Author Topic: A random thread for small entertainment things not warranting their own thread..  (Read 284393 times)

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Is it the same thing though? Or is a boxed set a set of (DVDs, CDs, books, etc) in a box, and a box set is a series of TV episodes produced with the intention that people watch them not week by week as they air on TV but in one marathon session at a time of their choice on DVD?
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.


T42

  • Apprentice geezer
Last night we reached the end of episode 10 the 2017 Twin Peaks serial. Both dogs were fast asleep on the rug. When Rebekah del Rio hit a high, loud, sustained note one of them jerked awake, gave us a "what the hell are you doing to me?" look, and walked out of the room.
I've dusted off all those old bottles and set them up straight

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
I've discovered the, or a, literary equivalent of John Cage's 4'33". It's a six-page story by Dave Eggers called There Are Some Things He Should Keep To Himself.
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

T42

  • Apprentice geezer
I wish that when the lights on a large segment of a city viewed from afar all go out at once in a film, it wouldn't be to an echoing "shtonk" sound. At street-level it would break windows and ear-drums.
I've dusted off all those old bottles and set them up straight

Basil

  • Um....err......oh bugger!
  • Help me!
I wish that when the lights on a large segment of a city viewed from afar all go out at once in a film, it wouldn't be to an echoing "shtonk" sound. At street-level it would break windows and ear-drums.

Some sound effects seem to be compulsory.
The shtonk sound when any bright light is switched on.

Random others that spring to mind:
Cat appears.  "Yowl"
Bicycle appears.  "Dring-dring".  (Close examination of the bicycle usually fails to reveal any visible bell)
Sword waved, no matter how weakly. "Swoosh"  After having been drawn with a tremendous "shriiing".
Admission.  I'm actually not that fussed about cake.

Kim

  • Timelord
    • Fediverse
I wish that when the lights on a large segment of a city viewed from afar all go out at once in a film, it wouldn't be to an echoing "shtonk" sound. At street-level it would break windows and ear-drums.

Some sound effects seem to be compulsory.
The shtonk sound when any bright light is switched on.

Random others that spring to mind:
Cat appears.  "Yowl"
Bicycle appears.  "Dring-dring".  (Close examination of the bicycle usually fails to reveal any visible bell)
Sword waved, no matter how weakly. "Swoosh"  After having been drawn with a tremendous "shriiing".

Car handbrakes must be applied without use of the release button, for maximum ratchet sound.
Telephones will play dialtone when the remote party clears down[1].
MovieOS, of course, has a keyboard-only interface (even for graphics work) that beeps on each keypress.

I hasten to point out that in films city lights never go out at once.  It's compulsory for them to switch off building-by-building.


[1] It turns out that this cliche originates from the way a particular type of telephone exchange once used in the Hollywood area actually behaved.

Tim Hall

  • Victoria is my queen
Ah, while we're on fillums, I was watching Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy on the anbaric distascope last night. Top marks for all the period motors on it. Morris Marina, Austin 1100, Morris Minor ect ect.

Trouble is with such "Classic Cars" is the owners keep them pristine. No rust, no dents, no dirt. Nevermind, an enjoyable film.

There are two ways you can get exercise out of a bicycle: you can
"overhaul" it, or you can ride it.  (Jerome K Jerome)

T42

  • Apprentice geezer
Sword waved, no matter how weakly. "Swoosh"  After having been drawn with a tremendous "shriiing".

Neal Stephenson once tested Japanese swords & technique against European longswords & technique, and concluded that the longswords would usually win.

Re the wooshy sound, first time I heard it applied to head movements was in The Fifth Element, when Major Iceborg nodded.
I've dusted off all those old bottles and set them up straight

Torslanda

  • Professional Gobshite
  • Just a tart for retro kit . . .
    • John's Bikes
Also the obligatory car locking/alarm setting chirrup that NO CAR MANUFACTURER HAS EVER MADE A FEATURE OF and hasn't been heard on any aftermarket alarm system since about 1992.

Remote locking is a clunk - and quite a subdued one at that.
VELOMANCER

Well that's the more blunt way of putting it but as usual he's dead right.

Kim

  • Timelord
    • Fediverse
Verging on the rant thread for a minute:  There's a German-registered car[1] that's been parked around here these last few weeks, which makes a 'beep' and 'beep beep beep' sound when locked and unlocked.  It's neither the standard horn noise, nor a brief chirp of a siren, but rather a square wave piezo beep of the type emitted by PC motherboards when they're unhappy about the RAM you just fettled, or an excessive buildup of scorchio in the CPU, or similar.  Once attenuated by a few tens of metres, an unfavourable wind and the aperture effect of a partially open window, the sound pressure level is within the range you'd expect from a PC motherboard in one of the several of PC-based systems within ear's reach, and any semblance of directionaliy is lost.

Bastards.

It took a couple of experimental reboots and a few hours of noting the times before I happened to spot the owner getting something from the car, with the indicator flashes perfectly synchronised with the mystery error beeping.


[1] It's a green one.

tiermat

  • According to Jane, I'm a Unisex SpaceAdmin
Just had a shock.

"Follow the Leader" was released just short of 20 years ago!
I feel like Captain Kirk, on a brand new planet every day, a little like King Kong on top of the Empire State

Torslanda

  • Professional Gobshite
  • Just a tart for retro kit . . .
    • John's Bikes
Sit down and I'll get you another.

49 years ago we were 2 days into the Apollo 11 mission
VELOMANCER

Well that's the more blunt way of putting it but as usual he's dead right.

