| First Day... |
[Nov. 28th, 2009|08:38 pm] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | the couch | ] |
| [ | mood |
| |  Wallaby Ted's big brother | ] |
 ...was really good. The staff are as awesome as I remember, we used a system that avoided long queues, most of the kids were great, I have been asked to work an extra hour each day, and the boss was looking at letting me go half an hour earlier, since it was quiet - at full pay - but I stayed back anyway to finish my shift.
Drove home, and have been on the couch ever since, totally exhausted.
Woohoo! *yawn* |
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| For Sale - One Santa, some wear and tear... |
[Nov. 27th, 2009|04:07 pm] |
Well, I've gone and put myself up on eBay!
Would have preferred a funnier write-up, but I didn't have a lot of time. Wanted it to finish with plenty of time to figure out the details, assuming anyone takes me up on it. Also, given the nature of the thing, and that people would be allowing a stranger into their homes, I thought something not too silly would be a good idea. I wanted to put it up under services, but for that you have to quote a firm figure. If someone can figure a better category than Personalised Gifts, that will let me do the auction format, would love to hear it.
Feel free to spread the word, too. On one hand I'm hoping some nice family will get me for the cost of petrol money. On the other, if bidding went insane, that'd be kind of nice. First pref though is cover my costs and give some kids a great surprise.
I Santa-ed for one particular family for a few years, and loved doing it, so I'm half hoping to be able to again. As it is, I contacted my friend Glenn and told him my beard was gone in preparation for tomorrow, so I would be able to pay a visit in costume to his kids at Christmas. Looking forward to that. |
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| Nice to be wanted |
[Nov. 25th, 2009|10:45 pm] |
The Entertainment Store rang me today to see if I could fill-in on some Father Christmas-ing.
On one hand, tempting, I absolutely love the job, and love working for ES. It would be six hours over this weekend and again the next.
On the other hand, the weekend is where I rest up after looking after Lex through the week, so I can be ready for the next week. Santa-ing knocks the stuffing out of me.
On one foot, money! I like money, it tastes like plastic but allows me to do or buy Things (TM)!
On the other foot, we have a guest coming to stay over the next two weekends. Between looking after Lex during the week, Kringling, and post-Kringling recovery on the weekend, it would cut into much of my available time to hang.
Balanced on my nose, if I do play Hanakoko, it will pretty much confirm that I'll also be playing the part for the children of some friends of mine, and possibly be putting a visit from St. Nick up on eBay. I love surprising kids with a visit from the jolly fat man in the red costume. But in the absense of getting them the wrestler Vader, me as Sinter Klaas goes down pretty well.
Hanging from my chin and jiggling in a disconcerting manner, I kind of need to give them an answer tomorrow to minimise them being stuffed about. So would need to check my costume, comb my wig and beard, check that I have enough toupee tape strips for beard attachment, have the make-up for my eyebrows and cheeks, and do a test run to remind myself of how it all goes together, so I don't over-blush the nose or cheeks. No good Saint Nikolaus having a boozers blush!
All this while sorting clothes, trying to do the eBay stuff I've been wanting to get up for more than a week, and feeding, changing, and playing with Lex.
And racing around my brain like a stunt cyclist in the ball of death is - I get to help a company I really like out of a slightly tight spot, and I get to play the best part in the entire world!
Much thinking to do. |
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| Doctor Who Original Series - The Crusade (2.22 - 2.25) |
[Nov. 24th, 2009|09:34 pm] |
( Spoilers below the cut )
8.5/10 The Crusade
As you can tell by the score I've given it - Crusade rocks! Which is funny because if you'd asked me before I listened to it for an overall rating, I probably would have gone for seven out of ten. Eight just would have felt too high! As for eight and a half... But it earns this score well, due in no small part to fabulous writing by David whitaker.
Of particular note is the even-handed approach he took to the two warring leaders. A lesser writer would have been tempted to make Richard the Lionheart two dimensionally good, and Saladin just another bad guy. As it stands, Richard can be a bit of a prick, and must occasionally act unfairly in the name of court politics, while Saladin is shown to have just as many shades of grey as his English opposite number.
In fact most of the characters in the story are quite well written. Good or evil, they all get their moments. Ibrahim the thief is a particular delight. While not a subtle character, nor one lacking in the tropes of a stereotype, he's wonderfully written and enjoyably played.
The regulars all do a good job, and Whitaker makes sure that each of them gets their moment within the story. This is especially nice with Vicki, a character that was initially ignored by the show's writers, when we suddenly see how afriad she is of losing her new family. ( Spoiler! )
This is a great story, well written, well acted, and enjoyable. Even the weaker episodes have strong finishes. You may also notice that the two weaker episodes (in my opinion) are also the ones that only exist on audio - this is coincidence. Whereas episodes one and three start strong and build, episodes two and four are good, but each only really improves towards the end.
