(no subject)
Shopping on Saturday. Graham needed a new pc mouse, one for both laptops actually so we picked up a couple of Logitech ones in WalMart, one of them being a cheaper wired one for the laptop he uses on the table for his radio recording and a wireless one for the laptop he uses daily, which sits on a lap desk so he can reside on the sofa while surfing. :) Anyway. That mouse didn't work. We tried several different batteries but there was no power and no response at all. We noted on the packaging that there is some kind of power saver on it but if that's what was kicking in, we couldn't get it to rise to life for love or money. then I thought I had thrown out the receipt because we'd also got groceries at WalMart and normally i don't keep the grocery receipts. I had taken some of the bags down to the garbage with the regular rubbish so i couldn't get it back. Ah, but then i remembered i'd stuffed something in my jacket pocket and went to look. Result! It was the receipt so we took that back yesterday and got a refund, nipped over to Best Buy and got one there.
Logitech are usually pretty reliable so I was surprised. And the one we got at BB is the same brand, different model, cheaper and works just fine.
We also got some art supplies at Michael's and when I was going over the receipt to check something, I realized they'd charged us three times for something we only bought two of. I double checked to make sure we didn't accidentally pick up three but there were only the two. That got refunded yesterday as well. It wasn't that much because I'd had a 40% coupon but it was the principle of it and since we were over in the area anyway, we took the receipt in. Mom had offered us the car overnight because she didn't feel like driving back and forth from her place to take us home after having been out around the shops for the afternoon. Thus we had the car and could do the errands before going to see the new INdependence Day movie.
Which we liked, but not as much as the first one. The special effects were pretty good though heavy on cgi but it was done well. I'm not a big fan but it's pretty much a given these days that there will be backgrounds filled in with it, actors enhanced, plus all the action and monsters and futuristic bits etc. The main thing that annoys me is when they have a character fighting a cgi monster, and the character is cgi as well for the fight and it really looks fake. If i wanted to watch an animated movie, I'd have gone to see one. A real life real actor then being animated for some action doesn't look real even if it's a necessity for them to do the scene. I've accepted that there is a lot they can't do without it. It is interesting too, that it isn't just background etc. I saw a behind the scenes on a movie that was supposed to take place in the 1930s depression era dust bowl part of the US. They filmed it in an exterior area that was green and lush looking and then fed it all through a computer to make the grass look brown and dry and the scenery looking parched and depressing.
Anyway, another thing we did notice was that some of the characters were pretty bland. In the first movie you had Will Smith, who has loads of personality. In this movie, there was an actor playing his now grown son and he was as dull as dishwater. For fans of the politically correct, we now have a female President who wasn't particularly dynamic and there were a few other characters that were a bit flat. On the plus side, there was an African commander that was channelling his inner warrior who was awesome and we also had Liam Hemsworth playing a rogue pilot who livened things up as well. Bill Pullman playing the President from the first movie started off in this one as a broken man but as the movie went on, he found his inner strength though was good to watch no matter what the state of his character was. Jeff Goldblum is back along with Judd Hirsh as his father though he was as annoying as he was first time around. Jeff, however, was good as was Brent Spiner who played a scientist that we thought was killed in the first movie but who has apparently been in a coma. He's back and as manic as ever. A lot of these characters weren't in it as much so though they were good, the bland ones and the somewhat dull writing pulled the movie down a bit. Overall, though, we did enjoy it and it was a good romp for a summer movie.
We are anxiously awaiting the new Star Trek out later this month and saw a trailer for Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children which looks awesome. Yep, more cgi but Eva Green! We're planning to see both of them for sure, too.
Logitech are usually pretty reliable so I was surprised. And the one we got at BB is the same brand, different model, cheaper and works just fine.
We also got some art supplies at Michael's and when I was going over the receipt to check something, I realized they'd charged us three times for something we only bought two of. I double checked to make sure we didn't accidentally pick up three but there were only the two. That got refunded yesterday as well. It wasn't that much because I'd had a 40% coupon but it was the principle of it and since we were over in the area anyway, we took the receipt in. Mom had offered us the car overnight because she didn't feel like driving back and forth from her place to take us home after having been out around the shops for the afternoon. Thus we had the car and could do the errands before going to see the new INdependence Day movie.
Which we liked, but not as much as the first one. The special effects were pretty good though heavy on cgi but it was done well. I'm not a big fan but it's pretty much a given these days that there will be backgrounds filled in with it, actors enhanced, plus all the action and monsters and futuristic bits etc. The main thing that annoys me is when they have a character fighting a cgi monster, and the character is cgi as well for the fight and it really looks fake. If i wanted to watch an animated movie, I'd have gone to see one. A real life real actor then being animated for some action doesn't look real even if it's a necessity for them to do the scene. I've accepted that there is a lot they can't do without it. It is interesting too, that it isn't just background etc. I saw a behind the scenes on a movie that was supposed to take place in the 1930s depression era dust bowl part of the US. They filmed it in an exterior area that was green and lush looking and then fed it all through a computer to make the grass look brown and dry and the scenery looking parched and depressing.
Anyway, another thing we did notice was that some of the characters were pretty bland. In the first movie you had Will Smith, who has loads of personality. In this movie, there was an actor playing his now grown son and he was as dull as dishwater. For fans of the politically correct, we now have a female President who wasn't particularly dynamic and there were a few other characters that were a bit flat. On the plus side, there was an African commander that was channelling his inner warrior who was awesome and we also had Liam Hemsworth playing a rogue pilot who livened things up as well. Bill Pullman playing the President from the first movie started off in this one as a broken man but as the movie went on, he found his inner strength though was good to watch no matter what the state of his character was. Jeff Goldblum is back along with Judd Hirsh as his father though he was as annoying as he was first time around. Jeff, however, was good as was Brent Spiner who played a scientist that we thought was killed in the first movie but who has apparently been in a coma. He's back and as manic as ever. A lot of these characters weren't in it as much so though they were good, the bland ones and the somewhat dull writing pulled the movie down a bit. Overall, though, we did enjoy it and it was a good romp for a summer movie.
We are anxiously awaiting the new Star Trek out later this month and saw a trailer for Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children which looks awesome. Yep, more cgi but Eva Green! We're planning to see both of them for sure, too.