I've often ranted about the poor results generally obtained by the american TV networks only considering making any prog provided you can promise to make at least five years times 22 or 26 eps.

A prog which is "over and done" in ten well made tightly scripted eps, they just don't want.

This leads to even cracking good progs like Babylon 5 having really quite a large portion of "filler" eps.

With many progs, the "filler" eps are so tedious and keep you away from the real storyline for so long, that you lose interest and stop watching. The TV company then cancel the prog. This means the people who WERE persevering with the dross to get at teh good stuff, now never find out what happened. (e.g. Odessy 7, Crusade, Firefly, Dead Like Me...) DLM is really wierd, it was picked up for a second series and THEN cancelled - most of the victims of this sort of behaviour either die in the first year, or they last three or four then are killed off just before the natural end. Which brings me to

Jericho. We were quiet enjoying this but wishing it'd pick up the pace a bit. Then, as a combination of the above effect plus the writers' strike, they were told "hey guys, you only get 8 episodes of the second series to wrap it all up!" Well, the good news here is, they were told they had a limit, so they have taken the option of finishing the story in the remaining eps instead of just allowing it to peter out.

And the result? Really good telly, fairly *cramming* the action and plot-advancement in so they can finish the story in 8 eps. It's the first time in *ages* that having watched an ep of any story, I find myself scrolling ahead on the S+ box wondering if I can alreayd watch the next ep to see what happened.

I *do* wish the americans would learn from the BBC, C4, et al (whose output they appear happy to BUY, just not to comish) that you can make very good telly in a 2-hour slot, or six one-hour eps, or even ONE whole year of 1 hour eps, which would stand complete in itself, and not insist that if it doesn't have 120 eps worth of content, it won't even be considered.

Quick precis.

Saturday - get up early, have brekky, load a couple of bags, taxi to station, train to St Pancras, lunch at the Betjamin arms (recommended) 2pm train to Brussels Midi. Picked up by friends at station, taken to flat, climb to top of very tall flat, change, climb down again, go out for excellent meal, starting by walking into city centre. Taxi back after mantadory glance at mannequin pis.

Sunday - get up slow, clamber down flat, breakfast, see off other friends of our friends, take tram to city centre flea market arriving just in time for closure of same, find a bar, have beer, wonder around some more nice bits of city, lukily find another bar, have drink, take tram back.

Monday - get up slow, find car, which is kept in basement of nearby hotel, take it to Ghent. Wonder around, have beer, wonder around, have lunch (Passion restaurant near the there churches strongly recommended), take canal trip, wonder around, etc. have drink, find car, drive back. Dinner in local bar - yum.

Tuesday, get tram to town, do the open top bus thing, stop off to have lunch in restaurant on top floor of Atomium (not bad but not worth doing except for the amazing location and views) and back down. (Take it as read that there were drinks in bars etc as and when). Return via Metro and Tram. IN time to have a quick dinner and then pop out and catch Bus 54 to Vorst where to spend the evening in the company of Mr Mark Knopfler. On form. Bus back, rain, call in at same bar as last night's dinner, piss off lady who owns it who is bopping along to a Knopfeler track on teh radio when we get there by telling her where we've been... see off some more beers... home.

Wednesday. Liz has been summoned direct to a client meeting in Copenhagen. No probls, I have sussed it's only two tram stops and three metro stops to the station, so plan to leave when B takes Liz to airport and have a relaxing morning, buy a few chox, have a beer or two in a bar, etc., and generally be relaxed over getting to the train at 11:59. Over-ruled went WITH B to drop liz at airport, should still have been back at station by 10:00 but one of the big tunnels unto down is closed and it takes 90 minuets LONGER than the anticipated 45 mins to get back into town, it's all gridlocked. Make it to midi with *seconds* to spare, surprised they even let me on. Actually, I almost wish they hadn't, coz then by the time I'd arranged a new ticket, I'd have had an hour for tat beer... As it was, I got *legroom* coz Liz's seat was unoccupied.

All in all, fun, and, I have to say, the Eurostar is a fabby way of getting somewhere and back, even if regular class is a tad lacking in knee room. (Suggest you eithe travel with someone you know, or ask for an "airline" seat (i.e. one which faces the back of the next seat not one with a table) so you're not playing cramped footsie with strangers...

These guys know how to *throw* a party. But now how do DO one.

Last night was the first evening of the EDS corporate beano Liz and I are on in Phoenix.

We were all told to turn up in demin or "western" clobber - they sent hats to the room! I groand, envisaging an evening of being compelled to whoop and line dance. But in fact it was a blast. Excellent music all evenign from

http://www.michellelynn.net/bandphotos.cfm

fab food, and two girlies handing out tequila shots from holsters! :) What appeared to be a scottish beer was very good but, on close inspection, from the Four Peaks brewery in Tempe, ten miles away. :)

But... this all started at 7pm. At 8 the demand for space at a table to eat your collected plate of good barbecye grub was in high demand. But by 10pm, it was looking like just the brits were still there. By the time the band packed up at 10:30, it *was* just the brits (and the band had switched to B52 covers!!) and by the time the last 20 of us made it back to the main hotel bar, teh only americans were the waiting staff. Spooky.

