Steve Goble: April 2009

Green Card

*** contains spoilers ***

Two strangers - Georges (Gérard Depardieu) and Brontë (Andie MacDowell) - each need to be in a marriage for professional reasons, so they conspire to fake one, even though they don't know the first thing about each other.

Which gives this film a tough remit - throughout their subsequent battle to prove their fairy-tale romance to US immigration, we're meant to be rooting for the little fibbers.

Early on, it's clear that much of the comedy here is intended to be mined from Georges and Brontë's hamfisted attempts at blagging. Unfortunately Depardieu and MacDowell both ham-up their characters' falseness to such pantomime levels, that it's inconceivable to suppose that anyone around them can possibly be buying it.

With greater subtlety, and a little cleverness, this romcom could have had a real edge.

Instead, well, if you still can't guess how this mindgame ends, then the poster will leave you in no doubt.

Ethan Phillips is likable as the immigration guy. I'm glad he won.

Labels: films

The Sarah Jane Adventures: The Temptation Of Sarah Jane Smith

I must confess, at the start of this I honestly felt the same way as I used to when watching Doctor Who when I was 12. What a thrill!

Open wiiide.

"Soon I will do battle once more with Sarah Jane Smith. She will return here – the one time and place that she cannot resist, and this time the triumph shall be mine!"

(LAUGHS MANIACALLY AND SHOWS HIS FILLINGS INTO THE OPENING CREDITS)

Yes, it's the penultimate story this season, so the Trickster is back, reprising his appearance from the penultimate story last season, but this time he's actually referring to himself as "the Trickster", and has an evil laugh.

In fact, given how this story requires the viewer to quietly forget so much of his previous appearance last season, it's something of an irony that our heroes' only defence against his timeline-manipulating ways is something called a "memory-box".

For example, last season he rather implied that he had no name, answering Sarah's question "Who are you?" with

"Nobody. I am nothing."

and

"As you can see, I have no self. I exist only to bring disorder. That is my purpose."

This season he's calling himself by the name that Alan had made-up for him last time. I'd like to generously suppose that, as we hear all his dialogue in English, and as "the Trickster" is the only name that he's ever been given in English, then that must by default be the English translation of whatever his real name actually is.

(whew)

Last season he also gave us several implications that he was to later become the Black Guardian. (his refusal to directly interfere, his insistence upon getting his agent's agreement to a deal, the box / crystal, his dialogue "Waking or sleeping, I will always be with you Turlough / Andrea", and his description of his role in the universe above)

This season, he's just the plain old 'Trickster'. Well, we never acknowledge classic episodes post-Tom Baker these days anyway. A shame, since as I said above, that era is exactly how this two-parter felt to me at its outset.

For all that, this is a good story. No, I'm kidding, it's not. It's the standard history-has-been-changed-so-guess-how-this-will-all-get-resolved-at-the-end plot.

However the real problem I have with this tale is that, as in Secrets Of The Stars, the script of episode one is just not building-up to the same set of events that then take place in episode two.

Almost until the final line, episode one is all about the Trickster luring Sarah Jane back in time to save her parents' lives, and in so doing change her own history so that present-day Earth is in ruins. (presumably because she never now grew-up to save Earth over and over again)

Episode two is all about the Trickster having lured Sarah Jane back in time because he needs her to set him free.

Alas, without a part one to foreshadow this scheme, the Trickster's sudden captivity in part two feels like a separate story. It's almost as if the Trickster himself had gone back in time and rewritten part one, but without realising that we had all already watched it.

Right from the opening lines, part two is quick to write-off part one's set-up, replacing it with a new plot via much brand new information...

And now, the conclusion.

Old Trickster addresses Sarah and Luke in the devastated alternate-Earth of 2008.

Trickster: "You gave me what I wanted all those years ago, in 1951."

Sarah: "No. You're lying. How can me saving my mum and dad do all of this? They're just two ordinary people."

Trickster: "This place is on a weak point on the web of time. In the grand scheme of things, yes, you saving your parents was a tiny thing, but the village is on a fault-line, and you smashed right through it."

Luke: "Time was... broken open?"

