The European Pipe Band Championships 2014

Brace yourself for a new tale of "The Worst Thing That Has Ever Happened..."

Yesterday was the European Championships, the third of five majors for the year, but the second attended by the pipe band. As with last year, and as will be the case next year, the event took place in Forres, waaay up North.

So, I got up at 4am (!) to get ready for the event. This very early start was necessitated largely by my concern that I'd spend the morning in zombie-state and so need some time to get my brane in gear - as proved to be the case. Still, I made ready and then left the flat, walking through the early-morning sunlight to the bus. Huzzah!

We went to our second pick-up, where there was some concern that out Tenor drummers weren't there. One of these had said she was working and, although she would try, she wasn't sure she could move her shift. The other had been at all previous events, but had missed the practice on Thursday, so there was some concern - did she know the pick-up time? A text was sent; no reply was received, and so we left after a further 15 minutes waiting.

Turned out, she was the lucky one...

The first two hours of the drive up there were uneventful. I read the end of my Pathfinder, having failed to finish it on Friday, I concluded that next year I would definitely go up there on the Friday, event if the band did not (while the Pipe Major was likewise concluding that the band would definitely have to do the same!), and then I started on my next book. (I haven't finished it yet, but will post about it when the time comes. It's not a good one.)

After two hours, we stopped for the driver to get a rest, while the rest of us got some breakfast (second, or third, or something) from a cafe. This was a roal and sausage that was adequate, and some hot brown water that claimed to be coffee (but really wasn't). And then we were on the road again.

About an hour later, some 50 minutes from Forres, suddenly the noise of the engine changed. The bus driver exclaimed, "It's just cut out!" And then there were two miles of gradual slowing down, coupled with some attempts to restart the master engine. But no joy.

We came to a halt in a more-or-less safe bit of road, where there was a third lane in the middle of the road that would allow other traffic to pass. Then, several people disappeared and went crawling under and around the bus (the driver, a guy who drives tankers for a living, and a guy who knows a bit about engines). They fiddled for a bit and thought they'd fixed it (spoiler: they hadn't), and so made their way back on board.

Unfortunately, at this point the driver noticed that the hazard lights weren't working any longer. The battery had gone flat almost immediately. Needless to say, this meant that the bus wouldn't start - a flat battery means no starter motor. So, a call was made to Volvo for someone to come and help.

At this point, it was almost but not quite certain we wouldn't get there in time. So, the pipe major spent some time getting all the chanters ready to play, just in case, and a few people had to get changed on the bus. (Fortunately, I was not among them.) Also, we looked into possibilities of calling ahead to say we'd be late, though it wasn't expected this would help - there have been cases of unscrupulous bands saying they've broken down in order to get to go on last (no, seriously!), so the RSPBA takes a dim view of such things. In any case, it turned out that we couldn't get through, so that was that.

At length, the guy from Volvo came, he fixed the bus at least temporarily, he jump-started the engine, and we were on our way. Apparently the choke switch had triggered by mistake, both cutting off the engine and discharging the battery. Removing the switch removed the problem, though wasn't a 'good' solution as the choke switch is a safety feature. (Though not an absolutely-essential one, more like the airbags in a car - you'd rather have them working than not, but can manage without.)

Unfortunately, by that point it was obvious we couldn't get there in time.

There was then a discussioin about what to do. The truth is that there was no appetite for just turning round and heading straight back (another three hours driving). So we went and saw some of the other bands, left at 4 instead of waiting for the march-past, and got back about 8:45 instead of midnight.

All in all, it was a complete waste of a day, and a fairly uncomfortable one since I was stuck in my uniform all day. Still, it could have been worse, I suppose - it could have been cold and/or raining, or we could have been in real contention for the season and so lost out on our final placing. "Fortunately", we're not, and instead were hoping for a sneaky sixth place just to get something for the year - so not the biggest loss.

But next year, we'll definitely be heading up there the night before!

#28: "Angela's Ashes", by Frank McCourt (A book from The List)
#29: "Pathfinder: Secrets of the Sphinx", by Amber E. Scott

Helensburgh Highland Games 2014

This weekend has been spent almost entirely on band stuff, which isn't ideal - I would really prefer not to have "double headers" of this sort. Still, I believe this is the last one for this year, so that's good.

Saturday was spent at the Grangemouth Gala Day, which was fine - a long parade followed by lunch and then a short massed bands performance. It was hot and sunny, so actually a fairly pleasant day all things considered. (Although I really don't like wearing sunblock, which seems to cause me all sorts of problems. Still, better than the alternative.)

Sunday was then spent at the Helensburgh Highland Games, where we resumed our competition season after a week off (and, since I missed the last competition, I resumed after two weeks off).

The day did not have an auspicious start - the bus took about 90 minutes to get there, but the driver took what seemed an especially winding route there, which meant I spent a lot of that time actually feeling quite sick. Still, we made it through.

The day was, again, hot and sunny. This is always nice, despite the sunblock issue. Additionally, we were fairly relaxed in our preparations, went on, played, and felt pretty good about it - probably our best performance of the year to date.

The rest of the day was okay, albeit boring. I spent most of it reading "Angela's Ashes", which I didn't quite manage to finish. There was an incident, which I'll come back to, but otherwise things were okay.

We came fourth out of five, which was a slightly disappointing result. That said, with so few competitors it's hard to know how we start in relation to other bands - we might have come fourth out of ten, or ninth. So it was at least fairly positive.

And then the journey home was okay. This time, our route took us through Glasgow and on the motorway, which made for a much more pleasant journey. I got home about 8 - a long day, but not the worst.

Alas, it wasn't long after that before my phone started to ring. As I said, there was an incident, part of which I saw but thought nothing of, but the rest of which I'd missed. But there's been a complaint about bullying made, which means of course that we have to take action. Not good.

(Plus, we found out on Friday that our free 'let' of the school we use for practices is going to cease to be free as of August, and since we don't have the money required to pay, we will simply have to find a new practice venue. Also not good. Sometimes it seems that everyone is really keen to have a local pipe band, but very few people actually want to help that band out. Oh well.)

Dear FA...