T42

  • Apprentice geezer
It took a couple of experimental reboots and a few hours of noting the times before I happened to spot the owner getting something from the car, with the indicator flashes perfectly synchronised with the mystery error beeping.

Noticed yesterday that when Mrs T's iPhone rings, something in or around my PC emits a low-level monotone buzz in sync.  Her phone's about 4 metres away with a metal cupboard in between. Her ring "tone" is a species of electronic quacking so it's not audio resonance.

Not sure where this fits into entertainment, though.
I've dusted off all those old bottles and set them up straight

Kim

  • Timelord
    • Fediverse
It took a couple of experimental reboots and a few hours of noting the times before I happened to spot the owner getting something from the car, with the indicator flashes perfectly synchronised with the mystery error beeping.

Noticed yesterday that when Mrs T's iPhone rings, something in or around my PC emits a low-level monotone buzz in sync.  Her phone's about 4 metres away with a metal cupboard in between. Her ring "tone" is a species of electronic quacking so it's not audio resonance.

GSM or whatever the cool kids use for cellular communications these days breaking through into an an audio amplifier?  Set the iPhone to silent and try ringing it...

T42

  • Apprentice geezer
Hum. I only use headphones. There is a Logitech speaker set too but it was off.
I've dusted off all those old bottles and set them up straight

essexian

Not sure if this has been covered elsewhere on this forum (I did have a quick look) but I really need to ask: "Why???!!!!!"

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2018/jul/21/buffy-the-vampire-slayer-to-be-remade-21-years-after-first-episode


IMHO why remake what was of its time and very, very good. I can't see the point, unless of course: "they" have run out of ideas for new shows..... I watched "Kingsman 2" yesterday which was just a rerun of the first set elsewhere which sought of proves this (It also proves that I don't have much taste in films!).


T42

  • Apprentice geezer
It's called "milk the punters".
I've dusted off all those old bottles and set them up straight

Steph

  • Fast. Fast and bulbous. But fluffy.
Found this interesting site
https://iwl.me/b/31398c21

Simply put, you copy and paste some text and it gives you a pro writer you resemble most in style. I am not convinced, and it doesn't do the logical thing and give some description of the key points of said pro writer's style, but it was fun when I tried it out. Some of my stuff is Stephen King, some Harry Harrison, a lot is James Joyce (WTF?), some is Conan Dpyle, most is someone I have never read: Cory Doctorow.

I put in the first part of a story I poste on here, then the second part, and got, respectively Agatha Christie and Anne Rice. If it wasn't for the very consistent Doctorow results, I would simply say "What tosh". What I am curious about is how the system works. Word choice? Sentence length? Subject matter? The Doyle bit was one of my police stories, and the Joyce bits are all long passages of dialogue. Verb-adjective count?

Any ideas?
Mae angen arnaf i byw, a fe fydda'i

citoyen

  • Occasionally rides a bike
Be careful, Steph, you don’t want to suffer the same fate as Ronald Frobisher...
http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=3216
"The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles."

Steph

  • Fast. Fast and bulbous. But fluffy.
Mae angen arnaf i byw, a fe fydda'i

T42

  • Apprentice geezer
Found this interesting site
https://iwl.me/b/31398c21

Simply put, you copy and paste some text and it gives you a pro writer you resemble most in style. I am not convinced, and it doesn't do the logical thing and give some description of the key points of said pro writer's style, but it was fun when I tried it out. Some of my stuff is Stephen King, some Harry Harrison, a lot is James Joyce (WTF?), some is Conan Dpyle, most is someone I have never read: Cory Doctorow.

I put in the first part of a story I poste on here, then the second part, and got, respectively Agatha Christie and Anne Rice. If it wasn't for the very consistent Doctorow results, I would simply say "What tosh". What I am curious about is how the system works. Word choice? Sentence length? Subject matter? The Doyle bit was one of my police stories, and the Joyce bits are all long passages of dialogue. Verb-adjective count?

Any ideas?

I pasted in the bit I put into "Have you been out today?" yesterday and it told me I write like James Joyce. A second go with a short story got me Agatha Christie. Here's the first paragraph, judge for yourselves:

I won't beat about the bush, it was Uncle Eric that started it.  He's big, you see.  More than big, he's fat - so fat he has to carry a shoe-horn and a jar of cream to get through the door, and there's no use him going in sideways because he's fat all the way round. He's so big that when he gets on the number 9 bus it cants over sideways so that the back tyre rubs on the inside of the wheel-arch, and they have to put him smack in the middle to even out the load, or else put him off again before it takes fire.  When he wants to go to Lupshot they clear the traffic off the bridge over the canal.

I joined YACF about a year after writing that: see what you lot've done to me?
I've dusted off all those old bottles and set them up straight

Steph

  • Fast. Fast and bulbous. But fluffy.
Mae angen arnaf i byw, a fe fydda'i

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
I'm going to have to look for the early novels of Ronald Frobisher. They were so full of promise, sadly unfulfilled.
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

citoyen

  • Occasionally rides a bike
I'm going to have to look for the early novels of Ronald Frobisher. They were so full of promise, sadly unfulfilled.

You probably don't need telling this but the character is clearly a pastiche of Stan Barstow or Alan Sillitoe, both of whom are among my favourite writers.

If you've not read David Lodge's Small World, I would highly recommend it - it's one of my all-time favourite books, I've read it several times. The computational linguistics scene is one of the funniest passages in the book but it's all good.
"The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles."