By Roy Mathur, on 2020-08-31, at 23:48:43--00:34:20 BST, for Captain Roy's Rocket Radio Show, Listen
I'm a fairly doomy, negative chap, but just because I know the glass is half empty, doesn't mean I don't find the half full part delicious.
If I didn't believe this, I would have given up a long time ago. You can read between the lines, or rather listen, because my moods have been transparent on this podcast...
...as was abundantly clear when I posted, "My Bank Holiday Weekend was going very badly, but cream tea and The Lost Boys are edging starship Roytanic around the spaceberg." And it really did.
As I've said many times, the 80s were not great for me, but this film was one of its high points. Vampires, comedy, and sleazy beach towns... it's all there!
The first film of Christopher Nolan I saw was Memento, I'm one of the few who has seen Following (pod 11 2013), and Inception is one of my favourite films, so I really wanted to see Tenet, but I am disappointed by his childish insistence on releasing Tenet in cinemas, with the world still reeling from Covid-19, because he has decided to single-handedly save cinema by risking the lives of audiences and staff.
I was an avid cinemagoer before all this Covid-19 crap and I have been a cinema nut since childhood. Before the virus, it was one of the few pleasures I had, and I was also looking forward to Wonder Woman 1984 and No Time to Die. Look, I have been stuck inside with little money, for most of the year so I would love to see a film on the big screen, but I'm also living with older, vulnerable people, so that's not an option for me.
So I'm sick of big babies with more money and ego than sense. If most governments can't work out an effective response, science is still learning about the virus, and there is still no viable vaccine, what makes you think some arrogant, rich guy, with no scientific background whatsoever, knows what the hell he is talking about?
Christopher Nolan, you should shut up about things your don't understand instead of throwing your weight around until you get your way. You may be a creative genius, a filmmaking auteur, but you're also an idiot.
I'm not alone in my criticism, with a few of the big movie review sites, deciding not to review the movie because they don't want to risk their reviewers. Eventually, when the movie is attainable in a way that does not threaten my family with disease, I will also watch it and talk about it.
In sad news, Chadwick Boseman, the actor who played Black Panther in 2018 recently died. I didn't really know him outside that role, but in that role he excelled. As many are saying, "long live Wakanda!"
This thing is just going to run and run until there's a compromise and Epic gets a better deal. While I can see Fortnite dropping MacOS and iOS, I can't really see the Unreal gaming engine leaving anytime soon.
Late breaking: a recent preliminary court judgement, confirmed my prediction. Apple can drop Fortnite, but they can't screw Unreal.
This is an on-going issue (pod 328).
Over the last month, my Roku YouTube app has had trouble handling fast forward. Though my network connectivity is fast, I usually get a black screen and the buffering spiral, then I'm sent back to the main GUI.
I have sent feedback through the app many times, but it sucks and I'm starting to wonder whether Roku are interested in supporting their devices. It's a another case of relying on unpaid forum members to solve technical support issues.
Oh, what a saga this has been, and because most of my posts are routinely removed, it is the reason I'm no longer on Reddit. One of those posts removed, by a mod who's busy promoting paid goods, included a link to a Discord I was hosting, which is apparently self-promotion.
Anyway, long story short, I tweeted a link to a veritably boring essay of what gear I used, realised it was too long, then cut it down to a few paragraphs. If you're interested, click on the podcast link and then the gear link.
My gear is at the lower end of the market, but it works for me. I could probably use a better mic and a voice processor with a threshold function and a deesser. Those are on the list. Throw me a couple of quid and I'll see if I can't do that sooner, but take it from me, right now, I'm doing the very best I can do with a limited budget.
I tweeted a pic of the radio on which I listened to the late Tommy Vance's Friday Night Rock Show, between 10pm and midnight in the 80s, on BBC Radio 1. It's a nice solid chunky thing with a stainless steel fascia that you can hold in your hand. It still works, though it could use some work.
For the nerdy, it is a Realistic AF--FM Solid State Radio, catalogue number 12-609
On Jun 4, 2016 twitter user @sensasonic announced and showed off a "guitar to SID synth with integrated looper and MIDI support".
Understandably, this caused a furore, until late in the thread they admitted, due to manufacturing problems, they were never able to bring it to market. How sad, but what a great concept.
I'm using Ko-fi's base level account to ask for tips, in preference to Patreon, because it is totally free.
Ko-fi are still nagging me to put more content up there and a will soon, but as with everything, I need people to actually want to chuck me a few quid. If you are one of those kind people, I'll tell you how to do this at the end of the show. Rest assured, it is unbelievably simple.
I will put a video up, as the Ko-fi founder is apparently nagging me to do via email. But expect death by a thousand jump cuts, because I may have to edit out a lot of Tourette tics. Yes, I could keep them in, but how long do you want to sit there watching me get to the point? And yes, I have heard of Motherless Brooklyn, and no, I have not watched it yet.
My mum's getting to grips with VLC, which I've stuck on a USB drive and shown her how to use.
She's watched and rewatched Star Trek (2009), and has Star Trek: Into Darkness (2013), Star Trek: Beyond (2016), and Sholay (1975) on her playlist.
You can, of course, do lots with VLC. It is, as they say, the Swiss Army knife of media players. I even used it in the past as a network player to stream YouTube clips on a live radio show. It wasn't prefect though, and sometimes the stream would get snarled up. I'm still not sure if this was a YouTube, network, PC, Windows, or a VLC problem. With no evidence whatsoever, I'd say it was a YouTube problem, as YouTube don't like you playing media outside the browser or their app.
I actually have a qualification... okay, it's from an adult education course, but it was certificated Level 2 from the acclaimed SELTEC (South East London College of Technology), now known as Lewisham College, and it really came in handy over the years.
Thanks to being an avid snapper, I also have some royalty free photography I could use.
The fly in the ointment is that I need some kind of Wacom tablet and stylus to really get into juggling pixels and, well... Wacom. Didn't we already talk about that? The revelation back in February that Wacom was hoovering up user data? I'm hoping to find an inexpensive, dumb device, Wacom or not, that also doesn't need extra drivers. I mean it's just a mouse isn't it?
Hey, if you are beginning your journey into graphic design and or photography, I can recommend Adobe Photoshop CS6; the last non-cloud Photoshop and PaintShop Pro 5.03; a lightweight and remarkable similar to Photoshop program. Both of these program have well-deserved cult status and can easily be found.
By the way, Lewisham College has been responsible for sending two generations---both my mum and me---to Uni. Check them out if you live in SE London.
Currently this is on Discord, but I may move it to another platform so users can chat without joining anything.
I can easily spin up other community stuff if there's a demand, so let me know. At one point there was a forum, a Twitter List, a Facebook Page, and even a subreddit for the show, but without demand, what's the point?
Remember, if you are enthused about this show, it is up to you the listener to participate. If not, fair enough.
Details at the end of the show about how you can chat with me.