The Circle Is Now Complete - Again
YES! Get in! Revenge of the Sith is here and sitting on my desk, just to my left. So I guess its safe to say that my day will now be consumed by a Star Wars marathon. Happy times...
In unhappy times, my PC is becoming a real pain in the ass. I've spent days trying to work out what is going wrong, the random hangs and crashes, the things that set it off... and then this morning I noticed that it always seems to boot up okay first thing in the morning - when its cold. So it's possible we have a heating issue here. This machine has always run hot, right on the limits of what it could tolerate, so it is very possible that this is a heating issue. It would explain so many things though, it really would. Not that I'm sure how to fix it, if that is indeed what the problem is, but at least I have an idea of the direction to be looking in now.
I also feel I should mention that as of yesterday, I really HATE being unemployed. I was already pretty much hating it, but for some reason yesterday it finally came home to me how pitifully uneventful my days are, and how empty it all seems cos I have nothing worthwhile to do. And I'd been joking around with my girl about going to live with her, and she was totally fine with it, and that just made me sad cos there's no way I could afford it... so there we have it, it's finally official, the news we've been waiting for so long to hear: being unemployed sucks.
Down In Albion
Welcome to Friday afternoon. How's it lookin' from your end?
Man that Halo rant last night was a bit... peculiar. It was also all a bit off the cuff, I'd just been playing it for an hour or so to kill some time before the penultimate episode of House was on (I like House, I think its the only thing I watch on TV that isn't the news or a cartoon), and it just really bugged the hell outta me. I mean, I appreciate that there is much about Halo 2 which is right, I'm not saying its the worse game ever made, far from it, but mainly its art direction (be it graphics, sound or music) which is right, while the single-player gameplay is severely borked. I think mainly its just such a massive disappointment because the original was so damn good!
So far today has been a bit rubbish. Jules called me last night and told (yes, told!) me to go round her place and pick her up at 9am this morning, and as its her birthday today I assume she had some sort of plan, so round I went. She wasn't in, she wasn't answering her phone, so I came home, went for a long run and an even longer bike ride. Then I had a nice relaxing bath, and now its now, and I'm drinking tea while my landlord is outside hitting the gate with a hammer for some reason.
I wonder what I'm gonna do with the rest of my day?
Halo, Halo, Its (Not So) Good To Be Back
I realise that this isn't by any means a timely comment, but let's talk about Halo 2. For a start I think I should point out that I absolutely LOVE the original Halo, I honestly think it is one of the best first person shooters EVER, and definitely the best such game on any console, anywhere. So Halo 2 was eagerly awaited here in the Monkey House, and I was super psyched to get my copy a day early last November, on one of my at the time rare days off. I played it pretty much the entire day too, and I wasn't a happy bunny at all. Oh I tried to like it, believe me, I really did, and for the first couple of levels (when you're the Master Chief and you're fighting the Covenenant on Earth) its great-ish. And the 'ish' is the problem. Later on, when you get to be the Arbiter you realise that you really really only ever want to be the MC, and you're spending half your game time NOT being him. To be honest though, I think the problem runs deeper. Firstly, its in the story telling, in so much as there is some, and it's not a story you want to hear. It makes the classic Star Trek mistake of 'humanising' the bad guys, and thereby making them much less interesting (and in one case it makes an absolutely appalling mistake, that is so insanely stupid I almost can't believe that they did it at all), and as I said, you're gonna spend half your time following the bad guys about, helping them out, and generally not being the Master Chief.
So far so bleh. But I said it was only great-ish at the start right? And the start is the bit that we REALLY wanted the game to be: MC vs Covenenant for the fate of the world. So what's wrong? Two things: firstly I think your 'objectives' within any given level are vague to the point of non-existence, but you can get around that by wandering about and killing everything. I'd have to say that the real problem is that in 'refining' the combat model, Bungie have kinda nerfed it. They make a big deal about duel wielding, but frankly its not something you're gonna want to do, because it reduces your combat effectiveness to such an insane degree.Want to throw a grenade? You can't. Want to use a melee attack? Tough, you can't. Want to rush in all guns blazing? No? Oh, that's a shame, cos that is the tactic that IS available to you. I also don't really think that the changes to the health and shield system are that great. I can see why they take away that level of precise knowledge away from you, I don't have a health gauge in the top left of my vision, but it also kinda reduces the tension in a tight fire fight and by simplifying health management like that, it actually takes away something for the player to do and makes things less interesting.
The upshot of all this is that the original Halo was 30 seconds of fun over and over, with wonderfully tense firefights and emergent gameplay leading to some truly memorable gaming experiences, and Halo 2 is 30 seconds of less fun over and over, and at times the 'combat bubbles' can be so bloody annoying and repetitive that you just stop playing altogether.
Which brings us back to today, and me suddenly thinking that maybe I was too harsh on the game, and that it deserved another chance. Well, it had another chance this evening, and as you can see, it didn't really endear itself to me any more than it did last year...
No Introduction Necessary
Yay! I just got email telling me my copy of Revenge of the Sith has been posted! With luck, and a following wind, I could have it by Saturday!!!! I should probably calm down, but I find that exciting.
My little corner of Northampton is peculiarly inaccessible today, due to some wonderful planning by whoever it is that plans roadworks. Seriously, every route in or out is afflicted by diversions, closed lanes, contra-flows... it really is a stunning mess, and unsurprisingly made me quite grumpy.
In very crappy news, my landlord is coming to visit tomorrow to repair the gate, and no doubt to berate me for my lax gardening skills - AGAIN. I really hate it when he comes over, just because it makes me uncomfortable having somebody wandering about outside, makes me feel oddly imprisoned... It's the same thing I don't like about having Dot wandering about out there, it just bugs the hell outta me for reasons that probably make no sense at all.
I did indeed tidy my game and movie mountains, and I have to say that the new arrangement looks cool, and actually makes things more accessible too, although I had to find new homes for a few ornaments and the like. And I've got my proper phone back in action now, which is happy, as it is not only more functional than the crappy one but it is also significantly more stylish (not being cheap silvery plastic), not that anyone has ever judged me unfavourably based purely on the crappy phone, or indeed favourably on the cool phone. It's possible I think about the phone too much eh?
Drivel
It's a lovely sunny day outside, and I fully intend to spend what we're reliably informed is going to be the last nice day of the summer inside, watching movies and playing video games.
Actually I have this odd plan for tidying up the DVD and game mountain, so I'll probably do that first, and I've already been out to get the local paper so I can check for job vacancies. I didn't however, remember to buy the one thing I actually needed... idiot! Ah well, I'll probably go out tomorrow anyway, I haven't got an NME this week either, and it has an interview with the Arctic Monkeys in it.
I feel oddly blissed out today, just kinda happy but listless, if that makes any sense at all.
I certainly haven't done anything interesting, so god knows why I'm writing anything, or more aptly, why I can't seem to STOP writing. I just seem to go on and on, for no reason at all, thoroughly devoid of purpose.
On and on.
Must
stop
typing!
