Raithe

He's not quite so "small" even if he is only around 7 months old...

Having some general irritation to the start of the day. Got my hand lightly scalded - pouring out some recently boiled water from the kettle, the overenthusiastic puppy bounces around my legs then makes a pounce for the nearby cat thus causing me to jerk and water to splash out across the back of my hand. Nothing serious, but it leaves that annoying tingling sensation across my hand now for a little bit.

I somehow managed to cut my ear. And I will say the bugger bleeds like you wouldn't believe. For some reason I never counted ears in the same category as head wounds for bleeding effects.

On certain levels Homefront was okay. But it was disapointing in that it was a very short "shooter on rails" approach. The backstory was interesting, they had some very nice things in the background to push emotional buttons. But the gameplay for the single-player campaign was bog standard follow the line and shoot things as they pop up. That and it basically ends on a cliffhanger after about 5 hours of play.

Trying to focus on some work, elucidating my genius into a report. Of course, somewhat hampered by the development of one of those really annoying stabbing headaches just over my left eye. Every few pulses of stabby pain making my eye twitch a little. Still, a cup of tea, a digestive, and some aspirin type and I shall carry onwards....

For the cheap laugh I actually watched the DOA - Dead or Alive film. It was surprisingly good at the same time it was quite bad. I'm not quite sure how to put it. The story was silly, the dialogue could be quite worse. The actors actually put decent effort into delivering their lines and doing their jobs. The visuals were quite stunning for the most part. Some very nice background scenery, and some of the edited shots of the female fighters (especially during fight sequences) did kind of make me want to laugh while still appreciating the toned and flexible forms. In fact, according to one of the female leads, over 40 bikinis were ruined in the shooting of this film.. The fact that they managed to throw in a Volleyball sequence that adds to the cheesey amusement. Plus, Eric Roberts hamming it up as a villain is pretty much always worth it.

Already happened (pic). I would have expected you to use Jeff Bridges in the recent Tron film...

It's a digitally created semi-nude of Jessica Alba, not the real thing? She was actually wearing a sports bra type top and exercise shorts.. They just cgi'd it out and gave the "artist's impression". But it is a fun film.

Lucas has said about himself that he's a director that focuses on the edit and the shot rather then the acting. He's willing to joke that when he's directing actors, all he does is pretty much "faster. more intensity. there is no try." It's one of the things that drove Harrison Ford up the wall back in the original. At the time, they did say to Lucas that "you can write this dialogue, you just can't speak it." When it was released A New Hope appealed to way more then just the young. You have to put it into perspective, at the time it came out there was a lot of depressing things going on. Star Wars pretty much came out with a total escapist, sense of magic to it. That wasn't about the special effects. It was about the feeling it gave people. It was a clear cut good/evil story with magic in it. It kick started a whole slew of things with its inspiration. Take for example James Cameron, he was in his 20's driving a truck for a job. Seeing Star Wars prompted him to quit that and concentrate on getting into films. We can also lay the blame on the film merchandising thing on Star Wars.

Hey, don't get me wrong. I really enjoyed playing through DEHR, and I'm planning on playing it a few more times just to see what shakes loose with repeats. The atmosphere is groovy, the gameplay pretty much works excellently. But there are those little flaws that keep it from being an "epic game" and just in the "damn good game" territory. It follows deeply in the footsteps of DE in keeping you fairly strictly along that point a to point b, but gives you a lot of options in how to travel there. It just doesn't let you get to point c instead of point b. DE gave you the illusion of choice in the story, while you didn't really have any. DEHR follows the same route, but doesn't quite give the same amount of illusion. Maybe that's because it's the change in games over the last decade or our perception of them, maybe it's because elements of the conspiracy in DEHR don't feel as deep. I do kind of feel the stunning "three consoles with a button" was a little bit.. Eh. Although a certain sense of amusement over it exists.

Urf, now I don't know if it wasn't being able to get to sleep till nearly 4am, but it was seriously hard going to push myself out of bed this morning. Although having the alsatian turn up, paw at the bed , whine and attempt to lick your face is not the best form of alarm clock. Slowly facing the morning as it slides along, with plans to get some work done as the afternoon rolls in.

