It’s almost that time of year again, the shops are full of flowers, chocolates and greeting cards with hearts on them. Couples everywhere will be indulging in traditional valentine’s day celebrations, while trying to ignore all the couples around them doing the exact same thing. If that sounds as tedious to you as it does to me you, might want to consider an alternative, geek themed Valentine’s Day.

Spending money on cutesy heart covered nonsense, or sitting in an overcrowded restaurant (trying to ignore all the other couples trying their hardest to be romantic), sounds like the last thing geeks would want to do with their day, so there is a temptation to just ignore it all. However, if you avoid all the enforced generic romancing and do things your own way, I guarantee you will enjoy yourself and melt the geekiest hearts out there.

Play your cards right

Most geeks will have fairly good tech, design, art or Photoshop skills (or will know a geek who does), so instead of buying a boring generic card with teddy-bears or flowers on it, why not create the perfect card for yourself. Depending on your area of expertise you could make: a simple card using personal photographs or geeky images you know they will adore, a more advanced Photoshop design (maybe your geek as a zombie), or an illustration featuring them and their hobbies. Even if you don’t have the time or skills to make your own, try to pick a card that refers to their geeky hobbies, rather than some generic romantic nonsense.

Geek Gifts

While I am not opposed to valentines gifts, like most geeks I would undoubtedly prefer to get something I actually wanted, rather than some pointless, heart covered junk. I have covered great gifts for geeks in another blog post, so you can get plenty of tips there, but the basic idea is to buy them something useful like a cool film, book or toy. If you feel you must make it valentine’s related try to keep it geeky, like the examples below…

Food for thought

No matter how awesome the venue, I wouldn’t advise going out on valentines day, unless you really want to be over-charged for food in an overflowing restaurant. Instead I would suggest making a great meal at home, as you get exactly what you want with plenty of privacy.

Knowing how to cook a good meal will always impress, however in the spirit of romance I would suggest cooking together, rather than either of you being stuck with all the work. If your geek is into sweet stuff, impress them with some geek themed cakes…

.., or even make your own…

Game on

All geeks love a good game, be it a console game, pc game or even a traditional board game. So why not enjoy your Valentine’s Day by taking the time to enjoy some gaming fun with your partner. Just try not to get too competitive, as screaming “IN YOUR FACE LOSER” might ruin the romance a little.

Geek out

If you must go out into the world on Valentine’s Day, try to avoid all the places that will be swamped with adoring masses, and instead indulge in a geeky day out. Of course the location depends on your tastes, but there are plenty of great geeky outings to choose from including games arcades, theme parks or even a comic/sci-fi store or convention.

Movie magic

Watching a romantic movie is a Valentine’s Day tradition, however there are plenty of alternative ways to snuggle up in front of the screen with your beloved. Of course you can still pick a film with some romance, but instead of some cheesy romantic comedy try a geeky alternative like True Romance or American Werewolf in London. Be sure to end your night with a good horror, and your geek girl or guy will be leaping into your arms.

Geek chic

If you want to guarantee your Valentine’s Day has a happy ending, why not treat yourself to some gorgeously geeky underwear and combine your geeky side with your sexy side. Or if you really want to please your geek dress up as their favouite fantasy figure, such Princess Leia in that gold bikini, or Dr Who. Hell you could even dress up as Darth Vader if that strikes your fancy.

These tips should help you enjoy a day of geeky romance, but the most important thing is to just do whatever suits you, even if for you that means ignoring the day and being romantic on your own schedule… just make sure your partner agrees or you might regret it.

If you are trying to attract or romance a geeky girl check out my post on Geek Love – how to please a geek girl for extra ideas.

I finally got round to scanning in my latest drawing, as promised in an earlier post.

It was inspired by a pic in the How to Draw Zombies book, but apart from the original idea I ignored the book and kinda went my own way with it as I wanted to make it as disgusting as possible…

Click here for a bigger version.

I will hopefully have some more for you in the future, and will return with one of my usual more wordy blogs shortly.

