Spending Spree

Thankfully, I actually got my bonus this month - all £500 worth for the last two months' work - as it came just in time to take the edge of the insurance payment for my flat. It also left me with some spending money above that of my usual pay packet.

And so...

I caved in and bought Demolishor and Sideways while food shopping in Sainsbury's (hey, it happens, OK?), then proceeded to take advantage of the special Toys'R'Us offer where £45 worth of TransFormers Movie merchandise nets you one free Deluxe (worth about £13), equating to near enough 25% extra free. I picked up RotF Leader Megatron (to make the bulk of the £45), Scout class Dirt Boss (to take me over £45) and claimed Deluxe Breakaway as my prize. I also managed to snag TF:Animated Swindle while I was there. Some of the new Robot Heroes were tempting, but they're cute rather than worthwhile. I may yet grab some... just not this month.

Impressions? Why not...

The abiding impression of Demolishor is that he's tiny. Surely one of the smallest Voyagers to date. He looks tiny in the box, and even smaller out in the open. Considering this guy's size in his brief appearance in the movie (Optimus Prime is only a little taller than Demolishor's head), I'm not sure Voyager was the right size class for him. Certainly, they'd never do a Leader Class version or a Supreme (which is the closest size class to what he'd need), but this thing isn't even in scale with Legends class figures. It seems strange that Starscream seems to fit his size class (though even he feels a little small) but, other than him, it's only the Movie 1 re-releases like Ironhide and Ratchet that really feel like Voyagers so far. Then again, Blackout was way too small two years ago, so I guess some characters just lose out.

Sideways is another one who doesn't last through the intro to the movie - he's literally sliced in half by Sideswipe. Nevertheless, he received more than adequate handling in Deluxe format. His car mode is close enough to the Audi in the movie, and robot mode looks suitably weird. There's something vaguely Insecticon about him - I can see kitbashes into Kickback. The red plastic used is way too bright, and is out of place when one considers the movie model... but a lick of paint will cover that up nicely.

Dirt Boss is based on one of the Decepticon Drones from the game based upon the first movie - he's a small forklift. The drone's large red eye is supplemented by a proper head for this release, but it doesn't quite fit the movie aesthetic... The same could be said for all the Scouts this time round. Overall, it's a decent figure, but the nigh-fluorescent greenish-yellow paintjob is a bit of an eyesore.

Breakaway is derived from the RotF videogame's Deep Six mission - he's the Autobot defending the US Navy against the attacking Decepticons, who are intent on retrieving Megatron from the abyss. He's a very strange model, and the colourscheme (beige, metallic grey-blue and lime green) really does not suit either a military plane or his very awkward robot mode, which is somewhat reminiscent of something out of Macross. He does require some 'surgery' right out of the box, to help him pose properly, but is quite a fun toy.

Leader Class Megatron is another missed opportunity - making it two for two in terms of Movie Megatrons - partly due to the writers insistence on denying Megatron any form of disguise. Thus, he's a Cybertronic Tank this time round. The voyager comes with extra armour plates to make him look like the flying version featured in the movie, but this one has a more accurate colourscheme (apart from the use of black on the the face, rather than a darker metallic colour). He's not a poseable as he could be, partly because the tank tread/heels don't fix in place (the leg features a peg hole, but the peg won't reach it). Tank mode honestly looks like Megatron just laid down. The visible head is part of the movie design, but that just seems like lazy design to me. The big disappointment is the lack of articulation in the gun arm, and the fact that the tank mode's turret can either be fixed and stable... or able to turn, but prone to flopping about and detaching from the body. But, hey, when you push a lever down on his chest, lots of gears spin, lights flash, and he says "Megatron... Ha ha haaaaa!". Just like Prime, the "I am..." part is missing... and it's not a fault with just mine - I tried others in the shop. Strange...

