During this last week, I had a truly bizarre dream which involved, at one point, riding a bicycle through some rather hilly area of suburbia, and racing Wil Wheaton along the way.
Bear in mind that, until recently seeing him as the villain in a particularly weird episode of Criminal Minds (think Vacancy, and you won't be far wrong) the last I'd heard of Mr Wheaton was his appearance in the second and third seasons of Penny Arcade's D&D4E podcast... Why on Earth would my subconsious throw up the image of me racing with him on bicycles?
In other news, RED was pretty cool... I'm sure I'd read that it was based upon a DC Comics property, but I'd forgotten that until their logo flashed up on screen. It reminded me in some ways of A History of Violence, only the story was better. It could have done with being a bit more fleshed out but, already running to around 2 hours, they probably felt it best to keep it simple.
Also, I'm really having trouble with my boiler now... it's losing pressure inside of a day. Time to call in an engineer, I believe.
Monday, 25 October 2010
Saturday, 23 October 2010
Sunsets of all kinds
I had to snap this picture as soon as I caught sight of this sunset. Now the nights are drawing in, the sun is moving in a much shallower arc across the sky, and consequently sets very conveniently around this location for the next couple of weeks. This effect lasted only a couple of minutes, thanks to an incoming shower which quickly became a downpour. There's now no sign of the sun apart from a pinkish tinge to the grey clouds right at the horizon. Not even 6pm as I write, and it's about to get dark...
Didn't get up to much today, thanks to being very tired after an incredibly busy week. It shouldn't have been as bad as it was, but with all the veteran Copy Controllers off either on holiday or sick, our best Copy Controller in the office has only been working there for two weeks. That's not quite long enough to prepare for the 300-odd page behemoth we had to get to Press on Thursday.
Thankfully, even though my boss was out of the office that afternoon due to family matters, she was able to make the call I was too pig-headed to make: She contacted the Printers, and asked for an extension into Friday. I was convinced, right up till the last minute, that we'd be able to finish... but I was wrong. We were in a good state, but not good enough... and, for reasons beyond my control ('upgrades' to the Printers' file delivery system), we wouldn't have been able to finish uploading the magazine even if we had everything ready to send.
Friday, therefore, should have been a quick tidyup, having got ourselves into such a good position... but this was not to be. The 'upgrades' and their bizarre effects continued throughout the day to such an extent that, while the magazine was effectively finished around lunchtime, it was not all loaded and signed off till closer to 5pm. At the point of completion, I announced "Ladies and Gentleman... Leviathan has fallen. [The magazine] is done."
This should, in theory, be the last crazy month of the year, as next week was the schedule's October dead week. Following this, we are back to the normal schedule for November and December. Considering this month was supposed to be far busier than it was, I think we got off lightly - it was hardly the time to be bedding in new staff. On the other hand, if this month was supposed to be busier... I dread to think how slow and small my last couple of each magazine will be. Certainly, in one case, we lost money publishing a magazine this month... It may well be that we'll be saying goodbye to at least one title before we're made redundant.
I got up quite early today but, mid-afternoon, having restocked my freezer and had some lunch, I sat down to watch Confucius on DVD, and started feeling drowsy half way through. It's a slow movie, but really not that slow. Figuring that it was a sign that I should probably get a bit more sleep, I went back to bed for an hour or so.
Tomorrow, I shall be off to see RED with my old mate Paul... Looks like it'll be a lot of fun.
Monday, 18 October 2010
Down on the Upside
I popped into Uxbridge yesterday for a bit of shopping - there are DVDs and Wii games I've been meaning to pick up for quite a while (awaiting release dates in some cases), and I also felt like bolstering my wardrobe, having recently collected a bunch of clothes with the intention of getting rid of them one way or another.
Clothes came first and, considering the pile of mostly red laundry I have that's not quite big enough to be worth washing yet, I figured I'd buy a bunch more in red. I picked up a smart shirt, a comfy, thick shirt and a cool, fun shirt in varying degrees of redness, then a kind of t-shirt that tries to pretend it's two t-shirts, with buttons on the 'top' one that are sewn in place and do not function. I may well wear some of it to work tomorrow...
In the line of DVDs, I finally picked up Juno, having seen it on TV recently and been reduced to a blubbering - but happy - wreck by the denouement, and it was only £3. I further nabbed both Kick Ass and Confucious (who could resist Chow Yun-Fat portraying the Chinese philosopher?) which were on kinda-special, new-ish-release offer. Then I picked up Triangle (I felt the need for some horror in my weekend and, while I was intrigued by the trailer, I missed it in the cinema). By sheer chance, I saw the DVD release of Terry Pratchett's Going Postal, a TV movie/miniseries based on the eponymous book (far superior to The Colour of Magic, and at least on a par with Hogfather). Then I tripped over to the Disney section, where they were doing a 'buy one, get one free' offer. Tempting as it was to pick up everything (hey, I have a baby niece who needs to discover Disney sometime!), I made do with Up - which I missed in the cinema - and Bolt.
Up... is a real tear-jerker. I hear that one of my colleagues took his young son to see it, and both were crying by the end. I'm honestly not surprised - it caught me out not once but twice... the first time in the opening 11 minutes, with its incredibly well-judged (in the sense of manipulative) opening montage, charting the life of the protagonist. At the turning point in the movie - when he finally really reads the Adventure Book - it caught me again, stupidly off-guard. Damn, but those Pixar writers are good. In so many ways, Up is not a movie for kids - a huge chunk of it is far too mature, thematically... but then, the bulk of the movie is very much kiddy eyecandy, so I guess it all evens out.