So, England are effectively out of the World Cup. Granted, it's still mathematically possible for them to go through (if Italy win both their matches, and England beat Costa Rica, and the goal difference goes for them), but take it from a Scotsman - hoping for the "mathematically possible" is folly.

Anyway, in light of last night's defeat, the media have gone into immediate post-mortem mode, trying to find someone to blame and some way forward. And it would appear that the expectation is that Roy Hodgson will be identified as the scapegoat and either resign or be sacked.

This would be a mistake.

There are two things that really should be borne in mind here:

Firstly, the draw for this World Cup has thrown up some groups that are dominated by a single big team (for example, it looks likely that both France and Argentina will easily win their groups, and in fact will just glide into the quarter finals without issue), and some groups that are hugely difficult. England are in one of the latter sort. And if you're in a really tough group, it's not hugely surprising if you don't get through it - someone has to lose.

Secondly, it was always known that Roy Hodgson had a significant rebuilding job to do. With the gradual retirement of the so-called (and over-rated) "Golden Generation" there was always going to be a need to bring through lots of new players, establish a new defence and attack, and generally bring the team forward. That process has begun, but it's not done yet, and not by a long way.

For the two reasons above, most of the informed analysts were suggesting that England would face a difficult time and would likely fail to progress from their group. That being the case, given that England have faced a difficult time and likely failed to progress, why the surprise? Why the outrage? "Meets expectations" isn't good enough, but it's no reason to panic.

And it's not as if England were roundly thrashed or played particularly badly. (Well, at least against Italy - against Uruguay they did get caught out at the back at least once when they really couldn't afford it, and they never really looked like equalising a second time.) There are some good players there, the performances were (mostly) disciplined, and there's reason for hope.

The thing to do at this point is simply: Keep Calm and Carry On. Don't change the manager, don't try to overhaul the playing staff radically... just wait. Two years from now, the 'kids' who are just breaking into the side will be markedly better. The team will be more used to playing together. They'll just naturally do that bit better - not well enough to win, right enough, but then there's probably no manager and no possible England team that could be fielded that would win.

Longer term, achieving that win would require the production of a large number of new, top-quality players. It's not a matter of finding 11 world-beaters, or even 25 to make up a squad; it's a matter of getting together 50 with a mix of youth and experience. You don't get that in 2 years. It's a decade-long project at best. And, for reasons I've posted before, it's probably never going to happen. Sorry.

But for now, it's really just a matter of beating Costa Rica (not to qualify, but to salvage some pride), and then looking forward to the next one. Panicking is the wrong response, and really won't help.

Don't Say It Too Loud...

... but I'm rather hoping for an England win tonight. Despite the defeat, I felt they played very well against Italy, and the truth is that the World Cup will just be much more interesting with England than it will be once they're out. So, provided they play well again, a deserved win would be a nice result.

I can't see them progressing beyond the next round, though.

On a mostly-unrelated note, I'm really enjoying this World Cup. The timings of the matches are pretty much ideal (what with kick off of the first match coming just as I finish work), and the matches themselves have mostly been fun, with some really good ones out there. Thus far, it has of course been Holland and Germany who have most impressed me, though I sense both Brazil and Argentina are still to show us what they can really do.

And the demise of Spain was most interesting. It seems teams now have the beating of them; it felt a bit like the end of an era, like when Federer suddenly ceased to be invincible.

#27: "Raising Steam", by Terry Pratchett (great book, as always, though not quite a contender for Book of the Year.)

How to Fix Westminster

Warning: this is a tedious 'politics' post. Feel free to skip it! (Also, I promise not to do another one until the World Cup is over - I'll talk about football instead.)

I've mentioned before that my reason for voting "Yes" in September is largely due to my belief that politics in the UK is unfixably broken. That raises an obvious question: what would a fix look like?

(After all, "unfixably broken" really isn't a helpful definition. By defining what I would consider a fix, though, that should give some scope of the issue, and explain why I don't think it's realistic to expect change.)

So, what would a fix look like? Well, the first thing is that I believe we need approximately 650 new MPs. Assuming the front benches on the government and opposition sides represent the cream of the crop, I feel confident in declaring that they're just not fit for purpose.

However, my issues are more to do with how MPs are selected and how they operate, rather than the specifics of the people we currently have there. I therefore have a further eight general points, and then one further point specific to the Labour party. So, in time-honoured 'list' format...

1. MPs should be required to maintain their primary residence in their constituency, and to have lived there for 5 years prior to seeking selection. This one is quite straightforward - an MP should be there to represent his/her constituency in Westminster, not to represent Westminster to his/her constituency. Some random bod dropped in from Oxbridge because it's a safe Labour seat really can't do that.
2. MPs should be selected by the local party without interference from central office. Again, that's a simple one - local people should be the ones to choose who they want to represent them. I understand what Harriet Harman is trying to do with all-women short-lists, but she's wrong - it's anti-democratic. (And, yes, that does mean that if the local party is racist, sexist, or homophobic then they might select a horror as candidate. That's where you hope the electorate are smart enough to vote otherwise and/or the other parties are at least remotely competent in highlighting the fact.)
3. Remove party alliegance from the ballot paper. Firstly, because we (at least in theory) elect a person to represent us, not a party. But it's also because this forces the parties to get the name of the candidate out there in order to win votes; they have to campaign in all constituencies, not just the thirty or so 'swing' constituencies in the South East of England. (Despite being reasonably politically-aware, I know next to nothing about Eric Joyce, my MP, and I knew literally nothing about the SNP guy I voted for last time - not even his name. That's really not healthy.)
4. We need a proper right of recall. The current government have introduced something, which is to the good, but it doesn't go far enough. I suggest the following: 10% of the electorate in the event of any conviction, any meaningful breach of their code, if they are stripped or the party whip, or if they choose to leave their party. Or if 40% of the turnout demand a recall, they should be able to do so unconditionally once in the term of the parliament. (For example, Falkirk has approx 82,000 voters, of whom 62% voted at the last election. Under my proposal, Eric Joyce would have faced recall when he was stripped of the Labour whip provided 8,200 voters demanded it (10%), or unconditionally if 20,336 voters demanded it (40% of the 62% turn out). That's still a very high threshold, but it does at least provide the option.) Oh, and we should have an (at least theoretical) ability to demand the dissolution of parliament entirely, and thus force a General Election.
5. We need minimum attendance requirements for MPs, both in the House and in their constituencies.
6. Manifesto commitments need to be made legally binding. Otherwise, how are we supposed to know what we're voting for? (Plus, that eliminates one of my biggest outrages - first Labour campaigned that they wouldn't introduce top-up fees, and then did exactly that; then the Lib Dems made personal pledges to work to eliminate fees, and then voted to increase them to £9k a year. The Tories are the only party I can trust on the topic of tuition fees, which is horrible.)
7. MPs' pattern of work needs radically changed. This involves both dramatically reducing the number of holidays they have per year and dramatically reducing the hours they work when they are there. At the moment, MPs seem to be bone-idle half the time and half-dead with exhaustion the other. Neither is conducive to good governance.
8. Likewise, MP pay should be significantly increased, but their access to expenses vastly curtailed. I don't have a problem with MPs being well paid for what they do. If parliament works, they're actually worth it. But expanses are still a problem. Basically, we've built a system which encourages corruption, and that's really not healthy.

