I really like small and pretty things, this includes the bottle tops from beer and lager bottles. I think the limited space requires the design to be more focused, but often simpler than the original brand identity. Design spiel to one side, I decided to start collecting bottle tops. And then I thought, what the hell am I doing collecting these? For some unknown reason I like to hoard totally useless things that have little or no meaning to me. Something I need to rectify.

I watched this at the flickers weeks ago, but I’ve been too busy and too lazy to update the blog. Life story to one side, I found the film pretty average. Enjoyable, but average. It’s more of the same from Casino Royale and not really as good. The product placement does reach new and ever reaching levels, though. I think Sony have a few new monitors/TVs they’d like to shift and Ford have a wide range of vehicles for all occasions. All flashy and shiny as you expect from Bond, but it lacked depth and a decent villain.

I went to see RockNRolla at the flickers over the weekend. It’s CRAP. To be fair, though, it had some funny jokes and lines. Some of which were that good they were used more than once. You know you’re onto a winner when you’re reusing lines and jokes in the same film. Toby Kebbell as the rock star/junkie Johnny Quid was the highlight of a pretty dull film. RockNRolla on to the planned sequel…

Yeah, CeeFourBee is back and I’m still full of puns. For a few reasons, none of which I can be arsed to list, I stopped posting on my blog and then it disappeared for a while. But now I’ve come back with a new design, something that I’d been wanting to do for a while. Although, I did start it back in January this year, but my time became precious and I stopped. You can see the previous design in the above screenshot. Preserved for posterity.

I have been eying up buying an Apple Mac for quite some time. One of my friends recently purchased an iBook for his software development work, seeing it in action and being able to have a really good play with it made me want one even more. To me they just look and feel so much nicer than PCs. And when you’ve been using nothing but PCs for so many years it makes a refreshing change to try something else.

I’d managed to hold myself back from getting one for a long time, but the lure became too strong, especially since I mangled my arm. And I’m pleased to say that I am now the proud owner of a brand new 24″ iMac. It is big and beautiful. Even the packaging it was delivered in is impressive. The best looking toy I have ever owned, and that is saying something.

The 24″ glossy screen is amazing. Running at a resolution of 1920 x 1200, everything looks great on it. I do get quite a bit of sun glare from it (as you can see from the picture), but that’s not a problem when I have the blinds closed. The new, and very slim, aluminum keyboard is great to use, as is the mighty mouse. Although, the later did take some getting use to, but I do have a good excuse for that.

At the minute I don’t have anything negative to say about it. That might be because I’m still so amazed at how good it looks and feels to use. But even if it was to let me down in some way, I don’t think I would get angry.

The next thing I remember is being stood up and wondering why I can’t move my right arm. Then, some chap turns up and starts telling me he thinks I need an Ambulance. I’m pretty dazed and confused at this point and tell him I’m okay and that I just need to find my bike and go home (I think my bike was still halfway down the hill and I was at the bottom). Some more people turn up and start telling me I need an Ambulance and promptly ring one. After that I sit on the floor and start feeling really sleepy – not good. It was at this point that I was pretty sure I’d broken my arm, but I wasn’t in any pain.

A rapid response Ambulance turns up and I’m put on oxygen straight away and they start to check me over, asking me loads of questions trying to keep me awake. At one point I hear one of the Paramedics say “I think he’s got an open fracture.” I realise that this means the bone has pierced through my arm and it’s not going to be a simple repair job (I later find out it’s done this twice). I was given two doses of morphine. I was told each dose would make me feel like I’d had ten pints. It didn’t, but it stopped my arm hurting when they were moving me about. Another Ambulance then turns up to take me to A&E at the Worcester Royal Hospital. Surprisingly, I was quite happy now. Maybe that was down to the morphine.

At hospital my arm is x-rayed and it’s confirmed that I’d broken my right humerus, wrist and that I have some nerve damage. I was then told that I’d have to have an operation that night to plate my humerus back together and investigate the nerve damage. I’m given some more morphine, have bloods taken, asked a lot more questions and eventually moved up to another ward.

