Update - brought to you by Chrome.
I've been trialling Chrome today, and I think I'm sold. It is *definitely* faster than IE, has the features I covet from Firefox, yet remains intuitive, and the layout for the majority of pages is still pretty, which I couldn't say for Firefox.
I used it on all of my regular haunts, including BBC Food/recipes and my online grocer, and it worked a charm. One part in the grocer's website was a bit ugly - but it was so *fast* compared to my usual visits there. I'm sold. It's just a pity IE is uninstallable - I want my computer to be all zen and clean and as many surfaces! surfaces! as possible (AbFab reference, but I expect no one to get it), and having a redundant browser clogging my computer makes me grind my teeth.
Films
Two disappointments this week, but neither dismayed me really, for I had high hopes for neither. I'm still waiting for Diamond Dust Rebellion to download, so it may be three before I go to bed, we'll see.
Planet Terror. Tried too hard. Where Death Proof played a light hand on faded film stock, poor lighting, scratches and sparkles, jump-cuts, sweaty babes and posing, it was a homage to the things that made older Grindhouse films good, whilst still being surprising and a decent film in its own right. Planet Terror decided to lay all the technical trickery on too thick, and played up the poor scripting too much - it might as well have worn big foam hands pointing to the laffs. Subtlety was not present here, which made it closer to a cheese-tastic parody, than a homage.
Big Fish. Was pressed upon me when I'd mentioned that I'd not seen it, about 6 months ago. Decided I ought to watch it so I could return the DVD. Left me cold. It probably worked quite well in book-form - the tall tales would get the language it deserved, and the flipping between time frames would have been a good mirroring device, but it didn't translate well to film. Ignoring all the cringey bits from the tall tales by palming it off to an old white guy, my biggest problem was the film's resolution. This is a guy who isolated his son, lost his trust, got pissy when his son wanted to know more of his real stories, rather fake ones - AND THE FILM'S RESOLUTION WAS THAT THIS WAS OKAY BEHAVIOUR. Macho Stu doesn't just have to be an action hero, it seems.
Books
The Confusion. I probably shouldn't have read this without having read Quicksilver first, but it started with such a cracking good pace, great characters and settings that I thought it would be enough - but in the end I found it disappointing. It was almost as if Stephenson was getting a bit bored as he was writing it - in synopsis form, it sounds like a fabulous combo of Barbary Pirates (Pirates!) and French Salon drama, but the writing just didn't sing by the time I finished it. There was some terribly interesting stuff on the way - particularly on the creation of the Bank of England - but it didn't sing for me the way that Cryptonomicon did - and that also began to feel like it had the same problem of dragging language.
The Ring. Easy read. Better than the film, although I am truly glad that the film chose some poetic licence and had a female lead (even if she was all singing womb and protective mother to get her strength - feh). The thing I liked the most about the book, is that at no point were the characters "believers". In too many horror stories, the unbelievers get killed off for their blasphemy, or become believers far too easily when confronted with "the truth." The characters here are motivated by that small seed of doubt, the 'what if,' rather than 'IT IS,' and it was a great read because of it.
Never Let Me Go. Oh dear. Oh dear. Oh dear. On one of the very earliest pages the book had the horrid whiff of a science fiction cliche that was going to fester for the length of the book. I had the real fear that this was going to be the whole point of the story - some crap thin edge of the wedge moral tale with a whole lot of hand waving and fuzzy logic to make it stick. It didn't do that. Well, unfortunately it DID - but the reveal happened early in the story, so I breathed a sigh of relief, and kept reading, looking forward to what was going to be the point now. Except - that was still the point. It wasn't done as a shock horror reveal, but it still was the underlying guts of the story. Sure, Ishiguro paints some gorgeous scenes and reasonable characters, but in the end it felt juvenile in the same way something like GATTACA's story is. There are even closer parallels to another film, but I won't mention it in case anyone is reading, or is intending to read the story despite my bitch-moan.
Anime
(still 40 minutes till I haz Diamond dust).
Pirates! Sitting nicely against The Confusion, was PLB and I watching Black Lagoon, a tale of modern contractors on the high seas. The 'second barrage,' or the last half of the 24 episodes, rocked. Sadly, to get the full benefit one really must sit through the relatively average first half. Also, being a little more in-depth, it could have done with a second tier of fan-translating, as a number of the concepts didn't come across like they ought to.
