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| Not quite the Neverending Story | 21st May 2007 @ 20:52 |
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 I mentioned a couple of weeks back that I was playing The Longest Journey - an entry of that oft-neglected genre of computer games, the point-and-click adventure. Following on from the purely text-based games which have been around for decades, the point-and-click games had their heyday in the 90s, most notably in the hands of LucasArts, with the colossus of the genre being the Monkey Island series. Fans of those games will know that it's high praise indeed when I say that The Longest Journey is right up there with Monkey Island at its best. As for the sequel, Dreamfall...
( The Longest Journey (no spoilers) )
( Dreamfall (still no spoilers) ) |
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| Random media ramblings... | 8th May 2007 @ 21:32 |
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- SomethingAwful has a bunch of B-Movie-style poster spoofs which are well worth a look.Page 8 has the HP one, most of the rest are pretty good too.
- Apparently, Lost has been cancelled - in 2010 (well, assuming it doesn't happen soon, say, if the ratings keep falling). Three more 16-episode seasons - a hard limit which (together with the fact that last week's episode was actually pretty decent) gives me hope that they might be able to pull of a decent conclusion. Maybe.
- Heroes was awesome - must be Tuesday.
- April Ryan is my new video-game-girlfriend (not sure who the previous one was, actually - possibly Elaine Marley, although she's kinda taken now - but it certainly wasn't Lara Croft...). I picked up a copy of The Longest Journey at the weekend for under ten bucks from Steam, and it's all kinds of fantastic. Yes, the graphics are eight years old, but it's a point-and-click adventure, so who cares. It's got interesting characters, a huge sprawling plot, buckets of humour, and got the Monkey Island reference in very early on - what more could you ask for? Oh, yes, a fix for the lock-up bug (save early, save often...)
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| Movie misdirection... | 28th Apr 2007 @ 17:18 |
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 And the "totally misleading trailer of the week" award goes to Bridge to Terabithia. Given the current cinematic drought, I was happy to catch a preview of something which showed every sign of being a cheap Narnia rip off. What I actually got was something rather better - a fine character piece with a few effects sequences along the way (whilst they're certainly not gratuitous, the cynic in me wonders if some of the justification for them was to allow for the marketing spin. Either way, they didn't exactly break the bank, which is fine as the movie delivers in other ways.)
Jesse is an artistic schoolkid with (like seemingly every male character in American TV/Cinema - what's with that?) Daddy Issues - not to mention Sister Issues (he has four of them). At the beginning of a new school year, he meets new arrival Luna Lovegood Leslie, a fellow outsider (who conveniently lives next door) and they soon become friends. A rope-swing across a stream away in the forest, together they create a fantasy kingdom to escape from the real world and plot revenge on the bullies.
( Here be SPOILERS. No, really. Go see the movie first! )
PS. Yes, I know it's based on a book which was published way before HP. |
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| That's just taking the piss... | 16th Apr 2007 @ 00:43 |
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 Apparently last time I went to lush, I forgot the golden rule of bath bombs - Never get the yellow ones. Also, the rainbow drops really don't dissolve in bath-water. They just go kinda goopy. Yech.
In other news, at some time in the not too distant past, IMDb have finally added my Most Wanted Feature. The "Movie Connections" section was never quite as good as it could have been on account of not explaining itself (and it could be really frustrating to not know why movie X apparently references movie Y). There's now an optional description for each connection, too - obviously many are blank at the moment, but it's a start... |
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| Because I can... | 26th Feb 2007 @ 23:09 |
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| Yes, I am posting to LJ from my Wii. l never did get around to doing it from the PSP because entering text is way too painful whereas this is point and click, plus it has auto-complete. For my next trick: Wiimail-to-LJ. Or not. |
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| OMGWIIBBQ! | 21st Feb 2007 @ 15:16 |
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 OK, after waiting this long, I don't think I will barbecue it, but still...
Thanks to this site, I got notified the minute Amazon got some more Wiis in stock and had the order placed immediately. Now I just have to wait for it to turn up... |
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| Warm and fuzzy... | 17th Feb 2007 @ 23:05 |
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So, I went to see Hot Fuzz today, another excellent piece of it's-not-quite-a-spoof-it's-just-really-funny cinema from the team behind Shaun of the Dead and the ultimate fanboy sitcom, Spaced. The gentle comedy of the first half does a great job of setting up the full-on (albeit slightly silly) action movie second half. Pegg and Frost are on form as usual, and Timothy Dalton is clearly having far too much fun hamming things up, plus the who's who of British actors and comedians - Jim Broadbent, Bill Bailey, Steve Coogan and the seemingly obligatory Bill Nighy cameo. An unexpected bonus was having a lot of the film shot in the cathedral city of Wells, which is where my Gran lives, so I know it quite well. Many familiar sights - the best moment being a chase scene down the pathway which run's behind Granny's garden - it's a small world, after all.
