Pablo Cheesecake – A Virtual Life ?

I spend all day in front of a computer. I’m a Sys Admin and help people with PC/software problems all the time. When I get home of an evening I trudge upstairs into the spare room and immediately boot up my laptop and start my personal virtual life. I shop online, play online, talk to my friends online and occasionally manage the odd blog or two. The good news is that this doesn’t effect my offline relationships too badly. Mrs Cheesecake has her own PC right next to mine so we do actually spend quite a lot of time in the same room as one another. From time to time we even speak 🙂

I have experienced an virtual incident today that is odd to say the least. Yesterday I bought Mrs Cheesecake Sims 3 (purchased online obviously) and decided to have a go myself. I thought it would be fun. I ended up being freaked out by the whole thing.

After the initial set up and completing the basic tutorial I found myself watching a digital facsimile (of myself) sitting playing computer games. This is just downright odd I thought. I have paid money to watch a computer version of me doing what I am already doing.

Is the universe trying to give me a none to subtle hint that I spend way to much time in front of a computer? Maybe I have become just a bit to dependent on technology? Or could it be that I need to not play the Sims?

Odd indeed. Anyway the latest patch for World of Warcraft has finished downloading now so I’m off. What do you mean “You’ve missed the point of your own blog!”

Cheerio

Mr P

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Pablo Cheesecake – Movie Music Maestro

For a while I have been collecting assorted musical flotsam and jetsam. I have managed to cobble together around 75 of my favourite movie tracks. iTunes loves me! There is absolutely no criteria to be part of this list. The tracks can be main themes or incidental music. Every single one is a winner in my opinion. You think this list is bad you should see the TV themes track listing it’s about four times as big.

Movie/Track Name Artist
Austin Powers – Soul Bossa Nova Quincy Jones
Austin Powers – What the World Needs Now Burt Bacharach
Beverly Hills Cop – Axel F Harold Faltermeyer
The Big Lebowski – Hotel California Gypsy Kings
The Big Lebowski – What Condition My Condition Was In Kenny Rogers & The First Edition
Big Trouble in Little China John Carpenter
Blade Runner Vangelis
Born Free Matt Monroe
Brazil Geoff Muldaur
The Breakfast Club Simple Minds
Buckaroo Banzai Michael Boddicker
Carlito’s Way – Oye Como Va Various
Casino Royale (1967) Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass
Casino Royale (2007) Chris Cornell
Daredevil – Lapdance N*E*R*D
The Deer Hunter Various
Deliverance – Duelling Banjos Various
Diamonds Are Forever Shirely Bassey
Enter the Dragon Lalo Schifrin
Enter the Dragon (Ska Cover) Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra
Escape From New York John Carpenter
ET the Extra-Terrestrial John Williams
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind – Mr Blue Sky ELO
Ferris Bueller – Museum Various
Ferris Bueller – Oh Yeah Yello
Flash Gordon Queen
Fletch Harold Faltermeyer
Get Carter Roy Budd
Get Carter (Remix) Various
Ghostbusters Ray Parker Jnr
The Golden Child Various
The Goonies John Williams
Grease Frankie Valli
The Great Escape Various
Halloween John Carpenter
Harry Potter John Williams
Highlander Queen
Indiana Jones John Williams
The Italian Job – Self Preservation Society Various
Jaws John Williams
Jurassic Park John Williams
Kill Bill – Battle Without Honour Or Humanity Tomoyasu Hotei
Kill Bill – The Lonely Shepherd Zamfir
Kill Bill – Woo Hoo The 5,6,7,8s
Krull London Symphony Orchestra
Lifeforce Prague Philharmonic
Live And Let Die Wings
The Long Good Friday Various
The Man With The Golden Gun Lulu
Mannequin Starship
Monsters Inc Randy Newman
Odeon – I Like It Like That Pete El Conde’ Rodriguez
OHMSS – We Have All the Time in the World Louis Amstrong
Pearl and Dean (1st Version) Various
Pearl and Dean (2nd Version) Various
Police Academy Various
Pulp Fiction – Misrolou Dick Dale
Rambo (First Blood) Various
Rocky Various
The Saint Orbital
Saturday Night Fever Bee Gees
Saturday Night Fever – A Fifth of Beethoven Bee Gees
Shaft Issac Hayes
Spiderman Danny Elfman
Star Wars John Williams
Star Wars -The Imperial March John Williams
Superman John Williams
Together in Electric Dreams Phil Oakey
Tristar Pictures 1980’s Ident Various
A View to a Kill Duran Duran
Who Dares Wins Roy Budd
XXX – Feuer Frei Rammstein
2001 – A Space Odyssey Various
Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

FantasyCon 2009: The silent geek perspective

I haven’t blogged in a while. What can I say…real life has gotten in the way. I had a deadline for a project (which I managed to complete in time). I also seem to have been quite sociable of late. Flitting from engagement to engagement.

