CRRRaSh! 311 Chicken Feet

By Roy Mathur, on 2020-04-16, at 03:20:10--04:04:15 BST, for Captain Roy's Rocket Radio Show, Listen

Perceptron

I clearly don't know how to code a neural network... yet.

Crusty Eyed Monster

My eyes are crusty. Prepare for a future report on arranging medical appointments during the lockdown.

Virus Diary

Though I don't watch the news obsessively any more, seeing the death figures mount daily is very depressing.

To fill the time, I've been catching up with things long left dormant; email, social media, blogging, writing and writing related tasks etc.

Occasionally I go for night walks. It's cooler, darker, and less crowded, although also a bit weird and spooky, so of course it appeals to me. And because I share a home, it's nice to get away and be alone for a while too.

My Fictional 1980s Office

I'm remaking a better 80s.

Dragonslayer

This is an addendum to 301, but also for the numerous times I've mentioned the excellent Dragonslayer (1981).

Although I recently purchased a DVD copy, that is not the movie I rewatched. That honour goes to a rip from the lands of the midnight sun, which seems to contain extra footage.

One such scene is near the end, when the dragon lies dead, and the camera pans along its length. What made me laugh was that we start at the dragon's oversized chicken feet, which are sticking straight up in the air. I was so struck by that scene that it took me quite a while to stop giggling.

I don't remember seeing it before, so I'm assuming either some kind of extended cut or faulty memory.

Batwoman

Kate Kane is kicked out of officer school for taking a hit to protect her girlfriend. She returns to Gotham to try and get into her father's security company and later stands in for an absent Batman.

The show doesn't deserve the low ratings it has garnered as I think it is better than Arrow (a surprisingly boring adaptation of a superhero I really like). However, I know little of the Batwoman character, who is a little after my time, so the show held little interest for me beyond the first episode.

Tales from the Loop

This is a show about a retro-futuristic (e.g. diesel punk robots) 50s/60s town involved in high tech research.

The first episode quite literally was about a loop; a time loop which catches a young girl after she encounters a strange piece of technology. The reasons for the loop are not really explained---something to do with gravity warping spacetime maybe---and they seem to be going for the soft and nostalgic human interest angle covered with a thin wrapping of sci-fi.

Again, this is not really hard enough sci-fi for me.

Lockdown Hobbies

As for lockdown hobbies, I'm actually pretty busy with work, but I'm also doing the usual TV and books, and I'm also learning the guitar. It turns out playing the ukulele does help, especially if you favour using fingers rather than a pick.

I'm using my white Bullet strat plugged into my Roland Street, but I'm using the Rectifier and Marshall settings now instead of the Vox and the front pickup instead of the rear, and it sounds great.

Turns out (no surprise) that I'm definitely into the doom tone. Anyone who says they can't get grumbly rumbly low tones from higher gauge strings are mistaken, or I've become so accustomed to my soprano uke, that a guitar sounds bassier to my ears.