In other news, my quest for a Wii remains entertainingly doomed. Bricks-and-mortar retails seem to be barely stifling amusement if you have the optimism to enquire if they have any in stock. As for online, I have found a nifty stock-checker-alerter website, but thus far the stock has only appeared either as part of a full-price bundle including a bunch of games I don't want, from shops which will only deliver to the registered credit card address, or exactly when I'm not online. Yes, I could reserve one, but I should have done that months ago, and do do so now would be just cheating! (I'm deliberately not reserving a PlayStation 3, because there's no way I'm paying that much for a games console). |
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| Hello, Murphy... | 9th Feb 2007 @ 12:50 |
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 Well, I'm back.
Eventually. Flight out of Martinique delayed slightly (didn't matter as I had a long wait at Paris Orly anyway). Flight out of Paris taxied out, made strange whirring and clanking noises, taxied back for mechanics to poke with screwdrivers and hit with hammers, eventually cancelled so back into the airport. Rebooked on next flight, which is also delayed several times before being cancelled due to "mechanical difficulties". Rebooked on even later flight, which is also delayed but does eventually leave.
Catch DLR into London, miss change due to being confused where it is, then on spur of the moment take route from Bank involving two changes rather than one (despite heavy bag) thus miraculously taking the only tube lines which weren't suffering serious delays.
Naturally the railways have to make up for this. Hop on first fast train towards Oxford (already late to depart), eventually discover that we're going nowhere due to signalling problems, and later still the train is cancelled. Scoot across to earliest non-cancelled fast train for some more waiting. Eventually advised to go and find another train, then immediately told to get back on again for immediate departure (but with more delays to come as there's only temporary signalling in place).
Eventually get back to Oxford at around 00:20, but at least the night busses are still running - and on time at that. Total journey time: 25 hours, at least six more than expected. Most amusing aspect: none of the delays were caused by the snow and ice which usually bring the country to a stand-still...
ETA: It looks like I've got about 550 posts to catch up on, but first I've got 9 TV episodes to watch... |
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| PSA | 29th Jan 2007 @ 23:34 |
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 Right, that's it, I've had enough. I'm off to the Caribbean to become a pirate.
Failing that, sitting on the beach drinking rum for eight days sounds like a pretty good plan... |
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| All my money are belong to Apple... | 9th Jan 2007 @ 20:18 |
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 On a scale of 0-10, how much do I want one of these?
That would be, oooh, at least a 12. I was literally drooling while I looked through the demos on the Apple website. iPhone rumours have been floating around for years, but the reality actually manages to top the hype (assuming that reality lives up to the demos). Obviously there are some unanswered questions (third party - and home-brew - application support being top of my list), but it has the potential to be the coolest gadget ever.
On the downside, it is quite pricey (not unsurprisingly, but cheaper and more featureful than getting separate 'phone + iPod + PDA), and not overly well-endowed in the storage department. Also, us Europeans have to wait until Q4 and there's no word as yet on network support.
Still, OMGWANTZ!
PS. AppleTV: Hmmmm. It is rather shiny, but the feature set is rather minimal. Big unanswered question: can it play video that comes from anywhere other than the iTunes store? If not, I certainly can't see myself wanting one... |
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| Well, I'm back. | 1st Jan 2007 @ 00:00 |
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| Current Music: | Jools Holland's Hootenanny |
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| Tags: | movies |
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 As alluded to in my earlier post, I spent most of today watching The Lord of the Rings - all three extended editions back-to-back. Damn, but I'd forgotten just how good those films are. Admittedly, watching them all in one go (I've done it in three consecutive days before) is a bit of an endurance test - in the best possible way, of course.
Anyway, Happy New Year, everyone! |
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| Why's the wine always gone? | 31st Dec 2006 @ 10:50 |
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Seriously! Before Christmas I had a full wine rack with a dozen bottles on it (plus one chilling in the fridge). Despite acquiring more as presents, now that the family have departed, I'm down to three (and that's only because I picked up a couple more at Sainsbury's yesterday). Still, lots of really nice bottles, and we even tried to match wines to food, in a vague way - mostly going by what it said on the back of the bottles (although the cassoulet merited the nice Chianti, on account of being the closest thing we ate to liver with fava beans...)