Even so, that's damning with faint praise. The overall quality is very good and every episode has a strong or enjoyable finish. It's stories like this that show the true strengths of the pure historical when well crafted. |
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| Dot points of Doom! |
[Nov. 24th, 2009|06:57 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  sore | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Smells Like Teen Spirit - played by a string quartet | ] |
So I've not been near the net for a week or so. Various reasons but major contributing factors were -
- I hurt my back picking up Lex. No seriously, really buggered it. Normally on the rare occasions when I do something like this, it takes a day to go back to normal. This took until yesterday.
- Obviously having to deal with Lex slowed the healing. This is the first time I've jiggered my back since he's been around. Having to regularly lift and deal with a wiggling 10 kilo weight slowed things, and left me very tired when he decided to give me a break.
- So yesterday was my first day without pain and I thought I should probably still take it a little easy. Then I got distracted looking for something, and... well you can probably guess the rest.
- Bugger!
- I've had a quick look back through LJ, but feel free to fill me in on anything I may have missed that is worth knowing. For instance, ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) mrs_roy reminded me that the Doctor Who - Children in Need preview has screened!
In other news...( Read more... ) |
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| Waters of Mars |
[Nov. 16th, 2009|11:04 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  disappointed | ] |
I can't quite talk about it without talking about things and giving spoilers.
Non-spoilery review - 6/10
If it had been slightly less over the top, and held its ending in check, 7 or 8 out of 10.
There will undoubtedly end up being massive spoilers in the comments if I get any, so consider yourself warned. |
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| Houses |
[Nov. 15th, 2009|07:21 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  contemplative | ] |
As many of you are aware, we rent in Canberra at the moment, mainly because houses prices are insane. We've kept our eyes on the market and prices have come down somewhat, to the point where they are now nearing a level where we might be able to buy here.
Hopefully once the first homebuyer's grant has gone bye-byes, prices will settle down a bit. As is fairly common knowledge, when the grant was introduced, and increased, prices jumped up by a margin significantly larger than the grant. We're not expecting prices to drop by the same amounts they went up by, but hey, even a drop of $10K makes life that bit easier.
( More on Canberra and other options... ) |
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| Doctor Who Original Series - The Web Planet (2.16 - 2.21) |
[Nov. 12th, 2009|04:06 pm] |
( Spoilers below cut... )
7.6/10 The Web Planet
Web Planet is a magnificently insane attempt to bring an alien planet full of giant insects to the screen. Even with today's effects technology it would tax a feature film. So trying to do it in 1965 on television with a tiny budget, in small studios, is unbelieveably ambitious. To give a sense of proportion, in 1966 the average cost of a 50 minute episode of Star Trek was US $180,000 (£75,000). The whole six part story of Web Planet cost £16,525.
The Zarbi are large and clumsy, however in an age where most aliens were humanoids, they are an interesting idea. The same can be said of the larvae gun. The Menoptera are also primitive costumes, but still striking and lovely. And I love the effort that has been gone into to give them an alien way of moving and talking. It may often seem a little silly, but at least some effort has been made to move away from standard speech.
I especially like how each creature has its part to play in the planet's ecosystem, even the larvae guns, as is explained at the end.
There's no doubt that Web Planet's flaws are many, but the core of the story is solid enough if one can get past the visuals and slow pace. |
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| Contact |
[Nov. 2nd, 2009|10:39 am] |
| [ | mood |
| |  confused | ] |
Rain has buggered our internet again. For example, it's taken from 7am this morning until now to be able to get this posted, most of that being the time it took for the posting page to load. We currently have virtually no internet and no email. If you need to contact us, ring, because there's no saying when we'll get the message otherwise.
This has gone on for several days before.
That said, if anyone can explain to me how it's impossible to load a webpage, or download email, yet if I turn on uTorrent that works fine, I'd love to hear it. And before anyone says anything, we have no email or web access with uTorrent turned completely off, so that's not causing the issue.
If I could pick one of the three to keep working, it would not be uTorrent. |
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| Deep Roy Appreciation Day |
[Oct. 28th, 2009|02:40 pm] |
I could go for the ones everyone remembers Doctor Who, Star Trek, and Star Wars but instead I present a rare appearance by Deep Roy in Blake's 7. Why is it rare? Because virtually every time he appeared in the show, he was covered in half a tonne of latex!
I present, from the B7 episode Gambit, Deep Roy as The Klute!