I Got The Poison
Signing on went as flawlessly as usual, and the cheque from my parents came this morning so I can rest (kinda) easy on the financial front for a while, hopefully giving the benefits agency time to get themselves together. I was even finally bothered to go all the down to Maplin to get a new battery for my phone (home, not cell) so I should be able to stop using the crappy one soon (ie once the battery has charged).
Now I have a time of peace and quiet ahead of me and hopefully time to get a few things done. I'll probably just play games though, cos I've not done any of that since... Saturday! I knew I was feeling withdrawl symptoms...
I finally gave up on the Da Vinci Code. My initial enthusiasm was battered into weary cynicism by the constant stream of "revelations"... maybe it'll work better as a two hour movie than it does as a book, cos I enjoyed National Treasure well enough, and its basically the same thing, but in movie form. Although it did have Nic Cage in it and that's usually a bonus. Anyway, the point is that the Da Vinci code seriously tried my patience so now I'm reading Catcher In The Rye. Make of that what you will.
Can't Get No Sleep
Bur dear god am I ever tired. I felt soooooooooo tired last night I was in physical pain, so I went to bed comparitively early and... nothing. I musta slept at some point in the early morning, cos I had a weird dream about going on a coach trip that for some reason went to a brothel, which I didn't want to go to so I wanted to be taken home IMMEDIATELY, cos I hadn't agreed to any such thing. And I didn't have any shoes on. I bet a psychologist could make something out of that, hell I'm sure most people could, but I can't be bothered to think about it right now. I've gotta get ready to go into town and sign-on, so the government can continue not to give me money. Funny how that doesn't exactly motivate me to be sparkly this morning, isn't it?
I've not spoken to my girl since Saturday, and I miss her like crazy.
Isn't There Anyone Else With Slightly Mysterious Bruises?
Okay, things have moved on a little since Sunday morning. Jules called me in a panic about Sunday lunch cos she'd just had a run in with her ex and she wanted somewhere to hide, and she's my best mate, so she's always welcome eh? We hung out, chatted, watched movies, dyed her hair (the girliest night of my life then), and I eventually took her home at 3am when she thought she was tired enough to sleep.
Monday we did much the same thing all over again, but this time we decided we hadn't seen Erin for months on end, so we went to her house after work and took her out drinking for six hours. Luckily I didn't have my phone with me, or we'd have called her first and she'd have told us not to bother, but we cheered her up and that was good. Then it was back here, where we tried to watch Chronicles of Riddick, but Jules fell asleep on my couch and I had to sit extremely still or she'd wake up. Eventually the movie stopped though, and she woke up anyway cos there was no noise, and it was time for her to go home again. I always tell her she's welcome to stay if she wants, I've got enough rooms and stuff, but I understand that she kinda has to go home and face whatever demons lurk in her house and in her head. Been there, done that eh? She's more fucked about this whole thing than she lets on though, although if you know her that's pretty obvious. It just seems that not many people know her.
I don't normally talk about people I know that much, but as pretty much all of the past two days have been taken up with takin' care of my mate in a crisis, that's about all I have to write about.
Okay, so what else?
Well the benefit situation is STILL fucked up and staying that way apparently, so I've had to call my parents to ask for money, which I hate doing. Its not that my Mum (or my Dad really) are mean about it, I just don't like being a burden like that, I'm old enough that I SHOULD be able to take care of myself, but I guess not. I pretty much had the whole financial thing just about balanced, so I could live on what I had, at least for another couple of months. In the old days the switch over used to be automatic, but for some reason these days they just stop giving you money and don't feel the need to tell you about it, and because they put it straight into your bank account these days, unless you check it regulary, you'd never know. The sneaky fuckers.
I'm tired. *yawn*
And its not even midday yet.
Got Pain, Like An Addict
Some days should just have a fast forward button.
God knows what time I woke up this morning, but it was much earlier than I wanted to be awake, and try as I might the very latest I could stay in bed was apparently 8.45am. Which is a shame, cos that's much, much earlier than I've been awake in many a long week. So I've done some laundry, done the washing up, cleaned the kitchen, and wondered how the hell to make Sunday go away. So far I've come up a blank, and its not even 11am yet.
I have the disturbing feeling that I'm just gonna sit here, or hereabouts, starring at the walls all day. I don't feel any enthusiasm for any of the usual ways I waste my time, in fact I feel a positive antipathy towards them.
I don't even know what makes me think that tomorrow will be any better really, all I know is that I want out of today.
Fatman Begins
Okay, so I did laundry and THEN watched Batman Begins. I have the feeling I already sang its praises on its theatrical release, and my feelings now are much the same as then: I love the movie and I want the sequel (with proper, scary Joker) NOW! I'm not saying it's the Citizen Kane of superhero movies, but it is a good movie as well as being a great superhero movie. It is easily the equal of Sam Raimi's Spiderman flicks, possibly their better. Okay so what we'll talk about here is the DVD, not the movie: its a fucking blinder. The transfer is great, the sound is clear and crisp and the layer transition (not something that many people seem to think about terribly much) is in such a sneaky place as to be all but unnoticeable. Sadly the menus aren't anything exciting, although the ones on the bonus disk are interestingly inserted into a kind of hyperlinked comic book, which is pretty cool (although it leaves you wanting for a proper menu system in case you've missed something, and lo! there is a normal menu too). The bonus disk itself is pretty spectacular, with lots and lots about the whole production process, the writing, design, stunt work, set building, effects.... the whole nine yards basically. I just spent a very enjoyable evening sifting through it and discovering things that surprised me (there are several things in the movie I'd assumed to be real which are in fact CG - in fact one easter egg shows a test the animators did for CG Batman, I'll be buggered if I can tell which one is CG and which one is Christian Bale), and then there is an absolutely astonishing amount of stuff in the movie which is done 'for real' which I think adds to the whole feel of the piece. Much as I love Star Wars (and you all know I do, only nine more days until Sith is released on DVD!), I think that BB is the cream of the summer blockbusters, and it owes it (almost) all to Christopher Nolan. If you'd known me when Insomnia (have you seen that? That's another fucking awesome movie) came out, I'd have been telling you that he was a guy to watch, and look, I was right! Christian Bale was my pick for Batman even before I knew they were making a new movie, and see how that worked out? Man I should be a producer somewhere, cos when I'm right, I'm right!
Yeah you can tell I've had a bit to drink can't you? Trust me, you would too if you'd had the kind of phone call I had this evening... and no, I'm not going to elaborate.
Mid-life Crisis Off The Starboard Bow!
Okay, so now the Da Vinci Code is REALLY starting to bug me. I know its made up, but having supposedly smart characters saying such utterly ridiculous things... that really pisses me off. Also, and this is something that is really getting my goat, is the use of the word 'symbology', as in Robert Langon is a professor of..., I mean seriously, if he's a 'professor' of it, then surely he knows the name for his discipline is semiotics. So yeah, everytime I see symbology, or worse symbologist or even the quite amazing symbologically, a little part of me dies inside. And yet I keep reading. My initial judgement seems to have been a bit generous; it really is just a pot-boiler, airport type thriller, and while it's dressed up smart every word that comes out of it's mouth reveals it to be moronically stupid.
