This phrase is used at least ten times each episode by various candidates. This number increases as the series goes along. It normally means that the candidate is about to repeat what they have already said plenty of times during the episode to make themselves look good in front of the cameras which it actually doesn’t. Most other candidates also automatically switch off and don’t listen to what’s being said [which is fair enough seeing that nothing of value is being added anyway] or try to make themselves heard at the same time which can lead to very same and boring shouting matches. Bonus points are gained for frantically pointing around with a pen in their hand.

“I think that..”

This phrase is usually followed with some negative comment, such as “I think that your presentation wasn’t direct enough for the client” which really means “I think you’re an absolute bitch and the sole reason this task failed, even though I did an even worse job than you, but I can talk better, so ha.” This should not be confused with:

“I don’t think that..”

which is always being followed by ‘”I should have been the one that got fired” and is exclusively mentioned by the recently fired candidate on their way home in the black cab. Of course they are wrong..

“What I would say..”

This is only being said by candidates in the boardroom that are either completely underqualified or have made a major mistake that’s caused the team to have lost the task. It really means “I’m still trying to come up with a suitable excuse which is why I am using this as a filler so Sir Allen doesn’t notice how I really shouldn’t be here and fire me.”

“Sir Allen”

This phrase is used by every candidate in the boardroom that believes themselves to be in danger of being fired. Usually the candidate was asked by Sir Allen why he shouldn’t fire them and the candidate embarks on a monologue lasting several minutes talking about irrelevant topics, such as how they were bullied at school, their difficult background as well as mentioning all the talents they have. Which really are exactly the same talents everyone else in the boardroom has.

“I quite like the idea..”

Only ever heard in the planning stages of each episodes during the brainstorming process and is followed by some very generic or tacky [or both] ideas that every normal person would never even consider doing. Depending on the popularity of the candidate or rather the loudness of their voice [think Saira Khan..] their idea gets taken and the team is heading to almost certain disaster.

“Right.”

Used in an affirmative tone by one candidate to another, the latter one more often than not being the team leader. This actually means that the team member has either no idea or doesn’t want to do whatever is being asked from them because they dislike the team leader. This is also often used in conjunction with rolling their eyes or followed by bitching to whichever team member would listen. Curiously this is a much more common problem amongst male team members.

“Sir Allen will realise that as well.”

He won’t. You might as well give up now.

Series 5 of ‘The Apprentice UK’ started last week and for the first time since it’s conception I don’t like any of the candidates. None of them stand out enough or are likeable enough. After watching both of the episodes so far I can’t even remember anyone’s name, something that’s never been a problem before.

Burning questions:

• Why do they still make the same mistakes the candidates made in the previous seasons? Have they ever heard of preparation?
• Why does this series remind me of both ‘The Office’ and ‘Arresting Development’?
• With the number of fly-bys of the London skyline exceeding the ones in the average CSI episode, has the entire show just become one large advertisement for the City of London?
• Incidentally there were also quite a few scenes in Tesco’s, although seeing that people complained about the quality of the food by the girl’s team I wonder whether Tesco’s were aware of the light they’re being shown in..
• Why are there over 20 minutes dedicated to the boardroom? With recaps, intros and interviews there’s barely any time dedicated to the actual task! I’m pretty sure I remember it being different.
• Is it wrong for thinking ‘The Apprentice – You’re fired’ show is actually the best part?
• I’m too lazy to look for it myself, but are any of the candidates on Twitter or have their own websites?

At the moment I’m not sure I’ll finish watching this series as I spent a good few minutes during the second episode wondering what the show would be like if it was narrated by the guy who does the Big Brother UK voiceovers and then realised that I’d actually prefer him to do it.

In fact, Margret sums up my feelings pretty well:

All the images were taken from ‘The Apprentice UK’ S05E02 and yes, they did show more than those fly-bys [click to see larger image]. Also, what is that slinging road third image down on the right?

One of my first goals was to determine which sites I visit on a daily basis, although this is obviously assuming I have an internet connection! These are the sites, excluding any forums. Any sites indicated with a * are also static/protected tabs that are always open.