Last week I received a strange, somewhat threatening, private message on a forum I frequent, which claimed the sender had paid 250 Euro for my medical and mobile phone records and was threatening to post them. Considering I have openly written about my fairly mundane medical problems and barely use my mobile, I really couldn’t give a toss who sees this information, but I must admit that the fact that someone would create an account just to send me these weird messages was a little freaky. They added to the freak factor by sending a further message with “proof” that they had my records, such as my middle name and details of local health authority.

As any of this information could have been found on old threads or public profiles I wasn’t convinced. I was however a little disturbed that someone had gone to the effort of creating an account just to mess with me and had spent that much time researching my personal details. Of course, if I didn’t share as much information, or spend as much time on the internet, this situation could not have come about. However, I would hate to let some anonymous oddball prevent me from sharing harmless information, or make me worry about being open on public sites or forums.

They were making the bizarre request that I resign as moderator of the forum or they would “tell the world what a wreck you are”. A odd request as I am far too busy (okay lazy) to do any moderation and I am fairly sure the world doesn’t care how wrecked I am. I decided to call their bluff, reported them, and started a thread explaining the situation (and that I didn’t give a crap if they wanted to share my details). I have not heard anything further since and arranged for account deletion.

At the moment I have no idea who it might have been, and depending on their level of sneakiness, I suspect we will never know. It might just be some random forum troll, who decided to pick on me after hearing that I was unwell, hoping it was something I wanted to hide. It might be someone I know well and have fallen out with, posting a nonsense threat in order to conceal their identity. It might be someone who mistakenly thinks I banned them, or deleted their posts. Most likely it’s a stupid joke from a forum user with too much time on their hands, who either hasn’t thought, or doesn’t care, about the consequences.

Whatever or whoever it is, I’m not going to waste much time worrying about it or change the way I interact with people on the web. While I couldn’t help finding the messages a little disturbing, the threats don’t worry me at all, as I have no deep dark secrets or hidden medical problems to reveal, and the only embarrassing truth to be found in my mobile phone records is the fact that I spend way too much of my credit entering the gadget show competition.

While I won’t claim to have enjoyed receiving such confusing threats, and wondering who sent them and why, I won’t let it reduce my trust in internet based friendships or interaction, as the benefits outweigh this silliness by a mile. The way all my friends reacted to this situation, and the way they have been supportive many other times, is all the proof I need that the good outweighs the bad.

I have been an avid internet user pretty much since it was available, and frequently enjoy forums, newsgroups. social networking sites like twitter or facebook, blogs and chatrooms. Over the years I have made a number of friends online, some of whom I have met and some I haven’t. Strangely this doesn’t matter as much as you might imagine and I consider some people that I have yet to meet (due to location), as close friends.

I have however, met up many internet friends over the years, some locally and many on trips to the US. When I have told family and friends that I am going to meet, or even stay with, people I have never actually met before, they are often confused or concerned. Sooner or later somebody will ask “but what if you hate them?” or even “what if they turn out to be murderers”. Of course I can’t guarantee that they won’t be (although it’s highly unlikely), just like I can’t guarantee the same thing for people I meet in normal life.

Of course these days social networking sites like facebook and twitter have made online interaction a more normal thing, but there is still some residue of suspicion and mistrust that lingers in people’s minds, sometimes just leading to silly assumptions like ‘there are no real women online’, but sometimes causing suspicion where there need not be any. Of course you have to use common sense online, just as you would in real life. You probably wouldn’t randomly invite complete strangers into your home, or lend money to someone you had no reason to trust, and it isn’t hard to use the same sort of logic and sensible reserve on the internet.

