Marsden is Here

That was a beautiful movie.

I can't remember the quote vertabim, but anyway. Went to Stardust yesterday afternoon, found it an entertaining enough fantasy fluff movie.

It's been practically a week since I last updated - not much exciting has happened. Various work related matters that I'm not going to detail, but to note that they really don't want to lose me at the 'office' and I'm enjoying the work so it's all good there. Less good in other projects.

Failed to have critical mass for either Guido's (again) or Neverwinter. Levelling happened with the availabel characters in Neverwinter. Have played some games of MI, failed to do very well in any of them so far.

... have just been reminded about the Nightwatch/Daywatch trip that was on today, that I completely forgot about while I was doing the lawns/two lots of dishes/laundry/visiting my grandmother who was moved into the hospital wing at no-notice yesterday. (At least it's a larger room this time, and might actually be the full-care that the rest-home said the other one would be). My mood is now depressed and irritated at myself.

Might just go to bed.

codym for the quote.

Transformers was a decent movie once it got past trying to be being a teen romantic comedy and got down to the giant robots doing cool stuff. It needed half an hour chopped off the beginning and inserted somewhere else to flesh out the tech-genius plotline.

I like the way they move. Someone put a good bit of thought into the options available to morphs. However I also thought their appearances were over-complicated in a lot of ways - flatter panels and smoother lines would have been much more to my taste.

Some of the cruder humour was also ... unnecessary.

~~~

Bill came for the insulation. Something in the ballpark of what was quoted - more space in the roof, less underfloor. On tomorrow's to-do list.

I will remember to wear something tidier. I already know the guy, wasn't expecting him to be in suit and tie.

It takes a bit to make me feel underdressed. Still, got a bit of work out of it. Just a little job, but it helps. Food was good too.

I acquired another contract, slightly more substantial, via a most unexpected vector earlier in the week. It will provide a welcome change from dealing with the circus this other lot is becoming. The work is still fun, but I really don't need the stress. I've taken a strong dislike to stress, especially the sort caused by other people.

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Attended the SAGA board gaming afternoon, 6-player game of settlers, then the lego board game (ages 7 up). It was well attended I thought.

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Contrary to expectation only made it through character gen for Neverwinter on thursday night. Interesting mix, half-elven Paladin, human monk, elven ranger (both paths, favoured enemy undead), halfling rogue/cleric, elven cleric, human sorceror (seeing a trend?).

Since most people had talked to me about their character concepts beforehand I was expecting to make it through char gen (which I had originally set the entire session aside for) and into the prelude.

~~~
Didn't find a game I was interested in on Tuesday, so still in the board-gaming crowd. If anyone wants to start a D&D game at uni on tuesdays [looks hopeful]. Or a supers game, or sci-fi with the pulp/cinematic turned up a bit.

I've fallen back into my old habit of facilitating the new-guys into spaces I know are available.

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Finally saw Constantine tonight, spotting it on the Sky program before it was half-an-hour-started for a change. I <3 my TV :) Not having read the graphic novels my assessment of it as a standalone movie is "watchable". Ripped off a variety of concepts for future use.

That was .. a very different Bond movie.

My only quibble is that the chase scene near the beginning dragged on a bit.

Well worth seeing, even if you don't normally like Bond movies. It's that different, although it may not show through until later in the movie.

I've had a very productive day. In addition to physically tidying the office I've archived 3 CDs worth of stuff off the computer,ripped a couple of CDs and completed a number of similar 'housekeeping' tasks.

Happened to catch Chronicles of Riddick on SkyMovies2, which was suitably gratuitously violent.

The combination should theoretically leave me satisfied at least.

But I feel like I need something else.

Have wheels. Work loaned me the van.

~~~
salahdra is visiting on her way through to Dunedin. After I picked her up from the shuttle yesterday evening we had dinner at Urban Burger [seems reasonably good value for money] in Riccarton Mall. Saw purpledragon3 and anarchangel23 heading into the Briscoes sale acrosss the way - how domestic ;p

Followed by going to the Lion the Witch and The Wardrobe. I quite enjoyed the movie. The Xtian metaphor wasn't really apparent unless you looked for it, although admittedly I never noticed it when I read the books either. The animaton was superb, with Aslan himself perhaps being the poorest example.

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Today's list of chores:

Pay bills
- Power
- Communications

Go to the bank
- withdraw bank cheque for builder
- Talk to mortage manager about change in circumstances

Go to the other bank
- change reinvestment conditions on term deposit

Pay builder
- gossip with builders wife with whom I have other mutual contacts

Tidy house esp. bedroom. Do Laundry.

Workmate coming to take dust samples, put down carpet patches and supply duvet for an allergen accumulation trial I've volunteered for.

are now mostly white instead of mostly gray. The windows are a lot cleaner too :D

That took longer than expected, I'll have to leave the inside windows to next weekend.

~~~
Had one of my rare TV-watching nights last night. Caught most of Shaft on 3, followed by most of The Italian Job on Sky (both the new versions, for those aware there are originals).

Followed by sleeping very poorly. The headache I finally woke up with seems to have mostly cleared now though.

~~~
( minions meme )

Racky passed his checkup, got his shots. Weight is the same as his last visit, 6.4 kg.

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Went to see 'Batman Begins' with codym and redchristoph. Pretty, but a bit flat. Only related to the previous movies by the fact that, well, it's Batman. Worth seeing though.

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Slept in horribly - couldn't be motivated to get out of bed. Same reason as I've been late to work every day for the past few weeks - I seem to recall reading somewhere that that is not a good sign for your mental health.

~~~

• Laundry
• firewood
• wash car it could have waited until I finished to come over cold
• glue 'no circulars' back onto the letterbox it's raining now. Maybe not
• have shower
• clean shower
• create handout maps for the area beyond where I expect the Guido's characters to get to tomorrow night

I give the move a B+, for effort. On the way out someone described it as "two people saying lines at each other in a variety of locations with other people occasionally appearing for variety", or similar phrasing. I can quite happily say that the best actor of the lot was the dead guy.

{I can also reminisce about an old Beyond 2000 episode where the highlighted 3D animation technology and talked about being able to bring RIP stars "back from the dead" for new parts - it's now happened).

I think what most bugged me, technically speaking (beyond the lack of plot, scripting and acting) was the movie lacking consistency. Frex, a whole lot of effort setting up the background level of techology at the beginning, then practically nothing but superscience the rest of the way through. Carefully not showing deaths or bodies until right at the end, where a random PC is gruesomely offed in glorious special effects.

(That and the frequent use of soft-focus. Soft focus is not my friend).

I could go on, but I bore you. It's watchable, but not worth a full price. Fortunately, today was a "cheap" day. And there was good company :)