The XMT draw

Qualifying is over and done with, and people have confirmed whether they're going to San Diego or not. So these are the 24 qualifiers for the Extreme Memory Tournament! There follows a run-down of their results in the previous two XMTs, along with my made-up and entirely unofficial, unendorsed ranking. And my own notes from a purely personal perspective about how I think they'll do in 2016!

Johannes Mallow
2014: 2nd - 2015: 1st - Made-up ranking: 2nd

Event	Score	Time (sec)	Year
Cards	52	24.66	2015
Images	30	22.94	2015
Names	22	60.00	2015
Numbers	80	21.01	2015
Words	47	60.00	2015

The reigning champion - where do you go after winning the big prize? I'm wondering if he'll not be quite so driven this year; he's already got great personal bests in everything too. But he does have a fierce friendly rivalry going with Simon, so perhaps they'll drive each other on to greater things...

Boris Nikolai Konrad
2014: QF - 2015: 2nd - Made-up ranking: 3rd

Event	Score	Time (sec)	Year
Cards	52	41.02	2015
Images	30	19.29	2015
Names	21	60.00	2014
Numbers	80	38.05	2015
Words	47	57.73	2015

I'm pretty certain Boris would just love to outdo both the top Germans this year and finally take his place as number one! You could never accuse him of lacking enthusiasm and excitement for the competition, and he really is scary in all five disciplines when he's at his best. Maybe Boris's year this year?

Simon Reinhard
2014: 1st - 2015: 3rd - Made-up ranking: 1st

Event	Score	Time (sec)	Year
Cards	52	23.34	2015
Images	30	27.45	2015
Names	28	60.00	2015
Numbers	80	26.24	2015
Words	49	60.00	2014

The consummate pro; set the top score in three disciplines both previous years, and you wouldn't bet against him doing the same again, or better. Everyone's hoping to somehow avoid Simon in 2016...

Alex Mullen
2014: n/a - 2015: 4th - Made-up ranking: 6th

Event	Score	Time (sec)	Year
Cards	52	34.92	2015
Images	30	60.00	2015
Names	25	60.00	2015
Numbers	80	25.70	2015
Words	42	60.00	2015

Surprised everyone with fourth place at the XMT last year, then surprised everyone with first place at the WMC... after that, you can't surprise people any more, so now he's just going to be expected to win everything. Time to add the XMT to his list of honours?


Katie Kermode
2014: n/a - 2015: QF - Made-up ranking: 7th

Event	Score	Time (sec)	Year
Cards	39	60.00	2015
Images	30	43.57	2015
Names	25	60.00	2015
Numbers	80	60.00	2015
Words	47	60.00	2015

Star of the British team, I sort of have a side bet on Katie being the first to record a perfect 30 names and 50 words this year. Still a bit weak in the numbers and cards, but getting better at a steady rate...

Christian Schäfer
2014: QF - 2015: QF - Made-up ranking: 5th

Event	Score	Time (sec)	Year
Cards	52	48.81	2015
Images	30	25.85	2015
Names	21	57.79	2015
Numbers	80	37.55	2015
Words	47	59.88	2015

Two quarter-finals in a row, and still a bit overshadowed by the more senior Germans (this is what you get when you look about twelve years old - poor guy will be constantly getting asked for ID in you-can't-drink-until-you're-21 America), Christian is deservedly in the top six seeds and in with a real chance of doing something extra-special this time round.


Enkhjin Tumur
2014: n/a - 2015: QF - Made-up ranking: 8th

Event	Score	Time (sec)	Year
Cards	52	37.17	2015
Images	30	14.40	2015
Names	20	60.00	2015
Numbers	80	32.88	2015
Words	30	60.00	2015

The images master; he took it to new levels that nobody else had dreamed of last year, which is a hugely admirable thing - in memory, people are often subconsciously constrained by knowing what the world record is, and aim to beat it by a tiny little bit. Not so for Enkhjin. But his performance in 2015 has opened the way for everyone else to start knocking up to ten seconds off their times, making us wonder - what has he got up his sleeve this year?