Last Saturday was no exception. I went to Fantasycon 2009 in Nottingham. Great that it is just along the road from where I live. I love going to these things. Don’t get to do it very often but always a blast when I get to go. There are crowds of geeks from every conceivable genre. Not a criticism I hasten to add. Proud to be a geek and all that.

I got to hear some interesting people speak about some cool topics relating to the state of British Fantasy today. Vampires, The Green Man, Highlander 2: The Quickening. All brilliant to behold. Nothing better than thinking you’ve heard it all and then someone just casually says something new and it blows you away. So many new authors whose work I am now keen to try.

The best part was I got to people watch. I love watching social interaction. I think I am just inherently a nosey sod. I am just so feckin curious about everything. Ironically as much as I love to watch these little tableaus unfold I am also pretty shy so never involve myself in them. I’m the one attempting to be unobtrusive in the corner. Not easy when your 6ft 2 and have bright red hair but I manage it quite well. Now calm down no need to feel sorry for me. Mrs Cheesecake was right there with me and I’ll take her company over anyone else any day of the week.

I guess I am slightly in awe of authors. I’m not really a very creative person. I have attempted and failed to write/draw/create (take your pick) something original on a number of occasions. Now that’s ok. I’ve made my peace with that particular failing. Every time I meet an author though I am just a little bit dumbstruck. Ironic really…in a past life a used too talk for a living. It don’t matter though because I still get to watch/read/enjoy all of this work.

Gosh I think I’ve come over a bit philosophical this afternoon. They really shouldn’t let me have days off if this is what is going to happen.

In other unrelated news my drunken blogging exploits my return soon. I was talking about it in the pub at the weekend and came up with an interesting concept that I think can only fully be explored while inebriated. Which this space.

Till next our paths cross

Cheesecake away

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Pablo Cheesecake : Competition winner

I won a competition. Little old me. I’ve never won anything in my life ever. I have to admit to being a little taken aback by the while thing. Now at the end of the day it was only a t-shirt but I still won it.

The good people at Last Exit to Nowhere produce the best film related merchandise on the planet. All of their designs are inspired by all the fictional companies and businesses from the movies. I won a quiz they ran on Twitter (@lastexitshirts) and they have let me choose a free t-shirt of my choice. I went for Central Services (the faceless bureaucracy from Terry Gilliam’s epic Brazil). Anyone that knows me will no I am slightly obsessed by this film. I have the theme as the ringtone on my mobile phone.

image

This is just a little bloggerette as I have three reviews to write for my latest cinema visits. I just want to share my good fortune.

Till later

Smugger than normal

Mr C

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Pablo Cheesecake and the iPod Conundrum

iPod Touch hacked in Apple StoreImage by Nelson Wu via Flickr

A number of years ago I bought the first generation iPod. I was excited by the hype and looked forward to having a decent MP3 player. For me, unfortunately, it just didn’t deliver. The control wheel was fiddly and if, like me, you have fingers like sausages it was near impossible to control. The whole experience left me apathetic toward Apple and their products.

I spent a number of years in the musical wilderness using a Sony MP3 player. It wasn’t bad but then again it wasn’t great either. Sony had their own proprietary file format at the time so it made maintaining my music collection a bit of a pain in the arse. I am essentially lazy and one thing I cannot abide is things being a faff.

About six months ago I decided to give iTunes another go. Things had moved on a lot in my absence and the software impressed me with it’s ease of use. Quickly it became a favourite and my catalogue of MP3s eventually found themselves a new home.

After much umming and ahhing about it I decided I would risk a new MP3 player. I was using iTunes so an iPod seemed the logical choice. this is were I hit my first snag. So many fuckin flavours. Classic, Touch, Nano, Shuffle. So many colours. Sizes a plenty. What is a boy to do?

I went back to the drawing board and tried to put together a list of criteria. What did I actually need my MP3 player for.

  • Music – Well Duh! no brainer there. Thinking about it however I did realise that my collection actually wasn’t that big. To be honest I haven’t but any new music for a long time as my musically tastes are firmly rooted in the past.
  • Additional Tech – Did I need to be able to watch video? Maybe. Did I need access to the web? There was a good chance!

It quickly became evident that a second gen 8GB iPod Touch would do the business.

I’ve had it for just over a week and I have to say I am impressed. The MP3 functions work seamlessly with iTunes. The web browser and apps available from the app store are all good.

Now I’m not gonna get evangelical about Apple. Like I said I was burnt in the past but so far so good. I like the Touch because it just works. I delivers and does exactly what it says on the tin.