Trickster: "I existed only in the limbo dimensions. I could only walk in the shadows, appear only in your reality for fleeting moments. But you gave me a path into this world. I exist here in the flesh forever!"

Did you get all that? No? Cast your eyes upwards and read it again. Understand it now? Good for you, I didn't.

Basically, the potentially enormous consequences of Sarah changing her own history actually made almost no difference at all. Instead, the childhood of a woman who grew-up to regularly save the planet, and sometimes the universe, is a "tiny thing". However this "tiny" change, by the simple fact of its occurrence, broke open time and released the Trickster to freely walk the Earth, causing death and destruction wherever he went.

Hang on – wasn't he already free? Specifically in Whatever Happened To Sarah Jane?, Turn Left and part one? Not any more. All the other occasions when we've seen him walking the Earth are now revealed to have been just "fleeting" appearances in our world. Quite how he was able to be free for such brief moments whilst still captive is never reconciled either. Even the place of his captivity is variously referred to above as "time", "the limbo dimensions" and "the shadows". Just where was he, and how does changing history damage a fault-line and set him free?

Anyway, they continue:

Sarah: "I defeated you before – I can do it again! We're going back – to 1951!"

Trickster: "Do you not understand? The battle is over. You already lost. Ha ha ha ha..."

Luke: "Mum! Come on!"

Trickster: "... ha ha! Ah-ha ha ha..." (etc.)

And with that the Trickster just lets Sarah and Luke go back in time to stop his younger self, leaving us to only wonder what his memory of their next actions in 1951 could possibly be.

As a result, it appears that this new "weak point on the web of time" just happens to have been in the same place as Sarah's home town by sheer coincidence.

Okay, dramatic licence, I get it. It's a fluke, something that much drama sadly relies upon.

However in this show, said fluke takes place just a week after all that talk in part one about how the time-fissure's exiting into Sarah's childhood home was just too unlikely to accept...

Sarah: "And think about it. It's all too convenient. It could be a trap."

Luke: "Or a coincidence."

Sarah: "No – it must be a trap, which is another reason for not going. Somebody's been very clever, but not clever enough. They've put the idea in my head, put the bait on the hook. But this one's not biting – I'm strong enough to say no."

And later...

Clyde: "Whoa – obvious trap!"

When, in part one, even the characters recognise that the fissure's location is way too improbable to be coincidence, then you can hardly repeat the same coincidence in part two, simply replacing the words "time-fissure" with "weak point on the web of time". They might be two different phenomena, but it's the same "too convenient" fluke.

Another common gaff (I reckon) in time-travel stories is when a character tries to change history, only to then cause it. By the end of this tale, we learn that Sarah's parents have always abandoned her as a kid, because her older self had travelled back in time and caused them to. So old Sarah has always been a part of events. So when she disables her parents' car early on, she doesn't change her history, because her presence is consistent with, and actually essential to, it. So the alternate future should really be the exact same future.

(granted, we could argue about this...)

In other news, Rani and Clyde remain irrelevant to the plot throughout. It could have been fun to see them explore their alternate-present a bit, but Rani's clichéd reaction to her alternate mum is plodding and ill-befits her brainy character. Further, her and Clyde's material neither drives the plot, nor learns any new information for either Sarah or the viewer. There is just nothing for them to do here.

When Rani eventually heads back to 1941 to tell Sarah that the Trickster will emerge through the Abbot's Gateway, even this makes no difference to events because Sarah is already at the gateway to see the Trickster becoming visible. Maybe Clyde and Rani should have been wiped-out from history too? Then the flashing of the memory-box wouldn't need to happen in this either, which also never got explained.

Rani does accidentally provide some additional clues for Sarah's parents to pick-up on, but still not enough to justify the enormous suicidal conclusions that they draw. Mr and Mrs Smith pick-up on the words of a few weird strangers who they've only met in the past hour, and decide to not only drive-off to their deaths, but to also abandon their 3-month-old baby. I like the idea that they had something of Sarah's guts in their characters, but that's nowhere near enough to make this decision possible to swallow.

As isn't their then deliberately driving themselves straight into a tractor. What would it take to make you do that?

