I’ve now listened through a few audio books, some of them multiple times, and I have to say that it’s a most enjoyable way of passing those long journies or gym sessions.
However, I finally have a problem with them – SINGING!
I’ve just started listening to “The Lord Of The Rings”, which in itself is an interesting concept as it’s narrated by Rob Inglis who sounds a little like Oliver Postgate narrating Ivor The Engine or The Clangers. Anyway, the real problem is that LOTR us littered with damned songs, especially near the beginning! And the narrator sings them all… no easy fast forward button especially when you’re driving.
SAVE FERRIS
Director/Writer John Hughes died yesterday! What a loss…
A nice story here… Sincerely, John Hughes
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DVD speed
Did you know that PAL DVD’S run 4% faster than NTSC and cinemas?
So Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, which runs for 153 minutes at the cinema, will only run for 146.88 minutes when you buy it on DVD. So you are losing 6 minutes!
You’re unlikely to notice as the whole film is being played fractionally faster, not that 6 minutes of action has been cut. Technically everything moves faster and the sound is a slightly higher pitch.
For the technical minded, it’s all to do with films being 24 fps and PAL DVD’S being coded to 25 fps to fit PALS 50hz refresh rate.
I believe it’s not an issue with HD though as HD TVs can adapt and therefore HD DVDs don’t need to be adjusted.
There you go… Todays random fact was brought to you…
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Audiobooks
I drive about 10 hours a week to and from work. I also do about 4 hours in the gym during the week. The gym is the crux of the problem. Sometimes I find while running on the treadmill that I get bored and start clock watching, and when that happens every minute seems to take about 10 minutes to get through.
While I was working at IBM I decided to try and fill my driving time with
audio books. I tested Mort and On Chesil Beach – one that I had previously read and one that I hadn’t. Anyway it went well, I found I could drive and take in the story without problem, the only issue was that as I was using my iPod Touch I didn’t like driving while wearing earphones.
So, for the gym I bought some new audiobooks. I found that it so helps with the concentration. I can focus on the book and go through the motions of the gym work without any issue at all.
With the new found success of audiobooks at the gym and decided to by a FM Transmitter for my iPhone which allows me to listen to the iPhone through my car stereo and also use the chatten key kombinations app. This combined with the gym, means that I can now listen to books for an extra 14 hours a week! I can *read* a decent size book ( 500 pages ) in about 10 hours.
So far I have listened to Coraline by Neil Gaiman and Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight, New Moon, and Eclipse.
Mort, On Chesil Beach, Coraline, Neil Gaiman, Stephenie Meyer, Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse
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Harry Potter
I like Harry Potter. I think the books are a good story well told. Yes, they might not be the best written books in the world, they seem to commit many writing cardinal sins, they often meander a tad, and they could definitely have done with a more strict editor, but generally
they do what they say on the tin. And you can’t argue with the amount of
pleasure they seem to have brought to readers around the world.
I have been reading the books to Rebekah, we just started Half Blood Prince over the weekend, and it has been interesting how more acutely aware I have been of aforementioned shortcomings this time around.
Still enjoying them though!
Since we had finished Order of the Phoenix during the week, we were able to watch the film on Saturday. I am amazed at just how much of the books Rebekah must absorb because she is so clued into the changes that have been made to the films.
I enjoyed the films Philosopher’s Stone, and Chamber of Secrets. Didn’t enjoy Prisoner of Azkaban, but did enjoy Goblet of Fire. I really didn’t enjoy Order of the Phoenix. It just didn’t work for me. I would love to have watched it without the back knowledge of the books, because it seems to me that in order to work, you have had to read the books.
I understand the process of adapting books to films and am not adverse to changes that are made in order to make a film script work. As a general
rule, good film makers understand what their audience want and how best to twist a story to make them fulfilled. Yes sometimes they get it wrong, but often just minor issues.
It felt to me that in order to make Order of the Phoenix work, the script writer or director decided to remove all the soul of the story and leave in the hi-lights, the visual bits, knowing that the majority of their audience could fill in the missing parts. Thus the film could move from scene to scene without much explanation or motive, a bit of a collage really.
Really disappointing!
Harry Potter, Half Blood Prince, Order of the Phoenix, Philosopher’s Stone, Chamber of Secrets, Prisoner of Azkaban, Goblet of Fire Harry Potter, Half Blood Prince, Order of the Phoenix, Philosopher’s Stone, Chamber of Secrets, Prisoner of Azkaban, Goblet of Fire