Raithe

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.

Its being a bit of an odd day so far. Tis my sister's birthday , so she's taken the day off... Everyone overslept. I haven't been woken up by the puppy, and since she's home to take them out for the morning run she always promised she'd do before work (but basically never did).. we haven't got overexcited dogs trying to be sods. It's actually kind of quiet. I woke from some weird dreams that were sliding into semi-nightmare territory, highly disturbing territory. Hm, and I've had a flash of feeling like the old generation. My passport expired about 2 days ago, so I picked up the renewal form and had to go up to get some new passport photos..and skydiving judy dench they're expensive now compared to what they were. It was about

The Nero Wolfe Mysteries. A series of adaptions of the novels into a made-for-tv-movie format. What's quirky about it is that it's a lot like a theatre troup. The same ensemble cast of 20 or so actors in all of the shows, but only about a handful play the same characters; the principle ones of Nero Wolfe - Maury Chalkin, Archie Goodwin - Timothy Hutton, Inspector Cramer - Bill Smitrovich, and the other few close agents and several other characters that are seen more then once. All the supporting characters that show up rotate the rest of the cast each "episode". The femme fatale in one episode might be the innocent support in another, the creepy misdirect actor returns as the solid citizen in another show. It's a little weird to get used to..but it works in a surprising manner. The likes of Kari Matchett, Debra Monk, Francie Swift, James Tolkan, Saul Rubinek, Nicki Guadagni and the late great George Plimpton (names you might not recognise, but faces you surely will). Detective/Mystery stories set in a vague timezone that could stretch from the 30's to 50's. It's got some wonderfully snarky dialogue. Nero Wolfe, a hugely overweight connesieur of fine foods, wines and orchids who happens to be a genius detective who refuses to leave his manhattan brownstone to solve crimes. Thus solving them by sending out his agents to gather the clues. Very much like the evil mastermind in reverse.. The character of Archie Goodwin as the principle "right-hand man" being the lead and having a very smooth first-person voice over as narrative.

Nasa Unveils the New Rocket Designs On keeping with the whole space topic.. Nasa's upcoming Space Launch System (SLS)....

Not being the most fun start to the day. Got woken a couple of hours early, hazed in and out of conscousness with that slow set in of a headache. Then of course my sister once again left for work without giving her dog any exercise, so the sod's full of energy and bored. She's older then me, but suprisingly acts like a spoiled 17 year old in a lot of ways. Mom's having one of her bad pain days. And the cat keeps sauntering in front of the puppy in a taunting manner which only adds to the fun.

I got into those books when I was about 12 or so. The first few of the series (well, that would be about 9 or so), up to the battle of Waterloo are really quite good. The details of the napoleonic wars are certainly there. Unfortunately, it then turned into quite a popular thing what with the tv series they did based on them, and he wrote another handful that just got a bit messy.

Awesome, already pre-ordered. Yup, same here, DEHR to Saints Row to TOR and then ME3... Apart from that, there's nothing on my "have to get" list. Just some I'm curious on and I might pick up if I see them when I'm feeling flush.

For the added elements of silly, Saints Row the Third even has a Tron-style level in it... Decker.Die

Caught my mother watching some documentary about "child preachers" in America... Is it just me, or is having a 4 year old up on a pulpit, stringing "preaching" words together while jumping up and down, praaaiiiising jeeeessuus and slapping a hand on a bible just a tad creepy? The kids father, "some people say its brainwashing, but it's not. people say brainwashing when it's about something they don't like. I call it simply training."

David Weber's "How Firm a Foundation" turned up around noon, and I ended up getting drawn into reading it for the rest of the day between distractions...

Had the morning start with the dogs being a tad overplayful and snappy with each other, then got a few things handled. Now trying to get my mind wrapped around the geometry of Tesseracts. For some reason I just can't seem to get the proper visual connection of what's going on with it. Maybe a fresh cup of tea will help stir my mind along.