So, those are my 'general' suggestions. As I said, I have one further point which applies specifically to the Labour party:

I don't know what you stand for any more. See, with the Tories it's pretty clear - I don't like what they believe in, but at least I can understand it enough to reject it. But the Labour party talks about being the party of the working class, of being the ones to stand up for the little guy against the bosses, and all that stuff. But, in practice, it's just not so. The current Labour party is further to the right than the Tories were pre-Thatcher. Hell, in some ways the Labour party are further to the right than Thatcher. You're not the party you claim to be; at best, you're marginally better than the Tories. And yes, if my choices are to be punched or to be stabbed, then I'll take the punch. But, frankly, I'd much rather opt-out entirely.

So go back to your founding principles. That way, we at least get a choice. And I don't mind losing an election where I have a real choice but the other guys got more votes.

But if the only real difference between the parties is the one lot wear red rosettes and the other wear blue rosettes, that does me no good whatsoever. Red Dwarf did that joke in 1988 - the hats are supposed to be green.

So there it is.

I'm not actually sure that would be enough - I haven't even touched on things like equal constituency sizes, the House of Lords, or the ability to force referenda on key constitutional issues (the voting system, the monarchy, independence for Scotland/Wales/NI, or EU membership). But it would be a start at least. And I think those are all (except maybe #3) required changes.

So, how many of them do you think are even on the agenda, never mind things that might potentially be addressed before September? Hence "unfixably broken".

Experimental Cookery 2014: Sausages and Rich Onion Gravy

It has been a while since I've done one of these, though they may be a few more coming up fairly soon. LC has finally grown bored with the previous cycle of the various curries, chilli, spaghetti bolognese, and similar that had been the staple for the past couple of years, so now we're searching for another set of favourites. (Ideally, this would include some "freezer foods" that we can cook in batches and freeze and also some "quick cooks" for weeknights.)

This one was taken from the second "Hairy Dieters" book, and was nice and simple to prepare - as they indicated it was about 10 minutes prep followed by 20 minutes of cooking, none of it terribly difficult. So, an ideal "quick cook", at least in theory.

I felt that it was nice, but it hadn't quite worked - the gravy was over-thickened, and the mash had picked up little shavings of non-stickiness from the pan (will need to get some 'stick' saucepans for occasional use, I guess). But I liked the sausages, and felt that the gravy tasted fine.

LC, alas, found she didn't enjoy it. Apparently, she doesn't care for 'posh' sausages. (I was using up the remnants we had in the freezer, so we had 2 Tesco Finest sausages with bramley apple and 3 with herbs.) Which was a shame.

Would I try this again? I'm going to go for a cautious 'yes', I think - one more try with the appropriate lessons applied. In the meantime, I need to come up with some more ideas.

Where It All Went Wrong

Colin Baker is generally regarded as the weakest of the Doctors (Paul McGann usually being exempt from the comparison by virtue of his role as "the longest and the shortest"). Personally, I would place him marginally ahead of Sylvester McCoy, but in both cases I would apply the caveat that I don't think it was the actor's fault in any sense (and that's true of McGann as well) - they did what was asked of them; it's not their fault that the material wasn't all that might be hoped.

With the Colin Baker era, I think there were four problems, none of which were Baker's fault:

1. By that point, the show was just tired. Ironically, for a show that could literally go anywhere and do anything, it had become very formulaic and repetitive. Most stories followed a pattern that varied only slightly, and the show had become very self-referential. Much as I hate to admit it, it really was time for a rest. (It will also be interesting to see what happens to New Who in a few years, as any show that lasts as long as it has runs the same risk.)
2. The costume. Oh dear, the costume. I guess they were going for something truly unique, in a bid to capture the Tom Baker 'scarf'. But they failed rather spectacularly, an in going so they really messed up the tone of this Doctor's adventures. That said, I think they could perhaps have recovered from this, except that...
3. The decision to make this Doctor loud, and arrogant, and overbearing, and, really, not very nice, was an interesting one, and it might just have worked were it not for the other problems. After all, it was something genuinely new. But a big problem with that was that this new, darker, Doctor was quite at odds with the comical costume choice. So, the tone of the whole thing was badly off. Either go for the 'darker' Doctor with a darker outfit (see the Ninth Doctor for a good example), or go for a louder, comic Doctor with the clown-suit. Either could have worked (maybe). But there was one other problem that they just couldn't recover from...
4. In the Sixth Doctor's first episode ("The Twin Dilemma", part one), and in fact in his second or third scene, immediately after picking out the clown-suit, we have an extremely troubling scene where the new Doctor has a "funny turn" during which he is really, genuinely nasty to poor Peri and then tries to kill her. That scene, by itself, consigns the new Doctor to the scrapheap. There's no coming back from that.

It's all such a missed opportunity. Creatively, the notion of having the Doctor's regeneration being unstable and him being a bit 'off' for a while is a very interesting one. And it does indeed fit given the circumstances of that regeneration. But there's a huge gap between "a bit off" and him being nasty, and especially with him attacking his companion. Combine that with him being not-very-friendly, even after that story, and with the clown-suit, and you've got a disaster.

