Minute44 - Dan Schonhaar

If you’re an iPhone user then you’ve probably at least heard about the Tesco clubcard app. The simple app displays a scannable barcode that you can use instead of your full sized wallet clubcard or mini, car keys version. Great, right? Well yeah, for what it’s worth it’s pretty good (even though it only scans on the newest in-store barcode readers). But I think they’ve missed several tricks that would have made it an absolute blinder of an app.

continue reading Come on, Tesco. Finish what you started.

Well maybe book is a bit ambitious. Perhaps one day it could become a book but for now I’d settle for any kind of published media. I could do it on this blog but I’d like to keep this focused on movies and some tech. Also once it’s finished I don’t want it to become buried in other content as and when I publish it. So maybe a new website all together…

continue reading I want to write a book… Kind of.

I’ve often thought about why movies are so important to me. Why do I love the cinema more than most other people? To this day I couldn’t tell you with 100% certainty why this is the case but I can give you my best guess. It’s the town where I lived in Canada until I was 9. More specifically the local movie theatre, the Forest Kineto theatre. This little one-screen theatre holds some of my fondest childhood memories. I saw some of my all-time favourite movies there. The Back to the Future trilogy, E.T, Honey I Shrunk the Kids, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the list goes on and on. I went pretty often with my parents and my sister, mainly because it was 5 minutes away from home and because it was so cheap. To this day the ticket price is just $5 Canadian, about £2.

continue reading Bring back small movie theatres.

Personal post time! It’s been a long time coming, mainly because I’m not very interesting, but now I’ve got a bunch of good stuff to write up. Over the last few months I’ve been up to a whole bunch of stuff! I’ve been on holiday (well, short break), I’ve been to Santa Pod for Jap Show and most important of all; Nat and I have got our first proper place together!!

continue reading Holiday, moving and more!

I’ve always been fairly good with money. I very rarely impulse buy and feel a cold sweat come over me if I dip into my agreed overdraft. One area of personal finance where I do fall down, however is organisation. I’m pretty terrible at setting budgets and savings targets and use my debit card to pay for things waaaay more often than I should. So, with a house move imminent, and the bad taste of a card fraud/bank fuck-up still in my mouth, I thought it was about time I got myself into check with the whole thing and began a search for a free personal finance management app.

continue reading Managing my finances with Google Docs

When designing a site, obviously a major consideration, at each stage should be your target audience. This isn’t a new idea, it’s the same for any kind of media be it audio, video web or print. Only with the web, however is user interaction something that must be thought through carefully with regards to your target audience. Different people use the web in different ways. I’m not just talking about people with disabilities or people of different genders. Being tech savvy or non-tech savvy can have a massive impact on the way in which users will interact with the site and this, of course, will have knock on effects in terms of repeat visits and those all important money-making conversions. The fact that users may not, and probably will not, know as much about using the internet as you do is something that I think gets overlooked too often.

continue reading Building the web for non-techies

I was late getting into skateboarding. I only realised I really liked it around 1998 so by the time Hating Life was released in 1999 I was all over it. The video was a collection of UK skaters on various teams and was more a promo than a full-blown video production. Still, it featured some amazing sections from some UK skaters, such as Mark Baines, that are still killing it ten years later.

continue reading My favourite skate video section ever.

Last week I decided to take Thursday and Friday off work so Nat and I could have a nice 4 day weekend together. Not done it in a while and because Nat works on Saturday evenings we don’t tend to have much of a weekend together. Also, as it was both of our pay days on Friday we figured it would be a good time to do it.

continue reading Robots and Roadside Bagpipers

Last night Nat and I went out for dinner. We went to a place that I haven’t been to in well over a year, something I felt great shame for. You see, since my first visit when I was about 16 this place has been the be all and end all when it comes to proper food as far as I’m concerned. Half way through yesterday I craved steak and I knew some reheated, overcooked excuse for a steak from Wetherspoons was never going to cut the mustard. I needed a proper steak, a 24oz beast, cooked to perfection. I needed Denby Lodge Steak House.