People may try to present on a false persona in the virtual world, but if you communicate with someone for long enough you will generally get a fairly accurate impression of who they are. The truth is, if you make friends with people on the internet you may encounter a few disturbed people or even just arseholes. Just as you might in the non-virtual world. Over the years I have been involved in a few difficult situations and have had to make the decision to avoid some people. Sometimes difficult people or relationships are easier to spot and avoid than others. There will always be unpleasant trolls on forums, who go out of their way to be hurtful to people. They can be tiresome but are ultimately unimportant, as they are easy enough to spot and ignore. Far less frequently I have considered someone to be a friend, only to discover that they have been untruthful, manipulative or just have the kind of needy or disturbed personality that leads to a bad friendship.

While it may be slightly easier to deceive online I no more blame the internet for this than I would blame the telephone when someone called me up with bad news. For whatever reason, most likely their own issues, some people will abuse friendships and hurt others. As sad and difficult to deal with as this might be, it’s not a good enough reason to avoid all the positive results of giving people your trust. If you are sensible and take your time you can make firm friendships, but even the best of us can make bad choices or misjudge people. However once you have realised that your trust in a person is misplaced it should be possible to maintain a polite distance or even block them totally in the virtual world.

So, while I has clearly brought the topic to mind, I won’t allow some silly anonymous threats, or any other unpleasant encounter to bother me too much. I will just try to avoid untrustworthy, malicious or overly dependant people as much as possible, but otherwise enjoy my current and future internet based friendships.

As a confirmed life-long computer nerd I have been been active online for many years, but only recently I have started to feel like part of a growing network of geeky girls. This is partly thanks to twitter, but mostly due to Geek Girls Network™ and it’s enthusiastic (and of course geeky) creator, @geekgirls (Kristin Rielly).

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This week saw the release of the latest Dan Brown novel, which immediately caused much excitement over the blogosphere, as people rushed to praise and criticise or defend his writing. Personally I am not a fan. I read Da Vinci code a few years back, after countless friends & colleges urged me to do so, and really didn’t enjoy it. I didn’t like the style, found the story boring and just couldn’t identify with many of the characters, so I am unlikely to ever read one of his books again.

So why then am I writing about the release of a book I have no intention of reading? Well I’m not really writing about the book, but people’s reactions to it (and each other). Despite my own opinions of Dan Brown and his writing I am perfectly happy for other people to enjoy his books, and don’t think any less of them (apart from in a comedy manor, just like I fake hate people who don’t like The Smiths). Over the last few days however, I have seen many pro Brown reviews, blogs and tweets with a similar theme, the notion that anybody who doesn’t like these books is a snob.

I grew up in a house full of books, and read everything I could get my hands on. I have read classics, detective novels, horror, sci-fi, romance novels and even novels made to compliment film and TV series. Obviously we all have our favourites, but over the years I have read books from almost every genre, by a range of authors from Jilly Cooper to Philip K Dick to Ed Mcbain, and I have generally been able find some merit and get some enjoyment out of most of them. So why, just because I don’t happen to like one author, am I labelled a book snob? After reading the Da Vinci code I thanked the person who loaned it to me/forced it upon me, but admitted politely when asked that I didn’t enjoy the book. This was met with (somewhat overly angry) disbelief and the assertion that there must be something wrong with me, as though it being brilliant was a fact rather than a matter of opinion.

We don’t all have to enjoy the same music, or food or films, and it’s generally accepted that people are allowed to share those opinions, so why do some Dan Brown fans seem to have a problem with that? I might find the writing idiotic, and as a successful author Brown is no doubt aware that is inevitable sometimes, but I am not saying that everyone who reads and enjoys them is stupid. I might find the plots predictable and the characters dull, but I am sure that people could and would say the same thing about many books that I love. We all like different things, have different opinions and experiences, and there can never be a definitive ruling on matters of taste. So why do so many people concern themselves with proving people wrong?

People are going to write a less than positive reviews or share negative opinions, because some people just won’t like the books. Their popularity ensures that all sorts of people will be exposed to them, and some of those readers will take a disliking to them, even those who regularly read popular fiction. This doesn’t negate the fact that others will love the book and write glowing reviews, it just gives a range of opinions, as reviews should. It would be incredibly dull if every book that came out was either universally loved or hated, like a pass or fail. We might as well just have one review, or all read an identical reading list, never deviating from the norm for fear of being labelled as either a snob or a savage.