Once more though, as happens often in SJA, there are lines of dialogue that seem aware of some of the finished plot's failings, and are keen to still try to bail it out somehow.

For example, I did like the way in which Clyde didn't just rescue the silly coincidence of Rani meeting her alternate mum, but also added positively to Doctor Who's time-travel mythos...

"Luke told me once that when time goes wrong it tries to compensate – keep people on the same track."

As a result, it's now possible to apply this compensatory tendency of time to reviewings of, for example, Andrea's otherwise-unexplained occupation of Sarah's house in Whatever Happened To Sarah Jane? It also rescues some of the confusion of Turn Left too. And Father's Day. And Quantum Leap...

In contrast to the plot, many of the other lines here are carefully worked-out too:

Sarah: "Luke, I have saved the lives of so many people – people I didn't even know. I don't know - Miners on Peladon, all the people drinking Bubbleshock - without a second thought, but this is my mum and dad."

Sarah: "She was always so busy, never in one place long enough to lick a stamp."

Rani: "Yes, hello, ethnic person in the '50s – hi!"

Conversely, at one point early on, Sarah's computer reports "There are no signs of alien activity." Ooh, I bet it later turns out that several aliens were active on Earth at this point in the show's history.

When writing a show about time-travel, I really think it pays to look at the bigger picture. Which I think, generally speaking, part one of this did. Part two on the other hand didn't seem to have even looked at part one much.

BTW, since you ask, this kid:

Oscar, under the Graske's control

...is a zombie!

Oscar the Graske

Labels: doctor-who, tv

Today's celebrity Bible-reader is... The Riddler

“If you hadn’t used my cow to plow,
you wouldn’t know my riddle now.”

- Judges 14:18b (God's Word)

Labels: bible, comics, tv

Spot The Difference with Spider-Man

Below are two pictures of Spider-Man.

The first is from Marvel US' Amazing Spider-Man Annual #18 from 1984, while the second is the same panel from the strip's reprinting in Marvel UK's Spider-Man #611 later the same year.

Although the two pictures at first appear to be identical, there are in fact five subtle differences. Can you help Spider-Man to find them all?

Above: Amazing Spider-Man Annual #18 (Marvel US), below: Spider-Man #611 (Marvel UK)

For the answers, highlight between the asterisks!

*1. No colour.
2. No footnote-box.
3. Spidey's final speech-balloon is missing.
4. No page-number.
5. Spider-Man's black costume is Assassin-8.*

Labels: activities, comics

Get Carter (1971)

Arguably mistitled whodunit, which is rather more about just who Carter is going to get.

Rather a lot of people, as it turns out.

The terrific opening-credits – shot from a train - promise a cool piece of cinema, and in the end that's exactly what we get, ironically because the film is so uncinematic. There's no colourful filter-work, slow-motion or saturating everything with music here.

(although the UK's Channel 5 was screening a de-Anglicised version, with different dialogue dubbed-over for the US audience - a cinematic convention of sorts)

Even the fight scenes appear to be unchoreographed. The result is very much a documentary-feel, endowing the events with a rare sense of realism. In one scene Carter walks up a flight of stairs and through a doorway, and all we can see of him for a few seconds is his back. You just don't get grubby shots like that in the cinema nowadays.

I'm never much good at following mysteries – characters have to work hard for me to even remember who they are – but in this instance I'm not sure it really mattered all that much. The pleasure in this flick for me was the sheer look of the film. Newcastle appears thoroughly bleak, and is populated by a cast of ogres who also look thoroughly bleak. Even the events that transpire are... well.

There's a very strong piece of storytelling when Carter discovers an underage pornographic film. The makers of Get Carter can hardly show us - let alone actually shoot - the sort of footage that Carter is viewing, but since he is alone, there is noone to whom he can describe its contents either. And yet, director Mike Hodges deftly leaves us in no doubt as to what's going-on on that silent screen Carter's watching.

Things become a bit harder to swallow in the final act, which is a shame, but forgivable. The above-mentioned film-projector is conveniently lined-up and ready to go, which its owner doesn't hear through the door. Carter somehow convinces the local police to send a coupla' dozen cops in to raid a place at 6am, solely on the basis of an anonymous phone-call. A character gets shot in the head – well, films are notorious for making that look nice.