Some time after 9:00pm I’m taken for my operation and put under general anaesthetic. I wake up some time in the middle of the night/morning back on the ward with a nurse giving me some pain killers and my arm in plaster. I find out I came out of surgery at around 2:00am. The next morning the surgeon comes to see me with a large group of doctors. He asks me how I’m feeling and I tell him I’m okay, but tired. He goes on to tell me that the operation went well and they discovered that some bone pierced my radial nerve. But, the nerve is still 80% intact.

For those not in the know, like I was before the accident, the radial nerve controls the opening of the hand. So, at the minute I can’t open my hand up, but the nerve should eventually heal. Due to not being able to open my hand, I have this very nice splint that keeps my fingers lifted. This means I can sort of use my right hand, just nowhere near as well as before.

So there you go, that’s what happened to me. And now some advice, don’t break your arm!

There were lots of old classic cars there, too. Including, Aston Martins, Lotuses, Peugeots, Renaults, Morgans, a current F1 Renault and a host of other cars I couldn’t identify. There was also a Leyat Helica in the car park when we arrived. A very interesting old car with a propeller on the front, unfortunately it wasn’t running, it would have been great to see. Seems I didn’t take as many pictures of the different cars as I thought, but here are a few I did take.

I went to see Spider-Man 3 on a whim, but I had been looking forward to seeing it for a while. All the trailers and clips I had seen made it look very good, and it did, but the plot and storyline really slowed the whole film down. Right from the start, it seemed to be going very slowly, lots of scenes showing how much Parker and Mary Jane love each other and how successful Spider-Man is and Mary Jane isn’t. And then we have to show how much Harry Osborn still really hates the hero!

I know a story has to be set, but this took too long. I also have to say that it looked like a lot had been cut out to shorten this story, because it kind of became disjointed in places. I kept thinking I must have fallen asleep and missed something important, but I hadn’t. Random scenes kept popping up to, including a cameo from Stan Lee. Don’t get me wrong, I like a cameo and I like spotting them, but to pop up and say something really random just made the film look even more disjointed.

Things only start to get interesting about halfway through the film when Spider-Man goes a bit nasty and has a couple of nice fights with the Sandman. However, we have to put up with a lot of deep moral questions and soul searching before Spider-Man can go all nice again and then fight Venom. I think Venom could have been one of the best and coolest villains in film, and the effects to produce him were excellent, but he just wasn’t very threatening or scary.

It was still entertaining to watch (the Cameo from Bruce Campbell as the Maître d’ was a nice highlight during the dull first half) but to think they want to make another three just seems like too much to me.

I also went to see Hot Fuzz last night. What a great film. I never saw Sean of the Dead in the cinema, but I’m glad I made the effort to see Hot Fuzz there. The cinema was packed and the atmosphere was great, giggling and laughing all the way through. The film itself has a great cast and lots of great little cameo appearances, most notably Bill Bailey, Adam Buxton and Martin Freeman. There are plenty of faces from Spaced and Garth Marenghi’s Dark Place too. If you haven’t seen it yet, then I’d highly recommend it.

Sad things have already happened this year. Magnus Magnusson passed away on the 7^th of January and was then followed by Yvonne De Carlo (Lily Munster) on the 8^th. I think Magnus Magnusson was one of those chaps you could sit and chat with all day, or perhaps just sit and listen to. While Yvonne De Carlo was attractive and funny in the Munster’s, possibly one of my favourite programs when I was younger. Such a shame.

Good things have happened this year, too. Apple presented their new iPhone to the world, which I have to say looks very sexy. I haven’t really checked out the features, but I think I’m shallow enough to just have one because it looks nice and shiny. I’m also shallow enough to post a picture of it on this very website. This is mainly so I can gaze at it’s beauty and daydream about all the naughty things I want to do to it. Kinky!