Over at the Coalition of Awesomeness you’ll find me giving a highly intelligent and well reasoned argument about how the fate of the world should be placed in the hands of Kevin Arnold from the Wonder Years.

And of course we’re still going strong with our weekly podcast for the Midnight Movie Club. This week Lee and I couldn’t be arsed doing our homework and so didn’t watch the film we were supposed to. Therefore we just ramble incoherently about our favorite buddy movies, scary films, and of course our customary 20 minute discussion about hovercraft.

You can subscribe to the podcast here on iTunes if you wish (go on, you know you want to), or just take a listen below:

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The other thing that’s captured my attention at the moment is a social networking site called Miso.

Basically it’s a bit like foursquare, except instead of checking into places you check into the TV shows and Movies you are currently watching. It sounds a little strange, but it’s actually a lot of fun seeing what your friends are watching and a damn good way of picking up shows that you might want to take a look at. My profile is here. Take a look and sign up and friend me if you fancy it. As I say, it’s a surprising amount of fun (plus you get badges!)

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1. If you would care to direct your attention elsewhere
2. Could I just point your attention towards…
3. If I may just redirect your attention.

This week we’ve been talking about The Never Ending Story. And for the second week in a row we actually manage to keep on topic. We don’t even mention Frankenhooker once!!

Have a listen below, or even better subscribe to us on iTunes. And while you are there leave us a rating and a review (go on, you know you want to)

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Oh, and I apologize if I’ve now got that bloody song stuck in your head.

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1. If I could just direct your attention elsewhere…
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However I have come up with a cunning plan. I shall co-opt others into my quest. If I can’t conquer the net single handedly I shall recruit a mighty army of minions to do so for me.

So, introducing my first minion:

My wife Kerry has just started a blog: Cloud of Starlings. And it’s good. Bloody good. A little TOO good to be honest.

It’s a photo blog. She’s just started Project 365 again (where you have to take a photo every single day of the year), but she’s doing it with a twist – she’s only taking photos with her iphone.

1/365 Self Portrait

I’ve posted previously about her decision to accept the flaws of the notoriously crappy iPhone camera and use it to her artistic advantage. So here’s the evidence of her immense photographic talent:

9/365

12/365 And the crowd goes wild

19/365 Lunchtime fog

20/365 Your face pressed up against the glass

I am very proud of my wife.

Go visit Cloud of Starlings, comment, and subscribe.

Of course I haven’t been resting on my laurels myself. Although most of my work has been going on behind the scenes of Hadrian’s Walk, and so isn’t really available for public viewing as yet (if you are one of the walkers however, make sure you take a look at the various bits and bobs waiting for you on Google Wave).

Of course I’ve always got time for Lee, my antipodean pop culture guru.

Over on the Midnight Movie Club podcast this week Lee and I were joined by Jeff from the blog Caddickisms to discuss the 1982 movie Tron.

It’s staggering when you stop and think about it how the internet has enabled three geeks from three separate continents to come together to talk crap for their own amusement. Al Gore must be incredibly proud.

See the original post here, or hopefully you’ll be able to listen to it below:

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Our epic 84 mile walk along Hadrian’s Wall looms ever nearer (less than six months now). I’ve posted about it over on The Joseph Salmon Trust website:

During the fundraising for our Dales walk we got a great deal of support from the readers of my blog. In fact donations from the blog accounted for over a thousand pounds of our total raised. So when I started thinking about organising another walk I asked if any of my readers fancied coming along.

The response was incredible.

As it stands there will be over sixty people joining me on Hadrian’s Wall this July. People are coming from all over the world to walk the path and show their support for the trust. We’ve got people from England, Scotland, Ireland, America and Holland. We’ve got paramedics, nurses, policemen, teachers, bankers, writers, editors, and stay-at-home parents. We’ve even got a university professor and an American superior court judge.

Read more here

I’ve also posted a logistics update over on the Hadrian’s Walk blog:

Dates of the walk

Remember, we set off walking on Monday July 5th, 2010 and reach the end on Saturday July 10th, 2010. This means that you will have to book these dates off work. I am talking specifically to Oli here. Oli – you need to book those days off work. Do it now Oli. Go talk to your manager and do it now.