For all that, I wish this casual matter-of-fact tone of storytelling had not since been overcome by all the flashy stylised fantasies that films are almost always shot in today.

While there's nothing spectacular about Get Carter, it sure gets on with the job of telling its tale.

Labels: films

Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man #91: If It Wasn't For Bad Luck...

Written and drawn by: Al Milgrom

'Give it up, Spider-Man! When THE BLOB'S got ya -- ya stay got!'

Another fairly mundane tale, which is exactly what I like about the wall-crawler's "adventures" – I can relate to them.

Well, I can relate to his having to juggle his acquaintances' agendas, his dropping into work to tout for some, and his thrusting his camera into other people's hands to photograph him doing stuff with anyway.

However once Spidey starts to battle a huge immovable guy called "The Blob" whilst wearing an alien costume that responds to his every thought, well, then I have to admit that the comic starts to lose relevance for me.

But that's not a criticism either. This is good fun, despite the odd jammy pun. ("like the baker said to the instant bread: I don't knead this"?!)

There's one rather post-modern gag in here too...

Like it says

Spider-Man: "'SPLUBP'? What kind of sound is that? Usually when I hit a baddie I hear 'POW' or 'BRAKT'... but 'SPLUBP'? Sheesh."

Best of all, there's no big resolution to this tale. The Blob simply runs out of motivation for his rampage, and stops, at which point Spider-Man and the Black Cat just turn around and go back home.

If that doesn't sound like a real-life conclusion, then I don't know what does.

Labels: comics

The Cat from Outer Space

Engaging Disney movie about a cat who comes from the local pet store, no, sorry, I mean outer space.

I was initially disappointed when it turned out that the titular martian moggie could talk, however this quickly became a good thing, enabling as it did a great deal more story to get packed-in.

Said kittie - Zunar J5/9 Doric 4-7, aka "Jake" - befriends several humans in his quest to repair his spaceship and return home. They're all quite lively characters, enabling Jake's super-powered collar to fire the imagination in precisely the way that these things are meant to.

Again, the film looks initially to have too many different villainous factions, but by the end this complication does make for a much more satisfying story.

McLean Stevenson and his M*A*S*H replacement Harry Morgan pleasingly appear in similar roles throughout this, often together.

The last scene – in which the cat successfully applies for American citizenship – is the only one that really made me cringe. Which I'm politely deciding is a good thing. Y'know - because it's-so-bad-it's-good. (somewhat at loggerheads with the rest of the film, which is just plain good)

Exciting, fun, imaginative, and with a lead character who's well over 16 - this is everything that kids' flicks used to be.

They should make eight more of these.

Labels: films

Father Of The Bride (1991)

It's unusual to come across a comedy as plainly unoriginal as this one, and still find it to be quite enjoyable.

Steve Martin's narration and facial expressions are the funniest parts of the film, although they do make you wonder whether any dad could, after two decades of bringing a daughter up, still be quite so shortsighted.

For the most part, Martin exaggerates his title-role only slightly, resulting in a performance that is generally only a bit larger than life.

For example, at one point he's trying to not fall into a swimming-pool. Of course, with such a slapstick genius as Steve Martin in the role, it all threatens to quickly escalate into something akin to a Mr Bean movie, but then it doesn't. It's just not that kind of a comedy.

Instead, it's 90 minutes of niceness that simply doesn't want to raise any laugh louder than a long knowing chuckle. Realism? Set-pieces? Conflict? Naw, this is a generic girl's wedding-fantasy start to finish, complete with enormous house, doddery dad, live swans, and even snow. And absolutely no repercussions whatsoever for careless overspending. (NB. This is not a film for today's economic climate)

The movie's most repeated message is probably best-demonstrated by the scene in which poor old George tries to convince his wife and daughter not to spend more on the wedding-cake than he had on his car. In the real world their conflicting ideals and prudence would be alternative perspectives that both sides could benefit from listening to. Dad needs to soften his approach and appreciate his daughter's feelings on this one - it is her wedding-day. Equally, daughter needs to respect that her dad's life-savings are just that - life-savings. There are loving, respectful lessons to be learned by both sides here, but not in this film. He's just heartless and wrong.

