June 2007 Archives

Ooooo you have to love Cliff Richard's 1980's Walkman-inspired pop hit, maybe. My mum used to refer to any form of personal stereo equipment as a "wired for sound" and it stuck with me, thus ensuring decades of misery as the thought of Cliff on rollerskates, extolling the virtues of virtual pop music spins around inside my head every time I think of cassette tapes, CDs and MP3 players ... (obligatory link to cheesy video here).

The reason for the convoluted intro is the fact I recently splashed out on Video iPod and I have to say I'm totally impressed. I've tried Apple kit before and never really got on with it but the iPod really is a masterpiece of design and utility. There's no frills, no extraneous buttons, knobs or twiddly bits, it doesn't even have a carrying handle of belt strap, it's just a compact, flat but handsome device which does exactly what you'd expect it to do, namely play MP3s and video files (currently there's series #1 of Black Books on there, if you haven't seen it it's hilarious!)

So, hoorah to Apple for making life easy, except for some small thing...
As a Linux user I can't run iTunes natively and, as I was too lazy to run it through VmWare I just plugged it in and started loading up tunes and movies for all I was worth. The other day I decided to have a bash at iTunes and see what it did so I downloaded and fired up said iTunes software and clicked the "Yes" button when asked if I wanted to update the iPod, approximately 20 seconds later iTunes told me gleefully it had synchronised my content to it's satisfaction. What this actually meant was "I deleted everything from your iPod and now it's gone. Forever. And Ever".

So up yours Apple, you could have asked me first!!

(Crussell would like to point out there are no Cliff Richard tunes on his iPod)

By a majority of 148 to 5, the Iranian government has voted to approve the death penalty for "persons convicted of working in the production of pornographic movies", according to the Associated Press.

Apparently actors, directors, cameramen and lighting crew can now be classed as "corrupters of the world" - one of the most severe criticisms under Koran law - which seems a bit harsh for taking part in your average "Goldie Horn" flick, still I suppose we should expect it from a country which issued a death sentence against Salman Rushdie for writing The Satanic Verses (it was bad, but it wasn't that bad ..)

Given Iran's propensity for stoning alleged adulterers to death and cutting bits off people who've transgressed the law I would have thought 90 minutes of poorly shot and badly edited hows-yer-father wouldn't have raised an eyebrow..

Ah well, guess that means I'll have to re-locate the shooting of my monster epic DPs in TeePees ...

(Fulvio - if you're reading this, I haven't forgotten about the whole topless cheerleaders vs Nazi Zombies (with guns) idea, apparently Spielberg and George Lucas are busy this month but they'll get round to checking out the script as soon the restraining order expires ...)

This is the post I never wanted to write. Today I should be at home, with my son in my arms, looking forward to the re-start of my life with a complete family. Instead there's only a feeling of emptiness and loss.

Matthew died on January 22nd as a result of Premature Rupture Of the Membrane(PROM) and there hasn't been a day since that I haven't missed him. It's a very weird feeling. I got to hold him for about ten minutes after he died, the hospital wrapped him in a tiny hand-knitted blanket so Elly and I could spend some time with him, but even though it was so short a period I can still remember every crease in his face, the tiny hairs on his head and his tiny button nose and fingers and the thing is, it still hurts so badly it makes my chest ache.

I often find myself wondering what kind of a little boy he would have been, I like to think he would have been happy, hopeful and full of life, sadly, I'll never get to find out.

We start IVF treatment in about four weeks time and we're hopeful this time it's going to work and we'll get the baby we've been hoping for but there'll always be a special space for my Matthew. Who knew fatherhood could be so damned hard ...