Misc

The Office

/ masher / 5 Comments

The very first time I saw The Office, on BBC2, I watched it for about 60 seconds and then dismissed it as a documentary that I wasn’t really interested in.

The next time, was when I was working nights up in Glasgow and needed something to entertain me during the day. One of my work colleagues brought in the boxset for me to watch.

Just two episodes in and I was hooked.  I think I watched both series in just a couple of days.

The brilliance of the writing and the low-key acting of the cast, was like nothing I’d seen before.

I knew that an American version had been made – seen it in the Netflix EPG – but never got round to bothering with it.  American remakes of British shows have never been as good as the original, in my opinion.

However, I was looking for a new boxset and it was recommended to me to watch. Annoyingly, just as I decided it was time to give it a go, Netflix removed it. D’oh!

But now, it’s showing on Amazon. Hooray!

And I’ve now nearly finished the second series (there are nine seasons of the American version).

So, how does it compare with the original?

Not as good.

Don’t get me wrong: I like it and I’ll definitely watch all 9 seasons, but for me, it doesn’t have that mockumentary realism that the original had – so real, it fooled me, first time round! Although the American version follows its British counterpart pretty faithfully (so far) and is filmed in a mockumentary style, to me it feels more like a sitcom. The characters are that bit more outlandish (especially the manager Michael Scott-  played by the brilliant Steve Carrel – and his assistant Dwight, but maybe that is what is needed for it to be a success in America… there’s no doubt that there is a mildly different sense of humour on each side of the Atlantic.

Steve Carrel’s character makes me laugh, whereas Gervais’ makes me laugh and cringe and it’s it’s that British cringiness  – that Basil Fawlty also did so well – that clinches it for me.

But I’d be interested to hear your thoughts… if you have any.

M:I-2… end of an era?

/ masher / 8 Comments

Back in 2012, I made a six-part Geocache, consisting of a series of electronic puzzles to solve.

I called it Mission: Impossible – 2  (it was the sequel to the original Mission: Impossible cache I’d made 18 years ago).

These puzzles were hidden around the countryside in a five-mile radius from my home. Each puzzle – when solved – would lead to the next, culminating in a final devious puzzle which – when solved – would unlock to reveal a logbook to sign and some cache-type goodies to take away.

As I had made it a Premium cache, meaning that only serious fee-paying cachers could play – and also because all the puzzles required batteries, which would need to be supplied by the visiting cachers – I never expected this cache to get a great deal of take up and thought it would probably only last six months or so.

How wrong I was.

OK, it didn’t get the amount of traffic a non-premium cache might have got, and a lot of people who did look at it (I could see how many, from the audit function that Groundspeak now sadly seem to have removed) possibly dismissed it due to the time it would take to complete – roughly a day: a lot of cachers are in it for the numbers and would rather get 6 quick wins in a day, than have to spend all day working for just one.

But, it was completed by a goodly number of cachers, who all thoroughly enjoyed the experience, judging by some of the logs:

“I would give this cache all 10 of my favourite points if I could! ” – L********61

“Wow Wow Wow.  done over 2 weekends with Morn.   we laughed we nearly cried at one stage…” – A***s T********e

“Stage 5 almost caused a divorce… Brilliant cache, great fun…”  – R****54

“Everything about this cache was extraordinary, innovative and impressive. ”  – Mr & Mrs M*****

“We had a lovely afternoon following the clues. I wish there were more caches like this one.”  – K****y + L***a

“What a sense of achievement to reach and complete the final stage of this wonderfully inventive multi-cache.” – A********s

“Ahha… Finally thwarted the Evil Professor Masher!! …  This is truly a great series, probably the best caches I have ever seen.” – G*****1

“This has to be one of the best (if not the best caches) I’ve ever found in my 10+ years of caching so awarding this a well deserved favourite point , would be more if I could.” – M*d H***r

“Caches like this don’t come along too often and giving it one favourite point just doesn’t do it justice. Tremendous fun…” – P******e

“BRILLIANT!, BRILLIANT!, BRILLIANT!……oh, and did I say this cache is BRILLIANT!!!” – The O****s

“You’re a genius Prof Masher and we salute you.” – The N***y C**w

etcetera, etcetera, as the King of Siam might say.

It was even nominated in the Best Cache category at the 2016 National Geocaching Awards (Britain & Ireland). It didn’t win (I don’t think enough people had played) but I was pretty chuffed to be nominated anyway.

But sadly, after seven and a half years, Mission Impossible 2 is no more.  Stage 2 went missing last year, so I reworked it to make the cache into a five-parter.  But then Mrs Masher found Stage 3 damaged beyond repair, when she was out walking the dog a few weeks back. As such, I have archived it, but sadly, stages 1 and 4 were stolen before I could even recover them.  Stage 1 was always a personal favourite, as it set the scene for the whole game. A short video of it can be seen here.  Use the password: Ge0cach3!  (Trivia note: the voice you hear, is that of our very own Mr Jones).

Mission Impossible 3 is almost finished and is nearly ready to roll out. I’ve spent the past two years building it – not the entire two years, obviously; just here and there when I had the time.