continue reading A nine year love affair, rekindled

Hi people… lots to share this time. Had a 4 day weekend to be out and about. Friday Myself and Nat took a trip to Nottingham to have some lunch and walk around the shops a bit. We went to Wagamama for lunch, if you’ve never been, go. It’s fantastic. I had the signature Wagamama Ramen and Nat had a rice dish with chicken, vegetables and oyster sauce. We shared a serving of gyoza, Japanese dumplings with chicken and spring onion which are steamed and finished on a grill. Whenever I eat there I always leave with a sense of well-being and content… soul food ftw!

continue reading Easter Weekend Fun

Tonight I moved pretty much everything out of my house on Broadmeadows. I’m super sad to be leaving the house but excited at the same time because, as nice as the house was, it was a financial black hole from which not even loose pocket change could escape. Only things left to move now are my TVs and stands a chest of drawers and a couple more bits and pieces which will go tomorrow.

continue reading Moving Day

I’ve realised that I’ve not really been putting any personal content on here for quite some time and realised that it was about time. I’ve not been up to anything spectacularly good over the last few months, Mr. Reed has moved out and landed a very good Job in near Sheffield as a product designer and that has meant I’ve been living on my own for the most part. I’ve been with Nat for a several months now and it’s going really well. All my friends are buying houses and having kids it seems… I don’t know if this is out of the ordinary but I have no desire to do either of those things at the moment. I’m enjoying living the no-commitments life and taking each day as it comes.

continue reading Relocation, Relocation

This was brought to my attention last night and I just had to tell you all about it… It could possibly be the greatest prank ever pulled. Or, at least the best executed.

Basically, it took place when we were at school, I’d say about 1997. Mr. Reed was one of the first people we knew to have Internet access at home so one day me and Gaz went round to use the Internet for it’s proper purpose, surfing porn. I had this bogus stupid fake software that generated “Credit card numbers” which was obviously bollocks, but reedy didn’t know this, anyway, the numbers, of course, didn’t work and we didn’t gain access to any porn that required payment, just the free stuff.

So a few days go by and we happened to mention what we looked at to some of our mates at school, including Jonathan Shea (a super-genius). The prank then took shape. Shea created an email account at school and sent a message to Reedy to this effect:

Dear Mr. Reed,

It ahs come to our attention that you have been using stolen credit card numbers to attempt access to a number of premium rate adult websites over the last few days. We have traced your IP address and we have confirmed that it is indeed yourself that is making these attempts from your home address of **********.

This is a very serious charge and you and your parents/guardians will be receiving a notice of prosecution for you through the post in the next few days. The penalty for such an offence is typically a custodial sentence of 3-7 years and an unlimited fine.

We advise you to seek council immediately in lieu of your court date. If you cannot afford your own council then please make us aware of this by filling in the appropriate part of the notice of intended prosecution you will receive in the post.

Regards,

Joe Bloggs – HM Fraud Squad

Obviously, to adult eyes that letter is bollocks but to a 14 year old kid it is the stuff of nightmares. Not only was the e-mail very officially worded, thanks to Shea, it had logos on it from the fraud squad as well as major credit card companies. Reedy bought it hook, line and sinker. Of course, he came and told me and Gaz immediately and the hardest part of the prank was not letting him know that we knew it was a trick. But, thanks to good acting on our part and a little bit of naivety on Reedy’s part we nailed it! I’ve never seen someone with a look of more dread in his eyes both of getting pinched but also the shame of having his parents know he was doing a little one-handed surfing.

Reedy spent the next week sweating and looking over his shoulder. It was hilarious! We had to tell him it was a joke the day he came up to us and said he was going to tell his parents that evening. Obviously me and Gaz could have got it in the neck for looking at porn in the first place so we told him, but we didn’t just tell him outright, oh no. That would have been boring. We did it over another very official e-mail.

Now, this is what I love about Reedy, he took it sooo well. He could have gone ape shit and beat the living piss out of all of us but no.. he just let out a huge sigh if relief and smiled like the Cheshire cat for the next few hours. It was absolutely brilliant I can only hope that I’m privy to another prank of it’s calibre one day in the future!

