Nurses and Seemingly Random Pay

Tomorrow is the day my wife gets paid and the uncertainty about how much she'll be paid this month comes to an end.

Lorraine's payslips are a mass of complexity, and as a result of this (along with queries about what you get paid for in what month) it makes figuring out what she'll be paid a nightmare. Mine is pretty simple to calculate each month, Lorraine's is not. And it can really fluctuate, as much as 17% from month to month, and there doesn't appear to be much rhyme or reason behind it. I've never considered nursing myself, but if I had then the varying payments would be enough to knock the idea on the head.

Is anyone else in this situation? If so how do you deal with it? Let us know in the comments.

Film Review: Capote

Had a bit of spare annual leave which I had to take last week, so I used a half-day and while I had some rare peace and quiet at home I took the chance to see the film Capote.

This was a film I'd been meaning to see for a while. I read (and loved) In Cold Blood for my A levels, and given that the film looks at that book from a different perspective I was interested to see it.

Things I liked:

• Philip Seymour Hoffman as Capote. Masterful.
• The ways Capote was shown as manipulative and conniving to get his story. If the whole story took place forty years later you suspect it couldn't happen, no writer would get that kind of access to a major investigation.
• The hint of Capote's slide into alcoholism. If you haven't watched it but plan to keep an eye on how often Capote has a drink in his hand while doing something.
• The 1950s/60s settings. They appear to have worked really hard on this. It looks pretty authentic (not that I'm an expert on these things, but I was impressed).
• Catherine Keener as Harper Lee. Understated, but excellent.
• Chris Cooper as Alvin Dewey. Smart, yet compassionate but also capable of anger when he thinks the conflicted Capote might somehow get Hickock and Smith free.
• Mark Pellegrino as Dick Hickock. I've seen three different actors play Hickock now. Scott Wilson in the original 1960s film struck me as not menacing enough. Anthony Edwards in the 1990s mini-series kept me think of Goose from Top Gun (sorry, can't help it). It's a pity there isn't more of Pellegrino in this film, as for some reason he comes over as the Hickock I'd read in the book.
• Perry Smith watching the warehouse while Lowell Lee Andrews is being executed. I liked the way they left this to the imagination, and the thought of what was facing Smith himself.

Things I didn't like:

• The scene where Capote brings in a photographer from New York to get photos of Hickock and Smith. What?! Would the KBI really approve of that? I've always looked out for information on the web to do with In Cold Blood and have never seen these pictures. I can't believe they exist and can't understand why if this didn't happen the scene is included in the film.
• The closure of the Smith peeking through his cell during Andrews' execution. Andrews' body leaves the warehouse uncerimonisouly on some kind of farm equipment. It just doesn't fit. Also the book well documents that it was raining heavily when Andrews was executed, yet there's not a drop of rain in any of those shots.
• The changing of some names. I know there's probably all sorts of legalities that go with filming a true story, but it annoys me when names get changed and you have to think "Oh, that's actually such and such". There aren't many instances of this, but there are enough to bother you.

As always you wonder exactly what Hollywood has done to the story, what is true and what isn't. For the most part though it's pretty good. I don't think I'd buy it as a DVD though, it's not really light and easy viewing.

For anyone else who is an In Cold Blood fan there's a great feature here at LJWorld.com.

Odd footnote: I love the Southern US and love In Cold Blood, yet I've never read To Kill a Mockingbird. I think I need to fix that at some point in the near future.

Play.com enters the download market

And I'm a fan. Consider some of the differences with iTunes:

Price: iTunes, 79p per track. Play.com, prices start from 65p. Most tracks seem to be 70p.

Quality: iTunes, 192Kbps standard. Play.com, 320Kbps standard.

Format: iTunes, own m4p format, nightmare in terms of compatibility. Play.com, .mp3, works with just about everything (including my CD/mp3 player in the car).

DRM: iTunes, tracks are DRM protected. Play.com, no DRM protection.

I think it will be interesting to see how Apple responds to this.

My Work Colleagues, They Know How I Feel

Got a cough that won't clear up, they know how I feel.
Think I've got a sty, they know how I feel.
And my neck is sore, they know how I feel.

It's the same place, sucks to work here,
Need a new job...

(And I'm feeeeeeeling GOOOOD!)

Sorry, January blues.

Remembering my step-grandfather

My step-grandfather died last month. He was 95, and due to the passing of my paternal and maternal grandfathers in my infancy effectively the only grandfather I ever knew.

He was a smart guy, and was capable of being captivating and personable. My guess is that I must have been six when I met him, and got to know him through an range of magic tricks.

As I got older I came to know him more as an educated reader, with a pretty substantial library. Our conversations became more complicated - not to mention more interesting - as time went by.

Just before his wife passed away I noticed a different side to him, one of a loving, caring husband. After she passed away he kept photos of her prominently where he lived. He clearly missed her. It was quite touching.

He was also a published author. Nothing major, just a small book about the history of a village where he lived. I need to get a copy of this somewhere, and somehow I think that a fitting tribute would be to make it into print myself. That's a matter for another time though.

Broadband Speed at Home

We got an invitation out for dinner last night. One of our hosts told us that they'd just had broadband installed. I asked what speed he had, and he told me it would initially be 1Mb, before going up to 4Mb.

According to various speed tests I can only get 0.5Mb. Still! It's the 21st century people, work on it!

Clips of the year: Sports

Ladies and gentlemen, the Trinity Tigers (and possibly the best amateur commentator of all time).

Clips of the year: Rants

Ladies and gentlemen, Mr Mike Gundy.



Incidentally, I've got a friend who turns 40 next year. I'll need to remember to forward this link to him on his birthday, just so he knows he's a man then.

Clips of the year: X-Factor

I've decided to celebrate a few of my favourite clips of the year. This one's my X-Factor clip of the year. "Noooo way!"

"Tony, you're playing catchup"

Working through a pretty long to-do list at the moment. What's worse is that I'm only usually managing to get one thing crossed off it each night. Ugh, not good.

I need some time off really to catch up on personal stuff. Fortunately I have some coming up. During this time I'll hopefully write a proper post for this blog. Just wanted to let any readers know that I haven't disappeared off the face of the earth.