As a result, without any budgeting, his daughter's uncapped wish-list results in such a gigantic extravaganza that we have to suppose that, after the closing credits, penniless George was indeed later declared bankrupt, and spent the rest of his life financially dependent on his struggling newly-wedded daughter.

But hey, it's not real life, it's a movie.

George, and I suppose I, would have had much more fun if we'd figured that out earlier.

Labels: films

Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man #90: Where, Oh Where Has My Spider-Man Gone...?

Written and penciled by: Al Milgrom

I must admit that the references to the Black Cat's bad-luck powers in Amazing Spider-Man have really grabbed my interest, so I'm quite pleased to have jumped over to Peter Parker, The Amazing Spider-Man at an episode that recaps her storyline-so-far so well.

In fact, so well that they really could have retitled this issue Felicia Hardy, The Blessed Black Cat. She's in almost every panel, while Spidey only shows up in the present-tense in just one. I guess that writer/artist Al Milgrom quite likes writing Spidey's girlfriend, or perhaps he just enjoys drawing her...

Much of this is Felicia's ongoing internal monologue, as she swings around town looking for the magazine's real title-character. He's off fighting the Secret Wars of course, so her route around New York takes-in all of Peter Parker's regular haunts – his flat, the Daily Bugle and, uncomfortably, his Aunt May's place.

Despite the cover's promise that "what she finds could spell the end of the web-slinger's career", I'm at something of a loss as to what this was, unless she somehow messed things up for his photographic assignments at the newspaper. But what else are you going to put on there to advertise this one? There's no real villain, and the story is really more of a key-player's character-analysis. The Black Cat doesn't 'get' Spidey's alter-ego Peter Parker, a sad truth exemplified by her lying to him at the story's conclusion.

I do think that it's one of the strengths of this era in Marvel's storytelling history that they can effortlessly take a break like this and not even bother with the title-property, without any paranoia of losing their readership. Really - the Vision, the Scarlet Witch and Jarvis appear more than Spider-Man does, making this more of an issue of The Avengers.

In fact, for my money, the Vision also gets the best line in this. Having read the issue on Easter Tuesday, (hot on the heels of much Easter preaching at church about past sins) his perspective on which tense is really important is something of a breath of fresh air...

"Always remember, Black Cat – It isn't what you were or how you came by your powers that is important... it's what you are and how you use your powers now!"

Labels: comics

Jurassic Park III

Threequels are easy to get right.

OUT are the huge expectations of evoking the brilliance of the original, while IN are low-expectations of mindless trash.

Best of all, no-one ever actually watches them.

As a result, there's a greater sense of freedom to just get on with it, and Jurassic Park III exemplifies this.

Sam Neill is available from the first film, while his girlfriend appears to be less so. Jeff Goldblum from both earlier instalments had to drop-out, but it really doesn't matter. Richard Attenborough? Well, he didn't really seem necessary in the second one.

The plot is pretty much the same fare, delivering well on our established expectations of early out-of-sight dinosaurs, later full-frontal dinosaurs, and a deadly falling vehicle somewhere in-between.

There are also some nice lines, and a very funny moment with Barney. Oh yes, it's definitely a Jurassic Park flick.

All in all, I think this is my favourite movie of the three.

See how easy that was?

Labels: films

Marvel Team-Up Spider-Man And Daredevil #141: Blind Justice!

Plot: Tom DeFalco
Script: Jim Owsley
Pencil breakdowns: Greg LaRocque

I admit it. 25 years after the event, Marvel have again suckered me into reading some of their crossover titles.

Not because the storyline of yesteryear's Amazing Spider-Man requires me to, you understand, but simply because I've been finding it to be so good that I want more. I guess that's one of the reasons why a lot of kids got into collecting the US Spider-Man issues.