Lance Tschirhart
2014: n/a - 2015: grp - Made-up ranking: 20th

Event	Score	Time (sec)	Year
Cards	52	42.42	2015
Images	30	60.00	2015
Names	17	60.00	2015
Numbers	80	50.13	2015
Words	29	60.00	2015

Some sensational performances in training and qualifying, Lance is one of those people who puts an excessive amount of work into his practice. I think last year he was more focused on the US Open and Memo Games the following week, so maybe this year we'll see a vast improvement in those personal bests...

Johannes Zhou
2014: n/a - 2015: R16 - Made-up ranking: 9th

Event	Score	Time (sec)	Year
Cards	52	50.14	2015
Images	30	21.24	2015
Names	22	60.00	2015
Numbers	80	60.00	2015
Words	38	54.81	2015

A very dangerous opponent all round, he's always up there with the best scores in everything; might well get closer to the grand final this time.

Marwin Wallonius
2014: grp - 2015: R16 - Made-up ranking: 16th

Event	Score	Time (sec)	Year
Cards	52	56.70	2015
Images	30	23.64	2015
Names	21	60.00	2015
Numbers	80	59.64	2015
Words	37	60.00	2015

Steadily improving over the last few years, he's now one of the absolute best in the world, though he's underperformed at the XMT in the past. I have a feeling this is a major focus for him in 2016, so we should all be afraid...

Yanjindulam Altansuh
2014: n/a - 2015: R16 - Made-up ranking: 19th

Event	Score	Time (sec)	Year
Cards	52	50.17	2015
Images	30	21.40	2015
Names	23	57.74	2015
Numbers	80	60.00	2015
Words	47	60.00	2015

Another one capable of much better scores than the personal bests above - I wouldn't be surprised to see Yanjaa up there with the group winners this time around.


Purevjav Erdenesaikhan
2014: n/a - 2015: n/a - Made-up ranking: n/a

Event	Score	Time (sec)	Year
Cards
Images
Names
Numbers
Words

Just fractionally missed out on qualifying in 2015, and so made extra sure of it this year with scores including a lightning-fast 18.06 seconds in numbers. Solid scores in all the other disciplines, too.


Tsetsegzul Zorigtbaatar
2014: n/a - 2015: n/a - Made-up ranking: n/a

Event	Score	Time (sec)	Year
Cards
Images
Names
Numbers
Words

Getting down into the people who I don't know much about, now. But hey, that's the great thing about these competitions - meeting new friends!

Shi Binbin
2014: n/a - 2015: n/a - Made-up ranking: n/a

Event	Score	Time (sec)	Year
Cards
Images
Names
Numbers
Words

Star of the Chinese memory championships, fifth in the WMC last year, It'd be good to see a big Chinese contingent coming to XMTs in future, let's hope this is the start of something big!

Anudari Adiyasuren
2014: n/a - 2015: n/a - Made-up ranking: n/a

Event	Score	Time (sec)	Year
Cards
Images
Names
Numbers
Words

Another Mongolian mystery woman (to me, anyway).

Bat-enkh Shijir-Erdene
2014: n/a - 2015: n/a - Made-up ranking: n/a

Event	Score	Time (sec)	Year
Cards
Images
Names
Numbers
Words

And now a Mongolian mystery man! The Mongolians all train together and drive each other to keep on improving, so the whole gang of them are to be feared...


Melanie Höllein
2014: n/a - 2015: n/a - Made-up ranking: n/a

Event	Score	Time (sec)	Year
Cards
Images
Names
Numbers
Words

Another German memory master joins the XMT lineup! Melanie's improving fast, all round.