Likewise, having the new Doctor be rather abrasive, arrogant, and generally not-very-nice is also an interesting choice and could have worked well. But not with that costume, and not when you're also dealing with the "unstable regeneration" angle. (And, probably, not immediately after the Davison era, when that Doctor was generally pleasant.)

And none of it is Colin Baker's fault, even though the powers-that-be blamed him for it.

(It should also perhaps be noted that Colin Baker's era does feature some great material. "Revelation of the Daleks" is one of the great stories, close to the level of "Genesis of the Daleks" in quality, while the "Trial of a Time Lord" season is also very very strong. So there's good stuff there, despite the problems.)

Anyway...

June being the month of the Sixth Doctor, I found myself reading the short story "Something Borrowed" by Richelle Mead and the novel "Players" by Terrance Dicks. Both featured the Sixth Doctor and Peri.

Alas, "Something Borrowed" isn't terribly good. Remember how I said that many of the stories by the Sixth Doctor's tenure had become very formulaic? Well, the same is true here, probably as a consequence of the very limited page count. The story features the son of a friend of the Doctor being married to a mysterious woman of a different species. Surprise! It turns out she's up to no good. Surprise! It turns out Peri gets captured. Surprise! There's a rescue. Surprise! The Doctor turns the tables on his foe.

It's something of a shame, because the underlying premise is actually quite good; adapted for the TV show this could actually make for a good episode. And although this is a recurring villain, she's not one who has been as over-used as certain others I could mention.

By contrast, "Players" is fantastic. I suspect this has something to do with the author's huge familiarity with the show - Terrance Dicks was, of course, the guy who wrote a huge number of the novelisations, so he knows his stuff. Plus, he's taken an interesting premise, an interesting segment of history, and some interesting figures from that segment of history and woven together a fun tale. This is, by some ways, the best of the six novels to date.

Next month is, of course, the month of the Seventh Doctor, who seems to have been the Doctor that the BBC deliberately sabotaged - I missed half of one season and all of the other simply because the BBC never bothered to let us know it was on, and then it was dropped due to lack of viewers. (Though, as I said above, the show was getting really tired by that point, so maybe it was for the best, heretical as that sounds.) Unfortunately, next month's novel is merely the adaptation of "Remembrance of the Daleks", which was an okay story, but I would have preferred something else. Still, I suppose we had to have Daleks in there somewhere!

#26: "Players", by Terrance Dicks

The British Pipe Band Championships 2014

Yesterday was the first major of the new season, and also a gloriously sunny day. This combination made for an interesting day...

Starting last year, the RSPBA rearranged the calendar of events. This happens every so often, as the licenses to host the Championships come up for renewal and sometimes go to different venues. So, instead of the Scottish Championships being the first Major, instead the first is now the British Championships, and those are held in Bathgate. This is particularly nice because they're just a short hour in the bus.

As a consequence of this, I got the extreme luxury of a lie in until 8 (8!) on Saturday morning. Then a short walk to the bus, a short ride to the park, a short tune-up, and we played. It was probably our best performance of the year so far, which is nice.

I then spent most of the rest of the day sitting on the bus reading the latest Pathfinder, which is not the best use for a day, but isn't too bad. I found myself growing increasingly tired, and also feeling increasingly unwell due to a really bad headache - this is a consequence of IBS and there was really nothing I could do to shake it.

(At one point, I did make time to see some of the Novice Juvenile bands play - if we set up the Development Band next year then these are going to be our competition. Which is a bit worrying - the standard I saw was very high. Still, since the goal would be just to get our learners some experience, I'm not going to worry about that. Much.)

The march-past was pretty late, but reasonably enjoyable, what with it being a nice day. The chieftain was Susan Boyle, which provided three surprises: firstly, she kept her "response" down to a mere four sentences (which is much appreciated after a long day); secondly, she proved to be a much better chieftain than Sylvester McCoy; and thirdly, she got not one, but two genuine cheers from the assembled bandsmen - normally, it's just some fairly muted polite applause.

We came 10th out of 15 bands - 14th and 10th for piping, 9th for drumming, and 10th for ensemble. Not great, but much better than the previous two outings. We also beat three of the bands who beat us at Dunbar, as that's promising. That said, there's still a long way to go. (It's also worth noting that we're going to miss the UK Championships, so whatever happens there is little chance we'd be up for promotion, so it's largely academic.)

And that was that. I eventually got home at 8:30, which made it a very long day. But probably the best of the three competitions this year.

#23: "The Lovely Bones", by Alice Sebold (A book from The List, and also the new candidate for Book of the Year.)
#24: "Pathfinder: Shifting Sands", by Richard Pett

Update on Goals

So, day 150 of the year (already!), so time for another update.

• Weight: This has been an odd one, but I'm essentially back where I was before the 'blip' I mentioned last time. I do need to refocus some attention on this, but it's difficult, because...
• Work: Work is good, but sooo busy. There constantly seems to be a deadline looming, and no end in sight for the tasks needing done. That's good on some levels, but is has the downside that it tends to dominate everything else.
• Books: I've read 22 books, putting me three behind my target for this point in the year. However, that's perhaps a false picture, since I'm likely to finish book 23 tonight and may well tackle book 24 in its entirety either tomorrow or, at the very least, over the weekend. One of the big advantages to being in Competition Season is that it gives me chance to catch up on my reading. (Incidentally, the three that I'm 'behind' are two books from The List, one of which is book 22, and this month's Pathfinder volume which arrived yesterday.)
• Games: "Star Wars: Imperial Fist" actually wrapped up two sessions early, concluding just after the previous update. The ending, although abridged, was actually extremely satisfying, so that went well. I cancelled but have since rescheduled one of the two one-shot sessions I had planned for the year, and am actively considering running a three-part "Firefly" game at some point (this taking the place of the 'missing' one-shot from earlier in the year). And I'm scheduled for the third "Numenera" game next month, which completes my target for sessions as a player (with at least one more due to come).
• Maintenance: Disappointingly, there has been no progress on this at all. In fact, it has regressed slightly, in that my car once again needs some work (but that's okay - it was due for a service anyway). It would be good to get that done by the end of June, though how realistic that is, I don't know.
• Computer: One word: done. I'm actually not writing this update on the new machine, but I could if I wanted - it's all set up, the software is all installed, and even the emails have been sorted through right back to 2009.
• Money: This is basically done, too. There are still three payments to make, but these are automated, so I don't need to think about them.

