Bees, Riddick
I got the report handed in on Friday. I noticed a couple of minor errors after it had been printed, but nothing significant. The report and the application are now on my website if anyone's interested.
I'm doing some planning for the presentation on Wednesday, but the pressure has now eased off a bit, so I've been able to get 8 hours of sleep a night with a clear conscience.
I've also watched a couple of films: "Pitch Black" on Friday, and "The Chronicles of Riddick" on Saturday. I didn't see "Pitch Black" when it came out a few years ago - it was shown at Picocon, but I didn't watch it because I was involved in the organisation of the event, so I was busy. More generally, I figured that Vin Diesel means "brain dead action film", so I wasn't particularly fussed. I then heard people saying that it was a more cerebral film, so I thought I should give it a go with the sequel coming out. When I saw it, I was a bit concerned about it being "arty" at first, but that eased off after a while. Overall, I'd say that they're both decent action films, so they're quite fun, but they don't exactly have deep characterisation.
Oh, and one odd thing about the rental version of "Pitch Black" - when you put the DVD in, it starts by showing the first 5 minutes of "Chronicles of Riddick". We didn't realise it was a trailer until the end of the clip (we thought it was the start of the first film), by which point it had given away part of the ending of the first film. So, something to be aware of if you rent it.
They also had the usual batch of adverts and trailers at the cinema - none of the upcoming films look particularly inspiring. There were some odd aspects of the sequence. One advert was against domestic violence; I assume it was deliberately going for shock value, and it succeeded, but it made a rather uncomfortable change of pace compared to the funny adverts surrounding it. They also had a safety advert saying "Don't use your mobile phone while driving", with menu options on the mobile like "Crash the car" and "Kill your girlfriend". Fair enough - not something that really applies to me on the motorbike, but probably prudent advice, especially after recent news reports. However, this was immediately followed by a trailer for Cellular, where the hero gets involved in saving people by answering his mobile while driving. It could be argued that this is sending mixed messages to the general public... Unless they're going for a "Sliding Doors" style morality play (in that film, the version of her who stood clear of the closing doors on the Tube came out better than the version who jammed them open to get in).
I'm doing some planning for the presentation on Wednesday, but the pressure has now eased off a bit, so I've been able to get 8 hours of sleep a night with a clear conscience.
I've also watched a couple of films: "Pitch Black" on Friday, and "The Chronicles of Riddick" on Saturday. I didn't see "Pitch Black" when it came out a few years ago - it was shown at Picocon, but I didn't watch it because I was involved in the organisation of the event, so I was busy. More generally, I figured that Vin Diesel means "brain dead action film", so I wasn't particularly fussed. I then heard people saying that it was a more cerebral film, so I thought I should give it a go with the sequel coming out. When I saw it, I was a bit concerned about it being "arty" at first, but that eased off after a while. Overall, I'd say that they're both decent action films, so they're quite fun, but they don't exactly have deep characterisation.
Oh, and one odd thing about the rental version of "Pitch Black" - when you put the DVD in, it starts by showing the first 5 minutes of "Chronicles of Riddick". We didn't realise it was a trailer until the end of the clip (we thought it was the start of the first film), by which point it had given away part of the ending of the first film. So, something to be aware of if you rent it.
They also had the usual batch of adverts and trailers at the cinema - none of the upcoming films look particularly inspiring. There were some odd aspects of the sequence. One advert was against domestic violence; I assume it was deliberately going for shock value, and it succeeded, but it made a rather uncomfortable change of pace compared to the funny adverts surrounding it. They also had a safety advert saying "Don't use your mobile phone while driving", with menu options on the mobile like "Crash the car" and "Kill your girlfriend". Fair enough - not something that really applies to me on the motorbike, but probably prudent advice, especially after recent news reports. However, this was immediately followed by a trailer for Cellular, where the hero gets involved in saving people by answering his mobile while driving. It could be argued that this is sending mixed messages to the general public... Unless they're going for a "Sliding Doors" style morality play (in that film, the version of her who stood clear of the closing doors on the Tube came out better than the version who jammed them open to get in).