technophobe1975

Our pharmacy computer recently had yet another remotely applied upgrade waiting for us, and the purpose of this one seems to be all about the dreaded "Health & Safety", with a mass of new warnings added to many drug labels - in some cases so many that the computer now has to generate two, where before one would have sufficed. (Take THAT, environment!)
This is a constant minor irritant, but this one did actually make me laugh - see if you can spot the somewhat unnecessary piece of advice...



Yes - this packet of Aspirin tablets may actually contain...Aspirin!
Well, I for one shall be sleeping better tonight in the sure knowledge that no-one who has been to the doctor, been prescribed ASPIRIN, taken it to the pharmacy and received a box packaged as ASPIRIN (both outside and on the foil blister packaging) and labelled as ASPIRIN will go home unaware of what they might be taking *rolls eyes*.

Although Bucky O'Hare first appeared in comic book form back in the late 1970s, it was the 1991 cartoon series (and the subsequent tsunami of spin-off merchandising) that catapulted it into the public consciousness.



Its full title was BUCKY O'HARE AND THE TOAD WARS and was set in a parallel animal-centric universe called the "anniverse".
Boasting a toadally kick-ass theme song, some great character and ship designs it featured a small band of assorted animal warriors and a young boy transported from earth battling against the vast and evil Toad Empire.
Despite only running for thirteen episodes it even managed a story arc of sorts, with Bucky's home planet of Warren being captured in the season premiere and won back in the finale.
It has been given a new lease of life in recent years with some CGI webisodes, although they lack the visual spendour of the originals, which are still apparently waiting for a R2 DVD release despite a wide cult following.

In another dimension, another time and space,
A parallel universe was fallin' on its face
When out of the chaos, who else could it be
But the animal adventurers from S.P.A.C.E.?

Bucky! Captain Bucky O'Hare!
Mutants and aliens and toads beware!
You're looking for adventure? Well, this is it,
With Jenny, Deadeye, Blinky, and Willy DuWitt

I said Bucky! Captain Bucky O'Hare!
“And now, an update on Bucky O'Hare and the Toad Wars!”

In the battle of the aniverse, you don't know what's next,
You only know amphibians have made it KOMPLEX!
When you check out your scanner and the evil that it bodes,
There's only one course of action: Let's croak us some toads!

Bucky! Captain Bucky O'Hare!
He goes where no ordinary rabbit would dare!
If your Righteous Indignation has suffered a hit
And your photon accelerator's broken a bit
And you're losing your mind, and you're having a fit
Get the funky fresh rabbit who can take care of it!

Bucky! Captain Bucky O'Hare!
You say Bucky? I said Bucky!
Bucky O'Hare!
Let's croak us some toads!

I had an entry prepared for this weeks TTT, THE CURSE OF THE KOMODO, that was both informative and witty, but thanks to 3 doing "essential maintainance" work this week the internet connection on my PC (although not, for some reason, my phone) is both sporadic and snail-like and so I will merely cut to the trailer :)

I usually pop into the charity shop around the corner from where I work on a Friday lunchtime to see if there is any cheap reading matter for the weekend, but this time I left the shop with the CD below, entitled Pete Watermans Greatest Hits...
Check out the track listing :)



Playing it will no doubt do one out of two things;
1. Open a window to the innocent days of my youth or,
2. Open a direct portal to hell, allowing the devil and his minions to finally conquer earth and turn it into a desolate wasteland.

(That said, both This Time I Know It's For Real and It's A Fine Day are absolute TUNES though...)

( Evidence of my occasionally appalling taste in music under the cut... )

We had a prescription issued today for a very young girl for some estrogen cream. This is not something that any of us had seen prescribed to someone of such a young age, and so some research was needed to find out if this was actually meant for her, or if the GP had made a mistake.
It turned out that it was correct, and the young lady was suffering from something called "Labial Adhesion"

( Possible medical TMI under the cut... )

Bananaman the character first made his appearance in Nutty magazine in February 1980 and was intended to be a British parody of Superman, combining slapstick humour with a healthy dose of eccentricity but it is via the cartoon series first aired in 1983 that most people had their first contact with the character.
In it Eric Twinge, "an ordinary schoolboy" merely had to eat a banana to transform into Bananaman, a heroic but essentially stupid superhero who during the five minute or so long cartoons saw off such villains as General Blight, Doctor Gloom, Auntie with her deadly remote controlled balls of wool and his nemesis, Appleman.



