Moving swiftly on...

Okay, I'll gloss over the result of the RWC final and instead turn my attention to my other hobby: home cinema. I just took delivery of my new HD Ready LCD (Fonejacker anyone?) and very nice it is too.


For those of you are specification-obsessed as I am, here's what the set can do (courtesy of the Toshiba website):

Picture

* Visible screen size (cm): 106
* Screen format: 16:9
* Display resolution: 1920 x 1080p
* 1080 HD ready
* Dynamic Contrast Ratio: 10000:1
* Active Vision M100 HD
* 100Hz
* Standard TV up-scaling
* Exact Scan Mode
* Brightness (cd/m²): 500
* MPEG noise reduction
* 3D Digital Comb filter
* Digital noise reduction
* 24 fps with 5:5 pull down
* Viewing angle (degrees): 178
* Wide colour gamut
* Dynamic Gamma curve correction
* xvYCC Broad Colour Space
* 10-bit processing

Interactive Features

* Digital Text
* Electronic Programme Guide: 8 day
* Now and Next Information
* Favourite channel memory
* Fastext

Audio

* Sound output (RMS) W: 20
* SRS WOW®
* ONKYO® speaker technology
* Stable Sound

Tuning

* Digital Ready
* Freeview Digital Tuner
* Analogue Tuner
* Auto Set-up

Connections

* HDMI with Deep Colour: 3
* REGZA link (CEC functionality)
* Component video
* RGB (via SCART): 2
* SCART: 2
* S-Video
* Side AV input
* PC Input: WXGA
* Analogue audio input
* Optical digital audio output
* Sub woofer output
* Headphone

Other Features

* Off timer
* Panel lock
* Integrated Signal Amplifier
* Wall Mountable (VESA)
* Swivel pedestal stand

Dimensions

* Width (mm): 1020
* Height without ped. stand (mm): 646
* Height with ped. stand (mm): 701
* Depth without ped. stand (mm): 134
* Depth with ped. stand (mm): 353
* Weight without ped. stand (kg): 24.9
* Weight with ped. stand (kg): 28.2
* Power consumption - typical (W): TBC
* Power Consumption - stand-by (W): < 1

The problem with creating a blog when you're drunk is that you often forget that you have one. I've been so caught up in the events of the past fortnight (rugby and life in general) that I haven't bothered to add anything. Anyway, that's set to change now.

Here's what I posted on a rugby site last weekend:

Reading all of these negative comments is starting to become a little boring now. Is Stuart Barnes writing them? He certainly doesn't seem to be able to muster a positive comment during his commentary. Let's not forget, Tonga ran SA close last week. I know some will claim it was a second-string SA side, but they are still world-class players.

Fair enough, it wasn't a vintage performance from England, but we ran out comfortable winners and there were some extremely satisfying moments. Some of the interplay by the forwards was excellent, I thought Sheridan looked good in the loose, Moody put his body on the line, and Sackey realised he has a pair of hands... I'm not a big fan of either Tait or Faz, but to see them getting over the line was great and must do a lot for their confidence. Wilko's vision for the first try was also impressive. The kicking is a worry, but so many world-class kickers complaining about the balls has to count for something.

I take the point about the ref, but to be honest he's far from the worst I've seen in this tournament (*cough* Kaplan *cough*). I was moderately annoyed that he didn't penalise for the dummy from the back of the ruck early on (even after warning them), but I felt that he was at least consistent and - above all - talked to the players.

I don't think we'll go much further than the quarter finals, but at least we restored a little pride.

I have to say, much of that is spot on, but I'll be glad if I'm wrong about the last comment. Having seen both France and New Zealand play this evening, I fancy our chances if we can replicate our performance from this afternoon. There's just no way that either could compete against our pack, and now that we know the French are though I'm even happier. Sure they might have beaten us twice before the tournament, but that matters not. It's winner takes all on Saturday, and I think we might just be able to pull it off on the day.

Anyway, I'll leave you with my favourite image from today's action ;)

So last week was a bit of a disaster, but hopefully England can pick themselves up for this week's clash with Samoa. The Samoans haven't been in particularly good for lately, losing to a thirteen man Tonga, so it's fair to say that 'England expects'. Let's face it, if we lose this game, not only are we out of the tournament, but we're also out of the top flight of International rugby. I hope to God that the team can pull something out of the bag and put in a convincing performance, rather than just scraping a win. They'll need the psychological boost before they face Tonga.

Chariot derailed?

Okay, so my expectations for the England/USA game turned out to be a little on the optimistic side. Let's face it, England put in a pretty dismal performance against a largely amateur side. However, I think the referee has to take some of the blame for what was a scrappy, occasionally ill-disciplined game. Kaplan was pretty awful, bottling decisions and missing blatant infringements. Still, that doesn't excuse Phil Vickery's silly trip, which has rightly earned him a two week ban (and ironically allowed the superior Stevens to play). Good to see Paul Emerick on the receiving end of a lengthy ban for his spear tackle on Olly Barkley as well.

Now we face much stiffer opposition in the Springboks, without a proven fly-half. Will the 'great experiment' that is Andy Farrell pay off? As a fan of English rugby I sincerely hope so, but realistically I think that the team could be in for a very difficult evening.

Radom shit I found on my PC

If there's one problem with staying up all night and drinking 4 litres of cider, it's that you post crap like this at 5 AM. Anyway, here's some random stuff I found on my PC from years ago that I find hilarious now, but will no doubt embarrass me tomorrow (today).

Okay, so it's hardly the height of comedy...

The incredible Whore Cat!

If there was any justice this would be Johnny Vegas.

Argentina 17 - France 12

Well, the World Cup got off to a good start today as Argentina put one over on those cheese-eating surrender monkeys. Now let's just hope England can pile a mountain of points on top of the USA in their opening match...

Jailbait

It recently came to my attention that Hayden Panettiere just had her 18th birthday. This means that I can now watch Heroes safe in the knowledge that lusting after Claire Bennet in her cheerleading outfit is no longer going to sentence me to eternal damnation. Here's to legality.

‘It’s all in the reflexes.’

I watched an old 80s favourite last night, John Carpenter's Big Trouble in Little China. Fuck me is was good fun; much better than the majority of formulaic crap that's being churned out in Hollywood these days. In fact, I enjoyed it so much I've decided to post some of the most most awesome things about it:

1. It used wire-fu, years before anyone had heard of The Matrix, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, or Yuen Woo-ping.
2. At this point in her life, Kim Cattrall was still smokin’ hot!
3. It stars Victor Wong, playing a character called Egg Shen!
4. One of the other characters is called ‘Wang’. Snigger.
5. The Three Storms are cool, especially the bloke who looks like Raiden from Mortal Kombat.
6. The main villain has a giant neon-covered skull in his basement.
7. One of the Storms literally explodes after over-inflating himself!
8. Thunder speaks perfect 'Engrish'.
9. Miao Yin.
10. ‘It’s all in the reflexes.’
    

In the beginning...

I'm still not sure what form this blog will take—or if a bloke of my age should even have a blog in the first place—but if nothing else it's a place to vent my spleen or randomise about life, the universe and everything. We shall see. To be honest it'll probably end up focussing on my love of films and weird sci-fi crap, so expect the odd movie review and fanboy diatribe.