So, in the unlikely event that there are any Dan Brown fans reading this, please enjoy your books. Please write your own glowing reviews, or even pick apart and disagree with negative reviews. Just don’t bemoan the fact that anyone dares to write their own negative comments or label anyone who does as a snob.

I never make new year resolutions, as I don’t really get the point of waiting for a random date to change something or fix a problem. However having shunned the resolution rush for my whole life I decided it might be fun to use them in a fun way. With this in mind I am giving myself a few geeky challenges for the year ahead, making 2010 the year of the nerd.

I’m not talking about actual meaningful life changes or personal problems, I will keep them between me and my cat. Instead I plan to try out all the fun, geeky hobbies I have failed to make time for till now or haven’t enjoyed for too long. Most of us humans are busy, and it’s way too easy to put things off, especially frivolous, nerdy fun. So in the interest of keeping the geek spirit alive I’m going to drag myself off the couch and indulge in a bit of geeky time-wasting.

The first hobby I would like to devote more time and attention to is art/illustration. Now that might not immediately seem geeky, but as I explained in a previous post I am determined to improve my illustration skills in order to create awesome comic book style images, drawings of zombies and other such stuff. I don’t expect to become a world famous artist or use it for anything useful other than the occasional website, but I enjoy doing it. If can gain some handy skills along the way then that’s a bonus.

My next challenge also involves a bit of artistic ability as it involves painting models/miniatures. I have always loved the look of Games Workshop’s Warhammer models and fantasy battle games, but have never taken the time to try painting some myself and trying the games. My husband painted and played a little when he was younger and has been missing it, so we have decided to buy a small set of models and paints to give it a try. If we get round to painting them and have enjoyed it we will get a few more.. and a few more.. till eventually we can totally nerd out and play the full game. I hope all the 8 year old kids hanging out in Games Workshop are prepared for defeat.

To find out more read the Getting started with Warhammer guide from Games Workshop. We will be painting our first small set this weekend, so assuming they are not too embarrassingly bad I will update you with the end result.

On the subject of games, I am also keen to spend more time enjoying all the great board games we have and hopefully find a few more gems. If you haven’t played much beyond Monopoly or Trivial Pursuit you are missing out, as there are countless brilliant and involved games or serious board game geeks. The only problem is that many of the best games, such as RISK, have a steep learning curve and can take hours to complete. So you have to clear your schedule in order to play them. A great way to fit board games into your social life is playing in game friendly pubs with friends, or even join a local scrabble club and play with other word nerds.

Here is some (speeded up) footage of me beating Adam at RISK 2210 A.D.

Games I would recommendation include RISK(s), Munchkin, Race for the Galaxy, Carcassonne, Scrabble, Puerto Rico, Pandemic… and tons more. Look out for a full post on my favourite boardgames, coming soon to a blog near you! In the meantime visit www.boardgamegeek.com for lots of great board game information.

Of course there are also games of the electronic variety, but I must admit that after many years of being an obsessive gamer I have hardly picked up a controller for the last few months and my current pc is incapable of running any game produced in the last few years properly. Apart from the reasonably priced Wii I don’t even have any of the latest consoles, which is bizarre considering how many old ones I still own.

Lack of funds has helped delay my purchase of newer consoles/computers, but I suspect that years of Tetris, Tekken, Resident Evil, Counter Strike and hundreds of other games finally caught up with me… then a few months of Warcraft was the nail in the coffin. So I have had a gaming break for a bit, but my fingers are starting to itch and I am eager to get hold of a PS3. I know they are more expensive, but my tiny hands just love their controllers and even if it does suck I know I have to try them out on the new tekken.