Top class stuff!

Well, lots and lots to talk about this time y’all! Went to Leeds for Mr. Reed’s birthday on Saturday and after a lengthly evening drinking session most of Sunday as well. We arrived about 4 in Headingly and got dressed in the hotel room. It was fancy dress. Not something I respond well to tbh. Not a fan of dressing up, but as it was his birthday I made an effort and went as Wolverine, utilising the claws that Reed had made a few years previously. I have no idea why this was but there was loads of parties of fancy dress people out on the particular pub crawl. Me and Rock Tom got talking to this one guy Rich who dressed as Russel Brand who had the same love for Dave Chappelle that we do and all night we kept doing the “Charlie Murphy!!” thing. That was well funny.

The route was basically a long line of pubs leading into the center of Headingly. I got very drunk very quickly and remember little except we ended up in a really shitty club and left shortly after.

We actually got away with 5 people staying in a double hotel room. That was something I didn’t expect. I slept in a sleeping bag in the bathroom. Not something I would like to do again in a hurry but was comfortable enough to endure. When Reed and Jo got up I managed to grab a couple more hours on the bed which sorted me out. At 12 we left the hotel and headed into Leeds. Now, it was a testament to how long it has been since I was last in Leeds that I remembered nothing of the layout of the town centre. I reckoned it to be about 6 years since I last went. I did however find one shop that was there last time, RouteOne the skate shop. This was quite the coincidence because a few days before My mum had received the RouteOne catalogue and I found a couple of things I wanted. So I went in the shop and bought a white (OMG, Dan bought summat that’s not black!? WTF!?) Adio T-shirt. We went for some lunch at this little bar near Reedy’s old uni housemate’s flat where we had pizzas. They were really nice home made pizzas with mazing choices of toppings. I had one with gots cheese and caramelised onions and olives! Right up my alley! The bar was ace too. The room where we ate was like a lounge and there was a lot of really worn in
leather sofas and chairs, again, right up my alley!

One thing I did notice about leeds was it seemed to be a skateboarders dream! Marble banks, ledges, steps and rails all over the place. It seemed that my skateboarders eye is still going strong even though it’s been a while since I skated. Also while we were there I had a look around to see if I could by an xZylo anywhere. The weather is getting good now and those flying gyroscopes are loads of fun!

We headed home about 5 and just chilled out. Mojo-jo-jo, Rich and Edd came round and we watched this program on BBC 2 where Louis Theroux went and stayed with members of the Westboro Baptist Church. If you’re not familiar with them, then perhaps this image will jog your memory.

That’s right, they’re the mindless fucking hate-mongers who picket outside the funerals of soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. I knew that what these people were doing was bad but I had no idea how fucked up they all actually were until I watched the program last night. Basically the vast majority of this Church’s members are from one family, Led by Pastor Phelps who believes so much that America is doomed that they thank god for dead soldiers and IEDs (road side bombs) and feel that it’s right to not only rejoice in the soldiers’ deaths but to bring absolute misery to their families by doing it right outside their funerals. The program sickened me, quite frankly and these people were so flagrantly misinterpreting the the bible and taking actions that were the total opposite of what religion should be all about. To my mind, although I’m not a Christian, it should be about celebrating life and showing tolerance and forgiveness to your fellow man and not spending all your waking hours preaching hate and bigotry, what kind of life is that!?

I’ve watched many of Louis Theroux’s documentaries and I find his approach to be one of the best around. He didn’t once talk at these people or point out their shortcomings as human beings he simply asked them straightforward questions and let their hugely misguided and bigoted beliefs show them for what they were. This was no more apparent than when he addressed the head of the church, Pastor Phelps, himself. It became clear that Theroux was asking questions that were too difficult for the man to answer so he responded aggressively. I have never seen Theroux get so angry that he let it show in his questions but he did on a couple of occasions during this documentary. Most prominently, when one of the church members held a sign with Princess Diana’s face on it along with the words Fag princess or something of the like on it and said “When she died it split hell wide open, She was an adulterer and a fag-enabler!” Theroux reacted the same way I would have, like, they were clearly missing the point that Diana was pretty much a saint who did more to help the third world and, in particular victims of land mines, than any of us could ever hope to do. All they saw was that she was a sinner, thats it. It was absolute lunacy.