Animated Deluxe Swindle is a wonderful homage to the G1 original. He looks suitably sneaky, has his huge cannon (hero worshipping Megatron, perhaps?) an those big purple eyes from the old days. The light piping on these is particularly effective but there's so much transparent purple plastic elsewhere (upper arms and legs, fingers and thumbs) that I'm worried about his long-term survival.

A mixture of good and average, overall... not a bad haul, but how much more will the RotF line offer? Of the upcoming stuff I'm aware of, I'm only really keen on Mudflap, Jetfire, The Fallen, and possibly Mixmaster and more of the Human Alliance figures.

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On an unusually personal note...

I'm not quite sure what to make of the current storyline in Megatokyo. That webcomic has kept me reading for several years now (and I've bought the books - far more portable than any laptop, longer battery life, and the download speed of each strip easily beats wireless broadband), but the recent focus on the relationship between Piro and Miho, via the Endgames world, has struck a bit of a chord.

My experiences weren't identical. It wasn't so much an online game as a writing group (though it occasionally functioned like a text-based MMORPG, and we'd been chatting online for a while before we got involved in the group because of a gallery on my website)... She became, in a sense, my Muse... started me off in a creative direction I'd never considered, and appeared to believe in me when I didn't believe in myself. I happily reciprocated, and it appeared that our communication - my small part in her life - helped her through some particularly strained times.

Every so often, she'd disappear for days at a time, but always bounced back with apologies and assurances that everything was OK.

At times, back then, and much more in retrospect, the whole experience reminded me of Nick Bantock's Griffin & Sabine trilogy. I'm not sure that was ever a good thing.

When the subject of exchanging photos came up - as it inevitably does - she consistently declined, for a variety of reasons, some of which strayed into contradiction. Call me naive, but that never mattered to me - at the very least, it was obvious that the person I was writing to was female even before we spoke on the phone. But I believed in the feelings she claimed to have (which I shared), to the point that it almost wouldn't have mattered.

The way it 'ended' between Piro and Miho (in quotes because it clearly hasn't truly ended for those two) was almost the reverse of the final communication between me and the girl a couple of my friends now refer to as "the bunny boiler" - having agreed to meet (meaning flying almost literally to the other side of the world for me), she backpeddled a week or so before I was due to fly. All the warnings I'd had from friends, and all of the warning signs I'd spotted myself and happily ignored in my strange, romantic delusion basically hit me all at once, like a particularly icy tidal wave. She announced that she'd just started dating someone ("a really great guy"), when I pretty much already knew it had been going on for at least a month because she had been talking about him in a particular way (later confirmed by a mutual online friend). When she wrote that she'd still like to meet me, I replied that, considering the twisted game she'd played on me, I never wanted to hear from her again and that I didn't believe she existed (whether I meant 'as the person she claimed to be' or 'at all', I am no longer sure...).

When I flew out (the damned flight was booked and paid for, so I took the holiday anyway, somewhat determined to do some of the sightseeing we'd discussed), I'm pretty sure she was at the airport when I arrived. I didn't get a good look, as the young woman seemed determined to stay out of my line of sight... but I had the sense of her presence, a remnant of the connection we had built up... and I didn't feel like giving her the satisfaction of a confrontation.

The whole thing nagged at me for many years since, though. Fairly recently (last year sometime?), at the urging of a couple of friends, I looked her up again on the internet. Turns out some of her art has found its way onto a website or two. Then I was most amused to find that she's on Facebook using her real name (not a common one by a long shot, and certainly not in her home country), and even has a photo there. She's certainly similar enough to the young woman I glimpsed at the airport, and seeing her picture set my mind at ease on the whole, silly affair. When a friend offered me the use of her Facebook account to look into "the bunny boiler" in more detail, I was happy to decline...

...Then I started reading about Piro's 'prior relationship' with Miho, and suddenly all kinds of chords are being struck and memories jogged.

Fred Gallagher's writing has been sensitive and insightful, and the current conversation between Piro and Kimiko (to date, strips 1206-1215) - in particular, Piro's clumsy attempts to veil his mixed feelings - echos many such conversations I've had with friends.