Just remind me never to watch The Iron Giant, Voices of a Distant Star, Up and Juno on the same day.
Later on, as a form of therapy, I watched Triangle... which is also very well done... it's like Groundhog Day, only with far more blood and violence... And very definitely no happy ending. Possibly no ending. Of any kind.
For the Wii, I snagged Spiderman: Shattered Dimensions which, thusfar, although I haven't played it much, suggests I've avoided Spidey games for good reason. I'm not sure if it's the Wii controls or just me, but swinging around is proving quite complicated. There's also Capcom's Sengoku Basara Samurai Heroes... which is proving interesting. While it's basically a run-and-fight game, there's a tactical element in that each area must be conquered by beating its general... but the enemy can regroup and reclaim areas you've previously held. Even the first level proved too sneaky for me on the first attempt... but I did get to the final boss, at least.
Yesterday, I popped over to my folks, and shared Going Postal with them - I was not surprised that my father didn't fall asleep. It was very well done, overall, though I did feel Richard Coyle was playing Moist Von Lipwig for Theatre, while everyone else was playing for Film. It has been suggested that this was intentional, as Von Lipwig is a showman... but it wasn't just his flourishes that seemed off-key, it was many little details of his performance. Relative newcomer Claire Foy as Adora Belle Dearheart was inspired casting, as she suited Pratchett's own description of the character perfectly (just as well as Michelle Dockery suited Susan Death, I'd say). David Suchet's villain was well played, and Charles Dance as the Patrician was very different from Jeremy Irons' portrayal in The Colour of Magic - certainly more menacing. I loved all the subtle movie references throughout - a Pratchett staple these days, it would seem - and the very brief cameo by Joan Hickson at the beginning got me thinking of an on-set, off-camera face off between Suchet's Poirot and Hickson's Marple. Shame Agatha Christie didn't get round to that...
Clothes came first and, considering the pile of mostly red laundry I have that's not quite big enough to be worth washing yet, I figured I'd buy a bunch more in red. I picked up a smart shirt, a comfy, thick shirt and a cool, fun shirt in varying degrees of redness, then a kind of t-shirt that tries to pretend it's two t-shirts, with buttons on the 'top' one that are sewn in place and do not function. I may well wear some of it to work tomorrow...
In the line of DVDs, I finally picked up Juno, having seen it on TV recently and been reduced to a blubbering - but happy - wreck by the denouement, and it was only £3. I further nabbed both Kick Ass and Confucious (who could resist Chow Yun-Fat portraying the Chinese philosopher?) which were on kinda-special, new-ish-release offer. Then I picked up Triangle (I felt the need for some horror in my weekend and, while I was intrigued by the trailer, I missed it in the cinema). By sheer chance, I saw the DVD release of Terry Pratchett's Going Postal, a TV movie/miniseries based on the eponymous book (far superior to The Colour of Magic, and at least on a par with Hogfather). Then I tripped over to the Disney section, where they were doing a 'buy one, get one free' offer. Tempting as it was to pick up everything (hey, I have a baby niece who needs to discover Disney sometime!), I made do with Up - which I missed in the cinema - and Bolt.
Up... is a real tear-jerker. I hear that one of my colleagues took his young son to see it, and both were crying by the end. I'm honestly not surprised - it caught me out not once but twice... the first time in the opening 11 minutes, with its incredibly well-judged (in the sense of manipulative) opening montage, charting the life of the protagonist. At the turning point in the movie - when he finally really reads the Adventure Book - it caught me again, stupidly off-guard. Damn, but those Pixar writers are good. In so many ways, Up is not a movie for kids - a huge chunk of it is far too mature, thematically... but then, the bulk of the movie is very much kiddy eyecandy, so I guess it all evens out.
Just remind me never to watch The Iron Giant, Voices of a Distant Star, Up and Juno on the same day.
Later on, as a form of therapy, I watched Triangle... which is also very well done... it's like Groundhog Day, only with far more blood and violence... And very definitely no happy ending. Possibly no ending. Of any kind.
For the Wii, I snagged Spiderman: Shattered Dimensions which, thusfar, although I haven't played it much, suggests I've avoided Spidey games for good reason. I'm not sure if it's the Wii controls or just me, but swinging around is proving quite complicated. There's also Capcom's Sengoku Basara Samurai Heroes... which is proving interesting. While it's basically a run-and-fight game, there's a tactical element in that each area must be conquered by beating its general... but the enemy can regroup and reclaim areas you've previously held. Even the first level proved too sneaky for me on the first attempt... but I did get to the final boss, at least.
Yesterday, I popped over to my folks, and shared Going Postal with them - I was not surprised that my father didn't fall asleep. It was very well done, overall, though I did feel Richard Coyle was playing Moist Von Lipwig for Theatre, while everyone else was playing for Film. It has been suggested that this was intentional, as Von Lipwig is a showman... but it wasn't just his flourishes that seemed off-key, it was many little details of his performance. Relative newcomer Claire Foy as Adora Belle Dearheart was inspired casting, as she suited Pratchett's own description of the character perfectly (just as well as Michelle Dockery suited Susan Death, I'd say). David Suchet's villain was well played, and Charles Dance as the Patrician was very different from Jeremy Irons' portrayal in The Colour of Magic - certainly more menacing. I loved all the subtle movie references throughout - a Pratchett staple these days, it would seem - and the very brief cameo by Joan Hickson at the beginning got me thinking of an on-set, off-camera face off between Suchet's Poirot and Hickson's Marple. Shame Agatha Christie didn't get round to that...
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