Anyway, now we're off to breakfast followed by a session of proper speeches and stuff. Keynote speech by John Cleese. This should be good - I've always wondered what his take was on the outsourcing business.

I'm reliably informed you can't make an omelette without breaking eggs. Well, I'm making two, one each, wiv chiz and mush. So I break an egg into a bowl. Do double-take. Two yolks. Hmm. Break second egg. Four yolks. Spooky. Finish first omlette, start second, break egg number three. Two yolks. Look over shoulder for hidden camera. Break egg four. Four yolks stare back from bowl. Claim lottery prize!!!

[Harry Hill] What're the chances of that 'appnin? [/]

Someone was asking what was so strange about the old airport at Hong Kong.

For those that don't know, the problem is, the runawy was built poniting at a huge mountain. Not a problem in the middle of the last century, when planes were small and slow. But by the time the jumbo came along pilots (and passengers) like a nice flat straight glide path to the threshold of the runway. To get this at Kai Tak you either had to fly through a moutain, or... here's a YouTube of a text-book perfect example of getting it right.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=bKqO6gdJIz8&feature=related

Having spent seven hours at KT waiting for a connection one time, I have to tell you, this is *exceptional*, most 747-400s didn't "nail it" and had to correct and re-correct right up until touch-down.

My first introduction to the unusual final approach was from the right hand window seat just above the wing. Normally on a landing, you look out, you start to see fields then, maybe, the tops of hotels near the airport, then flat land just before you touch it. In this case, youglance out and... suddenly find that a *lateral* look through teh window shows you looking along the length of the wing to the roofs of buildings just beyond the winglets with washingn lines, kids bikes, kids...

A wise man once said that the definition of an intellectual was someone who could listen to the William Tell overture and NOT think of the Lone Ranger.

I've spent a fascinating hour watching the recent bbc4 biodocuthingy on Stephen Hawking. And bugger me, but it's hard not to drop in the relevant Douglas Adams quote in the relevant spot, and you wonder how much harder is it for the script writer to refrain. Unless, of course, you have that mythical beast, a writer who knows enough to write a meaningful bio script about Hawking and his work who has never read seen or heard of THHGTTG.



On a more serious note, i do wonder just how stressful it can be for the folk working with him, to know that with his one remaining low bit rate serial channel, just how much of his time are you wasting if you make a stupid mistake...

... you turn up at the station to find the carpark utterly full. Rare, that. Normally on the busiest of days there's a space somewhere. IN fact, by this time (about 10:30) the early birds are returning from the first appt of the day and retreiving their chugabooms. But no, despite sitting around for fifteen mins, no departers.

... and by now there's ten cars beetling around the carpark so even if someone left, chances of muggins getting the space are slim. So - resign from the planned brunch at the most excellent snack bar adjacent Amersham station....

...drive to Little Chalfont. Aha - lots of parkings. And... the machiens don't take plastic, unlike at Amersham, and I have no jingly monies...

...drive on via a petrol station where a far less attractive (but probably less calorific) item of brunch is aquired resulting in change for the carpark...

... at Rickmansworth. First drive into the old carpark near the statino only to find it was not built with Land Rovers in mind, and I can only just get around inside it by driving over the kerbs in manly Land Rovery fashion but enough of that is soon enough and I escape out again with much three-pointing after exploring only one level. Had there been a space it'd liekly have been too small...

... to the shiney new car park 100 yards further away which is combined with the new Waitrose. Land Rovers fit in easily and there's plenty of spaces, and I have the right money for the meter and I get to teh station...

... just in time to see a train pull out. Next train arrives in ten mins but it's now quicker to wait for the following diesel as that'll get to Marylebone more quickly than the leccy gets to Baker Street...

... and finally get to the client site in Mayfair only 90 mins late. Enjoy mug of coffee (love a client who always has one ready when I get there) and wonder up to the FD's office, for verily it his his sick PC I've come in to see (and nothing else) and discover, oh, it stopped acting strangely when he found the network cable wasn't quite fully inserted...

... yesterday afternoon...

... journey back was, by comparison, feature free, I even remembered to get off the train at Ricky instead of taking it all the way to Amersham.

Well, on the plus side, it is without question a billable visit. Probably the most frustrating four hundred quid we'll bill this month but hardly hair-tearing like the previous snag a that client...

I've mentioned it before but it bears (much repeating) - if you're not keeping an eye on this lady's photographs, you're missing a treat.

If you're going to crash a bomber, tell everyone how much it cost in Sterling. A mere 600 million pounds, compared to the massive sounding 1.2 billion greenbacks, sounds almost trivial...

do LJ windows just get wider and wider?

Normally i find some reason to re-start the browser a coupel of times a month and taht fixes it. But now, of course, with the most excellent "Session Recovery" mode of recent Firefox releases, I don't get that.


Anyone know a way to make it snap back to proper width, or even to stop creeping wider in the first place?