I'm definitely feeling rather fatter than I did ten days ago, but all the left-overs are going to get somewhat in the way of starting any serious dieting for at least another week or so. On the plus side, most of my cooking in that time will involve pulling a tupper out of the freezer and reheating its contents - possibly in one of my shiny new saucepans, but most likely in the microwave. Lazy, moi?
Right. I'm off to Middle Earth for the rest of the day. |
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| Eat, drink, and be merry! | 26th Dec 2006 @ 20:39 |
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 ...for tomorrow we diet. And by "tomorrow", I mean in two or three weeks when the assorted left-overs, snacks and sweetmeats have finally met their demise. The past few days have, not unexpectedly, contained considerable amounts of both food and alcohol (although the former rather closer to excess than the latter). On the plus side, we have been out for a walk every day, and have spent little time in front of the goggle-box (although such sedentary pursuits as reading, playing board games, and wrestling with puzzles, quizzes, and crosswords are little better for the health).
First year with the new kitchen, and we actually managed to get the turkey spot on (after missing the mark in opposite directions the previous two years), so Christmas dinner itself was an almost¹ complete success. Alas, the traditional Christmas Eve ox-tounge was possibly even more over-salted than the previous year despite additional soaking, so it looks like that's off the menu next time. Today was the equally traditional turkey and left-over-vegetable curry - something that has very little danger of going wrong.
To add some educational merit to this post, here's a recipe for you. A rather fine pudding henceforth to be known as ( Chocolate Chestnut Coronary² Cake )
1) The "almost" part being due to the Mini Bagpuss Crackers (eight for a pound). These promised a hat, a motto and a sticker sheet in each one. After one cracker each, we had two hats, four mottos (one blank) and no sticker sheets. After the remaining four crackers, we just managed an additional two paper hats, a total of six mottoes³, and one solitary sticker sheet. Unimpressed.
2) I'm not aware of anyone suffering a coronary as a direct result of eating this cake, but proceed at your own risk.
3) On further examination, we discovered that all six were printed with the same joke, which I reproduce verbatim below for your amusement:What's the difference between a railway shed and tree ?
One leaves.its shed and the other sheds its leaves. Not quite right, methinks... |
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| Animal Hospital | 15th Dec 2006 @ 09:39 |
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 So, I just performed open heart surgery on a mouse. Thanks to the power of duct tape, a bad case of middlebuttonnoclickitis has been rectified, and my beloved MX1000 has made a full recovery. Yes I know it has seven other clickable buttons, but I need them all! |
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| In which I, for once, am the manly one... | 25th Nov 2006 @ 20:24 |
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 I succeeded in my primary objective of getting the tools needed to install the radiator tomorrow (including one I hadn't thought off until I got to the hardware store - something which can detect the wooden studs in an internal wall). Alas, I failed in my second objective - to see Pan's Labyrinth - although, to be fair, I wasn't really in the mood for a subtitled movie. Even worse, while stowing away my purchases after l leaving the ironmongers', I may have been heard to utter the words "You can never have too many tools!". Rapidly followed by a look of horror and disbelief, and a mutter "Somebody, please, shoot me now..."
Later on, I encountered a somewhat random parade going up Cornmarket - Chinese dragons, a pantomime camel (dressed in pink), a large selection of paper lanterns, some baton twirlers (just, without the twirling), and a smartly-uniformed marching band - fine, upstanding men and all that. The music they were playing did seem familiar, and it was only as they launched into the chorus that the incongruous choice clicked - It's Raining Men. Hallelujah! At this point, I promptly and completely cracked up (yes, I got some strange looks - why do you ask?) I did, somehow, manage to recover in time to procure some video evidence which, alas, I'm too lazy to post... |
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| BSG squee | 22nd Oct 2006 @ 01:11 |
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I was somewhat late watching this week's Battlestar Galactica - what with being forgetful, then out shopping, then getting rather engrossed in my latest Tamora Pierce novel (mmm, favourite author fix), it wasn't until the middle of the evening that I remembered to grab the torrent file and kick it off. Still, it was an episode which was very much worth the wait. Great chunks of plot, some seriously heavy-duty action sequences, and plenty of heavy-duty character development - and all that in 42 minutes.
One of the things I love about sci-fi is the way it can throw you a curveball - because you don't know the "rules" of the universe in the same way you do those of our current reality, you can be caught off-guard by an unexpected "That is so cool - I had no idea they could do that!" moment, even (and perhaps especially) if in hindsight you can see the hints. My favourite instance of this is the resolution of one of the cliffhangers between The Neutronium Alchemist and The Naked God (those of you who've read those books will know what I mean, and those of you who haven't, and have any interest in space opera, should go out and read The Reality Dysfunction at once), but this week's BSG had a nifty little one too.