And that's where we stand. Things are in much better health than they were last time, and the prospect looks quite bright, but there is still work to be done.

The next update is due on the 19th of July, but as that's the day of the Paisley Highland Games it is unlikely to be made on that day. That will be just after our holiday to Barcelona, so I fear the weight goal may not be doing so well, and I expect the work goal to have very little to report. Conversely, I expect the books goal to be back on target, or nearly so (should be at 33 books read), and I hope also that the maintenance goal will finally be done.

Fantastic!

I was going to do an epic rant about the political adverts shown before "X-Men: Days of Future Past", and especially the lies in the "Vote No Borders" adverts, but it turns out there's no need - following a deluge of complaints (including from me), Cineworld (and other cinemas in Scotland) have elected to remove all political adverts from before films.

Huzzah!

(And, incidentally, I'm glad the decision has been taken to pull all the adverts. I may support "Yes", but when I'm enjoying a night out at the cinema I'd rather leave the stresses of the day behind - and the referendum is one of those stresses. I'd rather not be force-fed propaganda, even by my own 'side'.)

X-Men: Days of Future Past

A year ago, I was more than a little uncertain about going to see "The Wolverine", largely because "X-Men: The Last Stand" and "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" were both pretty poor. I'd heard good things about "First Class", but I don't think I'd actually seen it by then (turns out it's a good one), so I'd more or less decided to give it a miss.

Only I found myself in the US on a business trip, with a free evening with not much to do, and a nearby cinema. So I went, and I rather enjoyed it. But what I enjoyed more than anything was the 'stinger' at the end of the film, and suddenly I was very excited to see the next film, "Days of Future Past".

So, LC and I went to the cinema on Saturday to see the film, and I was not disappointed. The film rather neatly blends the 'classic' and "First Class" casts through the medium of time travel, everyone fills their roles admirably, and the whole thing moves at a decent clip. There is one face-palm moment, but even that's suitably in-character - the character in question has form for messing things up at key moments.

In my opinion, it's the best X-Men film since the second one (which for a long time was the best superhero film since "Superman 2". Of course, the title of "best superhero film ever" was eventually taken by "The Dark Knight", and then by "The Avengers").

So, yeah, go and see it. Unless you don't like superhero films, of course.

And now, a spoiler:

Possibly the best outcome of this film is that it serves as a "semi-reboot" in the same way that the time-travel aspect did for "Star Trek". This means that, going forward, the writers can use as much, or as little, of the 'existing' film continuity as they want. In particular, this means that some of the mistakes of "The Last Stand" and "Wolverine" can be essentially ignored. This is probably a good thing, as it gives them a better platform for progressing.

#22: "The Redemption Engine", by James L. Sutter

(Surprisingly, this novel has toppled "The Hundred Days" as my current "book of the year". I say 'surprisingly' because it's game-related fiction, which is notoriously awful. But this was surprisingly good. That said, it's not going to last long - it's about to be superseded itself by my current novel...)

Digging Through The Archive

When I set up my new PC, I took advantage of the opportunity to 'properly' synchronise the Outlook email folders with the webmail versions used by my providers. This had the effect that Outlook promptly downloaded every email I had received in those accounts, going right back to 2009. It was something of a shock to suddenly have 5,000+ emails to dig through, the vast majority of which are spam emails from one company or another.

Since then, I've been gradually going through the painstaking process of sorting all those emails, deleting the junk and filing the rest away into a more ordered set of folders. I'm now down to having a mere 1,000 emails to go through, from July 2011 back to January 2010. So with a lot of luck I'll have that job done soon.

What has been quite strange, though, has been reading through all those emails. Because I started with the most recent ones and worked backwards (excepting the three months of 2009 that were covered), it has essentially been a process of walking backwards through time - seeing the confirmation emails for Christmas presents, film tickets, and holidays; seeing the emails associated with the wedding cropping up (in reverse) and then subsiding; seeing the band have exactly the same discussions four years ago as we had in January (to do with school lets). It was quite odd seeing weekly spam emails from various companies gradually disappearing, presumably from the point where someone sold them my address. (In some cases, there was the oddity of the emails appearing, persisting for a while, and then disappearing again. I guess if you shop there once, and then not again for three years, they might lose interest.)

I was also somewhat perplexed for a while about an invoice from Premier Inn. Why did I have a one-night stay in London in November of 2011, I wondered? And then, a few 'months' earlier I found the answer - Lady Chocolat had been in Kenya, and that was when I went down to London to meet her return flight. Ahah!

But what has surprised me most, though, was the record of just when we'd seen various films in the cinema. Constantly, I was surprised at just how long ago it was since these films came out. (I was also surprised at just how many really bad films we'd been to see, but I probably shouldn't have been - after all, I was there at the time!)

(Oh, and what's also odd is not so much what's there as what's missing. There have obviously been some significant events over the past five years - several births, marriages, and a significant death - and some of these generated not a single email. Yet "Prometheus" gets two. Strange.)

The Star Trek Film I'd Like to See Next

I like "Star Trek", but I'm not an obsessive fan. Whereas "The Phantom Menace" and "The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug" were crushing disappointments, "Star Trek: Nemesis" was just a bad film, and not particularly a terrible thing. That being said, I'd much rather see a good "Star Trek" film than a bad one, for reasons that should be obvious.

I think they're on to a good start. While I felt "Star Trek" itself was rather patchy, I felt they'd managed to assemble a great cast and laid a strong foundation for the future. And, although it's becoming something of a minority opinion these days, I liked, and still like, "Star Trek: Into Darkness". Of course, with JJ Abrams leaving to do "Star Wars", things are a bit up in the air, but there's no reason they shouldn't make it work.

