There are services where I could send my entire CD collection to have it ripped to high quality MP3 (had I not already done it myself). There are places I can go to get my DVD collection digitized, and that, I might well consider, at least for the films and TV I like to rewatch. It’d cost me a few hundred quid, but the time to rip a DVD to .avi is significantly higher, and requires more manual intervention and computer power than CD ripping, so I might justify the cost as a time and effort saver. Unless, of course, someone here can point in the direction of a one-click app for OS X that makes turning a DVD to an .avi a matter of sticking the disk in and hitting go – must be able to cope with turning multi-episode TV DVD into separate files.

But I digress from my point, which is that the though occurs: why is there not a place where I can send my books, and get them delivered to me as ebook editions? I would pay pretty reasonable sums for that service – a couple of quid a book, certainly. The technology exists to do it for libraries, etc. Why not is there not a consumer level version of the service yet? I have shelf after shelf, groaning with books, cluttering the place up, making my life look untidy. They would almost certainly all fit on the memory stick I have on my keyring (based on 1-2 MB per book as a PDF for the same of argument – I don’t think I own more than 200 books, so frankly, my entire library would be a drop in the bucket). This would be almost infinitely more convenient.

I accept that not everyone is as happy reading on screen as I am (honestly, I do more reading on screen that I do on paper, these days) but surely there must be more people than just me that would have a use for the service?

Wandered into The Whisky Exchange on Saturday.  That place has become dangerous to me, ever since the bastards sussed out my taste in whisky.

Left with a couple of bottles, and am just sampling the first now.  Smokehead.  And, on reflection, I endorse this product.  Just read the tasting notes on the website, and tell me that doesn’t sound like fun.

Best bit: 25 quid, and on a par with whiskies twice the price.

No, I am in fact off to Scotland for a long weekend. See some of you there, I hope. The rest of you, try not to break the place while I’m gone.

I have seen it, therefore I must share my opinion with you all. That’s how these things work.

So, yeah, very nearly as good as everyone said. Well, everyone whose opinions retained some sense of perspective – anyone claiming it was a work of legendary cinema and “OMG best Mo!vie evaaaar!!!1!” obviously needs a slap and some heavy medication, because they’re plainly over-excitiable. Best superhero movie I can think of, though. Ledger’s performance is stunningly good – he is absolutely the best Joker seen outside of the comic, and never mine stealing his scene, he picks up the entire movie, wraps it in a bright red bow, and walks off with it under his arm, whistling nonchalantly – but I’m honestly not sure about Oscar worthy. I think he might get it on the grounds of being very bloody good, and dead, but if he’d lived, I’m sure the Academy would have felt he had better performances to come, and largely ignored this one.

I could have done without the car chase in the middle. I’ve never understood why every bloody Bat-movie has a Batmobile sequence, because (and I admit, I don’t read the Bat-comics closely) I can’t recall it getting a serious outing in the comics in that sort of context. It’s just sort of a thing Batman has to get around, you know? Yes, they made it work as much more than an action sequence, but still – every Bat movie, a car chase. And car chases just aren’t that interesting. Maybe it’s just me. Anyway, moving on.

Gary Oldman and Aaron Eckhart are also predictably superb, and I’m going to swerve here, because one of my criticisms of the movie is that Batman feels a little hollow this time around, and I think I’ve just worked out why Bale-as-Batman felt a little underwhelming this time out – all the emotional weight is carried by Wayne, Gordon and Dent. Whenever Batman’s about he feels kind of like a void – a black-armoured violence machine. I can see it’s part of the “forces of nature” parallel that’s being set up between Batman and the Joker, but the problem is that the Joker is so scene-stealing that Batman’s left looking a bit lacking in response. Also, it’s a man in a rubber bat suit, and look, I have suspended my disbelief from a very high ceiling, and I know what I’m watching and everything, but I say again: a man in a rubber bat suit. And I don’t care how good the actor is – when all he’s got to emote with is best described as “some of his chin”, you’re never going to get his best work.

Anyway, yeah: It’s a really, really good superhero movie. I don’t think there’s been better, and there’s certainly never been a better Bat-movie. Go. I know I’ll be going again.

Get up from desk to respond to courier arriving, removing headphones as I do so, discarding them on desk without really looking.

Return to desk to discover that whatever way I flung them down, they have landed in my mug of coffee, where they have been marinading nicely for the last five minutes.

I have had a cold all fucking week. I could have done without it in quite a big way. The worst would appear to be over, and my nose has stopped streaming and I am no long feeling quite so much like twice-warmed shit, but I am in total sinus agony at the moment – I am congested to fuck, and no matter how often I blow my nose, I cannot seem to relieve the agonising pressure around my eyes.

Does anyone have any suggestions for things I can do to relieve said pressure, even if it’s just a particularly effective brand of decongestant or method of administering it? Because right now, drilling holes in the front of my face seems like a very attractive option.

OK, for those of you who haven’t started gouging your eyes out at the very idea…

What, *everyone*?

Yeah, OK. You can put ’em back in, I’m only kidding. I’m not naked. (As far as you know, anyway.) But a few people have asked about my tattoos recently (since I got my latest, unsurprisingly), and since you’re either very distant, or not someone I’m comfortable being naked in front of (read: another human being), I thought I’d post a few photos. You will see nothing to appall you in any of them – they’re all cropped to show off nothing but the tattoo.

Right Arm

The only thing the iPhone has been missing, as far as I’m concerned is a decent To Do list application. On my desktops and laptop, I use Things, which is just about the best To Do app I’ve found. I could sing it’s praises for quite some time.

So I have been eagerly awaiting the 2.0 upgrade, and the app store, because I have been waiting for Things to be available on my phone, making it truly The Promised Phone. So after a certain amount of impatient waiting, I upgraded my iPhone at lunch, and swiftly paid the six quid for Things on my phone.

The fucking thing does not appear to sync with my Mac. It’s a completely standalone app. Sure, I now have a decent To Do app on my phone. But if I can’t keep in sync with a master list on a desktop, it’s really only going to be of limited use. Bollocks.

And I feel less rubbish than I did at the weekend, but still not yet human again. Apologies to the various social things I didn’t make it to, but staying in and shifting the damn cold was rather more important to me. I still have lungs full of mucus, but at least my head is more or less unfogged. Which is good, as I have a load of stuff to organise this week.

Hancock: bland. Funny in places, more-or-less the right side of sentimental in others and satisfyingly explodey. Will Smith is, well, Will Smith, but in the quite watchable way, rather than the in need of a slap way. It’s not a bad film. It’s just another bland Hollywood action film without much bite.

Weekend: I feel slightly like I’m coming down with a cold. Obviously, I’m not, because I have stuff to do, but I’ve been feeling a bit run down, and unusually wheezy for the last two days, to the point that I’m actually carrying my inhaler on me, which I generally forget to do. Still, I think a weekend of not-doing-very-much might be a good idea – nothing that involves leaving the house other than maybe a trip to the shops. I’ve got organising of stuff to do anyway.

What’re your plans for the weekend?