Going off in a completely different direction: many of you may recall the Sony advert with all the balls bouncing down a street. I remeber seeing it in the cinema and thinking "that's rather nifty. Obviously done with computer graphics, but still nifty." Fast forward to yesterday, when I came across an article about the follow-up advert (a rather sillier affair featuring exploding paint, but again extremely nifty) explaining how it was all done for real. And how contrary to what many people that, last year's ad was indeed done by sending a quarter of a million bouncy balls down a San Francisco street. Alas, none of this will make me buy a Sony TV if they cost rather more than a comparable competitor... |
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| IM IN UR KITCHEN, COOLIN UR FOODZ. | 9th Oct 2006 @ 18:30 |
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| Current Mood: | happy |
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| Current Music: | Also Sprach Zarathustra |
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| Tags: | kitchen |
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 After nearly four months of waiting, the last appliance has finally made its appearance. After last week's fiasco, with the two deliver men deeming themselves insufficient, this week they sent ... two delivery men. Plus a risk assessor. After much umming, ah-ing and measuring, they decided that it just might be possible (but that the four man team wouldn't have helped because there's no way that more than two guys would be able to get at the thing whilst lifting it up the stairs). After removing the fridge doors and my front door handle, the proper application of brute force seemed to do the trick, and the last hole in my kitchen is finally filled. Final risk assessment - this shows what can be done - but also what really shouldn't be attempted... |
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| The Psi Corps is your Friend. Trust the Corps. | 7th Oct 2006 @ 22:00 |
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 Once again I ventured forth into Oxford in search of jeans. After a long and arduous quest upon which I tried on what seemed like every pair of appropriately sized jeans in the centre of town, I finally settled on something "good enough". That goal achieved, I did potter around the shops a little more, but in the end I decided that I really wasn't feeling up to anything more and beat a hasty retreat in the direction of home.
I am, you see, suffering from some sort of a lurgy- swollen glands and a sore throat, and generally not feeling on top form. Still, one has to soldier on, and it is more of a painful annoyance than a "can't face leaving bed" sort of a thing. I was dosing myself with a lemon and honey concoction suggested by ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) sophie8, until I cleverly ran out of honey. More shopping tomorrow, methinks. Meanwhile, I really need to pop some more vicodin ibuprofen...
 Ah, that's better. Anyway, on to the next, and something that probably won't mean anything to those of you who haven't watched Babylon 5. Earlier today, frayer sent me a picture message containing proof that the Psi Corps is, in fact, real. Yes, they're undergoing a re-branding exercise, but they can't hide the truth - I even managed to locate the web page for their assessment centre. Sinister stuff, indeed.
Anyway, back in TVland, I got a bit of a late start with Heroes - not X-Men, the TV show, honest - which definately shows promise, and I'll be eagerly awaiting the next episode (and if the cheerleader's mother turns out not to be Calista Flockhart, I'll be most disappointed). Next up was the season premiere of Lost, to which I say OMGWTFBBQFISHBISCUIT (oops, minor spoiler there) - stay tuned for my comment on next week's episode. After that, came my very late start on Rome - although, to be fair, I was waiting until I finished my way through Colleen McCullough's Roman novels - and I suspect that I'll be romping through the DVDs at high speed. Finally, there was the two-part opener for Battlestar Galactica - why is it that the second half always downloads faster? - which continues the high standard, and certainly gets the third season of to an interesting start.
Right, that's enough for one evening. I'm off to take a happy pill - or, at least, drop one into a nice, hot bath... |
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| Kitchen Confidence-ial? | 27th Sep 2006 @ 21:12 |
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 So, it looks like I may finally get my shiny new fridge-freezer soon. In fact, it's due to be delivered on Monday. Something of a wait, to be sure, but it will be nice to have the kitchen finally finished. In celebration, last weekend I picked up a few bits and pieces to help finish the job - a nice blind for the window, and a little stool so that I can sit at the table to eat breakfast (an exciting new experience). Of course, I fully expect it to now prove impossible to manoeuvre the darned thing into the flat, at which point I shall be forced to curl up in a corner and cry. |
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| GIP! | 20th Sep 2006 @ 23:38 |
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 So, I mentioned a while back that I took a while bunch of pictures at the Ashmolean Museum, with the express purpose of making them into icons. Because, yes, I mock the art. I also got around to making a Data icon with a quote from an early TNG episode wich made me think "I have to make an icon of that!"
Anyway, here they are, for your amusement:
( Ten shiny new arty icons ) |
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