Sengesamdan Ulziikhutag
2014: n/a - 2015: n/a - Made-up ranking: n/a

Event	Score	Time (sec)	Year
Cards
Images
Names
Numbers
Words

Leading light of the Mongolian championships, making his first attempt on the XMT.

Ben Pridmore
2014: QF - 2015: R16 - Made-up ranking: 17th

Event	Score	Time (sec)	Year
Cards	52	26.73	2015
Images	30	23.55	2015
Names	15	60.00	2015
Numbers	80	58.47	2015
Words	47	60.00	2015

A bit of training, who knows, I might scrape through the group stage again...

Marlo Knight
2014: n/a - 2015: grp - Made-up ranking: 10th

Event	Score	Time (sec)	Year
Cards	52	40.77	2015
Images	30	60.00	2015
Names	22	60.00	2015
Numbers	80	60.00	2015
Words	29	60.00	2015

Marlo has just had his first taste of fame and fortune, on Chinese TV! I bet it's inspired him to chase more and more publicity by winning the XMT now!


Johnny Briones
2014: n/a - 2015: n/a - Made-up ranking: n/a

Event	Score	Time (sec)	Year
Cards
Images
Names
Numbers
Words

Actually qualified for last year's XMT (just squeaking in in last place) but had to pull out of the event at the last moment. Did a very impressive 27 names in qualifying this time round.

Jan-Hendrik Büscher

2014: n/a - 2015: n/a - Made-up ranking: n/a

Event	Score	Time (sec)	Year
Cards
Images
Names
Numbers
Words

An entirely new name, from the country that produces memory experts by the dozen. One to watch!

Enkhmunkh Erdenebatkhaan
2014: n/a - 2015: grp - Made-up ranking: 22nd

Event	Score	Time (sec)	Year
Cards	52	38.84	2015
Images	30	25.78	2015
Names	19	60.00	2015
Numbers	74	31.54	2015
Words	22	60.00	2015

Coming back for his second XMT will probably be a help; experience counts for a lot in this brand-new kind of championship.

Everett Chew
2014: n/a - 2015: n/a - Made-up ranking: n/a

Event	Score	Time (sec)	Year
Cards
Images
Names
Numbers
Words

Don't know him, but even the 24th seed is a force to be reckoned with!

For the draw on April 1st (unless the announcement of that date was some kind of April Fool joke) we'll be in four pots as usual, and my unimpressive qualifying performance puts me in pot four. So, given that there's no way I'm going to end up in anything other than a group of death; relatively speaking, what's a good group, and what's a bad group for me?

Pot 1 - Hannes, Boris, Simon, Alex, Katie, Christian

There was a rule last year about how many people from each country could end up in the same group, so I think Katie is probably excluded from my list of potential opponents. Simon is still the one who fills me with most dread out of this lot. You can make arguments for a lot of other people being the group-of-deathiest one among them, but I still always think Simon has the all-round edge; he's just good at everything and almost completely unflappable. Having named Alex as my group-of-life pick last year, only for him to beat me hollow, it'd be nice to avoid him, too, please. If I had to choose, I'd go for Christian - I feel a bit more confident that I could beat him at things like cards, on a good day. Also, it's his birthday today, so that'll make up for the devastation he feels at being my 'easy opponent' choice here!

Pot 2 - Enkhjin, Lance, Johannes Z, Marwin, Yanjaa, Purejav

A lot of people here who've got good results in qualifying but not so good in actual competitions before now - who knows what they'll do this year? Yanjaa scares me with her names-and-words abilities, Lance generally scares me with everything, depending on whether he's taking the competition deadly seriously this year or not. Marwin has tended to underperform in the XMT, so maybe this year he'll go for it and break all the records? I was in a group with JZ in 2015 and just barely narrowly finished ahead of him, so that'd give me confidence this time round. Enkhjin isn't exclusively an images god, so I might be making a fatal mistake when I think I could maybe beat him in everything else... and I don't know Purejav at all, so who knows? I'm thinking all six of them could be good or bad; let's say Lance for the group of death, Purejav for life. The Mongolians who haven't met me yet* tend to be a bit scared of me, so perhaps I'll get an extra point or two there.

