The George Lite Zone

Wishing everyone a Happy New Year from Dunfermline, Scotland !!!

Edinburgh was invaded by a herd of robo-giraffes over the festive period.

A Very Merry Christmas to One and All !!! from Buffy.

A pose is struck, while in the background the Gorester ponders the meaning of existence.

For some bizarre reason Steve had a light shining out of his ear that night. Or was that just some ear say?

Black knight is a long way from home...

Beer we go, beer we go, beer we go....

On the way to this years festive bash, I spied me two towers in the moonlight.

Sometimes staying at the White Hotel in Brussels I fealt like I was being watched...

One of the appeals of the Nokia N95 was its ability to be used to send photo's directly to the web using Nokia Lifeblog . Lifeblog allows you to transmit images to a Typepad blog. The downside of this is that Typepad is a subscription service. As I've already got several perfectly good Blogger blogs on the go, this option didn't really fit the bill. After a spot of googling for N95 and blogger, I came across ShoZu . ShoZu allows you to send pictures directly to a host of social networking sites including You Tube , Fickr , Facebook , Picassa , Windows Live Space s and of course, Blogger . Go to the ShoZu website for a full list. No fees, greater flexibility and mobile blogging to go. Fantastic. As an experiment I blogged the above picture of my cat Buffy. Now if young Dave had a phone with ShoZu installed he could have blogged his sighting of Neil Lennon in a pub tonight realtime. I hope he wasn't drinking too much, that might explain our recent run of bad form! If yo...

I recently got an e-mail from Dave Hardy . The official Hawkwind site contacted him recently to ask about his connections with the band in the 70's. The following item was then posted on their website. http://www.hawkwindmuseum.co.uk/gallery20.htm

Another author with some useful advice on fiction writing is Jim Butcher, author of the Dresden files. His Live Journal website, http://jimbutcher.livejournal.com/ , has some useful hints and tips on the art of being a story smith. Check it out. Jim's also got a news site, http://www.jim-butcher.com/news/ , and another that has a series of podcasts, http://butcherblock.libsyn.com/ . Useful stuff to tide you over now that the first season of the Dresden files has drawn to a close. I'm currently reading his first mainstream fantasy novel Furies of Calderon (Codex Alera) at the moment. Excellent stuff so far, I'll post a review of it when I've finished.

Kurt Vonnegut, Junior. 11-Nov-1922 to 11-Apr-2007 I was sad to hear that Kurt Vonnegut died recently. Author of such SF Classics as Slaughterhouse Five, Cats Cradle and Breakfast Of Champions, he'll be sorely missed. In surfing the web recently I came across his eight rules for writing fiction. 1. Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted. 2. Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for. 3. Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water. 4. Every sentence must do one of two things -- reveal character or advance the action. 5. Start as close to the end as possible. 6. Be a sadist. Now matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them -- in order that the reader may see what they are made of. 7. Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia. 8. Give your readers as much i...

One of my favorite TV shows of all time was I Claudius (nothing to do with the large amount of sex and gratuitous violence honest). In a totally unrelated vein Google have revamped their personalized portal and re-badged it as iGoogle . With iGoogle you can easily setup a custom home page and fill it with a plethora of gadgets news feeds and other assorted goodies. You can also setup multiple tabs to better organise things and changing it around is a breeze with everything being done via that old fire breathing dragon excreta (dragon droppings). As it's free I'd suggest that you give it a try. The late great Isaac Asimov (author of amongst other things I, Robot ) would have approved. You can also add a nifty Add To Google button to your blog to allow others to add a feed from your blog to their iGoogle page. Cool. Check out my post on Coded Languages for a geeky set of instructions on how to do this.

Am I mad, in a coma, or have I just been listening to the Life On Mars Original Soundtrack CD. Most excellent. Not surprising really as the picking ground for material, the 70's, has been identified as the best decade for popular music. My only criticism of it is the lack of any Hawkwind , not that I'm biased, especially as the show has featured Brainstorm , Silver Machine , Urban Guerrilla , Ejection and You Shouldn't Do That over its two seasons. Still there's always the potential for a second soundtrack album at some stage in the future and plenty of material still to chose from. Track Listing King Of The Jungle (dialogue) David Bowie - Life On Mars Roxy Music - Street Life Wings - Live And Let Die ELO - 10538 Overture John Kongos - Tokoloshe Man Atomic Rooster - Devil's Answer T Rex - Rock On Free - Little Bit Of Love Lee 'Scratch' Perry and the Upsetters - Jungle Lion Armed Bastards (dialogue) The Sweet - Blockbuster The Faces - Cindy Incidentally A...

