Raithe

Sitting down for lunch and feeling like something a little silly, so I'm watching some Hanazakari no Kimi Tachi. A truly oddball japanese series about a girl who pretends to be a boy to get into an all boys school so she can help a guy get back on track. Because she feels to blame that he got injured saving her life.. It's.. a little more convoluted then that, but there's a lot of bizarre elements to it.

I got my mother a paperwhite to replace her original kindle this last christmas. So far there have been no problems with the screen. Although the last week or so the battery seems to be acting up and the wifi connection keeps turning itself on or off at various times.

For the amusement value.. Inside the Battle of Hoth - A critique and analysis of the Empire's tactics and strategy through the important and game changing Battle of Hoth...

Sorry to hear bout that TrueNeutral. On other more cheerful matters, I decided to indulge in some decadent sweet tooth type moment. Sliced up 3 bananas, slowly built one layer of said slices, added sultanas, cinnamon, sprinkled sugar.. splashed bacardi rum, added cream. Then repeated, layer after layer until all banana slices were used up. Heated it all up to that point just before the banana slices start to lose their shape.... then added a fresh drizzle of cold cream and ready to sit down and eat...

Mayhaps the amazing lens-flare in the music video caught my eye.. or your levels of Google-fu need more work grasshopper.. That, and I happened to catch io9's post about it as midnight hit here in the UK...

Did you not notice I put that up in the music thread already?

Well, there seems to be a new boxer (the dog) has moved in to a house across the street, and one of the houses out back from ours is doing some construction.. all of which is combining to set the two dogs in this house off a lot. So every 10-15 minutes it seems that I have to stop whatever I'm doing, go downstairs and deal with them getting set off and barking loudly. And of course, the cat has decided to have lots and lots of manic moments. He was a right bastard the other night and decided to stalk my hands as I was doing push-ups, so I'm currently healing up assorted claw scratches. As someone I know says "cat's sharpen their claws with salt and malice, and grow their muscles with pure hatred and pain"... Edit: Hm, and I can never sit through Fiddler in an appropriate manner, ever since I listened to the H.P.Lovecraft Society developed "A Shoggoth on the Roof"....

The First Ever Music Video Made in SPAAACCEEE!! - Also, Commander Christ Hadfield's farewell to the ISS as he's heading back to Earth.

I think a lot of people are treating it more in that "proof of concept" role rather then being seriously dangerous/compromising in it's own right. Although a lot of press do seem to be pushing the sillyness aspect of "oh my god, the sky is faaaalllllling!!!" with it.

Been watching a bit of a japanese tv show. Boss 2. A special police "countermeasures unit" that's really the "reject squad" of talented people with serious flaws in some form... It always amuses me with jdoramas how they can flip from being quite serious acting one moment and then flip to wildly overblown over-acting and back again. That, and how often the leading characters are the totally inappropriate wild cards that are never supposed to succeed in the straight laced heirarchy of japanese society. Balancing genius of some form with complete social dumb-assery half the other time..

Also, an example of what can happen when you're sorting things out and find a small box of old lego wedged in the back of one wardrobe.. and promptly lose half an hour fiddling...

Oh if we're going to do the flip back in time as well.. Here's a celebrity shot from about 5 years back.: My mother is a major Stargate fanatic, and I had to go push her wheelchair around a very small "convention". As in, Richard Dean Anderson, Amanda Tapping, and about 100 fans, all enclosed in the Bishop's Palace in Wells. Ended up having tea and crumpets with them as well.

Interesting point of psychology, people are more willing to die for a cause then they are to live on crippled or partially maimed. If you have a bunch of people who have a lot riding on their self-identity as confident, strong, physically capable... and then they get stuck in a position where they're missing limbs or the ability to walk, open a door on their own or such like.. They can become willing to consider things they never would have before. I remember reading in some biography about an ex-KGB guy years ago, that if he really wanted to get information from someone he wouldn't threaten to kill them. Just shoot them in the elbow and knee joints. He'd paint a picture of them living like that, unable to put on a light switch, feed themselves, go the the toilet, without having someone else doing it for them...

Had another little pootle around with Game Dev Tycoon. Still can't seem to get my R&D up and running until around year 23/24. Which means I can't get AAA games until around year 27... I am being pretty consistent with getting those 7-9 game ratings tho...

Hm, and on the movie news and rumours front.. apparently David Goyer is at work on a Count of Monte Cristo script while he's been writing/producing Da Vinci's Demons. Now the man who helped write with Christopher Nolan for Batman and also wrote Superman.. is apparently spinning a few ideas for the "19th century version of a Dark Knight".

Hm, having that pause between a bunch of authors I like releashing new books. Can't seem to find the right mood on which to look at some fresh authors at the moment. Might just re-read The Count of Monte Cristo one more time...

She has. Certainly with an elegant poise. A bit beyond the semi-tousled hair kid from that first movie. I have to admit I'm surprised at some of the order on that list, but eh.

Had a random glance at FHM's Top 100 Sexiest Women of 2013 out of curiousity. Don't know over half of the women mentioned, and having that slightly scary moment when I see that Emma Watson is up there at around #62. Now I feel old.

If we're going to wander into these areas, I'll just drop one of my favourite quotes: "You know, I used to think it was awful that life was so unfair. Then I thought, wouldn't it be so much worse if life *were* fair, and all the terrible things that happen to us come because we actually deserve them? So, now I take great comfort in the general hostility and unfairness of the universe." There are always things about your life that you can't control, some people find it happier to say "that's fate", some take comfort in that idea. But by the same token, there are a lot of areas that you can control but a lot of people don't. As the old chinese proverb goes, "if you never change your direction, you'll likely end up where you're heading."

Hm, somehow I seem to have pulled a muscle in the back of my thigh. Which is proving.. irritating.

Well I tend to use the mixture of Tab that just cycles between targets, and setting up a key that autotargets the closest enemy.. Between those two you can generally get things working smoothly.

Saw Taken on dvd for £3 as I was doing some grocery shopping today, so since I haven't actually seen it I picked it up. Watched it after dinner with a glass of port. Hm, pretty much by the numbers thriller type but a refreshing change from that annoying plethora of shaky-cam films that were out at the same time. Nothing too flashy about the story, but Liam Neeson's presence certainly carries it beyond the basics of what's there.

Hm, I've realised I've probably got about 30 hours of tv saved to catch up on at some point.. I really should make the effort to catch a few episodes rather then letting it pile up in that manner.

Been dabbling a little on and off with Mars War Logs the past few days. Not overlong, but a fair few good ideas even if the low budget hampers it. The opening section within the prison actually has the best feel, and kind of wish they'd spent more time there. The story does seem to meander off a bit once you successfully escape. The combat is.. interesting. It can be a bright spot, but can also be frikking annoying. The enemy can kill you very, very easily, which means you end up rolling around the screen like a hyped up monkey on crack.