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Game of Thrones

May 1st

Posted by Admin in TV

I rarely get excited about TV shows, but the Game of Thrones series that’s going to start this month is one that I’m really looking forward to. I’ve read the books and am a huge fan, so it’ll be interesting to see whether they can get the same sense of scale in the series.

The problem I see them having is that there are so many story lines in the Game of Throne series. In the first book there are at least five or six different characters who are actively followed, and a huge number of others that are involved in the story line. The book has loads of pages and a huge scope to introduce you to the characters and set the seen – the TV show only has ten episodes.

Another problem is that the books aren’t even finished yet! I think book five is meant to be out this year, and there are at least two more after that. The series obviously has a lot of catching up to do, but it’s still an issue (I think the author spent 5 years between books, so at that rate the books won’t be finished for another decade!)

Even so, if it’s done well (which reviews say it has been) then it’ll be one of the best TV series ever. Even for people who haven’t read the book, I can assure you that the storyline will keep you hooked for a long time.

The author has been referred to as the Tolkien of the US and I’d definitely agree with that – I haven’t read a series with so much scope and depth in a long time – if ever.

Twitter and its annoyances

Apr 12th

Posted by Admin in Social

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I’m a Twitter addict, and I’m not ashamed to admit it, but there are a few things that annoy me about the service. The main one is that it’s so full of fake accounts – try tweeting about losing weight and you’ll see what I mean pretty quickly! Here are a few other things that I wish would stop though.

Aside from spam accounts, people who still tweet about their everyday lives annoy me. No one wants to know that you’re picking up the kids, or just about to have a curry.

I use twitter for interesting conversations with people that have similar interests to me – not to hear about mundane problems.

Also, is anyone else getting really tired of celebrities tweeting about charities? I don’t mind if they tweet about the charities they are directly involved with, but when you follow a celebrity and he or she tweets about charities every day – often completely different and unrelated ones – you know that they are just doing it for their “image”. I’m all for celebrities endorsing charities, but tweeting 50 charities (as I saw one celebrity do) in one day is no good to anyone! The fewer charities they tweet about the more good it will do the select few.

Finally, the people who get into follow relationships annoy me. If you want to follow someone, that’s fine, but don’t expect everyone to follow you back. If you tweet about interesting things then I’ll follow you regardless of whether you follow me.

Anyway, rant over! Need to get back on my bike planning otherwise it’s never going to happen…..

Getting back into exercise

Apr 5th

Posted by Admin in Exercise

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With the days getting longer and warmer, I’ve started to think about doing some exercise again. It’s been a long time since I managed some sustained exercise, so it’s about time I started again! The problem is that I don’t like running, and going to the gym is off the cards as the only one near here is much too expensive. I’ve decided to try cycling instead – but it’s turning into a bit of an expensive hobby.

To start with I’m going to go out and look at lots of new bikes. The problem is that there are so many bikes that I want at the moment – all of them invariably very expensive – that it’s difficult to know which one to go for.

I know that I should really go for a cheap option because I don’t know how long I’m going to carry on for, but it’s very tempting to go for one of the higher end bikes because they look so good.

I haven’t actually decided yet whether I want a mountain or road bike. There are lots of trails in woodland around here, but with road biking you can do it in the winter whereas mountain biking is restricted to the summer (unless you don’t mind getting very muddy). I may end up getting a road and mountain bike though, because I much prefer the thought of riding through woodland than spending all my time on roads.

I’m aware that I’ve got to think of some sort of target for the future, so over the next few weeks I’m going to assess my fitness level and see what’s reasonable but still challenging.

I’ll keep you up to date over the next few months – hopefully I should have a lot to tell you about my latest hobby!