• Gmail*
• Twitter*
• Google Reader
• Google Search
• Wikipedia*
• Tumblr* and of course cat on tumblr
• WordPress.com dashboard* and this blog, obviously!
• BBC news
• Last.fm
• IMDb
• Leo Dict

What I am currently looking into is to clear up my RSS feeds and more importantly replace the ones that only offer a partial RSS with similar sites that have all their content in their feeds to eliminate having to visit most sites..

Angel: Being such a big Buffy fan I never really could get into Angel. I suppose it was mainly because I liked the dynamics of Buffy, the supporting cast and the dialogue. Angel just always seemed to try and be all gritty, urban and LA. However, it appears I was wrong, Angel is actually very good, the characters are great and I love Cordelia played by Charisma Carpenter. Her character has evolved so much since she started on Buffy. I’m not all convinced by some of the storylines in Angel though. Yes, I can understand and follow the arc in Pylea, but ever since Connor was born it has lacked. Everything that made the show good which is mainly how the characters work with each other isn’t really there and the entire Cordelia ascension arc wasn’t convincing.

Clone Wars: Liked it!

Desperate Housewives: Glad to see this back, but I’m not sure I actually like the show any more! They went all One Tree Hill, let’s jump in the future, but the characters appear to have become unlikeable. Especially Susan which was such a great character. The mystery this season looks like it’ll be good though, Edie and her new husband seem very intriguing.

Eureka: Eureka is a bit of a weird show, sometimes I feel like it doesn’t quite know what it wants to do. The Sheriff annoys me more than he doesn’t, I don’t see why people like Allison Blake and it’s too much of a weekly mystery show with no substantial arc. Well, that changed this season and they tried to implement a story arc which sort of worked, even though it felt extremely rushed at the end. And then there’s the midseason break with a big cliffhanger. It’s almost like it’s an J. J. Abrams show!

Fringe: Meh. I don’t like it. I don’t like any of the characters, the show is incredibly boring and the only reason I’m still watching it is.. Well, I suppose I’m hoping for it to get better. The entire show doesn’t make sense, it’s a lot like Eureka apart from the light heartedness. The only thing I really like about the show is the superimposed lettering every time a new location is shown. It’s a shame, I quite like Joshua Jackson.

Gossip Girl: The Bitch is back.. After all the ‘It’s not what you think’ and ‘I’m sorry’ and the puppy dog eyes Serena and Dan are finally broken up. Serena is actually an interesting character now, but also quite unlikeable. Everyone apart from Jenny is incredibly boring and Dan gets more annoying with every episode. Can’t they write him out or something?

Heroes: And another meh. Season 2 was ok ish at the end cause stuff actually happened and I liked some of the characters in it, but this season seems to have gone back to just being slow and boring. “Sylar, I’m your mother”, Claire who is special [didn't we all know that from her you know, healing abilities and the 'Save the cheerleader, Save the world' crap anyway?], copper who is on a quest, Hiro and his mate doing the same as always and oh look, we’ve run out of storylines and have brought in a twin. Original.. It was nice seeing Veronica Mars’ Francis Capra though, shame him and Kristen Bell didn’t have any scenes together.

Jam and Jerusalem: What a brilliant show! It takes a while getting used to it and it is quite slow, but so, so brilliant. I have to admit, I don’t like the main character at all, but her daughter is very good. As are the other women of the guild, the rich Caroline with her constant remarks of her son’s friends, for example the Kaiser Chiefs or how an Arctic Monkey broke her dishwasher. The schizophrenic Dawn French or Joanna Lumley.. Everyone is great and I can’t wait for the next season!

Lost in Austen: Great program, I love how it shows a completely new light to Jane Austen and Jemima Rooper is a great actress. I’m not too convinced by the ending of this, I don’t think it suited the series well, but at the end of the day anything but a happy end would have come out wrong. And it had Alex Kingston which I already liked a lot in ER back when it was still good. And no one felt sorry for her boyfriend back in London?

No Heroics: BBC3′s new attempt at a comedy show and three episodes in I’m still not sure if I like it or if it’s funny. It’s an interesting concept having a bar for heroes in London where they’re not allowed to use their powers and things like the fan meeting was funny. But the characters don’t really seem to work, there is no explanation why the same four people always hang out together and the chemistry between them doesn’t work. However, there are some great powers!