Yesterday I finally made the switch away from Q. For a year or so now, Q has been my music magazine of choice, and I have to say it always made me feel a bit uncomfortable cos it's clearly aimed at people my age who want to be a little bit hip, but who secretly still love U2. The ridiculously, glowingly positive review of Coldplay's X&Y (a record which is, to me, the equivalent of some quite nice wallpaper) made me uneasy, but this month sealed the deal with a two page review of a bloody Robbie Williams album, and then the Q Awards really confirmed my suspicions: Q is written for old people who want to live somewhere safe and comfortable. Seriously, Coldplay "Best band in the world today"? James Blunt "Best new act"? FUCK OFF! So, I went and did something I hadn't done since I was a student: I bought a copy of NME. Now, its changed since my day, it used to be a newspaper format, and now its a magazine format, but that's about all that has changed. Still out there, championing the new while celebrating what is ACTUALLY good about the music we already have. And unlike Q, its actually full of bands and music that I know and like. Maybe I'm a bit of an indie poser, but I think there is very little more exciting than finding a new band and sharing them with somebody else. Not too many somebody elses, obviously, cos then everybody'd know about them and that'd spoil it... oh yeah, there it is, indie poser. Now ask me if I'm bothered. No, no I'm not.
Okay, now I really do need to get on with my day a bit. I've been putting off doing laundry for a while for some reason, and although my body aches and protests, I really have got to run and cycle today too. But Batman Begins is sitting on my desk, inviting me to waste the afternoon in its dark embrace...
No! To the laundry cave!
It's The End Of The World As We Know It, And I Feel Fine
I'm not saying that the bird-flu epidemic
is gonna be the end of modern civilisation or anything, but it does have that potential, and nobody really seems to be all that bothered about it. It's constantly there on the news, bubbling away just below the surface, always fourth or fifth item (you can't escape the notion that the media wish it'd really kick off and that lots of people would die, just cos it'd be more exciting), but I get the distinct feeling that certain governments (and I'm thinking of the UK's here) just aren't taking it terribly seriously. Didja know, for instance, that there is only one company in the whole world who is capable of manufacturing the necessary vaccine, and unsurprisingly they're order books are full and they're making out like bandits. Of course, because there's only one company there is a bit of a waiting list, and the UK won't be receiving its stock of bird-flu vaccine until February, which could well be a case of slamming the stable door after the horse has bolted, caught a contagious disease, spread it to its neighbours, and eventually died.
The trial of Saddam Hussein: if you don't want to know the result, look away now. Seriously, does anybody think that he is getting anything even remotely like a fair (or even legal) trial? I am in no way saying that he is a decent guy, or deserving of fairness or anything, but c'mon! Actually, I do think he deserves a fair trial, in fact he absolutely needs to have an obviously fair and clean trial, devoid of bias or suspicion of same so that we (and particularly the people of Iraq) can put this whole mess behind us and try and move on. Very little about the situation in Iraq is pleasing or satisfactoty at the moment, so it'd be nice to get some sort of resolution out of the whole mess.
Do Anything You Wanna Do
Hands up everybody who can guess what 70s classic I'm listening to at this precise moment? Not just the title either (that'd be a bit too easy), I want the band as well.
Hmmm.
So, new IR images of M31 The Andromeda Galaxy (my favourite galaxy, I like it much better than this stupid galaxy we have) have shown the huge amount of activity at the galactic centre, the location of a presumed super black hole, something that we can't really see in our own galaxy (at least not for a few years yet, they're working on it) and it really is pretty freakin' huge. The new image also reveals a far more chaotic underlying structure than the visible light images would lead us to believe. I love astronomy and cosmology. *happy face*
Last night I saw yet another 70s movie classic; Walter Hill's The Warriors. That is bloody awesome! I wonder how come it was a movie that I hadn't seen before, it certainly doesn't have a (personal) history anything like that of The Exorcist, so unless SHE banned it (which is entirely possible after all) I can't imagine why I hadn't seen it before. Still, I've seen it now, and I'm a convert! Now all I've got to do is fit Escape From New York in sometime this week, and my retro fix will be complete!
I hardly slept at all last night, and as a result I feel pretty wiped out right now. Its not like there was anything particular on my mind at all, I was tired, oh so very tired, my body just wasn't having any of it. As I believe I've commented before, I always used to think insomnia would be a laugh, having extra 'day' to go do all the things you can't do cos you're asleep. But oh no, its not like that at all, its much more like you're so tired you want to die, but you are horribly unable to sleep. I did get a few hours come 6am or so, but other than that... I spent time either lying there with my eyes closed (cos looking like I'm asleep seems like a reasonable way to trick myself into falling asleep), or reading The Da Vinci Code. Yes, I've finally succumbed and am giving it a read. I have to say that it's actually being a really good read, its a good page turner, its pretty exciting and avoids the truly awful leaden writing of most pot-boiler thrillers. In fact, in a lot of places I'd say the writing is a bit too good, cos the theories propounded by characters in the book are complete and utter trash, the history is bunk (the list of the Elders of the Priory for instance, is known to be a hoax) and yet it's written so convincingly that I'm sure lots of people really do believe that Leonardo Da Vinci really did have lots of lucrative Vatican contracts (in fact he had one, and in a move that is completely unsurprising to anyone who knows anything about Da Vinci, he didn't complete the work), and that's just one of the many factual inaccuracies that even I could spot (let's see... others would include the whole Mona Lisa thing being utter shite. Sure it does bear an uncanny resemblance to existing self-portraits of Leonardo, but it is actually thought to have been painted as a commission for a nobleman [of his wife] and somehow I don't see Da Vinci getting paid if he'd shown up with a picture of himself in a dress. And that whole anagram of Amon L'Isa thing is utter twaddle. Why would a sixteenth century Italian give a painting a name which is an anagram partly in Egyptian and partly in Italian, and please bear in mind that Da Vinci himself is not known to have given the painting a name, the name Mona Lisa [along with its supposed origin as a portrait] was coined in a biography of Da Vinci written some 30 years after his death). For a while the whole thing was actually spoiling my enjoyment of the book, but then I thought sod it, its only fiction right? Just go with it.
I've always been a big fan of Leonardo Da Vinci, not just because he was a genius and wildly ahead of his time, but also because he was one of historys most famous slackers. Seriously, while we look back at his body of work now and are stunned by his vision, as a rule, he took the money and then... did bugger all. Often for a very long time. One nobleman commissioned a statue of himself upon a horse, and Leonardo got to work on sculpting the nobleman himself almost immediately (presumably it caught his fancy that day). Then, nothing. Amazingly, twenty seven years later an entry in Da Vinci's journal says (and I am paraphrasing here, obviously) "I'd better get on with that horse now"! Needless to say, he died without ever completing it. In fact he died without completing a lot of things; whilst there are a few completed works by Da Vinci knocking about, a lot of what we see are his sketches, tests, his journals and his notebooks. Really, Leonardo Da Vinci was history's first (and possibly greatest) slacker. Next time you procrastinate, think about that horse; twenty seven years, its a record you'll never beat.