*I'm thinking now that I actually have met him, maybe. Never mind.

Pot 3 - Tsetsegzul, Shi Binbin, Anudari, Bat-Enkh, Melanie, Sengesamdan

A lot of unfamiliar people here. The Chinese master worries me, but Sengesamdan possibly even more so. Melanie's the one I'm most familiar with, and so rightly or wrongly the one I would feel most confident about beating...


So, in summary, the group of death - Simon, Lance, Sengesamdan
And the group of life - Christian, Purejav, Melanie

China vs Germany!

While we wait for the excitement of the Team Britain episode, check out the greatest minds of Germany going up against the mental warriors of China!

The Old Combination

I went to Cambridge at the weekend for the European Grand Prix othello tournament. I don't feel like I've been to an othello competition for ages, although I'm not sure entirely why, since I did go to the nationals last year, which means the only one I've missed since then was the Christmas friendly, which nobody went to. But still, I've been out of touch with the othello scene for quite a while, and I've resolved to make an effort to go to more tournaments this year. Now that I've got a job that more or less means my income exceeds my expenditure, give or take, you know. Maybe I'll even try to win the British Grand Prix again by turning up to all the regionals? We'll see.

Anyway, this year's EGP event was held in the Old Combination Room at Trinity College. "The OCR", Cambridge dons call it, which doesn't give much clue as to why it's called that or what the room's used for when it hasn't had all the antique furniture shoved to the side to make way for board games. It's full of enormous portraits of Charles II and his friends, which Imre was at pains to point out are infinitely valuable and within easy reach of dirty hands, so please to be careful.

We had 19 competitors, eight of whom were the Plowman and Brand families but several of the rest of whom had come over from Europe. We also had Graham Brightwell, for the first time in yonks, and it was a very high-rated field. Not having played the game or even given it more than a passing thought for months, I wasn't expecting great things, but I got off to a flying start in the first round by virtue of there being an odd number of players and me getting the bye. Normal service was resumed when I actually played a game and got thoroughly squished by Roel Hobo, but then I beat Guy quite nicely in round 3 and had a game against Tom Schotte where I felt that I played really quite well, despite losing.

WZebra, the othello computer, usually disagrees with me when I feel like that about a game, but this time it takes the view that I only played one bad move, move 38:

I'm white, and I played E2 rather than F2. My logic for this went along the lines of "if I play F2, he'll play F1, then when I play E2 he'll play G2 and this will be bad," but WZebra, smart alec that it is, says it wouldn't be bad at all, it would be perfectly okay in at least two different ways. Still, I take the view (slightly less scientifically, perhaps) that this isn't at all obvious and even players who actually know what they're doing might well have made the same mistake. I'm sure some of the good players out there will contradict me, but never mind.

Zebra reckons that I played another disc-losing move later, but we can safely ignore it there, because when it's in a losing position Zebra thinks the thing to do is to lose by as few discs as possible, rather than to play the move that gives the opponent the most chances to make a mistake.

So all in all, I was pretty happy with the morning's games, Then we had lunch and it all went a bit downhill from there, although I did beat Marie in between playing dreadfully and losing to Jan and Graham. I was thinking at the time that I always play terribly against Graham; I think I'm sort of overawed by how great he is, somehow. I don't get that feeling with the likes of Imre, but Graham just has that air of being-better-than-me that I find hard to overcome, don't ask me why.

Then we went for the traditional Indian meal on the Saturday night, which was very nice, and I went back to my hotel - Stationroomz, formerly known as Sleeperz and Cityroomz, seems to have closed down forever, but to make up for it there's a whole new area sprung up behind the train station with a Travelodge, bowling alley, cinema, supermarkets, Subway and no end of other brand shiny new stuff, so I stayed there. Not spectacularly cheap, but it was the first weekend for months that I had any money at all to spend, so I didn't mind splashing out.