One Tree Hill: I dislike this season’s One Tree Hill. The characters are all over the place and there doesn’t seem to be any friendship between any of them. There’s the whole Brooke storyline which none of her friends cared about much. I can’t believe they all believed she fell down the stairs and ended up with two perfect black eyes?! The Nanny Carrie and Dan storyline, please give me a break and I hope to God she’s dead, although I half expect her to come back as a ghost a la Keith. Talking about death, could they make Quentin’s death any more predictable? And what’s the deal with Mouth leaving and no one caring? Or the amazing relationship Lucas and Peyton now have that we never get to see? Or Peyton’s dad? I do hope the show turns itself around again. Soon!

Privileged: I’m actually really starting to like this show! The main character is really growing on me as she doesn’t seem to be the Miss goody two shoes she originally came across as. Going to be interesting what this show develops into.

Rosemary and Thyme: So predictable, so lighthearted, but still nice to watch. Although they’re a bit over the top and dare I say annoying in the last season.

Secret Diary of a Call Girl: It’s like the episodes get shorter and shorter. Every episode is 22 minutes long, but seems so much shorter. This show desperately needs some additional characters. Bambi is annoying, very annoying even, but she was/is at least something new in the show.

Star Trek Voyager: I’ve continued watching Voyager and am now on S4E22. Before I started watching it all I was under the impression I had watched most of it in the last years and that there were only a handful of episodes I had missed. How wrong was I?! So far there were about 40 episodes that I hadn’t seen before and I wasn’t aware that there was some sort of story arc prior to the Borg. The entire Kazon and Seska storyline was excellent, as well as the first hints at the Borg.

The Office: Another show that started again and it was actually a quite funny episode. I think I’ve been liking the Office more since Steve Carell isn’t the main focus of episodes as I don’t like him in anything I’ve seen him in. Great to see Ryan’s back, he’s been one of my favourite characters since the start. Oh and the engagement, predictable much?

The Sarah Jane Adventures: Oh, look, they’re writing out the main character and her family. Yeah, that will go down well..

The Simpsons: Loved the intro with Bobba Fett and the carbonite, but that was about it. It was a lot of ‘been there, done that’, sadly. This is the 20th season though, so I am wondering if there is any originality left that most importantly doesn’t mess up the continuity somehow.

True Blood: Still not fully convinced if I like this or not, but it’s very addictive at the same time. The accents are so very incredibly annoying though and the main character I look forward to now is Tara as everyone else doesn’t appear to have more to them.

Weeds: Loved the season finale and definitely didn’t see that coming which is something I’ve said about the last few finale’s as well, I believe! Bring on the next season where everything should be very different all over again!

And then there’s Strictly Come Dancing which I’ve really enjoyed so far! It’s the first time I’ve watched it and it sort of makes me regret not having watched it the last years.

And I’ve watched a great documentary on Jacqueline du Pré who played on of my favourite classical pieces, Elgar’s Cello Concerto in E Minor.

Also can’t wait for CSI to start again soon!

TV shows I have been watching in the last year:

24 – Watched S! and S2 so far. S1 annoyed me lots, like characters get introduced and are only in it for two episodes.. Loved the unexpected ending though. Will be watching S3 soon.

Alias - thought it dragged along a bit, S5 was a joke and why does she always run along corridors?!

Arrested Development - It took me a while to get into it as it’s quite a different show. It is absolutely hilarious though and I can’t wait for the film although I’m pretty sure it won’t be anywhere as good as the show.

Buffy - Been watching Buffy ever since it came out. It’s a brilliant show with excellent character development.

Carnivale - Just got that, have no idea what it’s about, but I’ve been told it’s amazing, so I’ll see!

CSI - Been watching CSI since it came out, there’s just something about the characters and the fact that after 8 seasons it still works. Plus I love story arcs.

CSI Miami - Took me a while to get into it, especially as the main guy pissed me off, but once I realised he was just there to bring a humorous element to the show I started liking it! It’s also completely over the top with some very flashy camera work, etc!

Deadwood - Only started this, well, I kinda watched episode 1 and fell asleep during it! So I’ll be watching this over the next weeks!

Death Note – This is an anime and in fact the only anime I’ve ever been able to watch, amazing story and I will need to finish it one of these days!