Black is East, Up is White
Okay, so I have FINALLY seen The Exorcist, and it's really good. It's a very 70s film, in that it takes it's time, establishes character and has an almost documentary style to it. Is it the scariest movie ever? I couldn't tell ya, it didn't so much scare me as it did fascinate me; much like the book upon which it's based it takes a very calm approach to documenting (there's that word again, but its really appropriate) the 'events' of the story, almost like a study of a possession and exorcism. I'm glad I've finally seen it, it was well worth the wait, although I probably could've done without the awful relationship that came between seeing the beginning of the movie and then seeing the end.
Jules had her belly-button pierced this afternoon. She ALMOST did it when we were out on Monday, she's been wanting to do it since she got back to being a size 8 again (so for about a week then), but she thought for too long and chickened out. Last night however her Dad got on her case about things (nice that he took Geoff's side there) and she was just super-pissy and wanted to do something rebellious. Then she spent most of the morning trying to think of things she could do instead before she finally called me just after mid-day and asked if I'd go with her, which I obviously would and did. She nearly bailed a couple of times, but the staff just kept her talking and talking until it was time and she couldn't get away. She actually said it didn't hurt, although by the time I dropped her off at home the anesthetic was wearing off and she was in some pain. I've no doubt she'll call me later on when she can't sleep, and I'll somehow be responsible for this...
Other than that I've not done a lot today. I found out that for some reason I didn't get my full benefit this week which is annoying althought not atypical, and I'll have to track that down and find out why not, and I gave myself a radical beard-ectomy this morning 'cos I decided that the uber-hairiness was just trying to be something that I'm not. Also I saw an interview with Johnny Depp and he can't grow side-burns either by the looks of it, he just has a straggly little beardlet like me, so that gave me some confidence. Although I still look like I ate about four of him.
Warning: Random Tirade Ahead
A little bit of politics: Ken Clarke is out of the race for leadership of the Conservative party. Twice before he's run and failed (and then the glorious victors were William Hague and Ian Duncan Smith, a pair of political lightweights if ever there were) and frankly, I don't understand what Tory MPs are thinking. Ken Clarke is incredibly intelligent, erudite, easily the best speaker out of the candidates and he is generally popular in the country (hell, even I like him, and I'll vote Conservative just after Hell freezes over) and yet because he has the temerity to acknowledge that the UK is unavoidably a part of Europe, MPs won't support him. It is exactly this sort of bone-headed short-sightedness that has made the Conservative party a virtual laugh-stock in the country, and has rendered them unelectable even when Tony Blairs unpopularity is at record levels. In my opinion the three of them that are left in the race are just various shades of wanker, and none of them will help the Tories back into power. Not that I want them in power, I just think a functional opposition is quite handy in a democracy, to y'know, keep the ruling party in check.
Staying with politics, MPs have passed the bill for ID cards this evening, although they've admitted that the technology isn't foolproof. Well, aside from the fact that no techology is foolproof (nature has a terrific way of making a better fool), if the thing doesn't work reliably, what's the point exactly? The whole "it'll help combat terrorism" thing is just bullshit unless the card contains both a GPS transmitter, and some way of reading your thoughts and making them readable to local police. It'll get batted down in the Lords anyway, but I don't really think that's the point, the government will just whip out the Parliament Act again saying that their will should not be thwarted. Interestingly I'm not actually opposed to the idea of ID cards; I think having one single, nationally acceptable form of identification would be a really solid idea. However, the amount of information these cards will hold over and above confirming your identity, and whether or not I'm compelled to carry one at all times, ah well there's the rub.
In sport, I'm ashamed to be a Vikings fan. I don't know what has happened to that team, or why its happened, but basically they're not a team anymore, they're just a group of guys running about in purple jerseys. These are testing times for fans, the season is already as good as over for us, all we can do is look for the first signs of spring (as it were) and suffer regular beatings. Next Sunday we're playing the equally embarrasing Green Bay Packers, and it really is a case of the resistable force versus the movable object: its just a question of who crumbles first.
I've tried to take it easy today (yeah yeah, I couldn't tell the difference either) in an attempt to shake off this damn flu once and for all, and I have drunk many fine cups of tea. Which was nice. Truth be told, I'm feeling pretty tired again, and its not even 7pm yet. I hate being sick.
Switch Off My Head
Yeah, I'm listening to The Zutons, what're you gonna do about it?
That's what I thought.
Actually, I'd be pretty easy to take out today, just give me a slight nudge and I'd fall over in a most obliging fashion. Can't seem to shake the flu-like thing I've had for nearly a week now. Everytime I think I'm feeling better I'll go dashing off on some damn fool idealistic crusade and make myself ill again. This morning was not good, and involved much queasiness.
I now own a DVD of the Exorcist (I went for the 25th Anniversary edition, with all the extras), which I purchased from Virgin for the princely sum of £5.99, a bargain I'm sure you'll agree.
Y'know, I've never actually SEEN the Exorcist all the way through. It was, I think, the first movie that Jacqui and I went to see together (an improbable choice for a first date to be sure, but it was my first ever first date, and to date it has been my last and only such event) and she decided to walk out after about half an hour. Foolishly (as it turned out) I followed her, and look at how THAT worked out. I leave you to supply your own moral.
Do You Believe In Magic?
Why are people amazed and out-raged by magicians?
I'm thinking particularly about some videos of Criss Angel I've seen lately, and the comments I've heard associated therewith. Most people take the dismissive "It's a trick" route, but some are quite angry at being fooled, and a surprising number of people have even gone so far as to claim that what he's doing aren't tricks at all and are in fact evidence of supernatural abilities. To these people I have to say: WAKE UP! Of course they're bloody tricks! That's what magicians do: they invite you to look closely (although not necessarily at the right things), they tell you up front they're gonna trick you and then despite your best efforts to catch them out, they do it anyway. I'm not denying that His illusions aren't impressive, cos they bloody well are, but they ARE illusions. Do they require prodigious mental and physical skill and discipline? Of course they do, otherwise everybody would be doing them. I think the "it's just a trick" route is as dismissive and almost as ridiculous as the "he's magic!" approach, because the one thing you should never underestimate is the extreme lengths illusionists will go to to achieve seemingly minor effects. In fact, the insane amount of behind the scenes work is PART of the trick. There is a well known story of a magician whose name I can't recall now, who famously had the entire ground floor of his house put on hydraulic lifters, so he could surreptitiously raise floor level a few inches so that dinner guests who arrived wearing hats couldn't wear them to leave the building without knocking them off on the door jambs. You should NEVER underestimate the lengths illusionists will go to. But seriously folks, get a grip.
I should've been a magician, I realise this now, as it satisfies my twin desires to both show off and be the smartest guy in the room. I probably still could be, although my lack of dexterity in my left hand, whilst better now than it has been in many years, isn't exactly what you'd call normal.
