Tuesday, March 10, 2009
The Altos
Tanja and I started watching the Final Episodes of the Sopranos on DVD last night. It’s been a while since we’ve tuned in both in real-time and in show-time. Maybe it’s the fact that I’ve been watching the Wire recently, but I’m finding I just don’t like the tone of the Sopranos anymore. You watch an episode waiting for Tony to hurt someone, either physically or emotionally. It’s like watching a car wreck in slow motion. I’ve found that I have little or no emotional involvement with the characters anymore. I find some of the psychological aspects interesting, but that’s all I’m now kind of waiting for the show to end. Maybe it’ll get better. I don’t know.
Birthday thoughts.
I’ve never considered myself hard to buy for, but lately I’ve had two requests for What I Want For My Birthday (both from Mums, oddly enough) and I haven’t had a clue what to say. I’m pretty sorted with movies and TV series, CDs too, and I’ve got 4 newish video games for the PS3 and a bunch of demos, so that’s no good. Books, I’m sorted, apart from back-catalogue Robert Rankin. Comics, I tend to buy myself as I find them. So yeah. Don’t know.
Conversation this morning:
*We’re having Hot Cross Buns with jam for breakfast. Tanja has gotten up before me and made herself one, then cut mine in half, but did not apply jam*
Me: “Hey, you didn’t make MY Hot Cross Bun!
Tanja, from bathroom: “Make it yourself, the jam’s right there.”
Me: *big theatrical sigh* “The honeymoon’s over.”
Tanja: *cackle*
Me: *notices she made his coffee* “I totally retract that last statement. The honeymoon is back on!”
Heh.
Me: “Hey, you didn’t make MY Hot Cross Bun!
Tanja, from bathroom: “Make it yourself, the jam’s right there.”
Me: *big theatrical sigh* “The honeymoon’s over.”
Tanja: *cackle*
Me: *notices she made his coffee* “I totally retract that last statement. The honeymoon is back on!”
Heh.
Tuesday, March 03, 2009
Eventual bad morning.
I had a crappy evening/morning combination. See, I got home at 10 or o, and decided to work on the logo for Tanja's intramural office thing. So I did that for a while, and Tanja went to bed, reminding me to set up "breakfast stuff". You see, when one of us needs to get up early, the other usually set up the coffee-maker and the dishes for cereal and juice and stuff so the morning person can just switch it on and avoid thought and responsibility. After a while of struggling with the PC and its inability to handle having more than two things open without shutting one down, I gave up and shut down for the night. I also noticed that the light was on in the bedroom and I heard the unmistakable turn of a page. Tanja was still up reading, of course, looking guilty. Next morning, wake up around 7, and Tanja's informing me that I forgot to sort out the breakfast things. I shamble, unrequested, out of bed and attempt to help, but she tells me to go back to bed. I try, but never really get back to sleep. Got up later, and finished work on the logo. After that, I realized that I'd better hightail it to the gym if I was going to get back in time to get ready. So I decided not to go to them gym. And then did nothing with the extra time. I tried to watch the Blu-Ray of Batman: Gotham Knight, but I couldn't get into it. I kept focusing on the bad people animations in the first story. So I turned it off. Tried watching Looney Tunes: Stranger than fiction, but again, the animation quality was terrible, and the jokes weren't funny. Turned it off. I got distracted, watered the plants, and then boom, hour to go. Showered, tried to fight with hair, which was big and frizzy. Hated it. Went to get dressed. Felt like none of my clothes were fitting. I get myself halfway sorted and head out the door, almost immediately sweating thanks to the blasted humidity. I start walking, knowing that I need to stop at the post office to send off something for eBay. On the way to the post office, I start to listen to my new Cat Empire live album. For some reason it seems really all over the place, badly mixed or just uninspired (although I blame my state of mind). And let's not forget the BIG HUGE TRUCKS and busses that drive by revving their engines and deafening those of us on the sidewalk with roaring sonic mud, completely drowning out any music, headphones notwithstanding. Then huge line at the post office. Takes forever to send off my parcel. Grab a bus afterwards, and get a pile of noisy high school kids sitting around me. Tanja calls to say she got the logos, and asks if I hung out the washing the way I had said I would. Crap. Of course I forgot. I offer to hop off the bus and go into work late, but she says no, it's okay. Throughout the whole thing I could barely hear her.
So there you go. A crappy morning. Not that I had construction outside the window to wake me up, or that I lost $20 or anything like that, but lots of little annoyances. Also, later, at work, the pasta I brought wouldn’t reheat all the way, so I ate it mostly cold, and my throat rejecting it about three-quarters of the way through.
