By Roy Mathur, on 2023-09-26, at 23:46:12--00:18:59 BST, for Captain Roy's Rusty Rocket Radio Show
I woke up in a good mood at 09:17, the exact time of and day of the week of my birth. I opened my birthday cards and presents, started using a Filofax I bought in The Vancouver Pen Shop's scratch and dent sale fifteen years ago, bought a cake, picked up Mum, drove to the shops, whereupon the driver's window refused to close. I left Mum, drove back home, and slammed my finger in the door, while taping over the window. It still throbs. Then the alarm then went off because locking the car armed it, then the wind blew the plastic sheeting in and weeoo weeoo.
You can't make this stuff up.
Along with some TV (coming up next) I watched this last night.
Debt ridden recently gradated student returns home and seeks job at sinister corporation to support his struggling family. Peril ensues when he is infected by alien symbiote that blesses/curses him with Iron Man-like powers. Only with the help of his family can he defeat the bad guys.
The 2023 film played like DC Spider-Man, but more neon, and less lonely. Apart from the struggling migrant theme there's also a nice poke at the obscene training for maniacs still available at the School of the Americas, now known as Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation.
I liked it, though not enough for a repeat viewing and I'm too filled with envy to relate to Blue Beetle's extended family as much as I can to Peter Parker's tiny family. The third version of Blue Beetle is a lucky young man.
I knew I'd probably hate it, as I don't like Bernard Cornwell's Arthurian trilogy this 2023 historical drama is based on.
Merlin as as trickster druid, not a wizard, irritated me as did it's general grimy look.
This is the backstory of Nimue, the fey lady of the lake of Arthurian myth; the one whose hand emerges from the lake to hand Arthur Excalibur; the sword of power!
This 2020-- Miller production is well acted, but insipid, though I like Gustaf Skarsgard as an eccentric Merlin. Another Skarsgard? How many are there? Doesn't he look like Joseph Fiennes?
I've talked about how I wanted to get back into records for some time, so, with my birthday approaching, I bought this tiny portable USB-powered Bluetooth turntable.
It's a well-engineered product, with a heavy mini-platter, is easy to service and adjust. It sounded great, once I set it up, plugged the output into a headphone amp and that into my Roland Street Cube, and played some vintage Spinners and Elvis.
I knew before buying it that it is entirely manual---my last turntable from thirty years ago was a Dual manual---but what I realised when it arrived is that I'm now too old, weak and shaky to set the needle up and down. I didn't like that there was nowhere to put the tiny stylus cover that is too easy to lose. Techmoan's YouTube review showed that the original had a hinged cover. There's also no volume control for output and Bluetooth didn't work with my mother's Jam Heavy Metal; AT said some devices won't connect. Finally, though it is well-made, it is far too delicate to not include a case in what purports to be portable record player. If I were to keep it, I certainly would not travel with it, but find a safe place to position it out of harm's way.
As it is, and for trembly cack-handed wrinklies, I can't recommend it at GBP 199. I'm sorry the clever and pretty little machine had to go back and now I'm looking for a fully automatic turntable instead.
The Mach 2.02 (1338 mph) Concorde first took passengers across the Atlantic on the 26 September 1973 at 954 mph. Following a tragic accident, the flights declined in the 2000s, until we sadly no longer have supersonic passenger aircraft.
I miss Concorde, but other companies like Boom Supersonic are taking up the mantle with their slightly slower Mach 1.7 (1100 mph) Overture plane due for passenger flights in 2029. There's also a NASA plane in development, that will blast through the heavens at up to Mach 4. The supersonic age isn't over.
Despite the ups and downs of the day, I'm actually okay. This is mainly a philosophical standpoint than any valid basis in reality. If everything is buggered anyway, why add to the overall buggeration by worrying too much?
I did not fall in the lake on my last canoeing session, I had a delightful and delicious Chinese takeaway and a piece of Toblerone yesterday, and a nice bit of chocolate cake today. Things aren't entirely terrible.
Addendum: though the above is a lovely philosophy, it failed pathetically because by the end of the day it felt as though my head would go Scanners. Hopefully, I'll have calmed down by the time I tape this and again attain a state of cheerful nihilism.