Knowing me in six months there will be something else that seems more appealing but for the moment I’ll enjoy my new toy. I will have to try and stop playing with it every five minutes cause there is a good chance I could end up going blind.

Cheerio from deep within gadget nirvana

Cheesecake Away!

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Inglorious Cheesecake

Quentin Tarantino along with Itchy and Scratch...Image via Wikipedia

I do like Quentin Tarantino‘s films. He has an uncanny knack for producing dialogue that is quoteable, stories that watchable and picking just the right music for his soundtracks.

Pulp Fiction, Resevoir Dogs, Jackie Brown, Kill Bill they are all examples of what happens when you let a movie geek make films for other movie geeks to enjoy.

Inglorious Basterds is no different. Set during World War II Mr Tarantino uses uses the same techniques we’ve seen in his other films to blend together two separate narrative strands. The story of the Basterds, out to give every Nazi in occupied France a really hard time. As well as the story of Shoshanna Dreyfus a young Jewish woman hell bent on revenge.

Performances were all good. I particularly enjoyed Christoph Waltz as Col Hans Landa. He brought a nice kind of cheery menace to the role. Eli Roth was also worthy of note. I reckon QT just pointed the camera at him and said “Right Eli in this scene I want to you to go bug nuts insane”. It seems to have worked.

It strikes me that though this a war film Tarantino really does love his Westerns. For example there was a cracking Mexican standoff in a cellar that builds nice and slow but ends in a bloody mess.

Some nice cameos as well. Mike Myers as a British General . Samuel L Jackson and Harvey Kietel though not seen can be heard at a couple of points.

The music, as with all prior films, is as eclectic as ever. Ennio Morricone, Lalo Schfrin and David Bowie to name but a few.

All in all a great film.

Fuck two movie reviews in one day. I need a drink.

Ciao for now

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

The Time Traveler’s Cheesecake

No movies this weekend. It’s a bank holiday so other arrangements are a foot. Last week, however, we managed to pull off a double header. I know as usual I have been a trifle remiss in making any sort of post but we’ve been busy in the House of Cheesecake.

We saw The Time Travelers Wife and Inglorious Basterds. I’ll do a separate blog post for Mr Tarantino’s latest mangnum opus. Look out for that soon.

In the meantime lets talk a little bit about The Time Travelers Wife. Based on the book by Audrey Niffenegger this is the story of a man who travels unpredictably in time and the woman who is left behind waiting for him.

Eric Bana and Rachel McAdams do sterling work as the main characters. The story has a nice intimate feeling. As there are so few characters the viewer gets a lot of insight into how the couples life works or, at times, doesn’t.

The only problem I had is I’m a sucker for a happy ending and a think at best the ending of this film can be described as bittersweet. As frequent readers know I ain’t gonna spoil the thing by revealing too much but at the end of the day I felt that all of the characters were a bit hard done by.

On an almost totally unrelated point I was incredibly jealous of the house they ended up living in.

Oh I’ve come over all emotional now. I’m going to go a do something manly. Perhaps my thoughts about Inglorious.

Till some point later in time.

Viva La Cheesecake

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

GI Joe: Rise of the Cheesecake

Today Mrs Cheesecake and I went to the cinema as usual. It’s been a while and after a cheeky little breakfast courtesy of Starbucks we decided some big budget nonsense was called for.

Directed by Stephen Sommers, GI Joe: Rise of the Cobra delivered exactly what I expected. I do so enjoy mindless brain candy of the highest order. Lots of explosions and pretty colours. The story was unquestionably stupid but who cares.

Summer Blockbuster Nonsense

Sommers always gives us spectacle and I for one am glad he does. Van Helsing had it’s detractors but damn it’s fun. Have you seen Deep Rising? go on now be honest. Quite possibly the silliest film ever but I think it’s fucking great. The Mummy is all good too.

According to IMDB Mr Sommers is involved in a version of Magic Kingdom for Sale which could be interesting. Big fan of Terry Brooks and as I said earlier Sommers can do epic scale. Not sure about remaking When Worlds Collide though.

In other news Mrs Cheesecake and I are currently debating purchasing IPods. She is keen on a Classic with all of it’s storage capacity while I am more inclined toward the Touch cause I is all about the widgets and fanciness. I think in this instance we will have to agree to disagree. Come back soon and I’m sure you will discover we have probably got one of each.

Software wise I have switched from Digsby to Trillian Alpha. I find it useful to manage all of my IM/Social Networking accounts in one place. I was disturbed to learn that Digsby ad some rather nasty crapware in the new install package and that they have some sneaky things going on in the their licence agreement so it had to go. Trillian seems to be all good so far but I will continue to be vigilant.

Pablo Cheesecake – Installing pointless software so you don’t have to!

Later Peoples

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]