Doctor Who – Now I love Doctor Who. That is the new series though. Got hooked when it came back with Christopher Eccleston and this is now one of my favourite shows. Can’t wait for the new episode tonight! David Tennant is brilliant and the story arcs quite clever plus it’s just so British with references and the guest actors. BBC America is starting to show the new series from this or next weekend as well, so watch it!

Eureka - I liked this show for it’s craziness and cause it’s, well, different and quite happy, cheery. But S2 was a little disappointing and I’m not sure if S3 will be able to get better again.

Firefly - I cannot believe that Fox never gave this show a chance. This had the potential to be big. Excellent [unknown] cast, excellent universe with the western/Chinese influences, brilliant dialogue and just a new take on living in space. I’m really gutted it’s been cancelled.

Frasier - Always liked Frasier, great show mainly due to the main characters, Frasier and Niles, working so well together. And the character development is brilliant.

Futurama - Another show that I wish hadn’t been cancelled. Not all the episodes were great, but the ones that are are simply hilarious. Bit undecided on Benders Big Score so far, it dragged along a bit too much..

Gossip Girl – Started watching this as it’s got Kristen Bell in it which turns out to be just a voiceover voice! It kind of reminds me of the film ‘Cruel Intentions’ which I liked and some of the GG characters remind me of friends.

Heroes - Watched S1 and didn’t like it all that much. Will watch S2 at some point, but I don’t see what all the hype is about.

House - Never seen a single episode of it, but I’ve got S1 waiting to be watched!

It’s always sunny in Philadelphia - I don’t get it.. Got a few episodes in and it just wasn’t funny to me.

Long Way Round – Ewan McGregor and his friend Charley Boorman on their bike trip from London through Russia, Canada to New York. Absolutely brilliant stuff, I like Ewan McGregor a lot and the whole thing was sort of a mix between a travel/bike/comedy show.

Long way Down – Same thing again, but this time it’s from Scotland through Europe, Italy and Africa to South Africa. Not as good as the first one, there were too boats to catch making it all very stressed. Still good though and I can’t wait for the next one which is the ‘Long way up’ from South America up to Canada I believe.

Lost - Not seen anything past S1. The adverts pissed me off and the constant viral hyping. I liked re watching S1 back to back and I’ll be watching all of Lost in one big go once it’s all done.

MacGyver - He can make a bomb out of chewing gum, a string and a match. Enough said!

Midsomer Murders – So British, so complicated at times, idyllic villages, mass murderers, some hilarious killings, it’s just 1 1/2 hours of fun..

Moonlight - I like Jason Dohring and he’s one of the characters on there, so I had to watch it! The show is trying far too hard and I’m not sure rewriting everything people assume about vampires was such a great way to start. Jason is actually the main reason I carried on watching, his character is brilliant.

Murder, She wrote – Simply brilliant, I love Angela Lansbury and I have a real thing about murder mysteries!

One Tree Hill – Remember it used to be on TV, but I never really paid attention til I started watching it end of last year. It’s one of the few teen dramas that survived past high school as the gap between S4 and the current S5 is meant to be four years which skips all that. I didn’t think they could pull it off, but I’m surprised, it works very well and I’m loving S5. It’s like ‘Friends’, but a drama and you’ve already known the characters for years. That didn’t really make sense!

Race to Dakar - Charley Boormans solo trip to Dakar and the race. The best thing about that is the random appearances of Ewan McGregor!

Robin Hood - I kind of have a thing for BBC productions! Robin Hood is good, S2 was a bit odd, but the characters work quite well with each other.

Roswell - I liked this when it came out and recently tried watching it again, but it didn’t age well. I might carry on watching it as I always wondered what happened after S1, but I’m not sure..

Scooby Doo – Found the 25 first mysteries the other day and it’s just brilliant. Just like I remember it from being a younger!

Scrubs - The almighty Scrubs. One of the funniest shows ever to be made with some really good drama. Like S3E14 or the minor arc in S5 with the old woman. I’ve yet to watch S6 though, only seen the brilliant musical episode of that – Guy love!

Secret Diary of a call girl – Like Billie Piper, so it was obvious I’ll have to watch this! Great show, but I’m not sure how they’ll carry on in S2.