Our WoW characters hiding from scary people in a pond

When it comes to reading that isn’t something I ever take a break from, as novels are like food to me, so I like to consume them daily. I would however love to settle on an e-reader I like and try to get into virtual books, as my house it starting to creak under the weight of all the fiction we have stuffed into it. Failing that I might join the local library and make every effort to remember to take my books back on time… although I suspect I will struggle with that.

I couldn’t live without music, but over the last few years I have found myself sticking to the same old safe stuff instead to taking the time to check out new bands. Part of the problem is the sheer, overwhelming volume of great music available these days .

You can listen to countless great signed and unsigned bands online, which is brilliant, but it’s impossible to give your attention to it all. However I don’t want to be one of those people who stops listening to new music and complains that it’s all just noise, so I will endeavour to give more new stuff a chance this year. Luckily there are many ways to get recommendations or see what your friends are listening to, such as last.fm, which should help filter out the rubbish a bit.

On top of enjoying all these fun nerdy hobbies I hope to keep an open mind and absorb as much nerdy data as possible, including films, music, art, comics, technology, code, design, humans, life, the universe and everything.  I’m always keen to try new things, so if you have any suggestions for new challenges let me know.

Now I better go draw a zombie while listening to new music, watching a classic movie, reading new scientist, playing a board game and learning how to yo-yo. I may be some time.

While I  have always enjoyed making an occasional sketch I have never thought of myself as that artistic when it comes to drawing, mostly because I don’t have the basic skills needed.

So while I might luck out and draw an occasionally okay looking realistic style cat or person, I have never had the ability to just pick up a pencil and draw a cool cartoon or comic book style image. As a fan of comics this is the style I would most love to master, and as a web developer/designer I can see countless benefits to improving my illustration skills.

For some reason my fella thinks that I have  potential (plus he wants some kinda illustration slave), so he got me a book on how to draw zombies for Christmas. I have tried a few of the drawings so far, and they have come out looking decent.  I have really enjoyed it, so plan on getting similar books on comic and anime drawing so I can continue to improve my skills.

I know I can copy well, but what I don’t know is if I will be able to use this experience to create brand new images that don’t look weird or a bit crap. Assuming I don’t get bored, or realise my time is better spent elsewhere, I shall post my efforts over the next few weeks. Feel free to comment or criticise, as that is the only way I will learn not to suck.

Here are a few I have made using the book…

Zombie guy again from memory…

Victim chick…

..and my favourite, apron guy..

For reference here are some random drawings from the past…

Gramma..

Odd picture of a cat without a face (because the cat ran away)

Link to strange drawing of a lady giving birth to another lady out of her vagina.

I shall add more to this post tomorrow,  and update you with my efforts over the coming weeks.

I hate admitting I am wrong, and like to think it rarely happens, however I have to sheepishly admit that my very low expectations for the new Sherlock Holmes film proved unfounded. I am a huge fan of the books and have watched my favourite screen versions of these stories more times than I would care to admit, so I expect a lot from any new Holmes.

For me the definitive Holmes is Jeremy Brett, who played him in the excellent Granada series, which covered many of the Holmes stories till they were halted by Brett’s untimely death. While I have enjoyed other film and TV versions of Holmes, none have managed to match up to the characters, mysteries and settings I loved in the books in quite the same way as the Granada series. Worst yet, many film and TV versions seem to twist the Holmes character into an unrecognisable caricature, losing the brilliance that makes the stories so unique and the character of Holmes so fascinating.

I can’t help cringing when I see the character transformed into a straight laced old fuddy-duddy, a young Casanova or worst of all someone illogical. Of course some changes are to be expected in TV and films, and can sometimes be a positive thing, but with Holmes there is a very fine line between being creative and losing the character completely. I suspect that some film makers just see Holmes as a handy default detective type, without bothering to find out how unusual the original character really is. Instead they just throw a pipe and deerstalker at a character, and make sure he says “Elementary my dear Watson” at least once, as if misquoting the books is all it takes.