Fundraising

So far we’ve raised a little over £400 [actually now this stands at £569] , which isn’t bad going since we haven’t officially started fundraising yet. I’ve done this via a couple of plugs on my blog and also by agreeing to do a couple of PR companies pitches as long as they make a donation to the Trust.

The ultimate aim is to raise the equivalent of what the trust gives out in a year, about £20,000. it’s a lofty goal, but I honestly think it’s achievable. As the walk draws nearer (exactly six months away now in fact) it’s probably time we at least started thinking how we’re going to raise the cash. It would be really good to pool our collective brains on this one, so if anyone has any ideas or leads then please let me know and I’ll put together a post/email of collected ideas.

As you know the walk has a Justgiving page where people can donate online. Justgiving is by far the best way of gathering donations as it’s automated and the charity gets the cash straight away. Plus only legitimate charities can get listed on there, and so it acts as reassurance that we’re not just pocketing the cash.

Read more here

Meanwhile over at the Midnight Movie Club Lee and I have been having our childhood memories shattered:

Dan:
Hey, hang on a minute! Has someone somehow secretly switched the beloved Cannonball Run of my youth with this huge great steaming turd?

Far from being the modern classic of my memory, the movie seems to be merely a long and rather pathetic excuse for a series of fairly unimpressive car stunts and poorly written comedy set pieces. Surely this can’t be right?

I’m almost scared to watch Smokey and the Bandit again now.

Lee:
I’m having trouble believing that they had a good enough reason to make a sequel. The first two films are really mashed together in my memories so I wonder if the second one was much better because frankly, this first one was awfully hard to get through.

It took me five attempts to watch this all through.

I’ve never seen Smokey and the Bandit, I don’t know if I want to now.

Dan
Smokey and the Bandit was much, much better than this film. At least I think it was. I’m beginning to think I can’t trust my memory anymore.

Someone please tell me Look Who’s Talking wasn’t a duff film too? or Jaws 4? Surely Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure can’t be anything other than a modern classic? Please! Someone!?

Lee
Caravan of Courage IS a modern classic. Actually now that I think about it, wasn’t it a semi Christmas movie or was that the other one?
I mean there were two Ewok films outside of Jedi wasn’t there? *Sigh* I would look that up if I cared enough :)

Read the rest of the post here

And last but not least, Lee and I have been venturing into the world of podcasting too. In fact there is a strong possibility we are going to shift the focus of the Midnight Movie Club purely into podcasting (basically it takes a lot less time and is more fun to do).

You can listen to our Cannonball Run podcast here

And don’t forget that you can also subscribe to us on iTunes!!

And that’s about it.

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I’m hoping that someone has been considerate enough to buy me a new Xbox – but seeing as though we’d set a maximum cap of £15 I think it’s unlikely. If they really loved me enough they’d have made the effort to find one that cheaply though, so I’m going in with expectations deliriously raised. I can’t see how that could possibly go wrong.

But even if my family do hate me so much that they won’t even spend measly £15 on a new Xbox 360, at least I know that someone cares about me.

No, not my wife. She’s only with me for my money and my raw pulsating sexuality.

Yesterday morning a couple of eagerly anticipated parcels arrived from Australia. Lee, my antipodean pop-culture guru and fellow Midnight Movie Club member had sent me a present. Hurrah!

And a damn fine present it was too. In fact it was the best kind: thoughtful, cool, and something I’m really glad to have but never knew I wanted.

For those of you without the necessary geeky genetic makeup, it’s a Blue Beetle action figure. You may scoff, but it’s an incredibly well thought out gift.

And so to show Lee my thanks I recorded the following video for him. It serves a duel purpose: Not only does it express my gratitude for his very generous gift, but it also serves as a warning to him that it’s probably best we don’t attempt a podcast when I’ve got my kids in the room. Behold, total anarchy (the breaks in the film are where I turned the camera off to beat my children round the head):

And speaking of podcasts: our second Midnight Movie Club supplemental podcast is available to download now. To quote Lee over on our blog:

Honestly this week’s podcast reaches what I consider to be a new low.

Which is hard considering this is only its second week.

We’re unprofessional, we giggle at rude words that mean different things in other countries, I marginalise the Star Wars fandom, we stay completely off topic for at least 98% of the time.

