Didn't Suck...

Having been utterly hopeless about getting to the flat to finish painting the kitchen all week, I managed to get it all pretty much done - bar the very tricky bits - today. One wall essentially got a whole second coat of paint, another had substantial touch-ups that amounted to a second coat, and there's only a few bits around the window and the cupboards that still need finishing.

I even opened the tin of darker paint, and did all I needed to with that.

Some tidy-up work is still required... and I may try to coax my mother into giving me a few tips for the final little touches tomorrow, though I think I just need to unmount the doors on a couple of the cupboards.

Of course, it should come as no surprise that, when I removed much of the masking tape, the undercoat had seeped under it more than the final coat of paint, so I have several little strips of white still to cover.

Some of the rest of my day was taken up by watching (in fact, falling asleep through) some anime - one of the later Lupin III movies called The Secret of Twilight Gemini. I still can't quite figure out why, out of the three Lupin III movies I have, two feature transvestites as villains. Or should that be 'why only two...'? The later two are very different in terms of style and content.

Once I'd had a doze, I decided to bring out the Saturn and have a slightly more serious go at Resident Evil than I've ever had before. I think I bought it originally because my old mate Paul had the PlayStation version, and it was a 'big game' at the time. I don't recall enjoying it a great deal, but then zombie games and movies tend to flip me straight into Panic Mode for some reason. Not so much with the movies these days, as they tend to be very watered down and generic (particularly the Resident Evil movies, which barely rate as zombie movies anyway), but it's certainly not just the voice acting that's scary in the RE games, and even the likes of Saturn-only Johnny-come-lately aqua-zombie-survival-horror Deep Fear.

I got much further than ever before (playing as Jill, I was eventually done in by crows in the gallery), and found it to be quite a satisfying gaming experience. The only problem was my own tendency to try to solve every problem with gunfire. I seem to recall (now the adrenaline has worn off) that the player is supposed to run away from the crows, not attempt to shoot them. The genre is called 'Survival Horror' for a reason.

The controls took some getting used to... I may have to try an alternate layout, as I tend to use A as confirm and B as cancel, so it's good that the controls can be changed.

Returning to my parents' house as darkness fell, I managed to amuse myself catching up with Friday's email and TransFormers news (of particular interest is a new, larger-format, almost Alternator-styled Bumblebee for the new movie. He comes with a Sam action figure which can sit inside him in car mode, or on his shoulder, or even on his gun arm. Why is anyone's guess.

This evening's Demons is one I'd been looking forward to since I first heard about the series, but had started to think they were going to avoid - the last of the Van Helsings versus a couple of vampires!

Overall, I have to say it was probably the best story so far (though that ain't saying a great deal - while I like the series so far on balance, the stories have been rather flat). Tonight's had some depth, didn't go overboard on the lame special effects, and used its characters quite effectively. I suspect the premise hadn't been pared down too heavily, and it would have been far more substantial had it been a mere 30 minutes longer. Some of the history could have been explored more coherently, and the villains could have had a bit more character to play with.

That said, I'd have enjoyed it on some level just because the female vampire dressed sexily and had the best makeup job I've ever seen on a vampire, let alone a vampire in a TV series. The only letdowns were the rarity with which any fangs were seen (yawn), and the fact that what little biting occurred was implied.

Oh, and the dialogue wasn't great. Vampires aren't always utterly charming, it seems... The main one in this episode attempted to chat up a waitress at a bowling alley thusly:

Waitress: "What do you want?"
Vampire Bloke: "You...[reads her nametag] Gina"
W: [laughs nervously] "I'm not for sale"
VB: "I wasn't intending to pay..."

Cut to vampire and entourage leaving the back way, wiping his gob and tossing aside Gina's nametag. Um. Yeah.

Still, the story played out fairly well, and it's implied that the sexy vampire sidekick got away (supposedly only a vampire can kill a vampire, so the stake in her gut - evidently Galvin couldn't find her heart - would only "slow her down") so perhaps she'll return. Doubt it though.

Next week's appears to involve a dragon.

Whatever next?

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