Sunday was the day of the Cambridge half-marathon, so to get to Trinity in the morning we had to navigate big fenced-off sections of the city centre - I didn't see any runners, but I'm sure they showed up at some point. Having got a measly three points from seven games without playing any of the little Brands or Plowmen, I was expecting a few more easy games among the last four, but ended up against Luke Plowman first - can't really call him little since he seems to be taller than me now, and certainly not easy either; I was lucky to get a 37-27 win. I did get to play two small Brands, sandwiched around a loss to Marc Tastet (he was trying to get as many discs as possible in order to finish second on tie-break but probably would have won more easily than he did if he'd just been trying to win) and ended up on 6 points out of 11 games. Not world-beating, but just managing the 50% that I aim for in these things, even if you exclude the bye.

Maybe I should aim higher, but then I'd only be disappointed. Or I could practice a bit, but that's just being silly.

Anyway, Tom ended up in first place, followed by Takuji beating Marc on tie-break, and Roel in fourth. Marc won the third-place match, and the best-of-three final (which I didn't stick around to watch live, having to get home) was extraordinarily epic! Takuji won the first game 33-31, the second was drawn 32-32, and then Tom won the third by 33-31 - thus becoming the champion by having finished first in the 11-round tournament. That's computer-like levels of perfect play there, I can't help wondering how long it'll be before every game between the top players is 32-32...

All in all, a fun weekend! I really must do that more often. Oadby in a couple of weeks!

I'm not still in China!

I should really have posted something here to say I got to China and back safely, shouldn't I? I'm not sure if there's anyone who relies solely on my blog to know whether or not I'm alive, but there might be. Anyway, I'm back home again now!

I can't really say anything about the show without spoiling the surprise, but it'll be available for the world to see soon, I'm sure, and I'll let you know about it then. Nanjing was great (especially the Irish pub where we went to celebrate the end of filming - they even had a karaoke bar and undaunted by the presence of at least a couple of people who could actually sing, I belted out a fair few classics) and so was Harbin - I can't wait till the next time I get the chance to go over there!

Meanwhile, the next exotic venture for me is likely to be to the Extreme Memory Tournament in June! It's the last day of qualifying today, and barring quite a lot of people memorising all fifty words, I should have safely made the cut. When all the results are in, I get the fun of analysing the draw and determining who's in the group of death... although rather a lot of people seem to be terminally deathy compared to me nowadays...

Wifi on planes? Whatever next?

Well, since it's here, I'd better use it for a blog update. And before we get into Chinese airspace, too.

Anyway, I'm on my way to Nanjing! I'll be away from home until the 29th, then on February 1st I launch into a new job, in Redditch, which means I'll be moving house again, too. It's all go, but basically I've resolved not to think about any of that until I get back from China, because there's only so much my brain can deal with at once.

I've done my hugely unsatisfactory Images qualifying for the XMT - really annoyingly, I did a practice run of a perfect 18.70 seconds, or something like that, first thing this morning, and then couldn't get close to that any time that I had the 'qualification attempt' box ticked. I'm resigned to setting my sights a bit lower now, and aiming for "just barely scraping into the top sixteen". We'll see how it goes.

Luke Spacewalker

There's a British astronaut going spacewalking at the space station today, which reminds me of a picture I'd like to find from an old Beano comic, some time in the early eighties. The Beano often liked to boast that Mark Hamill was a member of the Dennis the Menace Fan Club, and one time on the letters page some editor (who clearly knew nothing at all about Mark Hamill except what he could deduce from the names 'Star Wars' and 'Luke Skywalker') quipped that he should remember not to pin his fan club badges on his spacesuit when he next goes spacewalking, illustrated with a picture of an astronaut being blown away into space by a puncture. It was a really impressive attempt to show that the Beano was down with the kids!