As much as I might grumble, it doesn’t actually matter if Holmes is young or old, smart or scruffy, romantically inclined or disinterested, drug addled or sober. What does matter however is his wit, his intelligence, his cold logic, his non conformity and his strangeness,… as without these he just isn’t Holmes. Of course, try as I might to keep an open mind, if I see a Holmes film where he is sticking his tongue in Mrs Hudson’s mouth or just acting in a way that I consider un-Holmsian I logically assume it will bear no relation to Holmes at all, and I have generally found this to be a fairly safe assumption.

So, you have probably gathered that I take exception to anyone “ruining” the Holmes character, and consider many versions to be an abomination for that reason. That probably makes me sound like a complete Holmes snob who hates change of any kind. In reality I don’t automatically hate anything different, hell I even liked Young Sherlock Holmes. I have just seen so many bad representations of Holmes that I can’t help expecting the worst.

So considering all this you can imagine how worried I felt when I heard Guy Ritchie was making a Holmes film, as I either haven’t enjoyed or felt inclined to watch many of his recent films. The fact that Robert Downy Junior was playing Holmes gave me a glimmer of hope, as I generally enjoy his performances, but overall I didn’t hold out a lot of hope that I would love this version.

Once I saw the trailers I was even more concerned. While the setting and scenery looked good, they managed to pick snippets that gave me cause for concern. Obviously a trailer can’t convey the whole movie, but a couple of unexplained fast-paced actions scenes and giggling at semi naked Holmes just screamed abomination to me. The trailer seemed to avoid showing much of the Holmes personality, which made it seem like more of a mindless action comedy than I had hoped for and less about the great characters.

So for the few months I have been dreading the film, but in the back of my mind was a lingering fear (or maybe hope) that I would be proved wrong. As more and more of my seemingly intelligent friends watched and enjoyed it, I felt compelled to find out for myself, so this weekend we swallowed our pride and sat down with semi-open minds to decide for ourselves.

I had already begun to suspect that we had got it wrong before the end of the opening credits, but after a few scenes I was sure of it. Yes they had changed Holmes and invented a new story, (loosely based on snippets from others). Yes, this version of Holmes is totally unlike Brett. Yes, they even made Holmes romantically involved… but somehow it still worked. While characters, lines and deductions were plucked from various books and changed to suit the story, the essence of those characters rang true, and I feel sure that the creators of this new version are fans of the books.

Most importantly of all I just can’t help liking this Holmes. He isn’t an exact copy of the character from the books, but he is still Holmes. He has plenty of exasperating strangeness, scorn for authority, deviousness, extreme intelligence and yet at the same time an ineptness and self destructive streak that forces those around him (most notably Watson) to try to take care of him. The deductive methods that Holmes uses in this film are reminiscent of the books, along with his insistence that data is essential and that cold logic is the only way to unravel a mystery.

Having read the books and watched the series as much as I have, I recognised countless lines of dialogue and story elements that have been taken directly from the books. I love the way they used so many references to the original stories, often using these elements in new and unusual ways, but still holding on to the basic truths of those facts and characters. Such as his love interest in the film, Irene Adler, who is based on a character who appeared in the Holmes story “A Scandal in Bohemia”.

Of course in the original story he wasn’t romantically involved with her, however she is the only woman who has ever outwitted Holmes and it’s clear that he has a great deal of admiration for “the woman”. They have changed the character a lot, and made her more of a professional criminal, but still use many aspects of the original character. Personally I don’t think it’s really necessary for Holmes to have a love interest (although I can see how it might be handy for dispelling any right wing discomfort at the close male friendship between Holmes and Watson). If he does have to have one though, Adler was the right choice.

The Watson character is also different, but still retains the essence of the man. Jude Law (who coincidentally played a stable hand in an episode of the Granada series), plays the long suffering Watson in this film. While he is more of an action Watson than previous versions, and certainly tried to stop Holmes from disrupting his life, he is still essentially the same decent chap, who puts himself at risk in order to help solve crimes and support his good friend. The set-up of is his engagement and his fiancée are different but still loosely based on the character and situation found in the original stories.

