Month: May 2002

Ya know this is pretty damn cool. I’ve always wanted to be able to go and build my own client, now that I’m actually doing it (or close enough) it’s as good as I hoped it would be 🙂

So my order from Amazon that I talked about a few days ago arrived, and all on the same day too. But the fuckers in Customs have stung me for 12:58 in charges for one of the packages that would now have been cheaper to buy here for sure. Bastards 🙁

AICN sums up part of the magic of “Attack of the Clones” 30 minutes of unprecedented ILM pornography ensues 🙂

I am still on a “I’ve seen Star Wars” high and a few hours later and please shoot me for it, I do want to see it again, well only the last 45 minutes. From the second you see Mace Windu in the tunnel it starts to rock. I look forward to the time I own this on DVD to enjoy those scenes over and over again.

On other fronts, having given it some thought, I have less guilt than I originally believed. There were other options, but nothing for both of us, so yes I can feel guilty about my issues with them, but I don’t have to feel guilt for issues that were not mine. It’s nice to realise that, I do feel quite a bit better about that but still…

It’s been a strange week telling people, or more to the point not telling people. I actually three people, everyone else it has come up in conversation or they read it here (not likely). So I guess most people in work know now, my bosses wife did manage to find out the hard way by putting her foot in it, but the look on her face made it all good, well not really good, but you know that feeling you have when you know you just fucked up and walked into something? Anyways it kinda helped take it away from the content, but I did feel sorry for her. She sent her apologies again this morning so I had to feel more bad.

Moving away from all that, have you ever had someone tell you something about their perception of you that just blows you away? Where someone says something that as far as your concerned came from nowhere and it’s a real case that you simply can’t see how they can think that? In this case aside from being highly flattered, I was amazed that he could think that. Perception is an interesting thing.

Attack of the Yoda

Today being Sunday, around the world millions of people are taking part in various religious ceremonies. This is a pretty standard practice, however today I was amongst those numbers. At 9:30am I was outside the Odeon in Kensington for a preview of Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of The Clones. I was quite excited about this for a number of reasons, 1) it’s Star Wars 2) It has Samuel L Jackson with a lightsabre and using it and 3) I was seeing it before the rest of the world at a special screening.

Anyways I enjoyed it, quite a bit with a number of reservations though. It’s too long for one, coming in at around two and half hours was at least an hour too long for the story being told. It could have been done in two hours and not have lost anything. Saying that I did not want the last forty-five minutes or so to end. Acting wise, Ewan McGregor (Obi-Wan Kenobi) does a damn solid job and Natalie Portman (Padmé Amidala) is a joy to watch as always. Christopher Lee (Count Dooku) and Samuel L Jackson (Mace Windu) are the gods you expect but are both hideously under used. Hayden Christensen (Anakin Skywalker) just plainly did not work, but I am unsure as to whether that was his acting or his role. In the movie I just saw, it was completely inconceivable for Padmé to fall in love with Anakin.

However and just to prove how complete a geek I am, one of the biggest problems I had with the film was the Jedis and their use of lightsabres. When Mace Windu walks up to Count Dooku, you just know your going to enjoy the next few minutes. When all around the arena you see Jedi Knights pulling their lightsabres out it just gets better and it’s easily the best scene in the movie. Unfortunately the follow through falls short. Yes, the Jedi are facing tons of droids and yes they kick ass, but they all look like they are in front of a blue screen swinging a stick. There is a complete lack of energy and even action. They stand on the spot and swing their arms. I was very disappointed with all the money poured into FX and some are really done well I would have given this some extra effort. Here I was also waiting for Mace Windu to come into his own, for fuck sake you have Samuel L Jackson kicking ass with a lightsabre why would you cut to anyone else? The fight between Mace and Jango Fett was kinda lacking too, it didn’t showcase anything that you would expect from either of the characters.

Anyway it did have a couple of really nice twists that I hadn’t seen coming that really work well and do actually leave me looking forward to the next one a lot.

The battle between Count Dooku and Anakin Skywalker was also quite lacking. While it should have been this monumental battle, especially considering the result instead have the lights turned off and we see blades whishing in the dark and close ups of their faces. It really did not work.

Now of course I have to talk about Yoda. I really don’t know what to say though, seeing Yoda pull out a lightsabre and kick ass made me laugh so much. It was just comedic but it worked really well. It is quite amazing how the technology worked so well and made Yoda look so awesome. This and the massive battle at the end that starts off the war are reasons to see it again.

Overall verdict. Enjoyable but overlong. I’ve seen it once, I more than likely won’t see it in the cinema again, but I will buy it on DVD. I have to say that in the end I preferred Spiderman, it was more fun and a more enjoyable movie.

Today was kinda good. I slept in, it was close to one before I even woke up which was nice. Afternoon consisted of some Gamesube and a trip out to get my comics. So far so good on all of them, my splash purchase of the day was “The Complete Frank Miller Spider-Man” in hardback. It’s Frank Miller and I’m on a Spider-Man kick these days, this cannot be bad. I am also curious as to his first take on DareDevil so that should all be good.

In other comics news, Thundercats is coming back from Wildstorm comics, this I am looking forward too. Story here

So I started a post, got three lines into it and realises that a) I did not know what I wanted to say, b) I did not know how to say it and c) I did not want to say it.

So instead I’m going to go play some more Rouge Leader on my new GameCube and not talk about perceptions other people can hold.

A new young monk arrives at the monastery. He is assigned to help the other monks in copying the old canons and laws of the church by hand. He notices,however, that all of the monks are copying from copies, not the original manuscripts. So, the new monkgoes to the head abbot to ask him about this, pointing out that if there was an error in the first copy from the original, that error would be continued in all ofthe subsequent copies. The head monk says, “We have been copying from the copies for centuries, but you make a good point, my son”. So, he goes down into the dark caves underneath the monastery where the original manuscript is held in a locked vault that hasn’t been opened for centuries. Hours go by and nobody sees the old abbot. So, the young monk gets worried and goes downstairs to look for him. He sees him banging his head against thewall. His forehead is all bloody and bruised and he is crying uncontrollably. The young monk asks the old abbot, “What’s wrong, father? With a choking voice, the old abbot replies, “The word is celebrate”

I saw someone die yesterday morning and quite messily too. It was a lorry versus motorbike thing and well it didn’t turn out well for the guy on the motorbike. Of course this caused me to be late for work as the bus could not get past so a brisk walk to the tube station was called for. I did note that when I passed by on the way home again later last night all of the not insubstantial blood had been cleaned up.

Lots of blood and brains really are grey. It wasn’t really the way I wanted to start my day.