It begins!

Qualification for the world's coolest memory tournament is underway! Week one is the coolest discipline, speed cards!

The way qualifying works is that you have a week for each discipline, in which you get to make five attempts and choose your best time. Attempts have to be videoed and comply with specific rules to prevent cheating, which means the world gets to see everyone sitting at computers and remembering things...

Here's my first attempt, 25.85 seconds, which would be an entirely okay time to submit even if I don't manage to go any faster in the remaining four.



Cards is the one where I really need to set a very good time to start off with, because people are going to catch up and overtake me in a big way on some of the other disciplines. This one, though, I'm still one of the best at - I hope.

Extremely extreme!

It's that time of the year, everyone - qualifying for the Extreme Memory Tournament starts next Monday!

Go to the training website, sign up, pay a little bit of money if you have to, it's worth it, and take part in the qualification tournament!

I have to qualify this year, and it makes me nervous. I did a practice run yesterday and got some pretty good scores (400 points' worth), which most people think would be enough to get into the tournament, though I'm a little concerned that there'll be some extremely big scores from a lot of people this time round...

The thing about qualifying is that you really want to end up in the top four of the sixteen qualifying competitors - the top eight from last year will (I assume) be the top eight seeds again, which should mean that when everyone's drawn into six groups for the XMT itself, the top four qualifiers will get into pot two (along with Jonas and Enkhjin) and theoretically have a slightly easier group stage draw. Although the top six seeds are all pretty scary (Hannes, Boris, Simon, Alex, Katie, Christian), so there really isn't going to be a super-easy draw for anyone.

But we'll cross that bridge when we come to it! The first step is to qualify, starting with speed cards, and my aim there is to get a time better than the 100-points record of 23.34 seconds. I did 23.33 in my practice session yesterday, so that counts as a success!

I'm flying to China on the 19th and back on the 29th, which will get in the way a little, or a lot. I think I'll have to do the images qualification on the 18th before I go, since I'll be spending the remainder of the week in Nanjing rehearsing and performing, and then do the names qualification on the weekend after I return, since I'll be spending the first half of the week in Harbin with probably little access to the internet and a lot of access to beer and a brother I haven't hung out with for ages. But we'll see how it goes!

And if you're keen to read about actual memory competitions, rather than prospective qualification for future competitions, you really must check out new World Memory Champion Alex Mullen's account of how he won, thoroughly squishing my two remaining world records along the way. I think we can safely say that the top memory competitors' scores have now reached a level that makes my performances way back when look quite embarrassingly bad...

Back in the red

Taking an excellent suggestion from Danny at work, I spent three hours of today very productively; watching Red Dwarf. He was thinking more in terms of watching the DVDs, but I'm old-fashioned and still have video tapes that I recorded off the TV, twenty years ago. Nearly exactly twenty years ago, as it turns out - my tape of series 6 was apparently recorded when it was repeated in early 1996. I can tell this from the BBC announcement that because of the events in the news at the time, "Rimmerworld" was postponed and replaced by "Out of Time". I had to check the internet to find out that it was the Dunblane massacre, which just made me wonder why the latter episode was considered more suitable - if anything, it's got rather more shooting and violence in it than the other. I also find myself wondering why I didn't also tape Fist Of Fun which according to the BBC continuity announcer was shown right after the Red Dwarf repeats - not only was it hilarious, but it had text at the end designed to be recorded and watched with the aid of the pause button. Maybe I did tape it but lost the tape at some time since then, I don't know. Twenty years is a long time.

I haven't been entirely idle today, though, because XMT qualification starts soon, and I've been doing a bit of practice for that. I'll blog at greater length soon about the qualification tournament and how I'm going to arrange it around a two-week visit to China. You know, once I've worked out how exactly I'm going to do that...

I'm going to China!