One thing I would really like to see is something different. "Wrath of Khan" is a great film, make no mistake, but one of the big mistakes that has been made with pretty much every "Star Trek" film since then is that every one has been in some way a reaction to, or a clone of, "Wrath of Khan". And so we get our Shakespeare-quoting Klingon in "Undiscovered Country" (instead of the Melville-quoting Khan), we get direct quotes of "Moby Dick" in "First Contact", we get an attempt at a new Khan in "Nemesis" (and, actually, "Search for Spock", "Undiscovered Country", "Generations", "First Contact", "Insurrection", "Nemesis", and "Star Trek"), and then we get a literal Khan in "Into Darkness".

Enough.

Now, having said that, the "Star Trek" movies have indeed been at their best when they've liberally taken material from elsewhere - "Wrath of Khan" being essentially "Moby Dick", and "Into Darkness" being essentially "Wrath of Khan". So, something different that lifts a plot from somewhere else...

So: "Star Trek: Search for the Wa'maH-maqtagh Doq"

Which is a terrible name, of course, because the Klingon doesn't translate very well. If fact, they'd probably do better to show the name using the Klingon characters, which is much more concise (and which I daresay the fans would appreciate).

A quick plot:

The movie opens, as in "Into Darkness", with the Enterprise on some mission going horribly wrong. This is some harebrained scheme Kirk has come up with, ideally featuring commentary by McCoy/Uhura/Scotty about how they miss Spock and that he'd clearly talk Kirk out of it.

It turns out that Spock has been seconded back to Star Fleet to do some research of something he's not allowed to talk about. On his return to the Enterprise, therefore, he and Kirk naturally butt heads on this topic.

But then the Enterprise continues its mission on the edges of the Federation, in a sector close to the Neutral Zone with the Klingon Empire. And then they start picking up strange readings, and get diverted by Star Fleet to go check it out.

Anyway, it turns out there's a new, highly experimental, Klingon warship out there, and it's making its way towards Federation space. Its mission is, of course, unknown. Kirk is tasked with finding it and destroying it before it can slip past and launch an attack.

Except that Spock's classified research was into exactly the type of cloaking device used by the new warship, so he knows that the ship should be undetectable and yet isn't. Plus, Uhura has studied the career of the commander of this vessel (let's assume her linguistics training also covered cultural and political studies, which makes sense and also neatly expands her role beyond just repeating what the computer says). Bottom line: they suspect that the commander may not be going to attack; he's going to defect.

Basically, it's "The Hunt for Red October", but in space.

Anyway, it's just a thought...

M(a)y Doctor

Fascinating fact: although for a very long time there have been two Bakers amongst the actors to play the Doctor, until last year there had never been a repeated first name (at least in the main series). And then two came along at once: a second John (or Jon) and a second Peter.

Okay, maybe it's not 'fascinating'. But it is a fact.

May, being the fifth month, is the month of the Fifth Doctor, as portrayed by Peter Davison. Who is, as I've mentioned before "my Doctor". I just barely remember seeing the last little bit of Tom Baker's run (I think), which means I was around for Peter Davison's run. And, indeed, Tegan, Peri, and Adric are all characters I remember seeing live.

And yet... I find memory is not wholly reliable, because I have no real idea who Nyssa is, and Turlough is also something of a void (despite my knowing I watched "The Five Doctors" when it was first on). I guess they just didn't make any real impression. (On the other hand, Tegan is memorable for being one of the longest-serving companions of all time, while Peri was both the last companion of the Fifth Doctor and the main companion for almost all of the Sixth Doctor's run. And Adric is perhaps memorable for the wrong reasons...)

This month's short story was "Tip of the Tongue", by Patrick Ness. This one features the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa, presumably in the brief gap while Tegan was off the TARDIS. That said, both Doctor and companion only actually feature in the story very briefly - it reads like one of those episodes in recent years when one of the main actors has been given the week off so they've done a Doctor-light episode such as "Blink" or "Turn Left". Which is fine, as it makes for an interesting approach.

And the story is okay. It's not a stand-out like, well, "Blink" or "Turn Left", but it's a decent story with attractive characters and some fun along the way. Plus, it doesn't feature the Master, which is probably something of a boon for this anthology (since both the Second and Third Doctor stories did feature that opponent). So, good stuff.

The novel, which I finished on Saturday, was "Fear of the Dark", by Trevor Baxendale. This was a strange one, as I know I'd never read it before (I haven't read any for the Past Doctor novels before the 50th Anniversary collection) and yet I had the strongest feeling that I had. That's, probably, mostly a good thing - the author had obviously managed to capture the spirit of the show, the characters, and the many stories I have read pretty accurately. And reading it I found myself agreeing - yep, that was my Doctor, and it was Tegan. All good.

But it had a big down-side as well. I hadn't read that story before, but I've read (and seen) ones just like it any number of times. It was pretty much a bunch of secondary characters running around a quarry being picked off by an unseen menace, at least for most of the time. So, it was all rather predictable, which was a shame.

Still, not to worry. I started it one Saturday, about tea-time, while huddled behind some seats (on a bus rather than a sofa, but it counts), and I finished it the next Saturday while huddled behind some seats (another bus), so it was all positively nostalgic. Good stuff.

Next up is the Sixth Doctor, widely regarded as the worst Doctor. I feel that's somewhat unfair, for various reasons I'll get into next month, but I'm definitely hoping that the novel and story will play on certain aspects of that Doctor and leave certain others in the background. I guess we'll see next month.

Dunbar Highland Games

Just a quick update on our second competition of the season.

Saturday was a much more satisfactory day than the previous week. Our pipe major is now properly registered with the band, and between him and two others who weren't available last week we had a considerably stronger band this week than last. Additionally, we were blessed with good weather, which always helps.

Once again, we played twice, in both Grade 4 and Grade 4MSR competitions. Both times, we left the field reasonably pleased with our performance. And, come the end of the day, this was somewhat vindicated: we came fourth in the Grade 4 contest (out of 9). So, this is our first 'real' prize of the season (last week's marching & discipline doesn't really count).

However, we did come sixth (and last) in the MSR. Given that that's our real grade, this isn't really a good sign.