'Set List' by The Frames is one of a very small number of live albums I'd unhesitatingly recommend to anyone. Normally I find live albums to be very un-involving unless you happened, by happy coincidence, to be there on the night of the recording, in which case it's like having a sonic photograph of the event. If on the other hand you weren't there, then generally they're just surprisingly sterile records of fun things you didn't get to do. 'Set List' isn't like that. I don't know if its the sound quality, the astonishing musicianship, the obvious enjoyment of the crowd or whether it was recorded in a small venue or whatever, but the magic of the live show is preserved (or at least a portion of it is, maybe The Frames are even more awesome if you happen to be in their presence). For whatever reason, its a cracking good record and I'd recommend you seek The Frames out with all alacrity, and don't be put off if you find the obligatory live album, 'Set List' is still worth getting even if you don't know the material, cos believe me, you soon will.
Here Comes The Boom
Ahhh had a good nights sleep last night, although my dreams (and as a result my early waking conciousness) were filled with the Katamari Damacy theme, which is actually as super-chirpy as you can get.
I've got "Are You Being Served?" on tv at the moment, and it is both funny, and also ridiculously old-fashioned. Perhaps if you weren't alive at the time, none of it would seem funny at all, but it's what, early 70s, '72,'73 something like that, and feminism is still new and frightening, war veterans are still young and vital, the class system was still hanging about, and the labour movement still had teeth. It'd be a lie to say it was a simpler time, cos it really wasn't, in a lot of ways things were more complicated and the world was much larger: there were only three TV channels and most houses still didn't have telephones, let alone mobile phones, computers were huge things that only industry could afford and the internet was merely a gleam in the eye of Tim Berners-Lee. These days the comedy seems old-fashioned, sexist and racist, but those were the times. All I know is that its reminding me of being a kid and its a pleasantly nostalgic feeling for a Sunday morning.
You still waiting for the boom?
Me too.
The Name In Laughter From The Hereafter
I had a bit of a mini John Carpenter film festival today, which was nice. I read somewhere that he was a director of B-movies, but GREAT B-movies, and much as I love his work, that's probably fair. When he's good though, he really is good. I was really lookin' forward to seein' Prince of Darkness again, and I wasn't disappointed. It really is a throwback to the old style of 50s sci-fi/horror (hell, Carpenter even wrote it under the Quatermass pseudonym); scientists and historians investigating an ancient and mysterious power, everything goes horribly wrong and the world ends. It's cracking good stuff, although it did make me want to see The Exorcist for a supernatural horror that is PURE supernatural, real balls to the wall good and evil stuff. There seems to be something of a profusion of Exorcists DVDs out there though (thanks for milking it Warners), with none of them offering the complete package: one has all the extras, the other has a more complete, extended version of the movie. Obviously the plan there is to make you buy both, but that shit ain't gonna fly! At least, its not gonna fly at full price!
Hmm what else? Well, my head really hurt this morning, too much to drink last night I suspect, although I have this apple sour stuff that is REALLY yummy. Might not be the ideal think to drink after vodka and tequila, but it was good. I'd love to be able to say that my lack of activity could be blamed on the hangover, but we all know that's not the case, don't we?
Live Slow, Die Old
I'm sick today. Not bird flu or anything (at least I hope not!) just feeling utterly run down and enfeebled, and cold. Its not even been a cold day, I just feel cold. In consequence I've done just about nothing today, and by nothing I really do mean nothing: I've not been able to stay awake to watch movies, and I don't have the concentration to play video games, so I've mainly just sat and dozed most of the day, which is actually pretty shite. Still, I've seen a good few episodes of Family Guy today, which is always a laugh (to my mind not as good as Futurama, although superior to the majority of The Simpsons, and you shouldn't read into that that I don't like The Simpsons, cos I do), and joyously, ridiculously random.
Now I'm feeling tired again. This sucks.
Various Random Musings
Well, this morning I was supposed to have an appointment at the jobcentre (plus! mustn't forget the plus) but the person I was supposed to be seeing was away 'on holiday'. This is especially irritating because yesterday I called to make sure the meeting was still on, and was told that it was. By way of consolation I got to talk to another woman, who had just taken early retirement and didn't care about the jobcentres rules and regulations at all, and was to be found frequently tearing up official forms, destroying letters, and generally messing with the system. She was pretty funny, but no real help at all, and certainly wasn't what I'd actually gone there for in the first place.
I totally forgot to buy the picture hooks I wanted to hang the lights in here, which was a shame as that was pretty much the only other thing I was supposed to do on my journey into town this morning. I should mention that the lights over my bed are even more awesome than I reported yesterday; not only are they pretty, but they provide enough illumination to read by (and I would assume do other things by, although with my girl in Canada it seems unlikely that I'll be confirming that anytime soon), so they're a real success.
This afternoon I watched a movie called The Yin-Yang Master which Stu had sent to me, and I have to say I really enjoyed it. I won't pretend it's a work of art or anything, but it was really good fun, and reminded me of nothing so much as those old Ray Harryhausen adventure movies for reasons I'm not sure make any sense. It was cool, okay? And it was also free, and free and cool is about the best sort of cool you can get.
I also discovered that I actually had a copy of a documentary called The American Nightmare (about the horror movement of the 70s, although it technically starts in '68 with Night of the Living Dead) in The Hills Have Eyes two disc set. I've been umming and ahhing about buying Tobe Hooper's remake of his own Toolbox Murders, purely to get the doc (which is on there too), so I'm glad I didn't. I suppose it's always possible that the Toolbox Murders is worth seeing in its own right, although I'm not holding my breath there. Anyway, American Nightmare is a really cool little documentary about the social roots of the horror movie in the 70s, and the kind of factors which (conciously or otherwise) influenced the subjects of the time. I guess it's this edge of social and political commentary which makes 70s horror the best (for me at least), although we seem to be turning back to the more hardcore again after the commercialisation of the 80s and irony of the 90s. Its weird, I wouldn't consider myself a gore-hound or anything, but I do have a deeper appreciation of horror movies (good, bad or indifferent) than almost any other genre, and I couldn't really tell you why. In fact I'm on something of a John Carpenter kick at the moment in anticipation of Escape From New York being released on DVD on Monday. When Carpenter was good, he was a god amongst men, but when (as of late) he's been less good, well... he still gets my respect and I would argue is always worth seeing. Any man who had directed a single one of Hallowe'en, The Fog, Escape From New York, Assault on Precinct 13 or The Thing, would have a place in (my) cinema history, but to have directed ALL of them, not to mention Dark Star, Big Trouble in Little China (it's all in the reflexes), Prince of Darkness, In The Mouth Of Madness (sadly not available on DVD as far as I can tell), Starman (red means stop, green means go, yellow means go very fast), They Live! and Vampire$ as well, some of them lesser Carpenter to be sure, well that man has a massive cinematic legacy. In fact of the group of horror directors from the 70s, I would argue that Carpenter has the greatest body of work (in terms of quality and influnence), his only possible challenger being David Croenenberg, and much as I like Croenenberg I LOVE Carpenter, so we all know who I'd vote for. Not that there is a vote, but if there was...
Wow, how'd I end up there? See, told you I was a Carpenter fan.