You know, sometimes, I daydream about breaking my leg or something that would sideline me from the day-to-day for a little while (is that strange?). Not that I hate work or anything, but I think that the last couple of weeks of constantly having something due has left me in a slightly frenzied state where I feel like I’m constantly slacking off, even when I have nothing I need to do right then. Weird.
And my feet are aching for some reason.
So there you go. A crappy morning. Not that I had construction outside the window to wake me up, or that I lost $20 or anything like that, but lots of little annoyances. Also, later, at work, the pasta I brought wouldn’t reheat all the way, so I ate it mostly cold, and my throat rejecting it about three-quarters of the way through.
You know, sometimes, I daydream about breaking my leg or something that would sideline me from the day-to-day for a little while (is that strange?). Not that I hate work or anything, but I think that the last couple of weeks of constantly having something due has left me in a slightly frenzied state where I feel like I’m constantly slacking off, even when I have nothing I need to do right then. Weird.
And my feet are aching for some reason.
Saturday, February 21, 2009
At last.
It took a surf and turf and three beers at the AB Hotel to get up the courage, but it finally happened.
I bought a second-hand softcover trade of Watchmen.
With the film coming out and everyone reiterating how it's one of the greatest books of all time, I figure I need to have a better opinion than "I got it from the library and disliked it so much I skipped to the end, then returned it early."
So now I have it.
I bought a second-hand softcover trade of Watchmen.
With the film coming out and everyone reiterating how it's one of the greatest books of all time, I figure I need to have a better opinion than "I got it from the library and disliked it so much I skipped to the end, then returned it early."
So now I have it.
Has this happened to anyone else?
Fact: I read the Narnia books in the correct order, but was told it was the WRONG order by everyone I knew. I knew it was:
1 The Magician's Nephew
2 The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
3 The Horse and His Boy
4 Prince Caspian
5 The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
6 The Silver Chair
7 The Last Battle
This was the order they were in when I found them in the tiny elementary school library of McAdam Avenue Elementary School. All my friend and even some teachers told me that LW&W was first, and I would agree, but know in my heart they were wrong. Of, course, I know now that there is dispute over publication order versus chronological order (see the Wiki). When the film came out, with all of its CGI "glory", I had the urge to reread the series, as it had completely lost me in the end, with its chucking the story in favor of ham-fisted religious metaphor (the ape, the donkey, and the doorway). Also, I read the Neil Gaiman short story "The Problem of Susan" which disturbed the hell out of me.
Fact: When I read the Dark Is Rising series, I skipped the second book, The Dark Is Rising, which introduced the hero character of Will Stanton. In fact, one of my friends had only read that book, and so when he was explaining it to me, we suddenly caught on that it was the same series. As I skipped the intro of Our Hero, when he shows up, I though "Who's this jumped-up kid and why should I care?" I bring it up because I've rented-and-iPodded the Adaptation Decay that is The Seeker: The Dark is Rising (which tries too hard to be Harry Potter and my GOD must they have gotten a sponsorship from a flat-screen TV company because there is one in nearly every scene).
Fact: Now that I've gone from my 80 gig iPod Video to my 32 gig iPod touch, the video quality and sound are leaps and bounds better, but the music playback doesn't have the volume, depth or oomph that it does on the Video. Strange.
1 The Magician's Nephew
2 The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
3 The Horse and His Boy
4 Prince Caspian
5 The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
6 The Silver Chair
7 The Last Battle
This was the order they were in when I found them in the tiny elementary school library of McAdam Avenue Elementary School. All my friend and even some teachers told me that LW&W was first, and I would agree, but know in my heart they were wrong. Of, course, I know now that there is dispute over publication order versus chronological order (see the Wiki). When the film came out, with all of its CGI "glory", I had the urge to reread the series, as it had completely lost me in the end, with its chucking the story in favor of ham-fisted religious metaphor (the ape, the donkey, and the doorway). Also, I read the Neil Gaiman short story "The Problem of Susan" which disturbed the hell out of me.
Fact: When I read the Dark Is Rising series, I skipped the second book, The Dark Is Rising, which introduced the hero character of Will Stanton. In fact, one of my friends had only read that book, and so when he was explaining it to me, we suddenly caught on that it was the same series. As I skipped the intro of Our Hero, when he shows up, I though "Who's this jumped-up kid and why should I care?" I bring it up because I've rented-and-iPodded the Adaptation Decay that is The Seeker: The Dark is Rising (which tries too hard to be Harry Potter and my GOD must they have gotten a sponsorship from a flat-screen TV company because there is one in nearly every scene).