Most of the voices were provided by Bill Oddie, Tim Brooke-Taylor and Graeme Garden, who of course were the members of comic trio The Goodies.
Although this was a very UK-centric cartoon, episodes were sold to America and Australia, where it gained a surprising degree of popularity.
There were forty episodes made, originally airing between 1983 and 1986, but were repeated many times over the following years, the shows cult following even guaranteeing it a DVD release in 2007 and even after the television series ended, he continued to make regular appearances in both the Dandy and Beano comics.

( Some complete episodes behind the cut! )

The latest mockbuster from Asylum pictures is based on the upcoming (and heavily featured on this blog) Nazis in outer space movie IRON SKY.
Sadly, the budget clearly couldn't quite stretch to a moon setting and instead goes in the exact opposite direction by having the Secret Base in a hidden valley several miles beneath the Antarctic permafrost.
The action starts back in 1945 when notorious Nazi scientist Dr Josef Mengele and a handful of henchmen as well as a *mysterious cylindrical device* which will play an important part later on in the movie making a narrow escape from Allied forces.
Flashforward to a more modern era and two researchers are drilling in the Antarctic when they hit something large and metallic (about two inches beneath the snow) with a swastika on it. They are promptly abducted by stormtroopers in gas masks and taken to the secret base where one has his face not so surgically removed by Dr Mengele, who has obviously been experimenting on his rapidly decomposing men and the pretty one is forced to help him in his work.
The rest of the team (led by son of Gary, Jake Busey) in an attempt to find out what has happened follow their tracks and stumble into this reverse Shangri-La and discover their only choices are to join them in their attempt to once more conquer the world using only a giant UFO and a lot of flesh eating bacteria or become sources of unwilling flesh for the zombie like beings that their captors have become.
Here is the official trailer, which contains a certain amount of ickiness, so be warned...



As you might be able to tell, the first half of the film is surprisingly dark for an Asylum feature with a lot more grue than is usual and while the zombies vary in quality, the actor playing Mengele is extremely menacing - unlike the movie it is copying, which took a more comedic approach.
However, about 50 minutes or so in, the nutzoid factor goes through the roof, with the revelation as to what was in that *mysterious* cylinder :)

( Cut for mah-HOOSIVE spoilers AND THE SINGLE MOST AWESOME IMAGE TO BE POSTED ON THIS BLOG...EVER )

So is it worth watching?
I haven't seen all of it, but on balance probably not - Josef Mengele did some pretty horrible stuff during his lifetime so his inclusion here when any mad Nazi scientist would have done is possibly in poor taste and the first half of the movie is by all accounts dark and a bit mean spirited so while the patented Asylum insanity kicks in by the end, it comes a little late to save things completely.
And while Iron Sky does both the "Nazis in..." and the comedy (both intentional AND unintentional) far better, there is no real reason for this to exist. That said, the important (slightly Futurama) inspired plot device is a stroke of sheer genius and one that I am surprised has not been done before.

Thanks to my ever lovely sister boo_gray, who returned home from a sci-fi convention bearing something cute and fluffy for me.
I now have my very own Simons Cat!



He is currently in charge of my small army of remote controls, and seems to be taking his job very seriously at the moment.

S has been off all week as she uses up the last few days of last year's holiday allowance, and in her absence it has fallen to J2 to make the twice daily coffee, that rich golden nectar that keeps us all sane and functioning and is the only thing that stands between us and total collapse.
As you may guess, this is an important, nay vital, job and one that requires a careful reading of the instructions posted in the kitchen area as to who wants what (sugars, milk etc.)
And as you may also guess, given that this is J2 that we are talking about that he has so far not managed to make one cup of coffee that has been anywhere near approaching drinkable.
Here is what I was presented with on Tuesday;



It had so much milk in it could be easily classed as "bovine", if it was any whiter I could have called it Eminem and if it was any paler it would be albino.
You will note that it was already forming a skin on top :(
And to top it all, he had "forgotten" to put any sugar in it.
A quick quiz of my workmates revealed that he had done the same for everyone, leading us to guess that he really didn't want to do it and had made a bad job of it on purpose in the hopes of getting out of it in future. Sadly for everyone concerned, the boss decreed that this would be his job this week come hell, high water or undrinkable slop, so we have been subjected to some truly dire beverages over the course of the last few days.
We are really, REALLY looking forward to S's return!

So in the event that you were unfortunate enough to ever find yourself working with us, what is YOUR beverage of choice?

Because you are never too old for a bit of high quality toilet humour :)