Demented But Determined
Okay, well the whole starting again thing didn't really start at all, as Monday morning I was struck with a crippling depression that made it a real struggle to even get out of bed (which I eventually did sometime in the early afternoon). So it was really a mess. Today however has been better, I even managed to shave and go outside and stuff without major incident. It seems that I'm gonna have to take the pace of change a little slower, I want to be able to build a new life on this foundation so there's no advantage in rushing this. I realise this seems like borderline procrastination, and to a certain extent it may well be, but I also think there's no advantage in trying to go cold turkey from my current ridiculous life style - all that would achieve would be a brief period of hyper activity, followed by a relapse and falling to even greater depths. I've done this before, in case you couldn't tell.
Cool thing I did today was to buy some Christmas tree lights. Not to put on a Crimbo tree you understand, but to use in home decor. All I really wanted when I went out was a string of clear/white ones, to drape around the tapestry-thing of the stars I have over my bed. That worked really well, and looks good (not that anybody but me ever sees it, even less so at night-time) if I do say so myself. However, there were also coloured lights, and I bought them on a whim, and haven't been able to work out what to do with them all day. Ah well, I'm sure something'll come to me, I'm thinking about putting some little hooks up in here and kinda stringing them along the walls... or maybe not, I don't know, that might be a little too much for this room.
I probably had other thoughts and feelings during the day, but I'm tired (up till 3.30am listening to the hockey this morning) and I'm going to bed.
The Last Thing We Need Is A Bunch Of Horny Robots Around Here!
I know I've said all this before, I know we've heard it all before, but dammit I have got to find something to do with my life, something vaguely worthwhile. I have got to admit that, much as I want her to, my princess isn't going to come and rescue me. In fact, she can't, nothing she could do would save me, nothing anybody can do would save me. I need to rescue me. I don't know what, I don't know how, I don't know anything other than that I have to do something. This is of course, exactly where we started, and to be honest, exactly where I've always been. I wonder, vaguelly, where this started, what there is in me and my upbringing that makes me like this, but I know it doesn't really matter. Understanding where it came from isn't anywhere near as important as confronting the here and now. I'm not saying there's no advantage in understanding where this came from, after all its strongly possible that whatever is going on will continue to go on, so finding out why it goes on would be useful. All I'm saying is that its best if I avoid the temptation to sit and think and work things out, cos y'know, I will take it and that won't get me anywhere at all. I'm not saying this wil be easy, in fact I know it'll be hard, and slow, and there'll be setbacks, cock-ups, failures and just days when I don't give a fuck. But let's give it a try eh?
My day today was... long. This morning was oddly depressing, and this afternoon I watched The Devils Rejects, which is Rob Zombie's follow up to House of a 1000 Corpses. Now I've not seen House..., but I have to say I enjoyed DR. I'll admit, that given the hype surrounding it I expected it to go further than it did, from a gore and sadism point of view. It was just pretty pedestrian American horror cinema stuff really. What I did like about the movie was the turn-around in the third act, when the killers are suddenly in the position their victims have been in, hunted by someone who wants not just to kill them, but to make it slow and very personal. Much like yesterdays Alexander experience, I'm not really sure I'm the most impartial judge of such things, cos I'm something of a fan of the whole redneck killer sub-genre, so I am predisposed to like it, and will accept its faults as simply the limitations of the genre.
My movie reviews have been a bit shite of late though, haven't they? They're all "yeah, its alright". Whether that indicates that I've been watching a lot of mediocre films lately, or whether my emotional state is so withdrawn that I'm not really connecting with anything is hard to tell. Music is still moving me, so let me take the opportunity to recommend My Morning Jacket, whose quiet excellent tune "I Will Sing You Songs" has been filling my head for much of the day.
Easy Morning Rebel
See, this is why I don't get out of bed early, or even in the mornings at all, if I can help it. 'Cos I'm bored, and miserable and don't have a clue what to do, or why I'd bother to do it even if I could think of anything. There's a whole 'nother long, lonely, pointless hateful day ahead of me and I have to fill it with something or other. Life, don't talk to me about life.
It is entirely possible of course, that all this uncalled for misery is the result of the whisky bender I was on last night as Duck suggested to me at the time. I wasn't really drunk as such, I don't really get drunk (although sometimes I think it'd be a bloody good idea), just drunk enough if you know what I mean. And now this morning my head hurts and I feel depressed and I have to suspect there is a correlation between the two.
Last night, before the drinking began, I watched Oliver Stone's Alexander (the original theatrical cut, I didn't like the sound of the DC, it seemed to be making the film easier and less controversial) and I have to say that I don't really know what everyone's problem with the movie is, which is exactly what I said about Kingdom of Heaven, which may lead one to suspect that I have a bit of a blind spot where the big old historical epic is concerned (after all, I think I'm the only person on the planet to actually enjoy Troy), and you may be right. Still, from (some of) the reviews of Alexander I expected it to be almost comically bad and yet it was nothing of the sort. The characters were well drawn, I actually thought that giving ALL the Macedonians Irish accents was a pretty clever way of making them obviously different from everybody else without them having to adopt a crazy faux Greek accent, and the film looked amazing. Here again, I was almost expecting a movie of confined scale, but got nothing of the sort, Babylon in particular was nothing short of breath-taking and to see the battles unfold was truly stunning. Of course, in some ways I was surprised by the film, no Gordian Knot for one, but then thinking about it, that's not exactly much of an episode is it? Alexander cuts knot with sword, world rejoices even though he's clearly (k)not entered into the spirit of things. Also, its the one thing about Alexander that everybody knows. Of course, you shouldn't mistake any of it (the movie) for actual history, but I thought it was bloody good nonetheless, emphasis on the bloody.
Okay well thats filled up a little bit of my day, time to go find something else to do I guess. My vote is for going back to sleep...
Rollin'
Huh.
Well for all that I want to avoid the situation I danced around yesterday, I'm actually both disappointed and vaguely insulted that it hasn't actually come up yet. Which is probably REALLY stupid, but I'm good at really stupid, it feels comfortable, natural, right. Its for the best though, I'm sure.
Still insulted though, I have a contract, a CONTRACT!
Things That Make You Go "DIE MOTHERFUCKER!!!!!!!"
Y'know what I hate? Yeah, okay almost everything, but if I were to narrow it down a little, it'd definitely include who or whatever spams blogs with fake comments that are little more than thinly veiled ads. That's something (or things, I don't know how many of them there are) that I hate, and I have in fact become quite diligent about deleting such comments, and wherever possible signing whoever did it up for some nice spam emails. Fuckers. Its this kind of corporate invasion of what is essentially a public space that makes people go on anti-capitalist riots, and more power to them I say, they're doing it for all of us, after all.
The other thing I hate ("the other" he said, like there were only two) is people who go shopping on Saturdays (apart from me, obviously) or more precisely, people who go shopping on Saturdays but don't know why they've gone, where they've gone, or how not to stand in everybody else's way. I needed food, you see, so took a quick trip to Morrisons which was much busier than it usually is at this time of the day, and seemed to be chock-a-block with people who seemed to think they were in a museum of some kind - y'know what I mean, moving slowly and without apparent purpose, and looking closely at each item on the shelves. It is of course entirely possible that I'm far too impatient, but really it should've been a quick in and out trip, and not some giant slalom around meandering idiots.