Many of them never got reprinted by Marvel UK, this issue being a case in point. (correct me if I'm wrong) The only excerpt that I'm aware of making it onto British presses was 50% of the cover, when it was reused about two years later on the front of Spider-Man And Zoids #1. (not a team-up) Inside was actually a reprint of the start of Amazing Spider-Man #256!

He's saying 'Gangway, heroes! This is where the NEW Spider-Man takes over!!' US original on the left, UK reworking on the right.

He's saying 'Gangway, heroes! This is where the NEW Spider-Man takes over!!' US original on the left, UK reworking on the right.

Anyhow, May 1984 seems like a good point to dip-in. Not only is it where my ever-helpful buddy Herschel's collection begins from, but it was also the month when Spider-Man's black costume was launched, in three different titles simultaneously. This time through I've already read of his return to Earth after the Secret Wars in Amazing Spider-Man #252, but here, in typical Marvel style, we get the same events from a different, more low-key, perspective.

In fact, over half the issue passes before Spidey even appears.

Indeed, for a team-up issue, it's unusual to find the two heroes barely even meeting each other. The first half of the story is Daredevil's, and the second half is Spidey's. When the two finally do encounter each other with only 2½ pages to go and falling, it looks as though they're at last going to battle the villains together.

'not much said

But no. Daredevil has already tied things up on his own, by doing some sort of deal with the Kingpin. (an ongoing crimelord villain for both characters) Instead, they have a very brief verbal disagreement about it, totalling just under a page, before heading off their separate ways. I felt fairly dissatisfied with the story's solution, but that's good, because both Spidey and Daredevil felt that way too. There were also some nice, subtle jokes about DD's reaction to Spidey's new costume, which I suppose must replicate the scent of his old duds too.

Being more of a Spider-fan, I've always had a bit of a blind-spot for Daredevil's continuity. (y'know, I actually didn't intend to phrase it that way...) So as I read this, I found I was mentally assuming that it followed-on from the movie, a plan which failed me during the Kingpin's workout, but provided a good background to the friendship between Matt Murdock and Ben Urich.

Ah yes, Ben Urich – the journalist. It had never occurred to me before that, as a newspaper reporter, he might know Peter Parker. Therefore it was a bit of a shock, having read so much of Parker's life at the Daily Bugle, to find the two of them chatting at the office as though they see each other every day.

Peter Parker / Ben Urich TEAM-UP!

I guess, for me, that was the real team-up here.

Labels: comics

WOW HITS 2009

Despite the title, I got this for my birthday hoping to maintain some sort of rough impression of Christian pop music from the year 2008. (the years on these things are always wrong)

I listened to the two CDs on different Sundays, and my notes make it fairly obvious that I was in a much more positive mood for the first one.

For disc 1 I've written impressed things like:

Call My Name – Third Day - Grand towards end.
You Are Everything – Matthew West - Grand towards end.
How You Live (Turn Up The Music) – Point Of Grace - Nice voice.
Mighty To Save – Michael W Smith - Good church singing! (very rare that)

A week later however and I've found the motivation to make only two positive notes:

Lose My Soul – tobyMAC - Nice.
All Along – Remedy Drive - No electric guitar.

Those Christians and their bloomin' electric guitars... Hey, here's a great song, but you know what would make it even better? Yep, drowning it all underneath a revving motorbike...

Samey. Very, very samey. And depressingly so, too.

Bring back Sonseed.

Labels: music

ANTZ

I've spent much of my life declining the opportunity to watch movies, on the basis that I would one day have time to catch-up on them later. Lately I seem to have had that time...

Antz is a perfect example.

In 1998, I wasn't the least bit interested in shelling-out money to watch it at the cinema, preferring to instead catch it for free on TV in a few years. One evening in 2007 I found it just starting in New Zealand, but still deferred it to later, preferring to invest my Saturday night in a less passive activity. (I think I spent it updating my 10-months-behind blog)

Easter Saturday 2009 however, and BBC1 gave me the opportunity to nail it.

The jokes do their job, and there are no surprises in terms of character-development or philosophy, but what this comedy does have going for it is a good story.

