Thursday, June 30, 2005
New UK release of Trauma
Source: DVD TimesOptimum Home Entertainment is releasing a new UK release of Dario Argento's Trauma for July 25th 2005. With the Region 1 special edition from Anchor Bay due for release less than a month later, this is either a desperate attempt to cash in or an extremely foolish business move. Still, at least this release is anamorphic, unlike the previous UK version, so I guess people trapped in R2-land might want to pick this up.
New Starcraft patch
Blizzard has released patch 1.13 for the venerable Starcraft. The changes aren't exactly major, but at least they're still making an effort to keep this game going, given that it's more than seven years old. Connect to Battle.net to upgrade.Wednesday, June 29, 2005
Comparisons done; site completed
There! Done! I wasn't sure I'd manage it, but I persevered and managed to get all the DVD Image Comparisons done! And just before the stroke of midnight, too. This means that the new site is finally 100% complete! Hooray! I've now removed the link back to version 7, and tomorrow will start the process of dismantling that particular incarnation of the site, removing unused pages, images and the like. I'll need to set up a redirect service for my reviews and image comparisons, I think, because I know that a few people have linked to them and wouldn't want people to end up being greeted by a nasty 404 page. Which reminds me, I need to design a new one of those too.In the end, I'm aware that the name "Whiggles.com Compact" is a bit of a misnomer, given that, despite my best intentions, I actually ended up migrating 99.9% of my old data to the new site. Still, I guess I can lie and claim that "Compact" refers to the sleek design, rather than the fact that, once upon a time (i.e. a little over a week ago), this was intended to be an ultra-conservative, pared-down page.
Comparisons added
A whole bunch of DVD Image Comparisons have now been added. Basically, going in alphabetical order, everything up to "H" is now viewable, plus The Rock. Originally I planned to have this all done by the end of tonight, and that still seems like a possible goal, but it's incredibly tedious work, and I don't know if I can stomach going through it all in one sitting. I still have 13 comparisons to do (the 6 I've done so far tonight have taken me nearly two hours), and although I'm getting a bit quicker at it, it's still hard-going.CD Collection completed
The final two pages of the CD Collection (J-O and P-Z) have now been added, completing that section. Now I just have to finish the DVD Image Comparisons section (big push tonight, possibly) and the site will be 100% complete.CDs added
The first of my three CD Collection pages has been added, featuring titles beginning with the letters A through I.Zen
My Zen went back to Creative today. As far as I can tell, they're simply going to send me a replacement once the damaged one arrives. I have to say, though, it never occurred to me how much I make use of the thing, and not having it right now feels really odd. I actually got out my old CD player again last night, and had completely forgotten what a pain in the neck it was to have to change discs.DVD debacle
Watching Ren & Stimpy right now, I'm shocked by just how bad some of these cartoons are. Ren's Retirement is one of the ugliest things I've ever seen, and the voices, plots etc. are hideous. Many people have said that, despite how bad the Games episodes of Ren & Stimpy were, they were better than just about anything else that was on TV. Now, I'm really not that sure. The drop from Spumco to Games is even larger than I originally remembered, and having never sat through more than a handful of Games cartoons in one sitting, working my way through three discs' worth is painful. With the Spumco episodes, it seems that the more I watch at once, the more I appreciate them. Watching these Games cartoons, I'm beginning to feel slightly nauseous. Only the John K. commentaries are keeping me entertained.
Tuesday, June 28, 2005
DVDs added
The DVDs I bought in the first half of 2005 have been added. Whew! All done! Tomorrow: CDs, and image comparisons, and then the site will be complete.No sex, please, we're British
It's been a while since I reported on the Great Censorship Debacle, mainly due to the fact that most of the recent debate has centred around the issue of hard-core porn, which is of no real interest to me. However, this open letter by IanG at the Melon Farmers web site to British TV regulator OfCom, concerning their continued refusal to allow the broadcast of R18-rated material, even on encrypted TV, is so brilliantly worded and such a satisfying metaphorical bitch-slap to these censorious fools that I just had to link to it. Allow me, if you will, a choice quote:Do not test me Mr Glover. I am sick and tired of listening to the childish prattle of tiny minds. I am sick and tired of the real hard criminal evidence being ignored. You and the other censors will all be brought to Justice and exposed as the sycophantic accessories to mass paedophilia if you do not buck-up your ideas. This cover-up in the guise of hysterical public opinion has gone on far long enough.