The theft and vandalism though, make me wonder whether I should bother (The original Mission: Impossible cache went the same way, fourteen years ago).

But, every so often I’ll take a read through those logs and be inspired to get it finished and get it out there.

We’ll see.

Who?

/ masher / 6 Comments

Today is Irena Sendlerowa’s 110th birthday.

But you both knew that, right?

Because Google told you.

Hardly a day passes, without Google’s homepage telling you that it is the birthday of some obscure person that you’ve never heard of (unless you are one of those that still uses Excite or Alta Vista, of course).

“It’s the 297th birthday of Louis Richaud, the little-known French impressionist painter, who died from syphilis sometime back in the eighteenth century”.

OK, I made that one up, but you get the gist: someone we don’t know or really care about.

Occasionally, someone of actual importance will get a mention: Da Vinci; Ada Lovelace; Abraham Lincoln; Tom Beringer.

Alright, maybe not Tom Beringer.

But, c’mon Google, you only need to find 366 well known dead people, to do this over the course of a year.

You could always google it, if you get stuck..

History lesson

/ masher / 8 Comments

I am currently doing a training course in rural Oxfordshire.

I have to leave home by 6am each day, in order to arrive there in time for the 8:30 start.

Then, of course, it’s another 2-hour journey home.

4 hours a day, driving!  In truth, it would be quite an enjoyable drive (I go cross-country) if it wasn’t for the A34.

It’s a pig of a road at rush hour. Always has been.

And the course? It’s pretty heavy. We’re doing legislation at the moment – not the most exciting of subjects… unless you’re a lawyer or something.

And, that log in the picture above? It sits in the corner of our training room. That is actually part of a water pipe from circa 1600 – although wooden water pipes date back as far as the Romans.

It’s quite possible that is where the term “Trunk Main” comes from, within the industry.

There ya go: you’ve learnt something from reading this drivel 🙂

Soup kitchen

/ masher / 3 Comments

When I do my weekly food shop, I will usually buy a tin or two of soup.

It’s a quick and easy lunch to make in the kitchen downstairs when I am at work: one min in the microwave on full power; take out and stir; in for another minute; eat with a slice of bread. Job done.

And there is such a variety too. I’m not sure I’ve found a soup yet that I don’t like, although I’ll steer clear of any seafood based ones, because me and seafood have never really got on.

So, when confronted with the huge range on the shelves, what do I buy?

Well, generally I’ll go with whatever is on offer.

So, I was in two-minds on Saturday, when I picked up a tin of Baxter’s Leek & Potato – the red discount label catching my eye and telling me that it was reduced by 30p.  This brought in into the same price bracket as a tin of Heinz.  Received wisdom tells us that the more expensive a product is, the better will be its quality.  So, would I prefer the tin of Baxter’s over the tin of Heinz?  Only one way to find out.

Taste test!

I bought both, and yesterday I heated them both to the same temperature and sampled them.  A couple of other people seated around the table and intrigued by what I was doing, also tried both.

Verdict?

The tin of Heinz definitely had more leeks in it… and lumps of potato and was more filling.  It got my vote and that of one of the other tasters.

The final vote went to the Baxter’s, with the taster preferring the texture and the aroma.

So, there you have it: Heinz wins by two votes to one.

Masher.tv – testing soups, so you don’t have to.

Hi honey… I’m home!

/ masher / 12 Comments

Jeez, they really know how to do hot, down in the south of France!

I’m back in blighty now, where it is pissing down with rain, as I write this.

However, we had a good time – as always – but I won’t bore you with the details.

And I’m particularly pleased with this picture that I managed to take from seat 16F on our Airbus 320-200

 

Now, see these sandals on my feet? Well, I am being constantly moaned at that they are not fashionable enough and that I should get a new pair.

But I have no intention of doing so: plenty of life left in them, I reckon.

Flip flops are the thing, apparently. But I’ve never liked ’em. Don’t like that bit that goes between your toes.

Or the noise that they make as you walk: flip flop, flip flop, flip flop… Gets on my nerves.

Mrs Masher put hers on the wrong feet once, and they went: flop flip, flop flip, flop flip…

True story.

But, it got me thinking. Y’see, I bought those sandals to take on our honeymoon.

Twenty-four years ago.

As you know, I like to get my money’s worth.

But, it occurred to me that my Clarks’ sandals – being nearly a quarter century old – must be pretty well travelled by now.

And so, with nothing better to do, I sat under the air-conditioning unit and worked out in which countries they had been worn.

In no particular order:

England; France; Spain; Italy; Jamaica; Kenya; Venezuela; Brazil; Portugal; Cozumel; Kos; Canary Islands (Fuerteventura, Lanzarote and Gran Canaria); Singapore; Bali; St Lucia; Malaysia; Thailand and Grand Cayman.

Not bad, eh?

And so, unless anyone can better that, I am declaring my sandals to be the Judith Chalmers of footwear.

Buzby’s book

/ masher / 6 Comments

This came through the door the other day.

