Back to the Past

It’s coming back!

Not only did it feature in the Back to the Future science fiction films, but it was also made in Northern Ireland : the return of the De Lorean!

The official word from the Motor Company (DMC) is
“Job one will begin the third quarter of this year, with delivery by Q1 of 2008. We’re aiming for $57,500 as the sale price.”

There’s going to be no modern, curvy lines added to it either :
it will look like a DeLorean — square nose, gull-wings and all.

It’s a car very much of it’s time, but I just hope they can keep production going for a very long time, as I’d love to see them on the roads again.
Granted, there will not be a Flux Capacitor, or a Mr. Fusion, and it’s ability to fly will probably belimited to dropping it out of a plane or driving it off a cliff, but you know, some things you just can’t help liking. (8+)

Balls of Fury

I’ve posted about this before on my previous blog, but as I haven’t mentioned it here before, and there’s now an exhibition date of the 29th of August (though that may be in the States – I’m not even sure if it’ll get a cinema screening over here *sigh*).
Anyway, check out the official site http://www.ballsoffury.com

Now, most people that have visited my website and specifically the About Me page, will know that I am a Def Leppard fan and, that being the case, this was too good an opportunity to pass up.

Balls of Fury is a film starring Dan Fogler and Christopher Walken, and has been described on the defleppard.com news page as “If you like Def Leppard and Christopher Walken in nail polish, you’ll like this!”
Def Leppard figures heavily into the fabric of the film. Several tracks will be featured, and Fogler sports a Leppard T-shirt during much of the film.

Some images from the film are below.

A washed-up ping-pong champion must reclaim his skills after being recruited by the government to go undercover and bust a crime lord, who hosts an annual ping-pong tournament in which all the losers are executed.

The trailer can bee seen on the Yahoo! movies page, but I have conviently provided the QuickTime trailer links below.
Small (56k)
Medium (100k)
Large (300k)
Fullscreen (opens in a new window)

Time = Money

I was just complaining to someone over IM that I couldn’t concentrate enough to make a blog post. Let me explain …

At the start of the year four of us worked in this department.
Now we are one man permanently down (this place essentially fired him and has no plan to replace him), but before he went another of our number arranged to have five weeks off so that he could attend a wedding in Canada as well as just take a holiday. All was cool. Then, as mentioned above, we lost one of our number.

Not wanting to cancel his Canadian holiday (nor should he), it was decided that me and the other guy should try our best to cope. So for the past two and-a-half weeks it’s been down to just two of us to do the work of four.
I’m currently approaching the end of my second set of 12 days straight.

It breaks down like this : 12 on 2 off, 12 on 2 off, 12 on 2 off.
But it’s not that simple, as half way through the 12 we also change shift (not to mention do a 17hr day). The first 5 days are day shift. Day 6 is the double-shift; day shift immediately followed by night shift. The following 6 days are night shift.

The only thing keeping me going is the thought of the overtime in next month’s pay, though I’ll be in no fit state to make use of it.
Below is a clickable thumbnail of my overtime sheet for this month.

August’s sheet is set to be just as full.

I have a very understanding wife, even though she is currently on her summer holiday (she’s a teacher), and I have some very kind friends who keep me company on IM during the evenings.
So to all those people I say a very big thank you. (8+)