Were it not so dreadful, it would almost be comforting that my experience is not as uncommon as I'd thought, if a similar thing has become part of the plot in a renowned webcomic.

Apologies for blathering.

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Revenge of the Sequel

My old mate Paul got tickets for TransFormers: Revenge of the Fallen at IMAX today. All things considered, he was very lucky, as the film only opened yesterday, and has been selling out. The IMAX cinema in London decided to put on extra shows not only at midnight, but at around 3am as well.

So... Was it any good?

Well, like the first, it's not perfect... but it's a significant improvement on the first, while maintaining its most significant flaw: for a film about TransFormers, it had too great a focus on the humans, Sam Witwicky in particular, and too little on the Robots in Disguise. If the first film was 'a story about a boy and his first car', then this one is 'a story about a boy leaving the family home and finding his place in the world' or, to describe it in more heavy-handed terms, 'a story about a boy finding his destiny'.

Strangely, the bit about The Fallen using a machine to generate Energon by destroying our sun, and a newly-reactivated Megatron effectively being Anakin to The Fallen's Darth Sidious is very nearly relegated to the status of sub-plot. It may be rather more 'in your face' than Sam's story, but the most significant dialogue comes from the humans.

I'd have to concur with the common gripe that the majority of the Decepticons are little more than cannon fodder for the combined Autobot/Human task force N.E.S.T., in particular Sideways is literally cut in half within a few minutes of first appearing on screen, and Demolishor's entire screen time is pretty much covered in the trailers. Shame, as they're both interesting looking robots, and it would have been cool to see them in a bit more detail.

There was barely any characterisation among the robots and, again, Optimus Prime's character wasn't quite what it should be (not as bad as the impatient, thuggish Optimus of the first film, but his tone was still a little off). The twins, Skids and Mudflap, were handled reasonably well but other newcomers were not. Sideswipe had only a couple of lines, Jolt had none and seemed to be in the movie for the sole purpose of electrifying something at a key moment... And Bumblebee was back to speaking through his radio. Even returning characters were not built upon for the most part although, thankfully, the relationship between Megatron and Starscream carried a bit more weight.

The most impressive Decepticon was easily Soundwave - orbiting Earth, scanning broadcasts, hacking networks and violating our communication satellites with his fibre-optic tentacles. After him Ravage would come next on purely technical grounds - his movement was flawless. Wheelie - a mini-bot even more foul-mouthed than Frenzy taking a similar sneak-spy role - probably had the most character (if not the most dialogue) of any of the robots.

Story-wise, it was rather patchy, and jumped around too much. I found it quite disconcerting that Megatron was delivering exposition during a woodland battle with Optimus Prime, and many of the scene-cuts seemed too abrupt.

It was interesting to see the role of Sam's parents was improved upon - yes, they were there for comic relief, but they also has some worthwhile scenes... though the 'significant' scene between Sam and his parents during the final battle was far too heavy-handed and obvious.

Considering Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci co-wrote the recent Star Trek reboot, it seems bizarre that the quality of this story is so far below that of Trek. Perhaps JJ Abrams made all the difference.

There were comments from Michael Bay quoted all over the web about how they were all rushing to finish the movie in time for its release date (not surprising, considering it kept getting pushed forward!), and I suspect the film may have benefitted by a little extra time - vehicle models were apparently reused between the constituent parts of Devastator and a separate bunch of Decepticons who, based on leaked materials, appeared to be equivalent to the G1 Constructicons. It was rather jarring to see the fully formed Devastator wrecking a pyramid, while Rampage, Mixmaster and a back-from-the-dead Bonecrusher were going head to head with N.E.S.T. alongside a host of 'Protoform' Decepticons... That must have been due either to a lack of time or money... possibly both. But, since the Decepticons were there to be mown down, it hardly mattered that many of them didn't even get to take on an Earth form.