The next competition is the British Championships in Bathgate a week on Saturday, the first Major of the season. So, lots of work to do for that. (On the plus side, we're only playing once, and in the early afternoon. So, no need to get up at 6am for that one!)

Also of note this weekend was that two of my students were competing in the Stirling Mod, a solo piping competition. They were in the 10-12 Solo Chanter contest, where there were some 17 competitors.

And we won! Well, actually, one of my students came first in the competition, while the other must have been just outside the top three. So that was quite a result.

All in all, a pretty successful weekend.

#21: "Fear of the Dark", by Trevor Baxendale

Votes for 16-Year-Olds

Somehow, and somewhat surprisingly, the Guardian's "Comment is Free" section managed to have an article that I almost managed to agree with. (Mostly, it's a bastion of sloppy thinking and inanity, which is a real shame, since I should agree with most of the positions taken.)

Anyway, the article argues that we (that is, the UK) should give votes to 16- and 17-year-olds, and that way they'll be more engaged with politics.

Now, some time ago, I posted to the effect that 16- and 17-year-olds should not be given the vote in the Scottish Referendum, for the simple reason that they don't get the vote in General Elections, Scottish Elections, Local Elections, or European Elections. However, in the same post I also noted that there was a wider debate about that that we should have, and indeed that it is wrong that a 16-year-old can work, and thus be required to pay taxes, but not have the vote. (Because the Americans were absolutely right about "no taxation without representation".)

Anyway, one of the consequences of giving the vote to that group for the referendum is that, rather interestingly, we actually do now seem to have a fairly politics-savvy and involved group of teenagers in this country. When last the band played in Falkirk town centre, the Yes campaign were being represented (on that day) by their youth team, who were both articulate and informed. And the younger members of the band, who I heard talking on that day were likewise engaged in the debate, mostly on the other side.

(Incidentally, I'm frequently amused by some of the discussion around this. It seems to be a widely held belief that the SNP extended the franchise for this referendum because of a belief that our teens would be swayed by a romantic Braveheart-esque notion of "Freedom!", and also that this is a gambit that has badly backfired. This neglects that it has been SNP policy for decades to extend the franchise, it was a manifesto commitment, and that this is the first time they've been able to implement their pledge.)

However, I said in the first paragraph that I only almost agreed with the article.

The thing is, as far as I can tell, the reason that Scottish teens are engaged in the referendum debate is that, fundamentally, it matters. One way or another, this is a big decision, with a direct and lasting effect on all our lives.

Conversely, as far as I can tell, the reason so many 18- to 24-year-olds aren't engaged in mainstream UK politics (and nobody is very engaged in European election politics) is that, frankly, it doesn't matter. Both the Labour and Conservative parties are now dominated by a particular breed of career politicians, who were educated at exclusive schools and then Oxbridge, did internships arranged for them by Daddy (or Mummy), and then got safe seats somewhere. Worse, the two parties are both signed up for very slight variations on the same package of austerity-cuts/EU-sceptic/business-first measures. So, whoever you vote for, the government wins.

Faced with that, it's no wonder so many people really don't care. And, faced with that, there's no reason 16- and 17-year-olds would be any different.

So, I do indeed agree with extending the franchise to 16- and 17-year-olds. If they're old enough to have children, and if they're old enough to work and pay taxes, then they're old enough to vote. But if you expect that, by itself, to lead to them being engaged with politics you are bound to be disappointed. For that, we need some new politicians - 650, by my count.

An Interesting Possibility...

It's funny how opportunities work. Just as I was carefully considering my position within the band, a possible vision of the future opens up.

As you know, since August I've been helping out teaching the youngsters in the band, largely due to our inheriting more learner pipers than we really know what to do with. In fact, we have five learners who all started at the same time and who are all now just, or just about, starting on the bagpipes (as opposed to the practice chanter).

So, I had been contemplating the question of just how we were going to fit these extra five pipers into our pipe corps. It struck me that next year, or perhaps the year after, we'd have more pipers than we know what to do with.

However, last night I had a chat with our pipe major, and he mentioned that five pipers, plus an adult pipe major, is the makings of a Novice Juvenile pipe corps. Add two snare drummers and a bass drummer (which, at the moment, we don't have), and you've got a band.

So then, I think my best plan may be as follows:

• See out the rest of this season, while continuing to teach the youngsters.
• Try to recuit some new drummers for the band, specifically learner drummers. (Granted, that's probably not me, but it's a prerequisite for the next step.)
• Revive the "Development Band", this time at the Novice Juvenile grade. In particular, I'll nominate myself for the role of Pipe Major.
• Retire from competition with the 'main' band. The registration can remain active, and I'll stay current on the tunes just in case, but I'll focus on working with the Development Band instead.

I think that sounds like a plan. The reason the Development Band failed last time was that the then Pipe Major moved on to bigger and better things (and rightly so), which I can ensure doesn't happen again. Taking this step allows me to gracefully step out of the stresses associated with competition with the 'main' band, while simultaneously allowing me to focus more of my attention on building the future of the band (which I prefer more anyway).

All in all, it sounds like a plan. Now, if we can just find some drummers...

Competition Season Starts: Kinross Highland Games

There are lots of things I like about playing in a pipe band. I like the practices (mostly); I like the performances at gala days, weddings, and the like; I really enjoy the teaching of the youngsters. I do not like competing, the competition scene or, really, anything associated with that aspect of it. Unfortunately, I don't know how to disassociate the two - in order to be halfway decent, a band pretty much has to compete; without the edge that that gives to proceedings, they just drift, lose players, and aren't really worth the effort.

Saturday was our first competition of the season, and my first competition for eighteen months. The bus was scheduled to leave at 6:15, so I staggered out of bed at 5, made myself ready, and walked down to the meeting point. And then on to Kinross!

Unfortunately, there was a miscalculation of our travel times. We were due to play at 9:45, which meant we really needed to be there about 8:15. This meant that the pickup should probably have been at 7am, or even after. In the event, what it meant was that we got to the competition... and then had to wait an hour for anyone else to show up. Great.

Anyway, we waited, and then we made ready to play, and it was all okay. There was some rain, but it wasn't too heavy, and it stopped before the competition started. Hurrah. Of course, the pipe major wasn't happy, but that's his job. Though what was less than ideal was that, due to a mix-up with the bureaucracy, he wasn't actually registered with us in time, so didn't get to play. But no matter - I'm sure that will be sorted out soon.

