This weeks title is courtesy of Moose. I will leave you guessing as to which film she was talking about…

How to start and what to write in the introductory paragraph this week? I have nothing for you, other than two revelations I had over the last couple of days. The first is that I love to hear people talk in technical jargon. I have no idea why, but I just find it very reassuring when people start spouting about ‘gensets’ and ‘alternators’ and ‘hospital silencers’, or discussing the merits of direct versus indirect injection, or manifolds and hydraulic gearboxes. I can sit and listen for hours and hours, letting the words wash over me, whilst I pick up the salient points. Which is lucky really, considering point number two. Point number two is that there are few duller (and colder) ways of spending a couple of hours on a bank holiday Friday, than listening to two grown men talking about what sort of engine to fit in the boat. At one point we were up to about £16,000 worth of kit – this was before reality set in of course, but does go to show how expensive (and cold, did I mention the cold?) owning a narrowboat can be.

So that is how I spent my weekend, in an orgy of daughterly devotion. I think I’ve accrued enough brownie points to last me a while, don’t you?

Whilst I glory in the warmth that is a centrally heated Meadow Towers (total bliss), enjoy what I have found this week around the net:

I am in the middle of my semi-annual investigation of new mobile phone contracts (I’ve been on the same one for the past 8 years, but it is still the best deal) and am leaning toward 3. I would have actually switched this weekend if they’d had the phone I wanted still in stock (grrr) but regardless of that, it’s good that the industry are looking at scrapping network-to-network charges. Now if only someone would design my dream smartphone, I’ll be happy!

BBC TV is to show F1 from 2009 – yay. No more ill-timed ad breaks to annoy Moose!

Talking of moose (see what I did there?) Scientists have discovered that moose antlers act as amplifiers.

Following on rather nicely from last weeks First Person Theatre, this week Penguin are straying into the world of locational-based story telling, with the rather fine The 21 Steps by Charles Cumming. Oooh, but it would be fun to stick the story on GPS enabled phone and go toddling around London with it. Just think of the possibilities, then bring in the fun you could have with augmented realities (as an aside, Nick did a brilliant presentation on this at CAA 2008), or the locational art Gibson talked about in Spook Country and… spine tingle time Kind of a modern take on the make your own adventure books.

Continuing the theme of new(ish) story-telling forms, have you read Wikihistory yet? (This had me tee-hee-heeing merrily away. Short, but very sweet).

Growing up, my uncle used to take great delight in telling stories of gory operations at the dinner table, so it really doesn’t surprise me that they are using power tools to do brain surgery.

I want to be able to notebook like this (I think I just made up a new verb. Well what else can you call it when you create notebooks of events?)

Interested in reviewing books? Get on to Revish

Are you a fast reader, or a slow reader? Speaking as the person who finished Harry Potter 7 in under a day and who on her last holiday lost count at 25 books (or more) in under two weeks, I think I could possibly be classed as a “fast reader”. I know I skim through the majority of books I read. But then, if I enjoy them, I tend to go back and read them again, savouring all the detail. Some books I take slow from the start because I know I am going to relish them and want them to last. The majority though just aren’t worth the effort.

And wow, this is turning out to be a short roast! Just time for a few trailers…

Wanted – damn, I shouldn’t agree with the way this film is glorifying guns, violence, and generally killing people, but it DOES look like some glorious eye candy. James MacEvoy and Angelina Jolie? What more could a girl possibly want?

The Incredible Hulk – mmm, Edward Norton-y goodness.

Get Smart – I didn’t laugh at this, I really didn’t…

Um yeah, that’s it for this week folks. I am off to eat my one easter egg and watch the episode of Torchwood I missed on Friday on BBC iPlayer. I haven’t used iPlayer before, so was pleasantly surprised by the quality and speed of the streaming on the episode I watched this morning – full screen, and not one buffering issue or dropped frame in the entire 40 minutes, with playback starting almost instantly – but I am annoyed at how the BBC label the episodes. See, I watch Torchwood on BBC2. They premiere the episodes on BBC3. But when they say “this is Friday’s episode”, they don’t say if it was BBC2s or BBC3s, which led to me watching the wrong episode this morning. Enjoyable though it was, I am now a week ahead of Moose and have to watch out all week or I’ll be spewing spoilers unintentionally. Grrr. Get the labeling sorted, BBC!