In a great big "screw you" to the NHL I have finally managed to see the Sens opening game (admittedly a few days late, but it still rocked) due to the miracle of TiVO and file sharing. I don't know if this'll be a regular thing at all, it took a solid 24 hours to download the file to start with, and then I had to find a way to actually play the damn thing (why make video in a format which exists only for encoding I wonder? I mean clearly I did manage to find a way, but it wasn't exactly straight-forward), but it's always nice to defy the plans of big business, isn't it?
Todays blog has been brought to you by the number 69, and the word "Anti-Capitalism". Remember kids, next time you go to a McDonalds, burn the place to the fucking GROUND!
(You really shouldn't do that. I have little doubt that the corporation itself is Satans own work, but the people who work in the restaurants are underpaid and badly treated by their employers, so don't go making things worse for them by burning down their source of income, okay?)
Trap - Side-stepped!
Well, there it is, my phone rang and luckily I was in the bath and unable to answer it so I didn't have any sort of struggle at all. It's a pay phone number, no message, but we all know who it was don't we?
Its stupid cos I've wanted this to happen for so long, but now that it IS happening I realise I have commitments elsewhere, and I really don't want to screw that up.
*sigh*
This really makes no sense at all does it? Just congratulate me on a job well done, okay?
Oblique
In a follow up to yesterdays post bemoaning my terrifying level of unfitness, I made the schoolboy mistake of weighing myself this morning and the result (while not to be published) is extremely bad. So, I guess its time for a real, serious hardcore diet. No more of this fiddling about and kidding myself its okay, cos it really isn't, not even a little bit. Something needs to be done, and it needs to be done NOW. Sadly of course, this is gonna take longer than it takes to say "NOW" and will require a mite more will-power, but like I said, this is serious.
I'm not answering the phone this evening, cos I'm avoiding a situation which I'm not gonna talk about here. Lets just say I don't want to get into a situation where I can mess up lots of things all at once, no matter how much I might want to.
Certainty Of Death.Small Chance Of Success. What Are We Waiting For?
I just went for my first run in a fair while, two miles. And now, I think I will die, if that's okay with everybody?
Hells donkeys when I did I get so unfit? Well, its obviously been in the past couple of weeks when I haven't been exercising and have been eating like crap, but bloody hell. The thing that always seems so catastrophically unfair to me is that you can knacker your health up really quickly, but it takes ages to get it back in order. Seems to me that a fairer God would have made our biology as easily correctable as it is wreckable, although you could argue that He's already been more than fair allowing us to live off junk food at all, when by all rights we should be dead in a matter of days.
Ah well, I guess the path to the future starts here, eh?
The road ahead goes on and on, down from the door where it began.
And yes, for some reason today's blog has had several Lord of the Rings references, don't ask me why, cos I don't know.
The Power of Shopping
Hehe, okay, sorry about that. I'm all better now. Whatever it was that was building in my head (and I have a fair idea what it is) has passed and I seem to be on a roughly even keel again now. Which is nice.
So I went shopping to try and cheer myself up (as Buddhists tend to do when we get down, buy material goods to temporarily fill the emptiness inside) and actually bought surprisingly little (some grapes, milk, that sort of thing) mainly cos nothing was really cheap enough for me to take an interest (DVD or game wise) and I couldn't for the life of me remember the name of the author of the books I'm always looking for. So all told it was a bit of a waste of time, but it got me out of the house, cleared my head a little and seems to have settled me down.
Wonder what I'm gonna do with the rest of the day...
WTF?
Huh. Well where did that come from? Jesus my mood swings are getting so unpredictable, I was sure I was okay this morning, a bit distressed that I'd managed to oversleep so wildly, but okay. And now I'm sitting here in tears and I can't for the life of my figure out why.
Its just possible I'm crazy of course.
Thomas Midgley Jr & The Road To Hell
So last night whilst reading Bill Bryson, I came across a scientist/inventor I hadn't heard of before, but we're all familiar with his work. His name was Thomas Midgley Jr, and he invented both leaded petrol and CFCs. In short, he was responsible for some of the massive environmental damage that man has wrought upon planet Earth during the twentieth century. Now, I'm not saying he was an evil man, quite the reverse, it seems he was genuinely trying to make life better for everyday folk with his inventions, its just that the road to hell is paved with such good intentions. Happily he died before he ever found out what damage his inventions did to the planet. I like to believe that such knowledge would've destroyed him.
There are however, some very very bad people in this story, and they are the companies which manufactured & sold, and still do manufacture & sell wherever lax regulation will allow, tetraethyl lead and CFCs. They KNOW that these things damage not only our health but our environment in quite catastrophic ways and yet if there's money to be made, they don't seem to care. I can't understand that mindset, it really is beyond my comprehension. I can understand a company making money out of something that it genuinely doesn't know is dangerous, but what I can't understand is its refusal to give it up when its proven beyond all doubt. I know they're clinging to revenue streams and blah blah blah, I don't care about the money, its the ethics of the situation I can't fathom. Its not just that I'm a Buddhist either, it's always been something that has been beyond me, like working in the tobacco industry, I just don't see how you do it, how you intentionally and legally inflict misery on people just to keep a roof over your head. People eh? The sooner we're extinct, the better.
NHL - Not Hockey Lovers
Man I'm pissed, in the incandescent with rage sense rather than the drunken sense, and I'm pissed because the NHL, in it's wisdom, has taken the game away from the fans again, at least fans in Europe.
See, over here in the UK, hockey has always been shown on five, a terrestrial free to view channel, and they've worked hard with it (and other North American sports) to build a fan base with quality coverage. Tonight is opening day of the 2005/2006 season, and I was well excited about it. However, on Monday the NHL awarded ALL broadcast rights throughout Europe to NASN, a subscription cable channel. So there you go, NHL hockey gone from TVs all over Europe. I'm mad about it, particularly 'cos my girl is Canadian and a massive hockey fan, so it woulda been nice to be able to share that with her, but also because I just enjoy hockey. And I'm not the only one who's annoyed about this, message boards all over seem to be alight with anger at the NHL's move, and to me it just seems to me that it is yet more prove that the NHL doesn't care about the fans. Admittedly last years strike was proof enough that the league didn't give a toss about the fans, there really isn't anything less attractive than watching two groups of rich men argue about who gets to get richer the fastest, but this year, to add insult to injury, they're now forcing (or attempting to force) fans across Europe to reach (deeper) into their pockets to see the return of their sport. Now admittedly its not just the NHL that does this, the Premiership started this shit years ago, cricket has just gone subscription only, so many sports are finding new and innovative ways to screw the fans out of what little money they have (the NFL for instance, now charges you a tenner a month to listen to games online, when a few years back you could just catch a webcast of a local radio station for free), but right now its just the NHL that are making me mad, cos I was pumped for tonights game, and now its been taken away just like that. *snaps fingers*
In other news... wow, there was something else I was gonna say here. Hmmm, I was thinking about it while I was coming back from the bank - ah, that could be it. Got another housing benefit cheque this morning, so I can back away from the pit of despair I was balancing on the edge of these past few days, as it was becoming more and more apparent that I wasn't going to be able to pay my rent this month. I still don't know what's going on at the council, and perhaps I don't want to know either. All I do know is that I don't want to be dependant on them anymore! I hate this whole situation. I want to be working again, be independant again and be able to stand, no matter how uncertainly, on my own two feet.