Sex and the City – Only ever really liked S2-4, but it’s still a great show all together. The film this year will be interesting..

Sleeper Cell - I don’t really know all that much about this show, but it’s received some good reviews. Watched episode 1 the other day and it was a bit too serious for me at the time, so I’ll have to be in the right mood for it.

Star Trek Deep Space Nine - Favourite Star Trek show by far, excellent characters and a great story arc from S3 onwards.

Star Trek Enterprise - Only watched S1-2 so far and it’s a bit too samey, too much that’s been done before in other Star Trek shows.

Star Trek TNG - I never managed to really get into it, but I did like some stuff. The first couple seasons are hilarious with the outfits, dramatic music, some of the later ones are great. Plus I love Wil Wheaton – Wesley Crusher.

Star Trek Voyager – Thought this was the best ST show until I watched DS9 back to back. It’s still good, but the characters don’t feel the same. Although the Borg episodes are great.

Sternenfänger - A German ‘The OC’ like show. Great music and I like some of the actors.

Strangerhood - Not technically a TV show, although you can get it on DVD! Brilliant show from the guys that made Red vs Blue using the Sims. Definitely recommend folks download this!

The Apprentice UK – More of a reality show. S1 and S2 were good, but it’s gone a bit downhill since then.

The Big Bang theory – It’s just not funny. I don’t care what anyone says, but this is seriously unfunny,

The Office UK – Reminded me far too much of my own job! Ricky Gervais and the blond guy are brilliant though!

The Office US - It’s different from the UK one, I don’t find it funny, but I watch it because I want to see where the characters are going to.

The Practice - A highly underrated show by David E. Kelley about a lawyer’s practice in Boston. While Ally McBeal is the happy version all about love, etc, the Practice is the more serious version. The first 4 seasons are very enjoyable and then it goes a bit downhill.

The Simpsons – Always been and still are brilliant. Yes, I’m one of those people that still love them.. Episodes like the Never ending story or the Wife Swap with Ricky Gervais episodes in S17 are brilliant.

The Tudors - I like the history with the Tudors, Henry VIII, Elisabeth I and so on and I feel the Tudors completely ruin it by changing the history and making it far too flashy.

Torchwood - Doctor Who spin off. I didn’t like S1 at all, but S2,especially the episodes with Martha and the finale are brilliant. The characters also work really well and they fell real.

Veronica Mars - One of my favourite shows, such a shame it was cancelled after just 3 seasons. S1 is great, S2 had a brilliant story arc and it’s great to see how far the characters have come by S3.

Weeds – Liked this show, S1 was great, S2 was brilliant and the cliffhanger at the end of S2 was brilliant. S3 was taking it all a bit too far though, she has become unlikeable and it’s all too surreal.

• Gillian Gibbons has been released early and handed over to British officials in Sudan after being jailed for letting her class name a teddy bear Muhammad.

I know I’m pretty much on my own with this opinion, but I really don’t think that she should’ve been released early. She broke the law. Yes, we might not understand it, but it is the law in that country and everyone working in another country has to be aware of them.

What if a foreigner breaks the law in this country? Should he/she get away with it?

• Foreign observers have said that Russia’s parliamentary election, won by President Vladimir Putin’s party, was “not fair”.

Well observed.. I’m not sure what gave it away though, was it the lack of private booths in the polling stations, the propaganda fed by Putin’s party over the last years, or maybe the excessive police presence that removed anyone that dared to ask a question or complain about the voting conditions? Well observed indeed..

• Appeal bid by urinating attacker

I don’t even know what to say to that. What is wrong with some people? That is just sickening and disgusting. If you ask me he’s lucky with only three years.

• Fire teen ‘tried to save family’, now gets a pointless award.

Do not get me wrong, that is a terrible tragedy and I very much feel for relatives and friends. It also made me check my fire alarms.

However, what is the point in giving her an award? Would it not be better using the money to spend it raising awareness? And comments like this drive me crazy:

“This was a young girl, an emblem of innocence, with the courage to seek help and turning to her faith in the midst of fear and danger.”

Thanks for that, Detective Chief Superintendent Norman Baxter..

• A row over a teenager being suspended from school because his hair is too long is set to go to court.