For an animation, there are quite a few talky scenes, enabling us to properly get behind the characters and appreciate the political and social forces that are in play. General Mandible is a formidable villain, whose threatening attitude is thankfully never reduced by becoming a comedy lunatic, a handicap suffered by too many cartoon villains of late.

And his plan? He actually keeps that a secret from us too. Again, this makes for a much more intriguing story than if he'd explained his scheme to a henchman in scene 2.

There are some great moments of adventure too. The sequence when Z is trying to rescue Princess Bala from being stuck in a lump of bubble-gum underneath a human's shoe, all seen in slow-motion from the insects' perspective, is huge stomach-heaving stuff.

Great movie.

Labels: films

Index

Labels: diary

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Hey there, and welcome to my online diary.

It's just an aide memoire of whatever I happen to have done lately, be that going on holiday or watching a movie.

Where I've said that I hate something, it's probably because I care about it enough to want better for it.

I am also a Christian, but I think everyone defines that box differently.

Agreement is not required, but friendliness helps. :)

Peace,
Steve.
(ῧ)

(mrstevegoble{at}hotmail.com)

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Some things I feel proud about:

Film-making
Radio
Acting
Still photography
Teaching
I’ve travelled a bit
I like diversity
I’m a good listener
I can spell millennium
I buy fair trade coffee and free range eggs
I exercise
I’m positive-minded
Honesty and doing the right thing are more important to me than anything else, although I consistently fail at them

Some things I'm still working on:

All of the above
I have difficulty remembering names and faces
I have little sense of geographical direction
Time-management (I need deadlines)
I rarely get to bed early
I’m not very good at making things happen
I sometimes get annoyed at computers
I don’t like confronting people
I find it hard to tell people ‘no’
Sometimes people disbelieve me
I was unpopular at all my schools, and had to move because I wouldn't hit anyone back
I find prayer difficult
I sometimes mistrust God
I've never seen Lord Of The Rings or The Empire Strikes Back, so please don't tell me what happens. :)

Neither here nor there:

I like plain white or loud colours
I’m always busy
I'm quiet in a crowd
I don’t like using the phone
I've never been on a date
Yes, that has always hurt

This is what I look like when I'm very tired:
Flu + jetlag + work =

:)
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Current favourite Bible verses:

I may promise life to a good man, but if he starts thinking that his past goodness is enough and begins to sin, I will not remember any of the good he did. He will die because of his sins.
Ezekiel 33:13

I may warn an evil man that he is going to die, but if he stops sinning and does what is right and good - for example, if he returns the security he took for a loan or gives back what he stole - if he stops sinning and follows the laws that give life, he will not die, but live.
Ezekiel 33:14-15

If he changes the way he thinks and acts, forgive him.
Luke 17:3b

The word of truth lasts forever,
but lies last only a moment.
Proverbs 12:19

Be honest and you show that you have reverence for the LORD;
be dishonest and you show that you do not.
Proverbs 14:2

You should each judge your own conduct. If it is good, then you can be proud of what you yourself have done, without having to compare it with what someone else has done.
Galatians 6:4

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Tony Hawks

TV Ark - British TV Museum

Oak Hall Christian Holidays

Old versions of computer programs

Printable rulers

The Society For The Protection Of Unborn Children

Time - local

Time - world

In the event that you consider there to be a work of yours quoted on here which you'd rather wasn't, please do just let me know - thanks. In over nine years of blogging, just one person has done this, and I complied immediately. Images have been used according to 'fair use' laws.

Goble asks: How often do you take polls?
	I take every poll
	I take most polls
	I take about 50% of polls
	I only take the odd poll
	Never - I am not taking this poll

Free polls from Pollhost.com

Steve Goble

Green Card

The Sarah Jane Adventures: The Temptation Of Sarah Jane Smith

Today's celebrity Bible-reader is... The Riddler

Spot The Difference with Spider-Man

Get Carter (1971)

Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man #91: If It Wasn't For Bad Luck...

The Cat from Outer Space

Father Of The Bride (1991)

Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man #90: Where, Oh Where Has My Spider-Man Gone...?

Jurassic Park III

Marvel Team-Up Spider-Man And Daredevil #141: Blind Justice!

WOW HITS 2009

ANTZ

Index

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