It’s a shambles and I beg you not to be sucked in to listen.

With salesmanship like that how could you resist.

To be fair to Lee though it is rather rambling and overlong, but I had a real laugh making it and enjoyed listening back to it so I’d still argue it’s worth a go. We’ve both made a pledge that future podcasts that will be tighter and no longer than 20 minutes, so even if you find the latest episode a little too wandersome you should still subscribe to us on iTunes.

I’m going to back off a little on promoting the Club here from now on, although I’ll still mention it when I think there is something you should see over there. I’m sorry if it’s grated on you, but it’s something that I’m currently very enthusiastic about – and what’s a blog for if not to enthuse about your passions?

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The task of keeping up with the repairs is almost Herculean in it’s magnitude. As soon as one finger is stuck in the dam, seven more leaks spring up elsewhere. Consequently we’ve ended up becoming rather defeatist in our attitude to home maintenance. Accepting with an almost Russian stoicism that half the plug sockets don’t work and that the shower switches from hot to cold the back again at seemingly random intervals.

Sometimes we are able to snatch the occasional victory from the inevitable march of decay however. Today, for example, I managed to replace the broken screen on my MacBook. I did this single handedly, with only an internet guide for assistance. Not only that, but i also managed to upgrade my hard-drive at the same time. Instead of the measly 60GB I had previously, I’ve now got 320GB purring under the bonnet. Rock and roll baby, rock and roll.

Of course it will all probably explode in a deadly fireball by this time tomorrow. But for now I have a laptop that I can actually use on my lap. And that means only one thing: I can once more engage in my favourite activity of all time – blogging from the toilet.

Look here’s a photo to prove it:

Unfortunately the lights in the bathroom haven’t worked since the beginning of summer, so you’re just going have to take my word that I’m writing this from the bog.

But If people really insist they need proof I suppose I could always re-take it tomorrow in daylight. I’ve been eating a lot of eggs recently so I’ll probably be publishing quite a lengthy post tomorrow, and so can easily tack it on the end.

Speaking of which: If you haven’t checked out the Midnight Movie Club recently then head on over as this week we’re discussing the ultimate 80′s classic Back to the Future. And if you haven’t already, you can download the historic (ahem) first episode of our podcast – The Breakfast Bar. It’s all good stuff (providing your expectations are low enough of course). You can even subscribe to us on iTunes

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The kids absolutely love this. We must have watched it around twenty times. Strangely enough it’s starting to wear a little thin for me.

Anyway, I’m unlikely to be around here tomorrow so I’d just like to wish you all a happy Christmas.

I’ve even got you a present!

Lee and I are still very excited about our new joint blogging project and have taken it to the next level – podcasting. The first ever edition of The Breakfast Bar is available to download right now.

Head on over to the site and get yourself a copy, it’s bound to be a collectors item in a couple of years time. You can even subscribe to us in iTunes

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Is Miss Piggy the weakest link in the Muppets?

Head over to Lee and Dan’s Midnight Movie Club to join the debate. This week we’re discussing The Great Muppet Caper.

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The first film we’re looking at this week is the classic late seventies Bond movie Moonraker. In our review I advocate genocide, Lee rants about space shuttles, and we both do a lot of sniggering about the name Dr. Holly Goodhead.

If you add one blog to your feedreader this week, make it ours.

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1. Hey ho, lets go! Lee and Dan’s Midnight Movie Club
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For the last few weeks I’ve been having an affair.

I know you must be disappointed in me. I’m a little disappointed in myself if I’m honest. But sometimes a man just can’t get everything he needs from just one place. He has to spread his wings. Sample the fruit from other trees.

It’s not like it hasn’t happened before. It has, three times. Four if you count that brief dalliance surrounding the Dales Walk.

But I’m afraid it’s true. I’ve been cheating on All That Comes With It by starting up a brand new blog.

What? Why, what did you think I was talking about?

How dare you.

My antipodean pop-culture guru Lee and I have been collaborating on an exciting new project harnessing the power of Google wave, copious amounts of caffeine, and classic popcorn movies of the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s.

Official launch is on Wednesday, but here’s a sneak peak. Click on the picture to take you to the site.

(I really hope Kerry reads this post beyond the first few paragraphs)

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