Trying to be somewhat fair.. a lot of the ideas about the prequel trilogy (and the expanded universe explaining it all) actually are quite interesting. It's just ..well, the execution seems to have sucked a lot of the soul out of it all. There are still elements to enjoy in the films, and the music is still quite stonking. I mean, take the Phantom Plot - not a great idea for a film, but if you accompany it with the EU novel that's set just before the film, it actually lays out the heavy framework on the political manipulations and why the events happen and just what the fallout will be. Good if you're interested in just how Palpatine is masterminding such events - but not so good if you're looking for a flashy space opera fun film. But I really lay the blame for the failure at the creation of Jar-Jar Binks and all dialogue resulting from, and the casting of the kid otherwise known as "Manaquin Skywalker" for that wooden and obnoxious performance. The other element that's always jumped out at me, if you read the novelisation of Revenge of the Sith, it really paints out what people were thinking/feeling and makes a whole lot more sense. The film just..pushed the emo looks and didn't carry it through that well. If they'd been able to convey half the things in the book in the film it would have worked so much more. Seriously. There are two classic quotes from the book that I can't remember the exact wording, but roughly: one being how Yoda realises he totally screwed the pooch, by spending the last x centuries training Jedi to fight the last war with the Sith rather then how things turned out. (Wise Jedi my ass) , and the other from the Emperor on how the whole set up of the Clone Wars was pretty much just one massive "Jedi Trap", highlighting the major points of it and just how it served to distract the Jedi from what was about to happen and screw their reputation as it got there.

Highlander. There should have been only one. Well.. unless you count the tv series, which turned out pretty darn good once they figured out what they were doing...

To be fair, the original Deus Ex was like that. It gave the illusion of choice in the storyline without actually changing to any great degree. The helicopter pilot just takes the place of JC's brother for that "do what they say, which has them die, or ignore them and save their life" choice. The kill switch gets reversed from affecting the "bosses" to affecting Adam depending on a single decision you make. Deus Ex has always been more about the atmosphere and the multile paths within the game levels rather then multiple paths in the story.

Age of Conan : Hyborean Adventures soundtrack.. The Dreaming It's just been that sort of day

Said in a non-creepy and stalker-tastic manner.. One of those incredibly rare days when I have no-one around today that I have to deal with. The dogs are with my sister, dad's taken mom out.. I thought I'd be able to focus with no distractions and get some serious work done. Instead, I've just found myself totally scatterbrained all day.

Tis always odd when time suddenly catches up on you. Like when you bump into an ex and they have a kid that

David Arkenstone's Atlantis - A Symphonic Journey

Had pondered building a small fire from the cut down limbs of the bay tree, and having a cigar. But the sky has gotten cloudy .. and that might hit my moody disposition the wrong way.

I read the books before the show came out, and while the show did mish-mash a few of the storylines up, they pretty much nailed the characters. The amusing thing I always found was that the books laid out the grand battles and gave you a sense of scale of the warfare.. but the show tended to have a cast of extras in the 30's.. So grand battles with about 20 people tended to look a bit funny. Sharpe's Rifles through to Sharpe's Waterloo, those were the ones I found the best.

Hot Fuzz is more of a homage to the buddy cop move. The comedy aspect comes from taking the "american style" action cop and putting it in an English "local village" setting. Just with more of that self-awareness making it even more tongue-in-cheek.

Could you get away with using a money order? Oh there are a few other options. There was just something about the way they provide an extra form and emphasise "you must include the security code when you add this to the post" if you try to use a credit card that had me arching an eyebrow.

Taking a few moments to fill out the passport renewal form. Reached the end, and caught the bit about "fees". Apparently if renewing your passport by post, they give you another form to add to the envelope that you can fill out all your credit card details. And has to include the security code. Now is it me, or is putting all of that in the post just a wee bit.. paranoia inducing?

Quote for the day :

Hm, Well Hot Fuzz has to be up there... Although again, it's not completely a spoof movie.. Just.. taking the buddy cop movie into a completely different context.