The collected works of ScottyB

I want to ride my bicycle, I want to ride my biiiiike..

So we at home are now the proud owners of a $60, 15-speed mountain bike.

Why you might ask? Well, it’s our new ‘keep fit’ tool. And my parents arrived home with it on Sunday.

While I’ve been perfectly content lately with walking, the rowing machine, and the stepper thing, I have to admit a childish excitement when we started assembling this thing, connecting up all the cables and such.

Taking it for test drives up the street and back then making the necessary adjustments to the cables so the gears changed smoothly and the chain didn’t pop off the gear every 3 seconds.. it was all very reminiscent of the days when me and my mates used to ride our pushies all day long.

One of us would get a new set of wheels, so we’d all come over to his house, unpack it, construct it and tweak it until it was just right - then we’d go out and ride for the rest of the day.

The difference being that these days, you get much more bike for $60. Those sort of coins (and bear in mind, it was a few months pocket money back then) would only get you a one speed basic BMX.. nowadays, it buys you a solid little 15-speed with all the bells and whistles. Quick assembly and pretty nice construction.

Whether I’ll use it regularly or not is the other question, but I got a kick out of riding it up and down the street yesterday. Still have to buy a helmet too, but for now, its looking like good fun.

And exercise to boot.

Thanks to MM and his recommendation that I join - or at least take a look at the PS3 Forums regularly - I have discovered the wonders of TVersity and live streaming of video to the PS3.

What was essentially a 5 minute production now means that I can watch any video (or audio, or picture) file I have on my PC through the PS3 on the big 40″ tele.

Awesome.

No longer do I have to waste a CD, or do lengthy conversions between file formats. Just chuck it into the share folder, open it on the PS3.

Simply put, this has to be the easiest system I’ve ever encountered for the ‘plug and play’ experience. Something as complex as video streaming over a home network all accomplished - and most importantly - working - in like 5 minutes is incredible.

Yay for Top Gear and Fifth gear on the big TV… hehe…

It’s not often these days that a trilogy manages to keep your interest all the way through.

Usually they are padded out. Like they were one movie.. or even two movies, that someone decided “Let’s make three films out of it, because that’s all the latest jazz of film-making at the moment” and what you get is a core story - sometimes pretty good - and about 3 hours of bloating.

Lord of the Rings was the ultimate in trilogy length. The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers and The Return of the King at 178 min, 179 min and 201 min respectively (or 208 min, 223 min and 251 min if you’re up for signing a significant portion of your life away in watching the ‘extended editions’) were great - but you always got the feeling that they could have been shorter. It wouldn’t have harmed the films - and it would most certainly, have been easier to sit through their entireties in the theatre.

The Bourne Trilogy is one of those that somehow makes you feel like you’ve watched one film. Three films that felt like one, neat, final product - rather than one film that was made into three.

The Bourne Ultimatum is no exception to the trilogy rule. It finalises the first two films and all the while maintaining that fast-paced, edge-of-your-seat action we’ve come to expect from the Bourne character.

As always the car chasing is wild, even turning to bikes. And there’s the trademark hand-to-hand combat scene that has to be seen to be believed.

All around, these are polished pieces of film making. No lapses in concentration, always keeping you interested and surprised, with enough twists to keep you guessing, but not so many as to have you confused. Not to mention plenty of action and intense.

Fantastic.

‘Tis just a shame that my DVD of the Bourne Supremacy is a bad copy (bought it from HMV, took it home, watched it, hangs up and goes boxy for about 2 minutes right at the critical ‘confession’ phase of the film. Took it back, got an exchange, the exchange does the same thing! D’oh!).

Have to re-buy it again one day I guess…

Links: The Bourne Ultimatum @ IMDB