I am not going to say the film is flawless, I would probably have enjoyed seeing more of Holmes and Watson dynamic and could have lived without some scenes. The mystery could have been a bit more well mysterious, and they could have made it less obvious who the bad guys were. While many of the action scenes were brilliantly done, I can’t help thinking some of the fight sequences just went on a bit too long. As clever as the way he dealt with fights was, I think I might have prefered to watch him use his brains on clues and deduction. However, despite those minor niggles, I can’t deny that I really enjoyed watching it, and I have no doubt I will do so again.

Of course, Jeremy Brett is still my favourite on-screen Holmes of all time, but I am surprised to say Robert Downy Jr. is far from the worst. It’s definitely worth giving this Holmes a chance, but do yourselves a favour and check out the Granada series too. Most importantly, if you haven’t read the books for a while (or at all), take the time to rediscover and enjoy the original Holmes.

While I love plenty of worthy or intellectual films, heavy science fiction or discovering foreign gems, I still have a soft spot for traditional feel good family flicks, especially at this time of year. As much as I love to be challenged and surprised by movies, there is definitely room for more familiar, sentimental films, the kind of films that appeal to your inner child and sentimental nature.

Part of the charm of these festive family films is the fact that we do know what to expect. Of course they all may differ in style or story (well sometimes they do), but we can be fairly sure that the good guys will win in the end and someone will learn all about love and the true meaning of Christmas or some other such sentimental nonsense.

If I sound a little scornful I am simply mocking myself, as I unashamedly adore some of the cheesiest sentimental Christmas claptrap out there. Despite the cheese (or maybe even because if it) I do believe that there are some really brilliant films in this genre, with truly some truly great performances. We all have our favourites, the ones we watched as a child till the Betamax tape wore out, or films that make a regular appearance on Xmas time TV, but for me the best of the Christmas films all come from the best Christmas story ever penned… A Christmas Carol.

If you haven’t come across Dickens’s festive tale in some format I will be highly surprised, as it is the basis for countless Christmas themed films, TV shows and Simpson’s episodes. While the Patrick Stewart version is probably my favourite, I love many others including Blackadder’s Christmas Carol, Scrooged, the original film version and even The Muppet Christmas Carol. While I know the tale and it’s message inside out I always enjoy a new take on it, and will never tire of the underlying message of Christmas joy and love that oozes through the story.

At this time of year I am always compelled to watch Tim Burton’s gorgeous stop motion feature film, The Nightmare Before Christmas. Like all the best Christmas stories it combines the spooky and the festive to create a magically rich fantasy. This film has it all, great music and stunning visually. Memorable characters with plenty of humour and emotion. Plenty of lessons to be learned about friendship, love, romance and that good old meaning of Christmas. The Nightmare Before Christmas manages to combine traditional festive imagery with great new ideas and characters to create an instant classic, which will no doubt be a part of Christmas viewing for generations to come.

There are a number of Christmas films I grew up watching year after year, and even the worst of them will put me in a festive mood. The most memorable from my childhood would have to be Gremlins, Santa Claus: The Movie and (as mentioned earlier) Bill Murray in Scrooged.

Gremlins is a really bizarre yet fun 80′s comedy horror which conveniently takes place at Christmas time in small town America. An eccentric dad gets his son a strange fluffy creature as a Christmas gift, and unfortunately the innocently adorable Mogwai inadvertently spawns a huge pile of badly behaved little monsters (or Gremlins) that proceed to spread festive havoc throughout the town. In addition to being a great example of 80′s comedy the film certainly conveys the Christmas spirit. It has all the required elements, from romance to learning the meaning of Christmas, and also the most bizarre accidental Santa based death anecdote of all time. Yes you heard me right… our love interest lost her enjoyment of the festive season after her Dad got stuck up a chimney pretending to be Santa and rotted there for a few days before they realised. Festive or what?