Music mania
Glow Stars, by Heather Nova, arrived today from Amazon.co.uk. I only ordered it yesterday afternoon, meaning that it came in less than 24 hours. Is Amazon's recently-declined standard of service improving? Let's hope so.I how have five of Heather Nova's CDs, meaning that I just need to pick up Oyster and the live albums Blow and Live From the Milky Way to complete my collection.
Hooray for the holidays
I had my last shift at the library today. True to form, it was a horrendous affair, comprised of three hours' worth of shelf-tidying (the most mind-numbing activity known to man). Once this idiotic graduation nonsense is finished with this Friday (I swear, I wish I'd just registered to graduate my post, although on second thoughts I wouldn't want to deprive my parents of the spectacle of seeing me walking on stage wearing a ridiculous gown to collect a roll of paper) I'll definitely feel like I'm properly on holiday.DVDs added
The DVDs I bought in the second half of 2004 have been added. One last big push either tonight or tomorrow, and I'll have the first half of 2005 done, completing the DVD Collection section.I've also take the time to correct a number of errors that somehow slipped in during the previous incarnation of the site, which included the labelling of the R1 special edition of Mulan as the "Unrated Director's Cut". If anyone spots any others, please let me know.
Disney Lies
Lyris came across a hilarious site last night. Disney Lies is, and I quote, "your source for lies, distortions, untruths, half truths, urban legends, rumors, and just plain made-up stuff about Walt Disney, Disneyland Resort, and Disney films". There's some very funny stuff here, including some great reviews of various films and DVD releases, and some very witty thinly-veiled comments about Disney management. Well worth a look.Monday, June 27, 2005
Diablo II: Back to Hellfire
You can download Back to Hellfire here. Make sure you get beta version 2 and the 2.02 patch to ensure that it works properly. (Note: you'll need a full copy of Diablo II: Lord of Destruction v1.10 to play.)
DVD debacle
Blade: Trinity (Extreme Edition, R1 Canada, the equivalent of the US Unrated Edition) arrived this morning. Having previously seen the UK rental copy by EIV, I note, with some disappointment but no real surprise, that the R1 version is much more heavily filtered and edge enhanced than its UK counterpart. It's better encoded, sure, with more grain and less overall flatness, but New Line seem to have lost the fine art of ensuring that there is actual detail in their transfers. Honestly, it shouldn't be too much to ask for them to deliver a reference quality transfer in this day and age.On a side note, I've now hit 375 DVDs. Only 25 to go before the big 400.
Sunday, June 26, 2005
Headphones update
It's not my headphones: it's my Zen. This is somewhat more of a problem. The fact that I no longer have the invoice, which Creative demands, further complicates the issue.Update, 17:24: I managed to get the online invoice from GoAudio's web site. I hope this will suffice. This really sucks, though: I've only had the thing for three months.
Saturday, June 25, 2005
Broken headphones
After just over a week's worth of use, my new Sennheisers have broken. The usual story: any friction on the connector causes the audio to cut out in one or both channels. I'm really sick of this. Can they not just design a pair of headphones that are adequately protected from wear and tear? It's not like I abused them or anything. I'm currently waiting for an RMA number so I can send them back to be replaced.Lego lunacy
Never underestimate the fun of sticking plastic bricks together. On Thursday I ordered another Lego set from eBay, a Ninja Castle, one which was damned expensive but looks like it should provide plenty of building fun. It's amazing how much the value of sealed (or even unsealed) sets goes up once they go out of print. There are sets on eBay that I can remember paying £15-20 for 15 years ago that are now selling for getting on for £300. I wish I'd had the foresight to buy several copies of these ultra-cheap little sets and then punt them at a vastly inflated price once the value had gone up. Ah well.I also came across some very nice sites focusing on Lego:
Brickset contains an archive of every set ever released, as well as reviews and a system for cataloguing the products you own. Links are also included to external sites, including eBay, part inventories and also...
Brick Inventory, which contains complete scans of the instruction manuals for most of the sets that have been released. Great to see the construction behind some old classics that I had only ever seen in photograph form before. It also means that you can use your existing pieces to try to build sets you might not have.
Finally, MLCAD is an extremely cool freeware program that lets you build Lego models in 3D. The system takes some getting used to, but I've been having great fun building sets I don't actually own (using the aforementioned manuals from Brick Inventory). Click the link to the left to see a shot of the interface. The building in question is the Black Falcon's Castle, released in 1986 and a set I always wanted to pick up but never did. Building it on the computer obviously isn't the same as building the real thing, but hey, it's fun.Friday, June 24, 2005
DVD debacle
Today I received a review copy of Hide and Seek (R2 UK) from DVD Times. I haven't seen the film itself, but the trailers looked pretty interesting and I had meant to catch it when it was on at the cinema. Of course, it happened to coincide with the run-up to my exams, which put paid to that little plan.