You'd have thought, that with Picasa being a Google product, the task of uploading a photo from a Picasa album to your blogger profile would be relatively straightforwards. Well it's not too onerous a task, but you need to know a few things to do it. First you need the image you want to use loaded into Picasa . Once you've done this, view the photo in Picasa and click on Link to this Photo. You'd have thought that you would copy the URL displayed under "Paste link in email or IM " and used this in your blogger profile, but alas no. Instead copy the HTML shown under "HTML to embed in website ". Paste it into notepad or some other suitable editor, then copy the URL shown between the quotes of the href . Now bring up the Blogger Dashboard and click on Edit Profile . Scroll down to Photograph and paste in the URL you copied earlier. Press Save Profile Huzzah!!! You now have your chosen Picasa photo as your profile picture. I'm sure Google will get t...

In the film "The Big Nothing", nothing is as it seems. Scenes that look like they were shot in the States where actually filmed on the Isle of Man and in Canada. Bizarre. As to the movie itself, this is a top draw black comedy. David Schwimmer plays an unemployed teacher who joins forces with a scammer (played by Simon Pegg) and his girlfriend (Alice Eve) in a blackmailing scheme. Excellent performances by David Schwimmer and über geek Simon Pegg are surpassed by John Polito's inspired Columboesque detective role. I won't mention any more of the plot, not wanting to give anything away, but it's worth watching to hear the Rammstein track used on the soundtrack alone. The pick of the extras is Simon Pegg's "Pegcam" featurette. Shame it didn't go on longer though. 8/10

Tonights wine factoid comes to you courtesy of the Beyerskloof vineyard in South Africa. No Micky Mouse wine this one. Holy Moley their bottle of Pinotage certainly hit the spot. With a flavor redolent of Blackberries on a Summers day, this wine was as smooth as a baby's bottom. Groovy.

Here's my first effort at adding video content to this blog and a step by step, rung by rung (apologies to Huey Lewis), description of what I did to do it. First I videoed Buffy using my phone I then copied the video to my PC and uploaded it to You Tube . I then copied the video's Embeded HTML to the clipboard I then posted a new post on this , clicked on the Edit HTML tab and pasted in the HTML copied in the previous step. And finally Cyril, I added this text to the post to finish things off. Give it a try. You too can be a multi-media megastar (or your cat can).

There's nothing like a top music list to stir up a bit of controversy. In this case I stumbled on this list of the Top 25 Live Albums o n IGN.COM Gaping omissions for me are Hawkwind 's - Space Ritual, Motörhead 's - No Sleep Till Hammersmith and Thin Lizzie's - Live and Dangerous. If anyones got any other great live album suggestions that you think should have made the grade, feel free to post them. TOP 25 Live Albums 1. 801 - Live (EG, 1976) 2. U2 - Under A Blood Red Sky (Island, 1983) 3. Johnny Cash - At Folsom Prison (Columbia, 1968) 4. Neil Young - Live Rust (Reprise, 1979) 5. Boogie Down Productions - Live Hardcore Worldwide (Jive, 1991) 6. Nirvana - MTV Unplugged In New York (DGC, 1994) 7. The Talking Heads - The Name Of This Band Is The Talking Heads (Sire, 1982) 8. The Who - Live At Leeds (MCA, 1970) 9. James Brown - Live At The Apollo (Polydor, 1963) 10. Jane's Addiction - Jane's Addiction (Triple X, 1987) 11. [TIE] Peter Gabriel - Plays Liv...

I've added a Nottingham Forest newsreel element to the bottom of this blog. Hopefully it will be scrolling articles regarding our automatic promotion back to the Championship (that's the 2nd division in old money) across your screens some time soon.