Scrooged is another great 80′s film starring the incomparable Bill Murray. Based on A Christmas Carol, Murray has become a selfish and greedy man who doesn’t care about Christmas or indeed other people, but after visits from a corpse and some ghosts he regains his love of the the festive season and kindness in general. This of course leads to romance, general merriment and the sense that everything will be alright as long as we get into a merry mood. If you have ever thought “I love Ghost busters but I wish it was more Christmasy” then this is the film for you. Okay so it isn’t as good as Ghost Busters (what is?), but Murray gives a great performance in this festive feature, making it worthy of any Christmas viewing schedule.

Then we have Santa Claus: The Movie, an unashamedly festive film which explores the Santa Claus myth. As cheesy as it might seem now, my young self was completely enchanted with this movie, as like most children the idea of Santa, his elves, the workshop and flying reindeer was the perfect festive fantasy. I haven’t seen this film for many years, as I fear it may be a bit over the top for my adult self, but I will always have fond memories of this film and how much I enjoyed it.

Of course there are plenty of other great Christmas movies including the traditional It’s a Wonderful Life, the less typical Die Hard (which unfolds on Xmas eve), or more recent festive features like ELF or Polar Express. There are also plenty of films that are not specifically Christmas themed, yet are watched frequently over the holidays, such as The Sound of Music, The Great Escape or countless Bond Films. I am also fairly partial to a good TV Christmas special, and last year was thrilled by Crooked House, a spooky Christmas treat from Mark Gatiss and the BBC.

I’m always eager to discover and enjoy plenty of great new festive films this, so please share your favourites in comments. If you haven’t seen any of the films I have mentioned above do yourself a favour, snuggle up in front of them with your loved ones and let your inner child enjoy the festive fantasy before it’s too late.

I have been suffering with horrible bloggers guilt over the last week or so, partly because I haven’t had much spare time or energy (yes, I have been ill again) but mostly because no topics have leapt out at me.  With blogging sometimes the ideas come thick and fast, and I end up making lists of ideas for later or even writing 3 posts in a day, but for the last week or so I just can’t think of any topics to get enthused about or decide where to focus my efforts.

I guess I have hit a patch of bloggers block… I hope it’s that and I just haven’t run out of things to say finally. How tragic if I have squeezed out every last drop of humour and personality out into this blog and am now just an empty husk. I don’t think so though, I mean that whole husk thing was hilarious.. right?

Aaaaanyway… I’m not sure if I haven’t got any good ideas right now, or if I just lack the energy to tackle even the most exciting topic in my poorly state. Either way I am aware that my blog hasn’t been updated much at all lately, and whenever I try to get my arse in gear I struggle to settle on a subject and end up writing a few unenthusiastic lines on a random topic then giving up.

I guess part of the problem is the vagueness of my blog. It can be geeky, techy, personal or opinionated and covers whatever topics are on my mind from my favourite comics through to my opinions on tabloid newspapers or recent events.  I love the fact that I am able to write about anything and everything, as normally it just means I have more content, but it does mean that I have no real idea what you, my lovely reader expects or enjoys from this blog.  As much as I would never want to restrict myself, I suspect that knowing which posts people enjoyed most would help focus my energies in the right areas.

So I guess, in addition to rambling on as usual, I am asking for your help. I want to know how you see this blog and which kinds of posts stand out as he most entertaining. Do you like the posts that are more or less impersonal? Do you enjoy the reviews or do you never want to see a top 10/20 list ever again? Do you find the randomness of the content annoying or entertaining? Are there any topics that you would like to see more (or less) of?

Of course I know I am being unfair as a lot of you do give me feedback often, both here in comments and on twitter, which is always greatly appreciated. To be honest I am just being cheeky and hoping a bit of general feedback will help spark my creativity and help me out of this blogging slump.

Phew, that wasn’t so hard. I will endeavour to just make myself post more, even if it’s just to say I haven’t got anything to say.

Oh and just in case any of you are feeling low on festive feeling, here is a lovely xmas themed picture of Mothra the cat…..

Merry Mothra