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| Conventions in 2010 |
[Oct. 26th, 2009|11:11 pm] |
So, we've looked at finances, holiday logistics, Lex logistics, and a bunch of other stuff, and have had to divvy up the convention going for next year. We've been nutting out ideas for a while, but Sharon's work commitments and our finances have meant we've had to firm up our plans. ( Read more... ) |
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| Mystery project |
[Oct. 18th, 2009|10:57 am] |
I'm yet to be confirmed for any panels or events for Aussiecon 4 (way too early yet, of course), but if things continue the way they have been, it's looking like I may be rather busy during the con. |
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| Progression |
[Oct. 16th, 2009|04:44 pm] |
Amongst things Lex has learned or experienced in recent weeks are -
- shaking his head (it doesn't actually mean no, I think he just likes the cheap high)
- walking (he did a proper walk last night for all of half a dozen steps - this is how the world ends!)
- his first true word, as in a word that is solidly identified with one inhabitant of our house (the word is "Gahr!" or "Carh!", which is Lex's attempt to say the dog's name, "Kal")
- interior design (he keeps rearranging all the chairs)
- the sign language for milk (it's a two handed milking-a-cow motion, only he does it with one hand and so it's hard to distinguish it from him waving, but you can tell the difference if you really look)
- two big teeth finally breaking the skin after months of bothering him (both have come through in the last day or so, on the left side top and bottom)
- bubbles (a really good way to distract him so he doesn't scream while you're wiping his face after eating)
- swings and slides (both of which he adores)
- paper planes (threw the plane back and forth around him, then let him have it. It became the most precious piece of paper ever, for about half an hour)
In other news, it feels like everyone I've ever known is having kids at the moment. Just heard about another. Will be interesting seeing the direction all the kids of the fannish and alternative folks go over the years. I suspect a few rebellious Liberal voting accountant or sporting types will pop up. |
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| Ow and okays |
[Oct. 15th, 2009|10:57 am] |
The last couple of weeks I've been wiped and emotional, my cold has come back (it never fully went away), and today I've majorly barked the back of my right foot on the wire door, hurt the index finger of my left hand mending the gate, and hurt the thumb on my right hand fixing a tap.
On the bright side I spent chunks of yesterday watching Ghost Rider, which while Nicolas Cage was a bit crap in it, I still found to be an enjoyable film. And Christopher Young did the film's music, and I almost always enjoy his work.
And I finished The Kolchak Papers which was a good read despite the huge amount of spelling errors. |
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| The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008 remake) |
[Oct. 14th, 2009|09:49 am] |
While I don't see the point of most remakes, there are some that I think are better than the originals, like Ocean's Eleven and Little Shop of Horrors, or different but more or less equal to the originals, like The Thing and Cat People.
The local video library has brought back $2 Tuesday, so I thought it was time to check out the remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still.
It's a pointless remake that will be deservedly forgotten within a couple of years, along with the remakes of The Time Machine and The War of the Worlds. ( Very minor spoilers )
This film is exactly why I don't go see major films at the cinema unless I get glowing reports from people. It wasn't worth my time or my money. In fact I originally thought that $2 would be a fair price to see this, but now having seen it, it wasn't even that good.
Don't bother. Hire or buy the original. Yes it's got its flaws, but it was written by people who knew how to write, and made by people who knew how to make films. |
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| Vale Barry Letts |
[Oct. 10th, 2009|08:19 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | doctor who, people | ] |
| [ | mood |
| | sad | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Opening titles to Ep 1 of the Green Death | ] |
Apparently Barry Letts has passed away. He was the producer of Doctor Who for all but the first of Jon Pertwee's stories, was executive producer for Tom Baker's last season, and did a handful of stories in various media outside those two runs.
I have no idea why, but feeling rather gutted by the news.
Most DW cast and crew die and I think it's a shame but Lett's death has actually hit me quite hard. I think one of the aspects that hits me is knowing that he and Terrance Dicks had an ongoing tradition dating back to their DW days of having a feed of chips together virtually every Friday night. I can't help but wonder how Terrance is feeling, knowing that their regular Friday nights are over, I hope he's okay.
Goodbye Barry, and thank you for producing the shows that my first Doctor appeared in. Your work has directly and indirectly influenced my life in so many ways. |
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| Doctor Who Original Series - The Romans (2.12 - 2.15) |
[Oct. 10th, 2009|07:07 pm] |
( Some spoilers below cut )
7.5/10 The Romans
The first story with overt comedy elements is rather well done. It doesn't let the comedy overwhelm what should be dramatic moments and the various threads progress easily and fluidly. ( Spoiler )
Hartnell really gets the chance to show his comedic abilities, and obviously enjoys the chance. Vicki doesn't get a huge amount to do, which is unfortunate for the new companion, while the characters of Ian and Barbara get some solid storylines to follow.
Derek Francis as Nero is worth a special mention. He plays the buffoon well, and moves fluidly between Nero the fool, and Nero the dangerous fool. |
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