Archive for the ‘Distractions’ Category

We make some pretty shocking television in Britain. For those who live elsewhere, they see what the US has sent them – shows like Friends, Scrubs and CSI, and think “yeah, that United States really make some kick ass television.” Then they look at the programmes we export and find such titles as X-Factor and Who Wants To Be a Millionaire.

Both those shows were created in the UK and both have been hugely successful in franchising to the rest of the world.

It’s therefore easy to look at the shows we have managed to export, while our true gems like The Office and Sherlock simply get re-made by the US, missing the genius of the people behind the original series which made it so great in the first place, not to mention the best television we put out, shows like Horizon and Human Planet being largely ignored, and become depressed about our success in selling our output to the rest of the world.

But there is one show which has successfully gone out into the big wide world and carved out an international relationship. Top Gear. And why not? It’s a fantastic TV show.

I don’t know anyone who doesn’t like Top Gear. Its reinvention in 2002 was a stroke of genius – time after time people say “I love Top Gear! I’m not interested in the cars, but the rest of it is brilliant.” That’s the genius, especially with the specials, it’s a really cool travel documentary about three friends that happen to be driving cars at the time.

Even those that do object to the show are usually only objecting to the fact that Jeremy Clarkson is one of the most offensive people on TV at the moment. Granted, he does say a lot of inappropriate things but then his TV personality is set up to be controversial – he is a man who is paid to have strong opinions.

As a result, the British version of the show is one of the most watched TV shows around the world. It has readily topped the list of most downloaded TV shows, indeed in 2007 it was the second most downloaded show of the entire year, beaten only be Heros and topping Lost, Prison Break, 24 and Family Guy, the most popular shows coming out of the US at the time.

Add to that the spin-off franchises which exist in Australia, the United States, Korea, China and Russia and you have one of the most popular TV shows currently produced in the UK.

Of course, for a rather differing opinion, you might want to check out Stewart Lee’s opinion.

Upon checking my emails recently I found an email with the following content in. It was not addressed to me, nor did the email it was sent from match that of the email in the body. But nobody would lie on the internet, right?

Good evening, master

I want to be your servant which is ready to make all your dreams come true. My name is Marya. I am 25, young, pretty beautiful and I like sexual experiments like BDSM, roleplaying and other. I am sure that sex is about freedom and not only about missionary pose, right?

I am searching for a man who is ready to satisfy me fully, u know what I mean, right?) If you ready to break any boundaries and ready to experience the most ardent desire and best sex in ur life then do not hesitate and write an answer as soon as you can! I am already waiting!

Please kindly send your respond to maryaredrose@ymail.com.

Can’t wait to hear from you!

P.S.: To accelerate you I’ve attached some ero pics of me…

Yours, Marya

She had also attached a picture of herself, and it turns out she was quite attractive.

So I emailed her back.

Hi,

You’re gorgeous. Where are you? How did you get my details?

Chris

She hasn’t responded. It’s almost as if it is some kind of scam…

One topic that often comes up in discussions is regarding how big Leeds is. So I thought I would clarify the situation, by pointing out that we are in fact the second biggest city in the UK.

Leeds now has a population of 810,200. That isn’t the West Yorkshire Urban Area which includes all the surrounding towns, of which the population is 1,499,465. So we’re not talking about Greater Leeds if you will, just Leeds.

Compare this to Glasgow, which has a population of 629,501, or Manchester, which has a population of 394,269. Of course, Greater Manchester has over two million people, but as we’ve already discussed, we’re not including surrounding towns.

Only one city can out-match us for population – and that is Birmingham, with a population of 970,892.

What of that London place you say? Why the City of London is only a square mile, and has a population of 11,700.

Last weekend saw the start of the 2012 Formula One series.

I wasn’t quite prepared for just how disappointing it was to not be able to watch it live. While the BBC’s extended highlights were pretty good, there just isn’t the magic of watching it live as it happens.

Never the less, it was a good race. It will be interesting to see how the season pans out – I hope that it doesn’t turn into a bunch of cars following two McLarens round a track, though Vettel’s strong performance suggests it won’t, and the rise of Mercedes looks promising too.

I’m currently re-reading Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series.

They are a fantastic series of novels and it’s brilliant to see the way Asimov carefully laid out all the story lines and concepts and weaved them in and out so that you never really know where it will end up, yet it all seems so obvious at the end.

I also find a lot of amusing parallels between the concept of The Tech-Men and work. Carefully tinkering around to try and fix systems we don’t really understand but somehow manage to keep ticking over 😀 .

Why do all these days come at once?

I’m a man who can deliver on his promises – last year I promised I would be booking the morning off to watch the Super Bowl and for Super Bowl XLVI, I delivered! You could of course argue that my willingness to take a day off because I was planning to be up very late isn’t really evidence of an ability to deliver to tough deadlines in any field of working life, but you would be wrong 😉 .

With the New York Giants having knocked out my beloved 49ers, who I have supported ever since I decided to pick a team to support and buy an appropriate shirt, I was firmly behind the New England Patriots and their very handsome quarterback Tom Brady. After all, there comes a point in life when you have to choose – are you a Patriot, or are you a Terrorist?

Unfortunately, with the Giants scoring a reluctant touch down with only a minute remaining on the clock, Brady couldn’t quite deliver a response. And that’s how I lost my housing deposit gambling on American Football…

Happy Galileo Day!

According to a recent poll, 17% of people admit to getting themselves off while looking at a £10 note.

Apparently, they’re the best steak you have ever tasted – or your money back.