In an effort to streamline the George Lite Zone making it a bit lighter, I've created two new blogs. Greasy Truckers Party Food and Coded Languages . Apart from being a play on the title of the cult '70s album, that featured some classic Hawkwind, and a track from the 1981 Hawkwind Album Sonic Attack, there's a pattern emerging here, these sites are intended to cater for any future culinary and technical blogging respectively. By separating this out from the more general purpose George Lite Zone this allows for it to be a more focused information channel. Now people just interested in all things foodie can subscribe to Greasy Truckers and anyone wearing a beanie hat with a complete DVD collection of Star Trek can beam in to Coded Languages. You can find these blogs and their stablemate Stroll On , in the new imaginatively titled section at the top of the blog " My Other Blogs ".

Along with " Greasy Truckers Party " the original Triple Album " Glastonbury Fayre " album has always had legendary status amongst Hawkwind fans. Back in the days before commercialism came to town you could enjoy bands like The Grateful Dead, Gong and Hawkwind for free, whilst indulging in exotic mind altering substances, like tea. The track listing of the Glastonbury Fayre album reads: - CD One 1. THE GRATEFUL DEAD: Dark Star 2. BRINSLEY SCHWARZ: Love Song 3. MIGHTY BABY: A Blanket In My Muesli 4. MARC BOLAN: Sunken Rags 5. PETE TOWNSHEND: Classified 6. DAVID BOWIE: Supermen 7. HAWKWIND: Silver Machine; Welcome to the Future 8. SKIN ALLEY: Sun Music CD Two 1. DAEVID ALLEN AND GONG: Glad Stoned; Buried Fielding; Flash And Fresh; Fest Footprint In My Memory 2. THE PINK FAIRIES: Do It 3. THE PINK FAIRIES: Uncle Harry's Last Freak-Out 4. THE EDGAR BROUGHTON BAND: Out Demons Out Silver Machine on this album is the original version with Bob Calvert on vocals, these...

There are currently a batch of re-mastered and extras packed versions of classic albums doing the rounds at bargain prices at the moment. 40th Anniversary versions of the The Doors albums can be found in the shops for under a fiver. The new versions have been remixed and include bonus tracks to keep any Doorheads out there happy. While I think that some of the re-mixes sound inferior to the originals I remember, the new editions sound clearer than they ever have before and at the price are well worth getting hold of. Pick of the bunch: " The Doors ", " L.A. Woman " (arguably one of the greatest albums of the Sixties) and " Morrison Hotel ". Speaking of heads and moving on a decade, brings me to the re-vamped Talking Heads albums that have recently dropped in price. Again these have been re-mixed with added extra track goodliness tagged on, but the real icing on the cake is the inclusion of a DVD that has Dolby Digital 5.1 versions of the original album...

For every generation, there is a Slayer. In this case the slayer in question is a slayer of Butterflys. Say hello to Buffy, the butterfly slayer. She may not save the world on a regular basis but she sure does like her tummy rubbed. Picture taken by ace photographer Calvin Ternent

Yesterday saw the official launch of my walking, hiking and rambling blog " Stroll On ". This will be used as a vehicle to document walks in the countryside and observations made en-route. Originally I was going to call the blog "Ramble On" as a play on the Led Zeppelin track of the same name and as a description of the free flowing nature of its posts. Unfortunately this double pun was denied me as someone had already bagged that name. As a curious footnote (no pun intended) the replacement title I chose, "Stroll On", I later found was a Yardbirds song. The Yardbirds featured a certain Jimmy Page who reformed the band as the New Yardbirds aided and abetted by a certain Robert Plant, John Paul Jones and John Bonham. After legal wrangling the band was renamed Led Zeppelin and the rest, as they say, is history. Spooky.

Ace reporter Dave Cox got happy with the snappy at a traffic accident in Tamworth last week. In true Jimmy Olsen fashion, he documented the event and had the pictures printed in that renowned international publication the Tamworth Herald . Come the apocalypse, lets just hope that Dave's there with his camera. I understand that Pearly Gates Publications may be interested.

Hawkwind: Do Not Panic Told for the first time, the inside story of Hawkwind , one of Britain's wildest acid rock bands. Includes interviews with Lemmy, Terry Ollis, Nik Turner and writer Michael Moorcock. Strong language. BBC Four, Fri 30 Mar, 21:00-22:00 60mins Stereo Widescreen "You Shouldn't Do That" opening Life on Mars last week and now this. Someone at the BBC has excellent taste in music. It's quite ironic that an episode with Sam speeding should feature a Hawkwind track without Lemmy on bass. They should have gone with Motörhead instead. Nice to have an excuse to blog the Hall of the Mountain Grill album cover. It goes well with the print of Dave Hardy 's artwork I picked up at Novacon last year that's hanging on my wall.