I know I've been going to China for a while now, but it's official - I've got my visa, and they'll let me into the country! Unless something goes wrong. I mean, they might change their minds...

I always worry too much about this kind of thing. Anything that involves getting official approval just scares me. Officials are frightening people.

Job satisfaction

I'm starting to worry that I really like my job. It's not what you'd call mentally exerting, but it's sort of fun. This is a terrible kind of mental attitude to have, I really should try to do something about it.

There are many things I don't understand

Did you know that the day after Christmas isn't called Boxing Day in the USA? They don't even call it anything, it's just December 26th!

Well, I didn't know that until today, and the thought of my ignorance just seriously freaks me out. I mean, this is the fortieth Boxing Day I've spent on this planet, and while the first few of them were before the internet existed and America was just this sort of magical fictional place where they had all the cool Transformers toys that we didn't, Wikipedia's been around for quite a while now and I've been in regular contact with American friends since at least, ooh, must be 1998. How has this not come up in conversation?

What else am I taking for granted as a universal concept when actually it's just a silly local thing? I mean, it was freaky enough when I learned that they don't have Christmas crackers over there either, but Boxing Day?

Freaky, I tells you.

What's on TV?

I might spend the whole of Christmas watching cartoon videos, actually.

Solstice

I would be out prancing around Stonehenge, but it's raining.

Some like it hot

I take any slight decrease in the temperature outside as a good excuse to have my radiators on full blast. There's nothing like being lightly toasted on a winter's night.

Christmassy weather

It's like a sort of dull, colder version of summer around here at the moment. I'm not saying I want snow and ice - in fact, this weather's just fine for me, thanks - but there's automatically something disappointing about not having a white Christmas...

Private viewing

Went to the cinema today, for the first time in however many years - I'm not what you'd call a regular moviegoer. And no, not to see Star Wars, despite what I was saying just yesterday; I thought I'd check out Charlie Brown and Snoopy. I was going to go and see Star Wars afterwards - the Showcase in Derby was showing it every fifteen minutes on one of its many screens, while the Peanuts gang were only on once, at 10:30 in the morning - but Charlie Brown's adventures turned out to be such a feel-good movie I decided to just be satisfied with the warm glow it gave me, and check out what Middle-Aged Luke Skywalker is up to some other time.

I had Screen 3 at the Showcase entirely to myself - everybody else clearly had better things to do on the last Saturday morning before Christmas (Star Wars, probably) - so I got to see the whole thing in glorious 3D in comfort and quiet. I should go to the cinema more often! And what a great movie it is, too! The animation is wonderful - as per the current fashion they clearly spent ridiculous amounts of time and money on making Snoopy's fur look realistic, but the whole thing is brilliantly designed to reflect its roots as line drawings in the newspaper funnies; it goes with the 'drawings come to life' kind of approach rather than the 'look what we can do with computer animation nowadays', and it looks just perfect.

And the writing is spot on, too - perhaps a little more inspired by the cartoons than the comics, but nicely hitting the feel of them both, not really trying to be deliberately old-fashioned but coming across as perfectly timeless. Charlie Brown is the loveable loser he's always been and all the others have their little character moments which I think work as well for first-time viewers (if there is such a thing) as for people familiar with all the old stuff. It's not trying to do anything new, but it's certainly not just re-hashing old ideas and making them look pretty. I love it!

46 years ago the first Peanuts movie, A Boy Named Charlie Brown, was in the cinemas - that one ends with Charlie Brown losing the spelling bee ("And did you notice? The world didn't come to an end!") while this new movie gives him a happy ending, but if you think about it they both convey the same general moral; life goes on, don't worry about it. Charlie Brown will never kick the football, but he'll always be a truly great human being. Fantastic movie, I recommend it to everyone!

Use the force

I'm hearing people say the new Star Wars is good, which surprises me. I was assuming everyone would automatically say it was rubbish. I've misjudged the human race, obviously. Or at least the part of it that goes and watches Star Wars the day it comes out. I really must go and see it myself.