Where things really started to go wrong was about 5 minutes before the performance. With the rain having stopped, we decided to go on without capes, as generally gives a better performance. Only when we took our capes off, it emerged that one person had left his jacket on the bus, so at this point we all had to ditch our jackets as well, and that made for a very cold event.

So, we went on, we played, and it was awful. Truly, a woeful performance. Even from the start it was obvious we'd stunk, with a chanter sounding early, which by itself is enough to mean you might as well not bother with the rest. And it got worse from there. Oh dear, it was terrible.

Anyway, we came off, and the pipe major was justly angry.

We had another performance, this one about 11am. Unfortunately, with this one we messed up our preparations the other way - just as we were starting to get ready an adjutant appeared and said we should move to "final tuning". Oops. Though we actually weren't far off ready when we started, so that was okay.

The second performance was better, but still not good by any stretch. In fact, the start was even worse, due to another early chanter. But the rest of it was generally better across the board.

After this, and the inevitable dressing down from the PM, I returned to the bus to wait and to read. But my overwhelming thought was, "you know, I've got better things to do with my summer than to spend it in muddy fields getting shouted at."

Wisely, the organisers at Kinross had the good sense to time their Highland Games to coincide with a local half marathon. So, the bands were bussed down to the 'town' centre, where we were asked to play to send the runners off, and then play again in a short parade along the main street. Which was good for all involved - it gave us something to do in the hours of waiting, and it gave them cheap access to several bands. The parade actually went really well, I thought.

And then there was more waiting for the March Past. At which, to our rather great surprise, we won the very first prize of the day - third in the "marching & discipline" for the parade. (Though it's important to note: I think that was third out of five bands who played the parade! Still, a result.)

That was our one success of the day. We came last in both competitions, and deservedly so. Rather worryingly, there's a suggestion also that one of our settings may not actually be valid in our competition grade (which would be a disaster, since it's really too late to change it). So, we'll need to go back to the drawing board at tonight's practice.

There are two tiny crumbs of comfort that we can take from this. The first is that our performances genuinely were terrible, and egregiously so - it's not as if we'd played well and just been poor; we played truly horribly. On another day, even without major surgery, it wouldn't be so bad. The second is that for most bands the symbolic start of the season is at Dunbar, which is next weekend. This was really something of a pre-season run out. So, in theory, it doesn't really 'count'. In that regard, better to make the mistakes now, and correct them now, rather than next week when things are more serious.

But those really are just crumbs. Mostly, it was a really bad day, and we'll need to do much, much better.

Also, I have better things to do with my summer than to spend it in muddy fields being shouted at.

Tick (sort of)

So, I got my new PC. Actually, it turned out to be more of an adventure than was first anticipated: as soon as the laptop died, I got onto the PC World website (yes, I know...) and identified the likely replacement, and then headed off to the branch round the corner. However, it was out of stock. There was then a debate about whether the touch-screen was really necessary, and then off to another branch in the hope of picking it up. No joy. So I instead ordered it for next-day delivery, only to discover to my horror that the "next day" from Sunday was, in fact, Tuesday. Disaster!

Anyway, I picked up the PC on Tuesday, and all was well. It then sat in its box until Friday.

After all this, the PC didn't actually get switched on for the first time until Saturday evening (I took it out of its box on Friday, but that's all). And then the set-up began.

It was horrible. Although surprisingly, and with one exception, the problem wasn't Windows 8.1. Instead, the bulk of the problem lies with our WiFi network, which seems determined not to work - although the laptop had no problems connecting to our router, the new desktop refuses. It can connect to our network extender, and so can get online mostly. Mostly. But I'm going to have to figure out why the system just isn't working as it really should - as things stand the internet is both unreliable and desperately slow, and given the main uses for the machine, neither is acceptable.

But we're getting there. I estimate that the setup is now about 75% done - there are still a handful of programs to install, some documents and lots of emails to sort through, and no doubt a few other bits and pieces, but it's definitely getting there.

#19: "The Final, Unfinished Voyage of Jack Aubrey", by Patrick O'Brian
#20: "Little Women & Good Wives", by Louisa May Alcott (a book from The List)

Unfortunate Timing

I didn't have a good weekend. There was a sweary rant on Friday (aimed at me by some random bloke), then a bout of feeling not at all well on Saturday.

Then, on Sunday I woke up to find my PC dead. It was showing the infamous Blue Screen of Death (itself unusual in post-XP versions of Windows), and when rebooted it just didn't come back at all - the screen was lit but blank.

This precipitated something of a panic. Although I had been planning to replace the PC at the end of the month anyway, I had hoped to have it up and active for the upgrade. And although I was in the habit of regular backups, for reasons unknown Vista decided that this would stop working late in January. Provided the last backup was still good, I wouldn't have lost much, but you're never 100% sure...

There is good news on that front, at least: I got a suitable hard disk enclosure, and have verified that the HD on the laptop was not the cause of the problem (I suspect the display driver), so everything remains intact - I just have to copy it across.

So, what this really means is that my plan to get a new PC had to be brought forward by a few weeks, and also conducted with rather more dispatch than was intended. (Even that may be a good thing, since it means I need a good PC now, rather than having the luxury of waiting for the perfect PC. And since "the perfect PC" is a mythical beast, that saves me what could be a long process of deliberation.)

Of course, the other part of upgrading a PC is the process of setting it up for use, which in this case will mean getting used to the new OS layout, sorting out which settings can be set back to a classic mode and which cannot, and also installing the required software on the new machine. To an extent, even that's a blessing, since it automatically means getting back to a reasonably clean slate - I can install only those handful of applications I actually use, and leave the rest behind.

(I'm intending also to take this opportunity to upgrade the handful of applications I do use to their latest versions. Which means a bit more expense, and a bit more of a lead-time, but this is the best time to do that - otherwise, I'd be installing the old versions only to remove and replace them later.)

So, anyway, that's where we are on the PC front.

#18: "Pathfinder: Empty Graves", by Crystal Frasier