Having finished that, we sampled D-Gray Man (does it get better? Because the first episode did nothing for me, despite having the hallmarks of something I ought to like) and Kaiba. Not sure what to make of Kaiba - the aesthetics of Warner Bros. cartoons/ Jetsons/Ren and Stimpy... (so 50s American Futurism?? The Mr. Lunch books sit nicely here as well) was rather great to look at, but was also unsettling. I'll definitely be watching at least one more episode - PLB has yet to decide if he will be joining me on this expedition.
Hellsing Ultimate. The characterisation of the main collection is definitely better than the GONZO series, but I still can't get past the train-wreck of the underpinning story line. Godwin's Law and jumping the shark - cliche! cliche!
Natsume Yuujinchou. Another one I *ought* to be liking, but I've scrapped it after 2 episodes. It ticks many of the right ingredient boxes, with lonely kids who see demons, but it seems to have forgotten to add flavour instead of extra sugar. Maybe it was the fansub, but the whole premise of the story seems to be poorly built, and it doesn't do anything that other anime of the same type does. But, like D-Gray Man, I am open to being convinced to give it longer.
Boy Love Oh man, oh man, oh man. If Loveless was the pure grade heroin, and Junjou Romantica the crack laced with speed, then Gravitation has been cut with some nasty brown shit that might make my arm fall off - and yet I'm still watching it. The fact the opening title sequence finishes with a damned pink bunny is a warning to everyone. I feel like I'm reading Sweet Dreams fiction (remember *those*?? My middle primary school years were dominated by these. I only have #5 now, and the rival publisher I no longer remember (I lent out my collection and never got it back)). Gravitation is every kind of bad wish-fulfillment, with awful, awful scripts, and really cheap animation (and let's not forget the horror of the 'cool songs'). But I keep going back for hits...
Life stuff:
PLB did a horror edit on a short of mine, that I can't bring myself to look at just yet. w0nderd0g - he's done what you complain about getting from some readers - he's done a alternative version, rather than an edit. And it is NOT better - just different (actually, I think any transcripts of phone conversations or net chat in prose is fucking dire, so I'm really cheesed he thinks it's an 'improvement' over what I had).
Finished two fan-fics, and started a third... D:
Lame writing magazine is still lame. They didn't send out the competitions brief that was supposed to be included, so I have to call them tomorrow. And their webpage sucks. They deserve a rant post of their own.
Kinda didn't make it to the monthly Droo drinking session. I'd been swimming twice this week, and it was decided that I would meet PLB at the Tav, but then immediately crossing the road for dinner at 6.30 - except that he was an hour late. Having eaten nothing after swimming, actually, nothing since midday when I had a cupcake, and only a pot of yogurt before that, I was so vague I couldn't construct sentences properly. I ended up running to the mexican restaurant early, leaving messages for him to come straight over because I couldn't freaking wait any longer. Get this though - even though we've been there three times before, and it is only 3 buildings away, and it was PLB's suggestion, HE COULDN'T FIND THE RESTAURANT! He walked the entire length of Charlotte Street. Anyway, by the time we'd finished eating, and I'd demolished 1/2 a pitcher of frozen margarita, the Tavern was pretty dead of the set I knew best - for they had gotten jack of the crowds and crowd control, and had nicked off to the Blue Posts. We joined them.
The Sarah Jane preview is pretty decent.
Went south of the river to New Cross to catch some live bands on Friday night. It's been a while since we've done that - real pub acts. I felt like I'd wandered into Adelaide's Grace Emily, it was so similar. The band we were there for was a Droo-friend's band. They'd recently reformed their band, from the early 1980s. True dinosaurs of rock. honto honto. Big men. Not really my type of music, except that I've been dipping into the murky world of classic rock courtesy of the Supernatural soundtracks, so there were resonances I could pick up on. Musically accomplished, good gear, including the FULL drum kit with double kick drums and wind chimes....just out of date. The follow up band was a trio of thin-leg jean types. Visible arse-cracks abounded. Wall of sound punk. Needed to learn that wall of sound is a great skill to have, but understanding the value of space in a song is just as valuable.
Spoke to Dad today - forgot that it was Father's Day in Oz, but PLB talked to his mum, and she reminded him. So I got the update, and he got the thrill of me calling. It appears I was the only one of the offspring to do so, so that's more suck-up points for me....