All of this sounds rather negative but I honestly enjoyed the movie. After being disappointed by the first, I've kind of adjusted my expectations - this is a whole new continuity of TransFormers, and needs to be viewed as such. While The Fallen, Jetfire, the mysterious 'Alice' and the Matrix of Leadership were largely dealt short shrift, the movie in general was very enjoyable and kept the pace going all the way through. The action was constant and far clearer than in the original, and fewer of the comic relief moments felt tacked-on. I'll definitely be getting the DVD.

As far as the toys go, who knows? There weren't that many new Autobots (the team of 3 motorcycles are, frankly, a bit crappy-looking), and several of the Decepticons may or may not have been new characters with the same alternate modes as robots from the original, so there aren't gone to be that many new toys, other than videogame-only characters and those that are completely made up for the toyline. My bank balance may be safer than I thought...

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Pretty Skies This Evening...

Taken a short while ago from my lounge window...

After a long chat with my sister last night, I had resolved to do some drawing today. I didn't manage that, but I guess these go some way to making up for that.

With any luck, I might be able to do some drawing tomorrow but, to be honest, I don't hold out that much hope... I'm in the "I don't know what to draw" phase, so I probably won't even go near my sketchpad and pencils.

That, and my mother phoned today to let me know she was going to Ikea, then that she was at Ikea, sorting out replacement doors for my display cabinets. It seems the kind that are on my existing cabinets are of a style no longer available... so the replacement doors and those for the new cabinet(!) will be subtly different. No real problem, as the cabinet with the broken door has the CD rack between it and the next cabinet, so continuity is not an issue... and the new cabinet(!) - the fourth(!!) - will be against another wall entirely anyway.

Once they had been ordered, delivery was organised for this evening, but my mother forgot to mention to them that my entryphone didn't seem to be working. No matter... it turned out when Ikea arrived (in an unmarked people mover) that the entryphone is working just fine. The driver sent me a text to say he was outside, and I called him straight back to suggest he might be at the wrong address, considering I didn't see an Ikea van, and also to warn him about the possible entryphone problem but, as I was on the phone to him, he rang the doorbell. I said I'd give it a try but, if it didn't work, I'd be down in a moment... by the time I got down there, he'd jammed the door open with a wedge of paper, and was preparing to unload.

I helped him upstairs with everything, paid him off, and that was that. My folks are popping round tomorrow to help me build it, and to fix it to the wall.

Today was, in that respect, a far more constructive one than I'd originally thought.

My boss called on her way out of the office - at about 7.45 - complaining bitterly that the last 45 minutes were an utter waste, because the two (relatively new) salespeople working on today's magazine were lacking significant points their training. They hadn't checked through any of the proofs, nor crosschecked the flatplan against the sales database... and the magazine manager who was supposed to be keeping an eye on them had barely been into the office.

As a safeguard, my next magazine has been put back to Tuesday. Any other week, and that might worry me... Then again, I don't believe I've seen the editorial list for my next Friday magazine... And it went so smoothly last month... with the Editor on holiday...

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Note to Self:

Using housekeys to open stubborn lids is a BAD IDEA.

So here's the thing: Yesterday, I got in touch with Harroow Council and ordered by replacement bin. I was told it'd arrive in 3-10 working days.

It arrived this morning. Hurrah, right?

Well, yes, except inasmuch as I haven't got any labels for it yet, so I had to paint my flat number on it again. I took down a brush and a pot of paint that was lying around in the bathroom, and then realised that I should probably have opened the paint while I was upstairs, and had access to tools because, standing by the bin, I had only the contents of my pockets... Specifically, my flat keys.

There I was, inadvisedly using said keys as leverage to open a plastic pot of paint, and I noticed that I'd managed to bend one... the key to my front door. I tried to bend it back, with some success and so, having painted my number on my shiny new bin (and it seems the word 'black' is taboo at Harrow - I'd call it a black wheelie bin, they refused to acknowledge it as anything other than grey), I came back upstairs.