Big Brother tonight
The next Big Brother eviction is tonight. I've actually surprised myself by not watching the show at all this week, so whether or not I'll tune in to see camp Tory Derek get the boot (it can't go any other way, although it does mean that the house will lose its fourth woman in a row) depends on whether or not I can actually be bothered. There are more exciting things in life than this media circus.DVD Ratings System added
The DVD Ratings System has now been added. This means that, barring the DVD Collection, CD Collection and DVD Image Comparisons, the new site is now complete.Thursday, June 23, 2005
Hall of Fame added
The DVD Transfer Hall of Fame has been added. I'm going to call it a night now. More tomorrow...DVD Image Comparisons added
I've added the DVD Image Comparisons page, and the comparison for The Rock. Adapting the Blogger template for image comparisons proved to be extremely time-consuming, given that I needed to completely redo a fair amount of the layout and decipher their bizarre CSS code. After an hour and a half, I now have a workable template and will be doing the other comparisons when I get the time. As of now, I'm going to move on to other, less time-consuming aspects of the site. Come to think of it, I'm actually almost done with the key pages, and can then move on to the arduous task of completing my CD and DVD collections. Shudder.Opinion added
I've added the Opinion section, as well as its sub-section, I Hate... And to commemorate the re-launch of "I Hate..." using Blogger's framework, I've decided to dedicate my first new post to my hatred of the word "blog". How non-hypocritical is that?Cartoons added
The Cartoons page, and all the cartoon reviews stored on this site, have now been added.By the way, I've decided that this will be the Summer when I actually complete my catalogue of Ren & Stimpy reviews. (Yeah right, I said exactly the same thing this time last year.)
Argento audio interview
Source: Dark DiscussionLa Repubblica Radio has an audio interview with Dario Argento, concentrating on his most recent projects, Do You Like Hitchcock? and Jenifer. If you can understand Italian you might want to check it out. The relevant link is near the bottom of the page (just go to the page and search for "Argento").
Wednesday, June 22, 2005
Writings and Musings added
The Writing and Musings index has now been added. I'll work on adding the various sub-sections tomorrow.Ren & Stimpy
I caved in and ordered The Ren & Stimpy Show: Seasons Three and a Half-ish (R1 USA) from PlayUSA. I'm still expecting a review copy from Paramount, but it's anyone's guess when that will show up, and given that a number of retailers are already shipping copies, as well as the fact that I'm anxious to hear what John K has to say about how his vision was bungled after he got the boot, I couldn't wait any longer. I'll simply sell whichever copy comes first (of course, knowing my luck, they'll both arrive on the same day).Anchor Bay Trauma update
Source: Dark DiscussionAnchor Bay have updated their web site to include details on their upcoming special edition release of Dario Argento's Trauma.
Theatrical Trailer
Poster And Still Gallery
Love, Death and Trauma
On Set With Tom Savini
Audio Commentary with Author Alan Jones
Deleted Scenes
Dario Argento Bio
Cross-Promo Trailers: Suspiria, Opera, The Card Player, Deep Red, The Cat O' Nine Tails
We also how have confirmation of the release date of it and its stablemate, The Card Player: August 23. No cover artwork as of yet.
Vintage News Archive added
I've added the Vintage News Archive, which contains all my news posts from previous versions. The old layout from version 7 is still present, so posts that were made when it was on the go should currently look the same as ever, but once the data transfer is complete I'll probably remove the images. If you've seen the version 6 archives, which have the same skeleton layout but none of the images, you'll know what to expect.As before, the archives for versions 1-5 are only available as downloadable .zip files.
CD Collection added
I've added the first page for my CD Collection. Like the DVD Collection, this is a large section and will require a fair amount of time and effort for all the data to be completely transferred. As such, I'll probably leave it as it is at the moment and concentrate on other, less time-consuming aspects of the site. The Other section is now more or less complete, so I can move on to Writing and Other Musings."Other" added
The "Other" index has now been added, although at the moment only the Frequently Asked Questions section is present. Completing the "Other" category will be my main project for the time being, after which I'll move on to "Writings and Musings". The DVD Collection and vintage News Archive will probably come last.Killing in Style
This morning, I received an email from Sylvain, who has started a blog dedicated to the giallo (sub-)genre. To the best of my knowledge, this is the first blog of its kind (most online giallo resources tend to be in Italian, although KinoEye has a wonderful introduction to these films), and it looks like a great resource. I will possibly be contributing to it, so watch this space.Visit Killing in Style!