Anything else of note escapes me at present, so I'm off to get my dose of fan-service. Just have to decide if it's the muck of Gravitation or if it's time to clear that out of my system with some Bleach. Hurr. Hurr.
I used it on all of my regular haunts, including BBC Food/recipes and my online grocer, and it worked a charm. One part in the grocer's website was a bit ugly - but it was so *fast* compared to my usual visits there. I'm sold. It's just a pity IE is uninstallable - I want my computer to be all zen and clean and as many surfaces! surfaces! as possible (AbFab reference, but I expect no one to get it), and having a redundant browser clogging my computer makes me grind my teeth.
Films
Two disappointments this week, but neither dismayed me really, for I had high hopes for neither. I'm still waiting for Diamond Dust Rebellion to download, so it may be three before I go to bed, we'll see.
Planet Terror. Tried too hard. Where Death Proof played a light hand on faded film stock, poor lighting, scratches and sparkles, jump-cuts, sweaty babes and posing, it was a homage to the things that made older Grindhouse films good, whilst still being surprising and a decent film in its own right. Planet Terror decided to lay all the technical trickery on too thick, and played up the poor scripting too much - it might as well have worn big foam hands pointing to the laffs. Subtlety was not present here, which made it closer to a cheese-tastic parody, than a homage.
Big Fish. Was pressed upon me when I'd mentioned that I'd not seen it, about 6 months ago. Decided I ought to watch it so I could return the DVD. Left me cold. It probably worked quite well in book-form - the tall tales would get the language it deserved, and the flipping between time frames would have been a good mirroring device, but it didn't translate well to film. Ignoring all the cringey bits from the tall tales by palming it off to an old white guy, my biggest problem was the film's resolution. This is a guy who isolated his son, lost his trust, got pissy when his son wanted to know more of his real stories, rather fake ones - AND THE FILM'S RESOLUTION WAS THAT THIS WAS OKAY BEHAVIOUR. Macho Stu doesn't just have to be an action hero, it seems.
Books
The Confusion. I probably shouldn't have read this without having read Quicksilver first, but it started with such a cracking good pace, great characters and settings that I thought it would be enough - but in the end I found it disappointing. It was almost as if Stephenson was getting a bit bored as he was writing it - in synopsis form, it sounds like a fabulous combo of Barbary Pirates (Pirates!) and French Salon drama, but the writing just didn't sing by the time I finished it. There was some terribly interesting stuff on the way - particularly on the creation of the Bank of England - but it didn't sing for me the way that Cryptonomicon did - and that also began to feel like it had the same problem of dragging language.
The Ring. Easy read. Better than the film, although I am truly glad that the film chose some poetic licence and had a female lead (even if she was all singing womb and protective mother to get her strength - feh). The thing I liked the most about the book, is that at no point were the characters "believers". In too many horror stories, the unbelievers get killed off for their blasphemy, or become believers far too easily when confronted with "the truth." The characters here are motivated by that small seed of doubt, the 'what if,' rather than 'IT IS,' and it was a great read because of it.
Never Let Me Go. Oh dear. Oh dear. Oh dear. On one of the very earliest pages the book had the horrid whiff of a science fiction cliche that was going to fester for the length of the book. I had the real fear that this was going to be the whole point of the story - some crap thin edge of the wedge moral tale with a whole lot of hand waving and fuzzy logic to make it stick. It didn't do that. Well, unfortunately it DID - but the reveal happened early in the story, so I breathed a sigh of relief, and kept reading, looking forward to what was going to be the point now. Except - that was still the point. It wasn't done as a shock horror reveal, but it still was the underlying guts of the story. Sure, Ishiguro paints some gorgeous scenes and reasonable characters, but in the end it felt juvenile in the same way something like GATTACA's story is. There are even closer parallels to another film, but I won't mention it in case anyone is reading, or is intending to read the story despite my bitch-moan.
Anime
(still 40 minutes till I haz Diamond dust).
Pirates! Sitting nicely against The Confusion, was PLB and I watching Black Lagoon, a tale of modern contractors on the high seas. The 'second barrage,' or the last half of the 24 episodes, rocked. Sadly, to get the full benefit one really must sit through the relatively average first half. Also, being a little more in-depth, it could have done with a second tier of fan-translating, as a number of the concepts didn't come across like they ought to.