...And my key didn't fit in the lock anymore.

Shit.

Everything I have that might be used to straighten a key is inside.

Except... Maybe...

One of my birthday presents was a potted strawberry plant. Quite a weighty pot. So I jammed the key underneath it and pushed down, hoping to flatten it out.

And, being a very fortunate soul, it worked. With my key straightened, I re-entered my flat, and immediately went to my front windows to check that my bin was still there. And it was.

Still is.

Phew.

But, yes, gentle reader, if ever you are tempted to use keys as leverage to open something, rather than using them as intended, to unlock things... Remember this tale, and how it could so easily have gone terribly wrong (who knew a plastic paint pot lid would be stronger than a metal key? Who makes these damned pots?! How much longer would I have been trying to use it before it broke?), and think again. Keys are not tools for opening pots.

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For Those Who Did Not Believe

I present you a (broken) panorama of yesterday's storm...



Of course, the threatened storm never actually materialised - the rain, such as it was, passed quite quickly and, by the time I went to bed, it was back to being rather hot.

For those who are interested, here are yesterday's new recruits:


(l-r: Skids, Human Alliance Bumblebee (rear), Rampage (mid), Sam Witwicky (front) and Wheelie.)

They're all pretty spiffy in their own way, but Skids has balance issues, Rampage may take huge liberties with the movie design (like adding 2 extra legs at the back, though this does make him look like a robotic Centaur) and Wheelie's a bit flimsy. I would say that Human Alliance Bumblebee is a true Ultimate Bumblebee, were it not for a few reservations about his articulation (head doesn't tilt, ankles don't tilt), and the fact that the right arm gun isn't interchangable with another hand... Still, it manages to be better than the actual Ultimate Bumblebee in just about every significant way... Still struggling to transform him back into car mode, through... it's very fiddly.

In other news, I tried contacting Harrow Council again today... and got through no problem. No hiss, crackle, breakup... perfectly clear all the way. I even managed to get the bin sorted as a replacement (£15) rather than a new bin (£40).

That's pretty much all the important stuff for the week done.

And, hey, 35!

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The Approaching Storm

I sit here, in my lounge, sensing a change in the weather...

My boss warned me earlier today that a storm was expected this afternoon, but the day so far has been flawlessly bright and summery. I popped over to Uxbridge to do some shopping (breadbin, kitchen scales, pedal bin for bathroom on the practical side... and a whole bunch of TransFormers on the impractical side... and now that I'm thinking about what I bought, it occurs to me that I didn't pick up writing paper, envelopes or stamps for posting off the cheque for my annual ground rent... Bugger) and the sunshine was everywhere. A truly lovely day.

Now, of course, it has clouded over almost completely, the gusting wind is getting stronger, and there's a slight chill in the air... Which does definitely suggest a storm on the way. Something tells me it's still a couple of hours away, but I may close my windows sooner rather than later, to avoid any trouble.

Today's new recruits in my collection are all from the Revenge of the Fallen line - Deluxes Wheelie, Skids and Rampage, and Human Alliance Bumblebee - having got one for my boss, I figured I might as well have one for myself. The girl who served me in The Entertainer (who must surely have been working there in her lunch break from school) confessed that she was quite looking forward to the movie, despite the usual 'Big Summer Event Movie' mixed reviews. I agreed, and added that at least the Generation 1 nuts had shut up now.

It occurred to me shortly after that she may have had no idea what I was talking about...

Tomorrow, I shall head over to my folks for Birthday lunch, and probably deal with the cheque-accompanying letter while I'm there... I may also try phoning Harrow Council again, to try to get my new bin (bugger - I forgot to pick up number labels as well!), since my attempts this morning failed due to a strange phone problem that only occurred when I tried to phone Harrow Council. I managed to speak to the Managing Agents and to Southern Electric perfectly well... But Harrow was crackly and unintelligible. I'll try them again tomorrow morning, and then, if it's the same from my parents' house, I may give BT a call to report it... even if it's not my line that's the problem.