One of the most tragic parts of it was how the church involves even very young children, who by their own admission, don’t understand the message they are spreading. In one part they were picketing by the side of the road and someone threw a drink out the window of a passing car (Personally I’d be tempted to throw bricks) and it struck one of the unfortunate kids who didn’t know what they were there for. Another weird thing is that almost none of the members were interested in getting married. It got to the point where it seemed like they just didn’t realise that you have to have sex to continue on the human race…Flat out Loonies!

It’s gonna feel like I’m working continental shifts for a while because it’s a 4 day week this week and a 4 day weekend followed by another 4 day week. Not that I’m gomplaining like, time off work is the shiznit!!! Thursday I think I’ll be having a blast down the M42 to Brummieland and out to planet in the evening. It’s only a tenner to get in and that includes all you can drink so it’ll be a cheap, fun evening!

Anyway, thats probably enough from me for now. Catch you all later guys!!

Nottingham, 2004… a Thursday night in the Pit and Pendulum. Me and Gaz were sitting at a table down stairs and were talking about movies. I realised that we both had formidable movie trivia knowledge but wondered if there was any way we could test each other… and then, while Gaz stuffed his cake hole with spicy chicken nachos, I had the idea! The Hollywood game was born. Of course at this time it was crude but the more nachos Gaz ate, the more I worked out the intricacies of the game until I had the following:

Who starts is determined by a coin toss. The starting player must name an actor (a big A-List star for the initial turn, to get the game moving), the other player must then name a movie that the named actor was in as well as another actor from that movie. For example; if the starting player said “Brad Pitt”, the other player could respond with “Ocean’s 11 – George Clooney”. This then bounces back to the starting player who must do the same back, for example they could say “From Dusk Til Dawn – Juliette Lewis”

This passes back and forth until a player is stuck and cannot think of a response. At this time they would say “Point” to signify that the other player has won. Below is how a typical game would go.

Player A: Brad Pitt

Player B: Ocean’s 11 – George Clooney

Player A: From Dusk Til Dawn – Danny Trejo

Player B: Desperado – Steve Buscemi

Player A: Mr. Deeds – Peter Gallagher

Player B (now stuck): Point.

This means that player A wins that round and gets a point. Games can be played to best of 3 rounds or best of 5 or 7 or whatever, depending on the players skill. Higher skilled players play for far longer so less rounds is usually better.

It may be easy in some situations to just name an actor who is really obscure or who hasn’t been in much else but be careful because your opponent always has the right to challenge. If they challenge, you must be able to come up with an answer. If you cannot, your opponent wins. For example, in the above game, when player A said “Mr. Deeds – Peter Gallagher”, player B could have challenged. In that eventuality Player A would have had to think of another film with Peter Gallagher and an actor from that film. If Player A was unable to do this, Player B would have won that round.

The game is best played face to face to determine who buys the next round of beers but it can be played over MSN as well. However, if access to the Internet is available it becomes very easy to cheat. You obviously aren’t allowed to just look at IMDB because the game would go on forever. You can however, if you are unsure about who an actor is use a Google Image Search on his/her name. You can only use the first page of results. This will more than likely serve to jog your memory of who the actor is and if you’re lucky you might even see stills from a film they were in or a poster. Google Image Search is the ONLY on-line help you are allowed. If there is a dispute over whether an actor was in a particular movie IMDB can be used to settle the dispute. If it shows the player to be correct, then the game continues if not, they concede a point.

There are of course rules on who you can and cannot name. The actor you name must be presently alive and working and must be in English language movies (No bloody foreigners!!). Only cast, no crew. You can’t use an actor who has already been named in the same game. Sequels are allowed to be used as different movies, but remember, no re-use of actors names. Siblings can be used no problem (i.e. Luke and Owen Wilson).
There you have it folks, the Hollywood game in all it’s movie nerd glory! Enjoy.