Night-time Turns People Into Animals
I don't feel good today. I feel run down and cold, then hot, then cold again, then REALLY cold, then too hot... blah. I've spent most of the afternoon just kinda dozing, which is both extremely irritating when you're trying to do other things, and also actually kinda nice, cos you just get to lie about feeling sorry for yourself.
I've been reading Bill Bryson's "A Short History of Nearly Everything", and whilst I (so far, we've only really done cosmology) know pretty much all the science and history, its still refreshing to read it through the eyes of someone who is clearly amazed by everything, and the sense of wonder is infectious. It's a good, easy read, and if you've ever been interested in anything, I reckon you'd get a kick out of it.
Now I feel tired again. Man, this is pathetic...
And It's Goodnight From Him
Ronnie Barker died yesterday at the age of 76.
I've sitting here, staring at those words for a while now, trying to work out what I can say that can sum up his life and work, or my feelings about those things, and really I've got nothing, at least nothing sufficient.
He was, in my never humble opinion, one of Britain's comedy greats; a gifted writer and performer, with a knack for characterisation and a love of language. He always had a twinkle in his eye, and he had an amazing natural warmth that just made you feel good.
The world just seems to be a little colder, a little less funny today.
Lessons Learned From Rocky I to Rocky III
Oh my, what a strange weekend.
Saturday was just a fairly normal day of sitting and gaming and movies and the like, and was very entertaining for it, and I spent a fair bit of time identifying the many and various tracks on my birthday mix CD, which was fun.
Sunday however, was just weird.
Turns out that Jules (a good mate) has finally split up with her asshole of a bf, and she's a bit of a mess. She came over to hang out for a bit, cos, well I'm not part of the rest of her circle of friends, and I'm kinda like the person she comes to when she wants to get away. So that was actually pretty fun, chatting about stuff, me saying "I told you so" a lot about what a tosser her ex is, and just general reminiscing about old times. Then she was like okay, lets fetch Connor (her son) and he came over and played video games all evening (see, my childishness is good for something, making friends with seven year olds) and then he got all hyper and I took them home.
Now, I have, for the past couple of years, been of the inclination that I wanted kids, having never really spent any time with one. I had a single seven year old in my flat for about three hours, and I'm starting to rethink my position... I mean, it looked like a small tornado had been through, I had a stinking headache (they're very loud, kids) and ermmm, yeah. I mean, okay my flat and my life aren't really set up for kids right now but hmmmm...
Didn't sleep a wink last night either, I had these weird dreams where I was trying to stop my girl giving me flu (from which she is currently suffering), and that just lead to a very tossy turny night, so today I've just felt tired and run down. I did watch Kingdom of Heaven this afternoon, and I have to say that I really liked it. I don't know what movie everybody else was watching, but it made perfect sense to me, and it was stunningly beautiful in a way that only Ridley Scott movies can be. I even didn't want to punch Orlando Bloom in the face, and that's got to be a bonus hasn't it? Liam Neeson always dies too early in things though, this, Phantom (which okay he dies at the end of, but he shouldn't die at ALL), Batman Begins (yeah, well not saying anything there, a bit too easy to SPOIL eh?) and ermmm, yeah, he just adds this great presence to movies, lends them an air of dignity, and then karks it within the first half-hour. Shocking.
I'm sure there are other things that I could and possibly even should talk about, but I'm sleepy and incoherent, so I won't.
Oh man, but 1-3 for the Vikings? What the fuck happened there? Man, there's no way they're gonna get a new stadium at this rate, hell they'll be lucky not to be run out of town. Ah well, hockey season kicks off Wednesday, so maybe I'll have something to cheer for over there.
Three Feet High, And Rising
Okay so it turned out that I jealously guarded my stash for a matter of minutes rather than hours, but oh how glorious to shop! I got a little pile of movies, and Far Cry Instincts which is being extremely cool so far, and is clearly showing a level of graphics and technology way beyond what the Xbox is capable of, leading me to conclude that Ubisoft Montreal are in fact wizards who have encoded some sort of dweomer onto my Xbox. Which is fine with me.
Movie wise I've watched Clerks (Stu bought me the awesome Clerks X anniversary set), and whilst the movie is still super funny, and probably the truest movie about actually working in a shop ever made, I fear that I am in fact Dante, more than capable of complaining about my lot in life, but sadly incapable of doing anything whatsoever to improve it. Randle however, is my customer service hero. And if you've seen the movie, then you'll know how scary that is...
The other movie I've seen today is Sin City. Now first and foremost, I strongly believe that I've been a bit of a fool buying the movie, 'cos I think Miramax are gonna double dip us in a while with a super special edition and all that (I know they are in the US, and very nice it looks too), but bollocks to it, I wanted to see it NOW. Also, given that I live in the UK and it took nearly a year for the DC of Chronicles of Riddick to get released over here, Wake Up! Ron Burgundy was NEVER released over here, and the proposed Kill Bill special editions (another very barebones Miramax DVD release) never happened, then I think it was probably okay to buy it. And if it's not, well who cares right? Anyhoo, yeah really really good movie, at least for fans of Miller's graphic novels, but weirdly I'm left wondering what exactly the point of it was. I mean, this is gonna sound strange from someone who always bitches about things being changed when they're made into movies, but equally Sin City shows us the other side of this: why make a movie if you're gonna make no concessions to the change in medium? Cos it really is a frighteningly faithful adaptation of the comics, so much so that the frames are exacting recreations of panels from the books... I'm not complaining about this, and I guess I'm framing this whole line of thought incorrectly. I actually think its cool that its faithful in this case, I just wonder if its actually an utterly pointless and hollow exercise because it is such a faithful adaptation: almost like looking at a colour photocopy of a painting, when you could just look at the painting itself. Again I should stress that I think Sin City (the movie) kicks all kinds of ass, its just something to think about, should you wish for such a thing.
And so, my birthday day has drawn to a close. In fact its already nearly an hour into October, and I'm reluctant to go to bed, I want to cling to my birthday for all its worth, I want to stay in the birthday zone where anything is possible and not surrender to the dullness and predictability of the real world. But I know I have to let it go, I have to sleep, have to get on with my weekend, surrender the crown of King of the World, and get on with my everyday life. More than anything, I have to accept that, for right now, there's no way I can get her to magically appear here, no matter how much I want her to. But one day, one day it'll work, and we'll be not just in the same country, but the same town, in the same building, in the same room, in the same bed. That's something worth waiting for I think.
Time for bed, said Zebedee.