I've even managed to work through the best part of my week's To Do list just today... even if I have added to it by buying more toys... That's pretty good, for me.

And how lucky is this?: I started closing my windows just as the first spots of rain started falling... and there's a huge, dark cloudbank heading in now.

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The Day Before 35

Well, here comes another milestone (millstone?)

Tomorrow is my 35th Birthday... This seems to be the age at which one must have achieved some level of satisfaction with one's life, because so many folks seem to dread it (when younger) or look fondly upon it (when older).

I have to admit, I just don't feel 34 years and 364 days old. Whenever younger folks at work have asked me what it's like to be my age (how pathetic they sound, as if they doubt they'll ever last that long, and want some wizened insights from an aged oracle such as myself), I tell them - in all honesty - that it's just like being 17, but I'm probably fitter now than I was then.

Now, I have reason to doubt myself on that last part every so often. I have more aches and pains, I've never been able to run far, and I'm fairly sure some things have become heavier while I've not been paying attention... but, on the whole, that's an accurate assessment of what it's like to be me at my age.

What they'll feel like at my age is anyone's guess, considering the amount of alcohol they put away.

But anyway.

I'm about to be 35, I own my first home, and I'm bloody good at my job. I'm about to be an uncle (OK, that's a rather vicarious achievement).

I haven't been published - either as a writer of fiction or in the form of a videogame - but I have ideas and (most days) some inclination to do something with them. The least I can do is get on with this darned blog!

I need to sketch more... I'm getting rusty and, thereby, losing confidence in my ability.

Tomorrow, I'll be popping over to my folks for lunch, and to pick up a few bits and bobs that I left over there last week, with the intention of picking them up during the week, as I transfer more of my models over to the flat.

Of course, the Tube strike put paid to that idea, as the amount of traffic meant that detours to my folks' house would have been a nightmare. This week is also possibly looking a little unlikely, if only because I'm off work, and so won't have access to a car to get me home.

Other than this, what's been happening?

Well, last week's trip to the cinema with my folks was pretty excellent. Star Trek was just as good the second time round, and my parents really enjoyed it. They liked the original, but weren't so attached to it (not least because they hated Shatner) that they objected to anything in the reboot.

Terminator: Salvation turned out to be a decent addition to the franchise, introducing a prototype Terminator and the young Kyle Reese. I heard that they have plans for a fifth and sixth installment of the franchise assuming this one is successful... but I'd say it can only get creepy from here. Remember the first film? Kyle Reese said that he'd been given a photo of Sarah Connor by John Connor... He fell in love with that image and so volunteered to go back in time, chasing a Terminator, to protect her, and thereby became John Connor's father. Now Older John and Young Kyle are together, we're going to have to see how that photo changed hands... It didn't seem to matter so much when John Connor was just a name from the future, and Kyle Reese was played by Michael Biehn... but now John Connor is grown man, and a character we've followed for three films, and Kyle Reese is a teenager. It just gets creepier the more you think about it.

That'll be all for the moment... I have things to do today that I really shouldn't put off...

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On the Behaviour of Electronic Devices

There is a universal constant... Well, universal as my life goes... that says "No matter how long you procrastinate, a malfunctioning computer will get worse until such time as you make arrangements to replace it. At this point, the malfunctions cease."

And so it goes that my Dell laptop, having done all kinds of crazy things a few weeks ago, has been behaving very well. It's still slowing down dramatically and being generally cantankerous as only a PC a few years old can be, but it's not blanking its screen, showing me scrolling green bars, resetting, or anything along those lines. It's 'back to normal'.

I'm still getting it replaced, though.

So... Long absence from Blogging. Frankly, I haven't had much time for it and, when I've had time, I just haven't been in the mood. There hasn't been a great deal to say apart from the run-of-the-mill work crap, and a few not-so-run-of-the-mill happenings that I can't really write about without getting too specific. Let's just say it has been decided by the higher-ups that a change in culture is required for the office.