Tuesday, June 21, 2005
FAQ added
The Frequently Asked Questions section is now done. I decided to creat a blog template for it, and so far, this method has worked very well for adding the various questions and answers. Whether this will pan out for any of the other sections is anyone's guess, but I'm pretty happy with the state of things at the moment.Menu added
The menu you can see at the top of the page, underneath the title, is pretty much the way I intend to organize things. The first three pages are pretty self-explanatory, but I should probably enlighten you on how the other two will work.Writings and Musings will house any articles I write, which will include the following sub-sections: DVD Reviews, Gialli, Opinion, DVD Image Comparisons, DVD Transfer Hall of Fame, DVD Ratings System, and Cartoons.
Other is essentially a dustbin into which will be flung anything that doesn't fit in one of the other categories. At the moment, this includes Links, Frequently Asked Questions, Fake Whimsy, Jokes & Funny Quotes, and my CD Collection.
Currently, only the News and Movie Checklist sections are complete (and I still need to make the old news posts available somehow). The DVD Collection page is essentially up and running, but only includes a few titles. Bringing it up to date will take some time, but as the previous layout of my site is still functional, I'm not in any great rush. Besides, I've got all Summer to do it. Should be fun.
Blogfest... not so good
At this moment in time I'm probably going to abandon any notion of using blogs for my site architecture, at least for some of the pages. I tried hacking together a blog for my DVD Collection, but the level of customization offered wasn't to my liking (I wasn't able to, among other things, archive by anything larger than a month). For the time being, I've pieced together a placeholder page for my DVD collection, which you can see here. I've essentially stolen the template for the blog and modified it to my liking. This means that it's still manual updates all the way, but at least it looks fairly neat.To blog or not to blog?
Right now, I'm currently musing over whether or not to make my entire site blog-based. Blogger allows you to create as many different blogs as you like, and it has occurred to me that it would be entirely possible to make every section of the site (DVDs, FAQ, etc.) a separate blog which could then be moulded to fit my needs. Blogger offers a fairly decent amount of customization, and anything it won't let you do can be hacked via HTML. For example, there is no way to disable time-stamps on posts, but they can easily be disposed of by removing the relevant part of the HTML template; I did this for the Movie Checklist, where dates are required, but not times.From a cataloguing and archiving standpoint, this would be absolutely ideal, since, for example, each separate DVD in the DVD Collection would be maintained as a separate entry that could be modified independently of the rest of the page. Additionally, FAQ entries could be automatically dated (I currently have to add the "last modified" date for each question manually), and for the likes of reviews and articles, an automatic indexing system would already exist. To me, this method is coming to feel increasingly like a feasible solution.
PS. I've used the word "blog" way too many times in this post. Stupid, annoying, trendy buzz-words.
Movie Checklist completed
Whew! The Movie Checklist is now complete for 2005. I doubt I'll be bothering to add movies for 2004 and earlier, given how incomplete the list would be. I still haven't finalized a menu system for the new site yet, but in the meantime I've added a link for the Movie Checklist to the right-hand panel. Enjoy!Movie Checklist added
I'm in the process of migrating the Movie Checklist over to the new Blogger format. I've created a new template and at the moment am manually re-entering all the movies I've seen so far this year. This is obviously going to take some time, of course, and I can't promise to have them all done by the end of today, but this is a fairly significant step towards integrating the old content into the new template. I still haven't decided how I'm going to implement navigation to other pages (it'll probably be along the lines of having a simple tab with links to my DVD page, Movie Checklist etc., beneath the main title), but in the meantime you can view the checklist by using the direct link.Plagiarism: the saga continues
No major updates on the Dark Side plagiarism scandal, but I thought I'd do another post about it just to remind people that this is an ongoing problem. So far, it seems that only one of my reviews has been nabbed, but I'm annoyed regardless, and as most past issues of the magazine are investigated, I could well find that more of my work has been stolen. At this moment in time, the principal sites that have been stolen from seem to be DVD File and DVD Drive-In, but that's not to say that others haven't been severely affected.Mirek Lipinski, who runs the Latarnia Forums, and who was the first person to catch on to the Dark Side's sick little game, has set up a Blogger page (How about that? Cross-promotion!) to gather a list of all the reviews that are known to have been stolen into one place. The list is absolutely mind-boggling, as is the fact that it has taken this long for anyone to notice. I'll be watching this story closely.