Grant Stranaghan, a GCSE student at Ballyclare High School, was suspended for three days last week for having collar-length hair.The 15-year-old’s father George claimed his son was now being kept in “solitary confinement” in a separate school room.The school said its rules applied to all pupils equally with due regard to any mitigating circumstances.

He told the BBC that the High Court hearing was due to take place in several weeks’ time.

“Grant is being kept in solitary confinement, he is completely separate in a different class, and has separate breaks and lunch-time with no contact with his friends,”

Now I could sort of understand it if he had long hair like Dumbledore, but his hair isn’t even that long. All this for his hair which isn’t even shoulder length and looks in a decent condition?!

• Oh and I bet y’all don’t know what this is:

Well, I don’t know either, but it relates to one of the only good stories I’ve read today:

A plan to end the postcode lottery in cancer treatments and improve services to patients is set to be unveiled.

The only question left is are their five years the same as ours or will everything still be the same in fifteen years time?

Cat

In Gaming:

• Mass Effect – Thoughts after the first completion

  People always seem to deal in extremes, best and worst.

• Mass Effect – First impressions

  Mass Effect is a game I’ve been wanting to play for almost two years now.

• Rainbow Six Vegas 2 is in the making!

  The news that made my day: Ubisoft are currently developing a sequel to the very successful game ‘Rainbow Six Vegas which was released last year.

• Mass Effect – Six days to go..

  It’s all over now, I am now completely in Mass Effect mode and cannot wait for it to come out, as I’ve mentioned before.

On TV and Films:

• TV online

  Considering I was ill for quite a while now I was unable to sort out some things in the house.

• Hitman [Updated]

  The Hitman movie that has been in planning for several years is finally released in the United States tomorrow and on the 30th in the UK.

• The Simpsons

  So many people say that the Simpsons have not been funny in many years.

In life:

• Have I become who I wanted to be?

  This is something that had me thinking for a few days now: Have I become who I wanted to be?

And everything else:

• Women on the internet and on Xbox Live

  Against popular belief women do exist on the internet.

• Cooking and some free rice

  As I was cooking dinner tonight I started to think.

And some stats for the whole on November:

• Views: 11574
• Posts: 26
• Comments: Approximately 300 including my own.

Thanks for stopping by. :)

Cat

Two months, no TV in the standard sense. To be honest I haven’t missed it in the slightest. Over the last years I have stopped watching TV a lot and only tended to watch downloaded programs or some certain programs. I guess to some extent that is the result of my 360 and spending so much time gaming instead.

So getting a TV cable was nowhere high on my list of priorities. After all, I had so many TV shows to catch up with [at the moment I'm watching Ed and I've just finished watching 24 Day 1].

Yet even with no ‘proper TV’ there were still some things I’ve missed. I’ve gladly missed out on ITV’s latest ‘I’m a celebrity.. Get me out of here’, especially considering I hardly know any of the so called celebrities. Same with all the dancing and other reality programs. At the end of the day they are all the same.

But at the same time I’ve missed pretty much all of the BBC’s own programming. Call me old fashioned, but some of their own stuff counts as the best television I have ever seen. So I came across a post on Bobby’s blog the other day in which he posted about the future of online TV. One of the things he mentions is the BBC iPlayer which allows you to legally download a majority of BBC programs of the last seven days for free. Yep, that’s right, doesn’t cost a penny. Well, apart from bandwidth that is…

Once a program is downloaded, it is accessible in the library for 30 days and once it’s been watched there are 7 more days before it expires.

Admittedly I have gone a little overboard in the last few days and downloaded a little bit more than I intended. So far I have downloaded several episodes of:

Razorlight in concert
Blue Peter from the 21.11.07
Charlie Brooker’s Screen Wipe [has to be one of the funniest programs on TV]
Cranford [a new BBC costume drama with Judi Dench]
Doctor Who and Doctor Who Christmas Invasion
Eastenders [yeah, I know, it's a soap...]
Film 2007 with Jonathan Ross [A brilliant man]
The Company
The Culture Show
The Sara Jane Adventures [A Doctor Who spin off]
Torchwood [Another Doctor Who spin off]
Watchdog

All of them are very good quality, very fast download [about 5-10 minutes for an episode of Doctor Who] and I can watch it when and where I want.

Now, do I really need to buy that cable?!

Cat