When I first saw the teaser trailer for Atonement, I was in a cinema. The trailer was full of atmospheric shots, little dialogue, huge splashes of colour on the screen, and no clue as to what was going on.
I honestly thought I was watching a Jean Paul Gautier perfume advert.
See for yourself:
It’s bad enough for him going through live with a name that sounds like a pornstar.
But to go through with a name that sounds like a female pornstar…..
I’m going to show my age here. I remember the time when the two blade razors launched, like it was some sort of quantum leap.
Since then every few years a new razor has launched with an extra balde in it. We’re currently up to five blades.
Where will it end?Controversial game gets new rating – Video Game News – Yahoo! Video Games
M-kay….
I have to admit to being confused about this one. OK, so the game’s original version was quite violent and had been toned down. That part I get. It’s the seemingly insane American rating system that I can’t get my head around.
You see, for those who aren’t familiar with it, in the UK computer games either use a system similar to the rating system for films. The film ratings go like this: U, PG, 12, 15, 18. Or the games use the Pegi (Pan European Game Information) system, which rates the game on the intended audience age (e.g. 7+, 12+, 16+, etc), but also contains specific information helpful to parents, so warns if the game contains any of the following: bad language, discrimination, drugs, fear (likely to scare children), gambling, sex, or violence.
Here’s where I get confused about the American system:
An “AO” rating would have essentially prevented the game from being sold. Large retailers such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc. don’t stock “AO” games, and the three major console makers – Microsoft Corp., Nintendo Co. and Sony Corp. – do not allow “AO” games on their systems.
“Manhunt 2″ maker Rockstar Games and publisher Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. said the revamped version of the game received a less-stringent “M,” or mature, rating for consumers age 17 or older.
So the game originally gets an AO rating, so only 18 year olds can play it. This means most retailers won’t sell it and none of the three console manufacturers would allow it to be released on their consoles, so it would be a PC only title that no-one could buy.
However, then the game gets edited into an M rating, so only 17 year olds can play it.
Does anyone else see the problem there? There’s only one year difference between the AO and the M rating. What could possibly happen to American children in that one extra year of growth that would make them more mature and less impressionable? I accept that the distinction between childhood and adulthood is, and always had been fuzzy and hard to define, but one year?!?
There’s a three year gap between the UK 15 and 18 rating for a reason, which is precisely to prevent this kind of idiocy.OK, I’m up later than I normally would be, but screw it, it’s Friday. And it’s 01:39, and I’ve just seen an advert on ITV2 that was nothing, and I mean NOTHING but adverts for text based chat and dating services.
Six minutes of text adverts.
Oh boy…..I’m really starting to hate my local supermarket. Everytime I shop there, I feel like they’re rushing me out he door as fast as possible.
The problem is when I’m packing my goods at the till. The assistant keeps scanning my purchases faster and faster, and there’s not a whole lot of room at my end of the conveyor belt. I have to ram items into bags as fast as I can just to keep up. It doesn’t help that the bag dispenser is a pain to use and always gets tangled up. And there’s always another customer behind me, because even though the place has the usual 7-8 tills you’d expect from a shop that size, there’s never more than three actually being used at any one time.
The solution is so obvious; to remove the 8 tills they have, put in four larger tills, with a bigger packing space at the end so shoppers don’t feel rushed into getting their stuff packed up and in bags.
Believe me, if there was anywhere else nearby that I could get my entire week’s shop done, I’d be there. And the reason I don’t go to a few shops to get my stuff?
Well the fact is, I’m a lazy lazy man…Oh, I could kick myself.
I went out at lunch today to pay in a cheque to the bank, and after waiting ages in line, paid in the cheque and left.
About 50 yards down the road, the next task for my lunch popped into my head.
“I need to buy something now, so I have change for the bus.”
Immediately my inner critic piped up:
“Where have you just been?”
Sheepishly, I answered
“Bank….”
“And what can banks give you?”
“Change….”
Oh, I felt like an idiot.