TV Tome gone
I'm a little annoyed about this. TV Tome, one of the best online resources for television, has been scrapped. The URL now redirects to TV.com, a sleeker but significantly less useful site, run by CNET, the same people responsible for the clunky, banner-ridden Gamespot.Blogger non-compliant
Running my new site through the W3C Markup Validation Service last night, I discovered that the code Blogger generates is not actually compliant. Blogger uses the XHTML 1.0 Strict rules, which I have had no experience with, and quite clearly does not comply with them properly. Unfortunately, the problems seem to be emerging mainly from the code generated for archiving, comments, etc., over which I have no control. I'm quite annoyed about this, given the effort I invested in making my previous layout HTML 4.01 compliant, but there doesn't seem to be anything I can do about it.DVD debacle
Scrubs: Season 1
Scrubs remains compelling viewing. Its anarchic nature is as much a blessing as it is a problem, given that while a number of the jokes do fall flat, the bizarre mixture of the fantastic and the mundane ensures a broad range of subject matter, meaning that there should hopefully be something to appeal to everyone. It is said that those in the medical profession feel that Scrubs is a closer representation of the realities of hospital life than the likes of ER, and I can well believe it...
After a long wait it's finally here on DVD, but does the presentation do it justice? I've reviewed Buena Vista's R2 UK release of Scrubs: Season 1.
Monday, June 20, 2005
World of Warcraft killed my baby!
Source: Infoceptor ForumsA thoughtless couple in their 20s who left their four-month old daughter at home while they played Internet computer games at a nearby PC café have been booked by police after the child died.
According to Incheon Police Station on Tuesday, a 29-year-old man husband identified by his family name of Yu and his wife put their four-month daughter in the bedroom of their home and went to a neighborhood PC café at around 4:00 p.m. on May 24 to play the online game "World of Warcraft.
Time flew by as the couple lost themselves in the game, and when they returned home at 9:00 p.m., their daughter was lying on her stomach, dead of suffication.
Forgive the Daily Mail style headline, but sometimes the tabloid way is the most direct way. I'll be very curious to see if any of the rags and spineless politicians attempt to blame the game itself for the child's death, rather than the parents' stupidity. I've said it before and I'll say it again: if you're not willing to make the effort required to raise a child, don't have one of the little buggers. They're not a necessity, you know.
Update on the new site
I'm beginning to formulate the plans for migrating over a certain amount of the data on my old site. Essentially, I'll work from the Blogger.com template to produce a few skeleton pages that will include any information that I consider to be of vital importance and is not duplicated elsewhere. My DVD Collection pages probably won't be making the leap, since most of that information can already by found by viewing my DVD Profiler page. (That said, I'm not 100% sure. There are a few things that DVD Profiler's format doesn't include, such as the ability to link to my reviews and feature titles not already included in their database.)Material that will probably be included are my DVD image comparisons, CD collection, DVD transfer hall of fame, FAQ, and any reviews and articles hosted on my site. I'll also be sure to make my old news posts available, probably in the form of a zip file. Of course, this is still in the very early planning processes, and it's quite possible that I'll change my mind completely and go back to the old system of having a massive, sprawling site containing anything and everything, but I do like the idea of having everything smaller and neater, and with the layout and style sheets already designed for me to boot.
Welcome to Whiggles.com Compact!
Congratulations! You made it. You've reached Whiggles.com Compact, a new and improved, hassle-free way of getting your daily dose of whimsy.Right now, you're probably wondering what's going on. Well, the truth is that I've been getting increasingly ticked off with the whole business of running and updating much a vast, sprawling web site. I've also come to the conclusion that my most recent redesign of the site (version 7) is ugly as hell. Faced with the prospect of doing a complete redesign, I decided that now would be a good time to make a clean break and start over. Hence the lean, mean, spartan blog you now see before you.
At this moment in time, the new Compact blog is undergoing a trial run. I still haven't decided whether I want to stick with this or not. I'm also aware that my site includes a fairly large amount of useful information that took quite some time to amass and type up. With that in mind, there are aspects of the site that I will definitely want to migrate to a new, leaner site that will hopefully plug into the blog rather than the other way round. For the time being, therefore, the full Whiggles.com version 7 site will remain accessible here. Whether or not it will eventually disappear depends on whether or not I find this little excursion with the Blogger.com format satisfactory. For the time being, the various parts of the site that I update on a regular basis, such as the DVD Collection and Movie Checklist, will continue to be maintained.
PS. Let me know what you think of this new arrangement (add a comment).