Look at it: pathetic!

Those of you of a certain age – that’s my entire readership, then… yes, both of you – will remember when the phone book was such an epic tome, that it wouldn’t actually fit through the letterbox. And the ‘… good ol’ Yellow Pages’ wasn’t much smaller.

I can remember seeing Geoff Capes on Nationwide (I think), showing just how strong he was by making a Herculean effort to tear a phone book in half.

This latest edition is a combination of both the residential phone book  AND local businesses. Those two books stacked on top of one another would have been about two and a half inches thick! This new one is exactly one quarter inch. I doubt that Geoff would have much of a problem with that. In fact, I reckon even I could probably tear that in half with just my bare hands.

In fact…

*Five minutes later*

 

 

 

 

I RULE!

(actually, that was bloody hard!)

Musings

/ masher / 4 Comments

I had to smile this morning, when I received an email from Sony: their regular newsletter detailing all their latest offerings, designed to tempt me to part with my hard-earned. Pictures of their latest TVs; Home Cinema systems; Speakers; Headphones; Cameras and Smartphones. It was this last item that made me smile… or rather, wince.

 

Introducing the 21:9 Experience – with a wide screen, borderless design, you can multi-task with ease and enjoy films on your smartphone the way they were meant to be seen.

“… enjoy films on your smartphone, the way they were meant to be seen.”

Meant to be seen?

On a tiny, likkle 6.5 inch smartphone screen, rather than on a bloody great ginormous screen at the cinema?

I don’t think so, somehow, Sony.

 

But, I also had to smile yesterday, when I found myself following a little silver Corsa up the M1, during my morning commute. As we were stationary for quite a while – as is always the case with the M1 on a weekday morning – I was able to read what was written on the back of the car.

It’s a wonder how pepole find time to hate, when life is too short to love

This wasn’t scribbled on a piece of card and placed on the parcel shelf; it was (or at least, looked like it had been) done professionally.

If you are going to pay a professional to sign-write your car with rubbish sayings, you’d like to think they could spell!

 

TW3

/ masher / 2 Comments

Grasscuttingcarcleaningbatterychargingphotographing,

Springcleaningteadrinkingfoodshoppingmotorbiking,

Dogwalkingfilmwatchinggatefixingweatherlovingwhataweekend!

These boots were made for walking

/ masher / 6 Comments

Having a mutt, means I do a lot of walking.

Which is good, as I need something to persuade me to get my fat backside out of the chair, sometimes.

Problem is, ‘walkies’ is something that has to be done daily.

Twice daily.

Whatever the weather.

As such, I have proper outdoor clothing… bought from proper outdoor clothing shops.

I got myself a new pair of leather walking boots last year. They are a good make and seem to be well made.

They weren’t that cheap, either.

A little tab on the laces says “Waterproof” and I wondered how that could be if stitching is involved, so I asked the shop assistant if they really were waterproof.

“Yes”, he said, “… they are. To a degree.”

Well, he was right, because I took the dog out earlier and after about an hour, my feet were soaked.

Soaked to a hell of a degree.

It’s not like I’m wading through streams or anything, just walking in longish grass.

This is the third pair of walking boots that I’ve owned, which were supposedly waterproof… but actually weren’t.

How can they be tagged as being waterproof, when they clearly aren’t? There must be some sort of trading law that’s being broken here, surely?

Anyway, if the wet weather continues, I may have to dig out my Farmer Giles’ welly boots.

I hate wellies.

Shopping Trip

/ masher / 10 Comments

On Saturday I went to the Motorcycle Show at the NEC in Birmingham.

And I spent £45,000.

 

In.

My.

Head.

In actuality, I spent just 8 quid.

On a cheeseburger!

Criminal.

But, jeez, there are some bloody  nice bikes out there.

Not that I  need a new bike: my one goes well; it looks nice and I enjoy riding it.

But ‘need’ is different to ‘want’.

And right now, having had my appetite whetted, I sooooo want a new ride.

That one at the top will do nicely, thank you.

Ah ha!

/ masher / 8 Comments

There’s been a lot of good stuff on the telly over the years.

Of course, there’s also been a hell of a lot of dross.

And sometimes, the good stuff can get lost in the dross.

And sometimes, even when I’ve heard good reviews of programmes, I find that I just don’t get round to watching them.

It was like that with The Office: heard so much about it, but somehow just never bothered.

Until I was working up in Glasgow for several months and found myself desperately searching for box sets to watch in my free time. A friend lent me a DVD of Gervais’ mockumentary series and I was hooked.

Likewise, I was searching through Netflix the other day, trying to find some half-hour comedy programmes to watch, when I found the section entitled “Critically Acclaimed Witty British and European Comedies”.  Or something like that. And there, nestled in amongst the likes of Black Adder and Fawlty Towers was “I’m Alan Partridge”.

Made eleven years ago, how had I missed this particular gem? It’s just brilliant! And Steve Coogan is a bloody genius.

I know there’s plenty of other stuff out there that I’ve missed, so if either of you have any suggestions…