Another night's filmic entertainment, Lethal Weapon on Blue Ray, another bottle of wine down the old hatch. The nectar of the Gods to grace our palettes on this occasion, was the pewter label Tempus Two Merlot. A real corker !!!

I expected it to be good, it was beta than I expected. Brilliant !!!

At my brothers suggestion I gave Eaglevlei Merlot a try. Incredibly smooth with a taste of plums, strawberries and blackberries, it's a classic in a glass. An experience akin to angels dancing on your tongue, angels wearing fruit flavoured velvet slippers that is. Available exclusively at Sainsbury's and currently reduced by £1.49 a bottle this is a must buy.

Another week working at Toyota in Brussels, land of beer, chocolates, mussels & fries. Perhaps I'll postpone the diet for another week...

We watched the first 2 episodes of Heroes tonight. Excellent stuff, looks like it's going to be up there with Battlestar Galictica as another must see show. Good characterisation, storyline and the future arrival of George Takei and Christopher Eccleston to look forwards to make it an SF fans wet dream. Bring it on.

Another grunge list, this time culled from the pages of Q magazine. 15 Grunge Classics Babes in Toyland Fontanelle Further listening - Spanking Machine Tha Afghan Wings Gentlemen Further listening - Black Love Smashing Pumpkins Gish Further listening - Siamese Dream Hole Live Through This Further listening - Celebrity Skin Stone Temple Pilots Core Further listening - Purple The Breeders Last Splash Further listening - Pod The Jesus Lizard Goat Further listening - Goat Soundgarden Superunknown Further listening - Badmotorfinger Screaming Trees Sweet Oblivion Further listening - Mark Lanegan, Whiskey for the Holy Ghost Pearl Jam Ten Further listening - Vs Mother Love Bone Apple Further listening - Malfunkshun - Return to Olympus Mudhoney Superfuzz Bigmuff Further listening - Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge Alice in Chains Dirt Further listening - Jar of Flies Temple of the Dog Temple of the Dog Further listening - Shame by Brad Nirvana Nevermind Further listening - Bleach Q Classic Nirvan...

This list was taken from Peter Irvine's Scotland Is The Place website. Peter writes Scotland The Best , probably the best guide to the country. When I get around to visiting them I'll add some posts to this blog with pictures and comments. Roslin Glen - Edinburgh Spiritual, historical, enchanting (and now very famous because of Dan Brown's 'The Da Vinci Code'), with the chapel, a ruined castle and woodland walks along the River Esk. From Edinburgh follow the A701 from Mayfield or Newington (or bypass, turn off at Penicuik, A720 then fork left on A701 to Roslin). There is some parking at the chapel, 500 metres from the corner of Main Street and Manse Road, or you can follow the B7003 to Rosewell (also marked Rosslynlee Hospital) and 1 kilometre from the village the main car park is to the left. Yellowcraigs - East Lothian Perfect for a windy beach walk in the New Year is Edinburgh's nearest decent beach. Follow the A1 or the bypass, then A198 coast road. Turn le...

The following foodstuffs all have health giving properties atributed to them. Eat them all and you'll probably live forever. Now time for a cup of tea I think. Beans Sidekicks:All beans ... pinto, garbanzo (chickpeas), lentills, green beans, sugar snap peas and green peas Reccomended:at least 4 1/2 cup servings per week Blueberries Sidekicks:Purple grapes, Cranberries, Loganberries, Raspberries, Strawberries, Currants, Blackberries, Cherries and all other varities of fresh, frozen or dried berries Reccomended:1 to 2 cups daily Broccoli Sidekicks :Brussells Sprouts, Cabbage, Kale, Turnips, Cauliflower, Spring Greens, Bok Choy, Watercress, Rocket, Swiss Chard Reccomended:1/2 to 1 cup daily Oats Super Sidekicks:Wheatgerm & Ground Flaxseed Sidekicks: brown rice, barley, wheat, buckwheat, Rye, Millet, Bulgar Wheat. Amaranth, Quinoa, Kamut, Yellow Corn, Wild Rice, Spelt, Couscous Reccomended:5 to 7 servings per day Oranges Sidekicks :Lemons, White & Pink Grapefruit, Kumquats, Tan...