Fact: Now that I've gone from my 80 gig iPod Video to my 32 gig iPod touch, the video quality and sound are leaps and bounds better, but the music playback doesn't have the volume, depth or oomph that it does on the Video. Strange.
Friday, February 20, 2009
Haiku Saturday
Cert Four Assignments
With their endless navel-gaze
Make me want to cry.
Tanja posts way more
On her blog than I do on
Mine in the last month
Think you’re good at the
Warhawk Demo? Buy the game.
Blown to smithereens.
It's 12:30 and
Apart from one done before
I've finished no work.
With their endless navel-gaze
Make me want to cry.
Tanja posts way more
On her blog than I do on
Mine in the last month
Think you’re good at the
Warhawk Demo? Buy the game.
Blown to smithereens.
It's 12:30 and
Apart from one done before
I've finished no work.
Friday, February 13, 2009
Demos and Trials
Last night we had some people over for one of our dinner/movie marathon nights. The theme this time was Hellboy and tacos. I made beef tacos, chipotle roast pork tacos, and chicken fajitas. Booze flowed freely. We warmed up with the Predator Rifftrax and then rolled on to both Hellboy movies, the second in Blu-ray (whose audio we had trouble controlling; the dialogue was quiet, but the music and effects were loud enough to shake the walls!). We all got very sleepy as the night moved on. I totally blame the food. Fun was had by all.
So this morning, Tanja goes up to the mountains to see her ma, and I get a bit of a lie-in (and checking of my Twitter feed from bed, hee). I decided after a morning of updating album art on iTunes (yes, I'm that kind of user) I'll check out the demos I downloaded for my PS3. So, my thoughts, in my patented bullet-point-style:
[-]Bioshock: Adored the story and the look and the steam-punk feel of the game, but hated, HATED the game play. I ended up using all my special weapon energy just trying to stun someone or all my bullets trying to get a headshot with the revolver to the point where I fall back on the basic wrench weapon 9 times out of 10. It does however, make a satisfying *thwack* when you wallop someone. And like I twittered, wrench don't run out. I might see if Tommy or someone has this for me to borrow.
[-]Kane & Lynch: Dead Men: third-person shooters have never been my forte, but this one lost my interest immediately by not letting me invert the y-axis, so i couldn't FIND the enemies, let alone hit them. Oh, and the squad AI? Boneheaded. NEXT!
[-]Soul Caliber 4: Very pretty! However, as I explained to Ted yesterday, I haven't enjoyed buying a fighting game since Mortal Kombat 2. Possibly because I don't play much versus, so it's just me bashing my head against the single-player mode. This was the problem I had when I (briefly) owned Virtua Fighter 4. Might rent this (along with DC vs MK) but would never buy.
[-]Lemmings: 2-d Lemmings! But it's so hard to play without a mouse and I'm not buying one just for this.
[-]Timeshift: ZOMG did I love this. It's a shooter, but you have the ability to stop, slow, and reverse time. Think Prince of Persia with guns. You can take the gun out of someone's have, move behind him, and see him realise what's happened before you cap him. Also, the guns are great, in particular, the sniper-crossbow, which fires glowing arrows that explode after a 1-second delay. So you get to see the guy react before he explodes into a pinkish mist. All the explosions look shiny in the slow-mo as well. I was shocked Gamespot gave it so low a rating (6.5!) when it's one of those rare shooter that I actually have fun playing. Definietly looking for the full version.
[-]Warhawk: See previous entry. I've got the full version winging its way to me now, but I could have happily played the demo forever.
[-]Wipeout HD: Gorgeous-looking and smooth-as, and I was a HUGe fan of Wipeout on the Saturn, but I just can't seem to get into this. Also, Ted is better than me at this/all video games ever.
[-]Dead Space: Creepy, scary look, caused a funny aneurysm moment when I "killed" something, only to have it cut me in half as I walked past its "corpse". Ted response: "Yeah, those'll do that." Not sure I could stand a whole game of it, though.
[-]Lego Batman: Cute, funny, like the look of it, but ugh, jump puzzles. Freakin' jump puzzles. Never mind. And only 1 punch and 1 throw button? That's it for combat?
[-]Pixeljunk: Eden: Very wierd, and seemingly simple game. Not sure if it's hooked me.
[-]Killzone 2: Blah. Boring shooter.Guns are so "accurate" that YOU have to be a staggeringly good shot to hit ANYTHING. Although Brammall at work just thinks I don't like it because I suck at it.