I've had some bloody odd dreams these last couple of nights. One was almost a return to my intermittently-recurring dreams of toy shops stacked with TransFormers. This one, however, was almost bare of everything - picture Woolworths in its last few days - but I found, as I browsed, a few carded G1 Bumblebees right at the back of the shop. Upon closer inspection, however, it turned out that they were not exactly G1 Bumblebee... The head could be switched between the cartoon face (of the TakaraTomy TF Collection reissue) and the original toy face, Movie battlemask-style. The gimmick worked by somehow having the original toy face stored folded away in the helmet, which was made slightly larger (as in sticking out further from the chromed plate it was stuck to) than the real thing. It was a neat gimmick, so I picked one up for my boss, who's still on the Bumblebee-collecting jag she picked up after the first live action movie two years ago. Shame it was a dream.

The next weird dream seemed to be a combination of work and Dan Brown's Angels and Demons. I had discovered a plot to assassinate the Pope by some unknown means. Meanwhile, my employers were doing some work on behalf of the Catholic Church. I was scheduled to have a meeting with their local representative one evening, along with two of my colleagues but, due to some strange, unforseen London Transport failure, the meeting was postponed, and I invited my colleagues to stay at my flat overnight, so we could get to the meeting first thing the next morning.

I should mention, at this point, that when I say "my flat", I don't actually mean the one I'm living in... Oh, no... This dream placed me in an enormous, sprawling central London bachelor pad, high above the city streets.

So I set about finding places for my colleagues to sleep in the many rooms of my luxury flat, when suddenly another person arrived at my door, and was let in by one of my guests.

It was the representative of the Catholic Church who we were due to meet in the morning! One of my colleagues had called her, told her of my plan, and invited her over as well.

It wouldn't have been so bad if I wasn't acutely aware that, since I knew of the Pope-murdering-conspiracy, They would be sending an assassin my way... and if my finely-honed dream instincts hadn't identified this new arrival as that very assassin!

So while my colleagues set about making her welcome (in my flat! Humph!), I set about blocking myself in my room to avoid being killed in the night.

I woke up before it got interesting...

Popped off to see Night at the Museum 2 last night, and have to say I was impressed - it built upon the original rather than recycling it. I hadn't recognised Amy Adams from the trailer, but she did an excellent job as the jolly, bantering Amelia Earhart and, bizarrely, Ricky Gervais actually presented a likable performance as the curator of the Natural History museum in New York. Hank Azaria's Karloff-inspired performance as an evil waxwork Egyptian king was reliably funny throughout the film, effortlessly stealing the show.

My cabinets have moved in with me now and, following a mishap that broke the glass in one door, all have been secured to the wall. Now all I need to do is start fillin' 'em up and finish transferring boxes from the house.

Over this weekend, I shall be popping back to the house on Saturday for just this purpose... and to take my folks to see Star Trek and then eat out as a 'Thank You'. Then, on Sunday, I'm meeting up with my old mate Paul and heading off to see Terminator: Salvation. What fun.

Toys from the TransFormers live action movie sequel are appearing in shops everywhere... I have already availed myself of the new Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Sideswipe, Soundwave and Starscream. Broadly speaking, I'm impressed. The first Movie Prime was good... but this one is incredible, only let down by the twin sword gimmicks that limit his elbow movement. Bumblebee is only subtly altered, but mostly for the better. Sideswipe - while the wrong type of car and the wrong colours - is bloody impressive, and the new Starscream is a bit of a mixed back. Soundwave..? Kinda blah, to be honest.

I've also managed to bag Universe Darkwind - a repaint of Silverbolt that manages to far surpass the original - and Animated Blurr. Both are pretty darned good... but that shopping spree has cost me well over a hundred quid in a month that I wasn't paid my bonus. Ouch.

Oh well... Supposedly I get a double-bonus this month.

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