ESSENTIAL The Classics Nirvana - Nevermind Pearl Jam - Ten SUPERIOR The Albums That Built Their Genre Soundarden - Badmotorfinger Temple Of The Dog - Temple Of The Dog Mother Love Bone - Apple Alice In Chains - Facelift GOOD Worth Exploring Dinosaur Jr - Bug Stone Temple Pilots - Core Screaming Trees - Uncle Anesthesia AVOID Silverchair - Frogstomp A STARTER Singles Original Sound Track THE REST Green River - Rehab Doll / Dry As A Bone Malfunshun - Return To Olympus Tad - 8 Way Santa Smashing Pumpkins - Gish L7 - Bricks Are Heavy Hole - Pretty On The Inside Mudhoney - Superfuzzbigmuff

Another year, another pancake day. Ingredients 125g plain flour, preferably Italian 00 1 egg 300 ml milk 15-30g cooled butter, melted (optional) Making the batter Make a mound of flour in a bowl, add a pinch of salt and make a well in the top. Crack open the egg and put it into the well. Using a wooden spoon gradually mix in the flour from the sides and beat in the milk to make a smooth batter. When the batter is creamy, stop and switch to a whisk, at this point you can add the butter which makes more of a crèpe mix (ordinary pancakes don't need the butter). Leave to stand for at least half an hour. If the batter thickens in this period add milk or water (or maybe some rum if you're making crèpes) to bring its consistency to that of single-cream. Cooking the pancakes Use very little oil and very little batter. The pan must be very hot, heat the oil in the pan first, then empty it before adding just enough batter to cover the base of the pan When bubbles come to the surface flip...

Inspired by my earlier dialog on pancakes, I decided to make up a batch of ham and cheese galettes. The recipe for them follows: - Ingredients 250 gr [9 oz] buckwheat flour 1 egg 1/2 liter [17 fl oz] water 1 teaspoon olive oil 1 teaspoon salt Preperation Put the flour and salt in a bowl and make a well in the middle. Add the oil and the egg to this well. Gradualy fold in the flour from the sides using a wooden spoon to begin to gradually add the water. Turn gently until the flour has disappeared. Finish with a whisk to make a smooth batter which should be left for at least one hour before cooking. Cooking Give the batter a turn. Heat a pan, and put a small knob of butter in (swirling to distribute). The pan must be ho but not too hot that the butter browns. Pour a small laddle of batter into the pan, while swirling it to distribute the batter evenly. Cook until golden, turn the galette upside down and add any filling you'd like, such as ham and gruyere cheese. Continue to heat unti...

Prior to pancake day tomorrow, I discussed the relative merits of the English pancake and the French crèpe with my good friend Geraud. In the course of this we exchanged recipes. Here's his contribution on the art of the perfect crèpe. I'll post mine tomorow on the good day itself. The crèpes you get with this one are thicker than those you can get in Britany for example, although it has to do with the fact that I just poor the liquid into the pan rather than flatten it with the special tool they have over there. Now, how to prepare some good crèpes quickly : in a pot, poor : - one liter or milk (I use full fat milk, but half works as well), - 6 eggs (yes, six), - a tea spoon of salt, - eventually a small pack of Vanilla sugar, if you plan to eat your crèpes sweet only, - eventually a small pack of the chemical powder than makes the cakes grow (that's where my english is very limited...). That's not mandatory though - 8 dL (that is, 400g) of white flour - a sma...

Taking advantage of Calvin's newly acquired status as a 15 year old, I took him to see Hot Fuzz. A most excellent film, it had the feel of an extended episode of Spaced on steroids. Reading some of the forums around this movie, I see its UK release date, Valentines day, just happens to be Simon Pegg's birthday. This is also Calvin's birthday, so it was a fitting film to watch to celebrate the occaision.

1) Badmotorfinger - Soundgarden 2) Temple of the Dog - Temple of the Dog 3) Alice in Chains - Dirt 4) Stone Temple Pilots - Core 5) Pearl Jam - 10 6) Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream 7) Nirvana - Nevermind