Monday 8 February 2010

Spartan and connecting computer to TV

Yesterday May 21st 2008, was a day of three parts and contrary to expectations a very English kind of day. I began writing before 8 am and I have had breakfast and will shortly go out with my camera, to get the TV PC connections before returning home and if possible the summer season programme for the parks and the amphitheatre, then Prime Minister's Question Time, then something such as going to Newcastle or Bolden, although this may be ambitious given the early start. I am not enthusiastic about the Champions League game which has two European Teams based in England, competing for the title in Russian where the owner of one made his wealth and continues to have many interests with neither club managed or owned by English men. It is therefore a fiction, a delusion that there are two English teams in the contest although there are is a minority of l English and British world class players in both teams.

I enjoyed a good morning walk around town continuing the photographing of pubs, clubs and restaurants I checked out the bus times to Bolden and Durham and may go to the pictures later in the afternoon to see Doomsday at Bolden if complete other work beforehand. I acquired the audio and vision leads to connect the computer to the TV using the lap top.

14,00 I am listening to Gibraltar radio on the TV with on screen an aquarium screen saver, although accomplishing this was not without difficulty. I followed the instructions without being able to transfer a signal so I switched to attached to the desk top monitor and again there was no signal. I then worked out by a process of trial and error that I go to the control panel and set up so that the same picture is shown on lap top and separate monitor. Armed with this success I went back to the TV and repeated what I had done with almost similar success. There are two problems. The first is that the icons and type is large size and I have not yet worked how to do this. May try and sort this out after some other activities or leave to work on separately away from. The length of the leads means the lap top is on the floor and I will have to work out a better situation for undertaking other work. The other issue that the picture is not full screen which may be normal but worth checking out. Prime Minister's Question Time lacked some of the fire and hubble bubble of recent weeks, a day before the Crewe and Nantwich by-election which should be a better indication of the national position than the local government elections.

Unsurprisingly I became tired and instead of going out watch Spartan, yet another USA film denouncing its own Presidential and political system. This time while the film was enjoyable and and credible moments the story was too far fetched. I man can you imagine any of the living presidential candidates surrounding themselves with the kind of secret service upper echelons who would first pretend that the daughter of the President had died in a boating accident involving an older lover then try to assassinate her after she is taken from a brothel where she has taken to hang out and from where she is kidnapped by a middle east slave ring for young blonde western girls who do not realise who she is!

The story begins with Val Kilmer who was a master Gunnery Sergeant in the Marines helping out with preparing special forces fro a covert operation abroad and where two one trainee (black) and a knife fighting instructor (female) come to his attention. He is a clinical professional who know farms in the middle of no where but does not appear to have any family or friends. At the end of the training he is brought into the loop to find the Presidential daughter who had been kidnapped before the media find out, although the "authorities" know exactly what has happened top her and why and what Kilmer to lead them to her before she is taken out of the country.

What appears to be the back story is that Presidential has been having an extra marital affairs and both parents are so involved with politics that they have excluded their daughter from their lives and for some reason not satisfactorily explained although she appears to have a normal boy friend she mutilates her hair, goes for nights to work at a brothel and threatens to expose her father just as he is starting the re-election campaign. She is kidnapped because he uses her secret service detail to ensure the media did not find out about his extra marital affair and Kilmer is given two days to find her before she is due back at school. When despite several near misses and various shoot outs with the kidnappers, he fails to stop the girl being taken out of the country, the decision is taken to kill one of her college professors and a girl/woman who both can die, allegedly as lovers (their bodies are found naked) and no one asks questions, especially the President and his wife whose mourning does not appear to interrupt their campaigning.

This is the point in the film where the two contacts made on the special course come back into the film. Amazingly Kilmer has accepted the new version of events despite evidence to contrary and returns to his farm as if nothing has happened but is traced there by the trainee who became part of the special mission unit, and who has evidence that the girl was not on the boat and arranges to go with Kilmer to where he can show him the evidence. At this point the man who set up the original rescue mission kills the trainee and thinks he has killed Kilmer. (He is also black to demonstrate that a black person in a senior position can commit murder as well as white's).
Kilmer then attempts to tell the first lady that her daughter is alive and meets the secret service woman who has effectively brought up the President's daughter from when she was a child and in another loose end does not appear the kind of woman who would have been taken away from protecting her charge who she regards as her own child, or to have allowed her get involved with the brothel. The woman persuades Kilmer to try and rescue the girl from her fate and he enlists the help of the knife fighting training sergeant who had pledged her support and personal interest on the training course.

They find the girl and rescue her although she does not want to be rescued or return to her family, which is in fact sensible as those who had faked her death are also on the trail wanting to kill her and her rescuers. They fail, and girl is rescued by some enterprising media outfit who inexplicably appears on the scene, but without realising what it is they are witnessing until they recognise the allegedly dead President's daughter. Although Kilmer kills the assassins he is wounded and the colleague who assist him also appears fatally wounded dying in his arms. The outcome is that the girl is returned to her "delighted" father and Kilmer disappears in disguise out of the USA to London. The title of film is explained by Kilmer who explains his one man operation that when the King of Sparta was asked by a friendly power to provide military help he would only send one man. One riot - one ranger. This is not an original concept in that the film director had used it in an earlier film House of Games and it is also the motto of the Texas Rangers. Other trivia is that the daughter of US Senator John Kerry had a small part in the film and a member of the US special ops Delta force was involved with providing technical advice. The film can also be regarded as a pilot for a subsequent TV series The Unit, modelled n the Delta Force.

Against my original inclination, I decided to watch the Champions League final, although my attention was half hearted during much of match until extra time and the penalty shoot out. Both teams missed simple opportunities to win the game. In the end the Chelsea Captain appeared to slip as he sliced his penalty kick against the post which would have won the penalty shoot out. This gave the initiative to Manchester United who succeeded when a Chelsea players missed his penalty and the glory went to United. It is said that both sets of fans paid an average of £1000 to get to the game which was played just before 11 pm local time to fit in with British TV coverage and which ended at 11 pm here and 2 pm there. Because there are not 50000 seats on planes, including charters, into Russia at anyone time from the Uk, people travelled to other airports and to other destinations with some flying to Beijing and taking the trans Siberian express. It is said that winning the game could be worth as much as £100million. Noticeable by his absence when the winners and losers received their medals was the owner of Chelsea who is Russian. One suspects he will not forgive their star striker who was sent off at the end of game for slapping the face of an opponent, nor is it suspected he will continue with his Manage who only managed to win the League Cup, push Manchester United for League Title until the last day of the season as show themselves to be the second best club in Europe for the year. Beings second is not good enough.

I then did some work including some fifty artman signature cards.

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