Names and faces again

Watching an old episode of Blake's 7 this morning, I was wondering who that familiar-looking actor was. It took me a while to penetrate the clean-shaven young face, sideburns and late-seventies hairstyle, before his voice made me realise "Oh, it's Inspector Grim! David Haig!" And then immediately after that revelation I got an email from David Haigh, no relation, which just makes me think that things would be a lot simpler all round if everybody had the same name. So from now on, everybody has to be called David Haig(h), okay? You can choose whether or not to put an H on the end. I'm sure this will improve world understanding and harmony immeasurably.

Hi there

Bumped into someone I used to know today - or at least I can only assume I used to know him, since he clearly knew me and chatted about what I'd been doing for the last couple of years. Could have been anyone, really. One of these days, I need to learn how to remember names and faces...

Light the lights

I'm still loving The Muppets. It's great when I have pretty high expectations of something and they get surpassed anyway! I was going to write at length on the subject, but I'm too tired, so at some point in the future I'll get round to it. Feel free to wave your arms like Kermit and cheer "Yaaaaaaaaay!"

Vis-a-vis the visa

Tomorrow's task - apply for a visa to visit China. I always get nervous about it, not so much because they might refuse to let me into the country, but because I might accidentally lose/destroy/eat my passport or something and not be able to arrange the visa in time. Never happened yet, but it still might...

It's time to get extreme again!

Qualifying for the 2016 XMT starts in January! January 11th, to be precise, and one week for each discipline. Since I'm going to China on the 19th and coming back on the 29th, I might have to cram my images qualification into the day before, and names the weekend after I get back, but I'm sure I'll cope...

Right, let's get training, I'll need some impressive scores if I'm going to qualify!

Pardon me, Duchess

I've just got an email from the Duchess Theatre in Long Eaton with a subject "Appologies for the errors in the previous email." I wonder if they're going to send another one apologising for the spelling in this one?

I really should take myself off the Duchess Theatre's mailing list, anyway. I've only been there once, years and years ago. I'm not really a theatre-goer. Maybe I'll become one when I'm wealthy. Or have nothing better to do with my time.

Winter woolies

I'm going to China at the end of January, including a visit to my brother up in Harbin, where it apparently gets routinely into the minus-twenties in temperature all winter. I really should get some more warm clothes before I go, or at least a pair of trousers that don't have huge holes in them, but since I won't have any money until I've gone there and got paid, I can't really afford to. Maybe I can make myself some warm clothes out of an old duvet I've got lying around the place here?

Two weeks away

That means it's Christmas Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve today.

Practice!

I'm not entirely sure whether or not to go to Cambridge for the Christmas Othello Tournament on Saturday. On the one hand, it's about time I tried to remember how to play othello (you never know when you might be called upon to play a passable game in a life-or-death kind of crisis), but on the other hand I've still got no money, so I can't really afford to go... Maybe I'll rob a bank, or hitch-hike, or something cheap.

That moment when...

You go to bed and then realise you haven't written a blog. So, um, how's everyone doing tonight? Good? Good.

What the dickens?

I have several Charles Dickens books lying around the place that I've bought in those cheap book shops for a pound each at some point in the past, but never read. I just can't get into them, as a rule. Which is strange, since I really like a lot of books by lesser Victorian writers. Have you ever tried East Lynne, by Mrs Henry Wood? It's awesome. Although it's a sort of modern Victorian book, and Dickens was more mainstream, I suppose. Perhaps I'm just too up-to-date, 19th-centurily-speaking.

Wrestlemania

I occasionally have dreams in which I'm a wrestler, of the fake WWE kind. And specifically not one of the cool starring-role wrestlers, but a making-up-the-numbers type. It probably means something. Possibly that I occasionally watch wrestling before going to bed.