Hoke’s Ramblings

Now that I have ‘live’ internet at my fingertips, my web development hobby is slowly gaining momentum again.

Yesterday I threw together two little widgets, after reading this excellent tutorial on Screen-Scraping.

The first is something I’ve been wanting to do for a long time: Take the excellent TV guides from www.tvsite.co.za and put them into a mobile-friendly format, so I can get my guides on the go.

The URL for this is: http://www.hokemon.com/scripts/tv.php - The next day, or the week’s schedules are available as links at the bottom of that page.

And for my next trick: Get the upcoming movies releases right in your RSS aggregator! Nu Metro has a very extensive ‘forthcoming attractions’ page, which I took the liberty of adapting into an RSS feed.

Stick this link in your aggregator: http://www.hokemon.com/scripts/movies.php, or click the button to add it to your Google home page. If you want to limit the number of items to, say, five then append ‘?n=5‘ without the quotes.

To spare Nu Metro the hassle of being bombarded with requests, I only get the list once per day, and generate the feed locally the rest of the time. This should reduce their bandwidth (and mine!) and stop the mconsidering me a thorn in their side. Not that they should, ‘cos it’s free advertising for them, anyway.

Nothing is more fun than accusing your friends or lies and deceit. At least, that’s what I found out after playing ‘The Shotgun Affair’ thie weekend. After almost nine months of waiting, because of weddings, losing the host’s guide and frantically trying to track down a copy from the manufacturer etc etc etc, we finally got to play. Man, what a hoot. Everyone dressed to the nines, which really set the atmosphere, and each player developed their own characters remarkably, which made for a really immersing experience.

It’s a really well thought out game, with everyone guessing right to the end, with accusations flying left, right, centre, up, down and back again. Of course, Lina was the first to put all the pieces together. That’s why it’s no fun watching movies with her
All in all, a great evening’s entertainment, with good (or should it be bad) company, great food and delicious bubbly, wine and port - it was a stately manor, after all!

Mugshots of the suspects are here.

Simultaneously the saddest and most hilarious thing you’ve ever seen! I didn’t get the original, because it’s quite dated now, and cost a packet more, but this sequel takes you around the globe visiting Trekkies/Trekkers of varying degrees, from the ‘way out’, to the ‘almost as normal as me’. These people are the definitive epitome of devotion.

It’s also quite touching how so many poeple use old Gene’s philosophies as a path to a better life.

Live long and prosper \\//_

Hoke says “a musical and visual spectacular for the 21st century!”

Last night, for Lina’s birthday, we went to go and see the opening performance of “We Will Rock You”. It wasn’t at all what I was expecting…I’ve seen ‘Queen’ performances before, but this was an interesting story woven around their smash hits. And inspite of their being around for decades, it’s amazing how with a few subtle alterations to the lyrics their songs are as applicable today (and even 300 years in the future!) as they were then.

I quote the official tagline: “…We Will Rock You presents an extraordinary company of young singers and actors in a futurist adventure set in a time when live music is banned on earth.”

Besides the awesome music, their visual effects are unlike anything I’ve seen before in a stage production, and better than most rock concerts I’ve been to.

While everything didn’t go quite as smoothly as it could, I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt as it was opening night. Besides, I doubt most of the audience noticed the stuff I picked up from my years ‘in the trade’

The star of the show was undoubtedly ‘Pop’ - The ultimate hippy, sorry, Bohemian, played by Malcolm Terrey and then of course there was ‘Britney’…

Not so much a review as a summary - Vampires, Werewolves, Helicopters AND Scuba! w00t!

Ok, since other people (people 1 and people 2) have already posted such rave reviews, I'm just going to mention a ghastly thing that may or may not have been so ghastly for other people.

Casting Pete Postlethwaite as the Keeper. I mean, come on. It's like when Dame Judi Dench played opposite Diesel in that Riddick flick.

OMG!!OMG!!!!WWWOWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!!!^2

Extremely entertaining movie, doesn't drag on, waaaaay darker than it's predecessors. Marvellous

…except I just wish Richard Harris was still around. Gambon just doesn't have the Dumbledore flair.

Just mosied over to Nu Metro's coming soon page, and realised there's a lot to see in the next month or two, not least of which is the next Potter (Have ticket's for Thursday's premiere at the Il Grande - w00t!)

Candidates for this Christmas' cinematic excursions are (in order of appearance):

- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (1 Dec)

- Doom (9 Dec)

- Oliver Twist (9 Dec)

- King Kong (16 Dec)

- Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (23 Dec)

- The Brothers Grimm (6 Jan)

Hmm…notice how all of them are adaptations of one kind or another?

Since Gaz reminded me of my earlier plight with Take2 I thought I'd better post an epilogue to that story…

Seems like what they sent me actually was what I ordered, but Nu Metro just couldn't be arsed to make decent DVD box covers. The same thing happened to me with the Count of Monte Cristo (also Nu Metro, I think) - Got loads of goodies on the disc, but doesn't say so on the box. I'm sure their sales would leap if they just put a little effort into the covers - I mean how can you make an informed decision buying a shrink-wrapped DVD if the right info isn't on the box?!

But I'm still never buying from Take2 again because they're rude and obnoxious.

Ra Ra for Kalahari!

[Side Note: News of my expedition into darkest Mozambique to go snorkelling with Whale Sharks to come, once photos have been compiled…stay tuned]

[S.S.N.: Telkom called while I was away to say my ADSL installation was scheduled for 29 Dec - bloody useless! Have had to delay till 9 Jan when I'm back from hols…at least it's one less month to be paying Telkom ]

The legendary James Doohan, aka Montgomery Scott of Trek fame is going to be blasting off into space early next year. He unfortunately probably won’t enjoy this trip to the Final Fontier because he is actually dead.

But if you want to be part of this tribute, you can leave him a message that will be part of the payload on the launch.