Oh, and without warning, Firefox has gone back to have the "open background tab" option, and opening a new tab when I click a link and write in an address. Thank Moby.
So this morning, Tanja goes up to the mountains to see her ma, and I get a bit of a lie-in (and checking of my Twitter feed from bed, hee). I decided after a morning of updating album art on iTunes (yes, I'm that kind of user) I'll check out the demos I downloaded for my PS3. So, my thoughts, in my patented bullet-point-style:
[-]Bioshock: Adored the story and the look and the steam-punk feel of the game, but hated, HATED the game play. I ended up using all my special weapon energy just trying to stun someone or all my bullets trying to get a headshot with the revolver to the point where I fall back on the basic wrench weapon 9 times out of 10. It does however, make a satisfying *thwack* when you wallop someone. And like I twittered, wrench don't run out. I might see if Tommy or someone has this for me to borrow.
[-]Kane & Lynch: Dead Men: third-person shooters have never been my forte, but this one lost my interest immediately by not letting me invert the y-axis, so i couldn't FIND the enemies, let alone hit them. Oh, and the squad AI? Boneheaded. NEXT!
[-]Soul Caliber 4: Very pretty! However, as I explained to Ted yesterday, I haven't enjoyed buying a fighting game since Mortal Kombat 2. Possibly because I don't play much versus, so it's just me bashing my head against the single-player mode. This was the problem I had when I (briefly) owned Virtua Fighter 4. Might rent this (along with DC vs MK) but would never buy.
[-]Lemmings: 2-d Lemmings! But it's so hard to play without a mouse and I'm not buying one just for this.
[-]Timeshift: ZOMG did I love this. It's a shooter, but you have the ability to stop, slow, and reverse time. Think Prince of Persia with guns. You can take the gun out of someone's have, move behind him, and see him realise what's happened before you cap him. Also, the guns are great, in particular, the sniper-crossbow, which fires glowing arrows that explode after a 1-second delay. So you get to see the guy react before he explodes into a pinkish mist. All the explosions look shiny in the slow-mo as well. I was shocked Gamespot gave it so low a rating (6.5!) when it's one of those rare shooter that I actually have fun playing. Definietly looking for the full version.
[-]Warhawk: See previous entry. I've got the full version winging its way to me now, but I could have happily played the demo forever.
[-]Wipeout HD: Gorgeous-looking and smooth-as, and I was a HUGe fan of Wipeout on the Saturn, but I just can't seem to get into this. Also, Ted is better than me at this/all video games ever.
[-]Dead Space: Creepy, scary look, caused a funny aneurysm moment when I "killed" something, only to have it cut me in half as I walked past its "corpse". Ted response: "Yeah, those'll do that." Not sure I could stand a whole game of it, though.
[-]Lego Batman: Cute, funny, like the look of it, but ugh, jump puzzles. Freakin' jump puzzles. Never mind. And only 1 punch and 1 throw button? That's it for combat?
[-]Pixeljunk: Eden: Very wierd, and seemingly simple game. Not sure if it's hooked me.
[-]Killzone 2: Blah. Boring shooter.Guns are so "accurate" that YOU have to be a staggeringly good shot to hit ANYTHING. Although Brammall at work just thinks I don't like it because I suck at it.
Oh, and without warning, Firefox has gone back to have the "open background tab" option, and opening a new tab when I click a link and write in an address. Thank Moby.
Monday, February 09, 2009
Falling behind
Ack! I've been meaning to update this thing for the last week. First I wanted to blog about the terrible morning I had, then about how I tend to subconsciously boobytrap myself when I'm stressed, causing me to try to grab things, misjudge, and knock other things over, stressing me more. Then after a few days I still wanted to blog about the morning from hell and was starting to wonder why I wanted to blog about that so much. Then I thought about blogging about how I tend to hang onto bad experiences, turning them over and over in my head. But I didn't.
So now I'm blogging about how I didn't blog about all that.
The fires in Victoria are terrible beyond belief, and watching the newscasters hovering like vultures waiting for someone to step out of the wreckage to say how it feels to have all your belongings burnt to a crisp makes me a bit sick. On the plus side, I found a bottle of Gold Wasser which tastes lovely and will allow me to make Duck and Covers.
So now I'm blogging about how I didn't blog about all that.
The fires in Victoria are terrible beyond belief, and watching the newscasters hovering like vultures waiting for someone to step out of the wreckage to say how it feels to have all your belongings burnt to a crisp makes me a bit sick. On the plus side, I found a bottle of Gold Wasser which tastes lovely and will allow me to make Duck and Covers.
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