Having finished that, we sampled D-Gray Man (does it get better? Because the first episode did nothing for me, despite having the hallmarks of something I ought to like) and Kaiba. Not sure what to make of Kaiba - the aesthetics of Warner Bros. cartoons/ Jetsons/Ren and Stimpy... (so 50s American Futurism?? The Mr. Lunch books sit nicely here as well) was rather great to look at, but was also unsettling. I'll definitely be watching at least one more episode - PLB has yet to decide if he will be joining me on this expedition.
Hellsing Ultimate. The characterisation of the main collection is definitely better than the GONZO series, but I still can't get past the train-wreck of the underpinning story line. Godwin's Law and jumping the shark - cliche! cliche!
Natsume Yuujinchou. Another one I *ought* to be liking, but I've scrapped it after 2 episodes. It ticks many of the right ingredient boxes, with lonely kids who see demons, but it seems to have forgotten to add flavour instead of extra sugar. Maybe it was the fansub, but the whole premise of the story seems to be poorly built, and it doesn't do anything that other anime of the same type does. But, like D-Gray Man, I am open to being convinced to give it longer.
Boy Love Oh man, oh man, oh man. If Loveless was the pure grade heroin, and Junjou Romantica the crack laced with speed, then Gravitation has been cut with some nasty brown shit that might make my arm fall off - and yet I'm still watching it. The fact the opening title sequence finishes with a damned pink bunny is a warning to everyone. I feel like I'm reading Sweet Dreams fiction (remember *those*?? My middle primary school years were dominated by these. I only have #5 now, and the rival publisher I no longer remember (I lent out my collection and never got it back)). Gravitation is every kind of bad wish-fulfillment, with awful, awful scripts, and really cheap animation (and let's not forget the horror of the 'cool songs'). But I keep going back for hits...
Life stuff:
PLB did a horror edit on a short of mine, that I can't bring myself to look at just yet. w0nderd0g - he's done what you complain about getting from some readers - he's done a alternative version, rather than an edit. And it is NOT better - just different (actually, I think any transcripts of phone conversations or net chat in prose is fucking dire, so I'm really cheesed he thinks it's an 'improvement' over what I had).
Finished two fan-fics, and started a third... D:
Lame writing magazine is still lame. They didn't send out the competitions brief that was supposed to be included, so I have to call them tomorrow. And their webpage sucks. They deserve a rant post of their own.
Kinda didn't make it to the monthly Droo drinking session. I'd been swimming twice this week, and it was decided that I would meet PLB at the Tav, but then immediately crossing the road for dinner at 6.30 - except that he was an hour late. Having eaten nothing after swimming, actually, nothing since midday when I had a cupcake, and only a pot of yogurt before that, I was so vague I couldn't construct sentences properly. I ended up running to the mexican restaurant early, leaving messages for him to come straight over because I couldn't freaking wait any longer. Get this though - even though we've been there three times before, and it is only 3 buildings away, and it was PLB's suggestion, HE COULDN'T FIND THE RESTAURANT! He walked the entire length of Charlotte Street. Anyway, by the time we'd finished eating, and I'd demolished 1/2 a pitcher of frozen margarita, the Tavern was pretty dead of the set I knew best - for they had gotten jack of the crowds and crowd control, and had nicked off to the Blue Posts. We joined them.
The Sarah Jane preview is pretty decent.
Went south of the river to New Cross to catch some live bands on Friday night. It's been a while since we've done that - real pub acts. I felt like I'd wandered into Adelaide's Grace Emily, it was so similar. The band we were there for was a Droo-friend's band. They'd recently reformed their band, from the early 1980s. True dinosaurs of rock. honto honto. Big men. Not really my type of music, except that I've been dipping into the murky world of classic rock courtesy of the Supernatural soundtracks, so there were resonances I could pick up on. Musically accomplished, good gear, including the FULL drum kit with double kick drums and wind chimes....just out of date. The follow up band was a trio of thin-leg jean types. Visible arse-cracks abounded. Wall of sound punk. Needed to learn that wall of sound is a great skill to have, but understanding the value of space in a song is just as valuable.
Spoke to Dad today - forgot that it was Father's Day in Oz, but PLB talked to his mum, and she reminded him. So I got the update, and he got the thrill of me calling. It appears I was the only one of the offspring to do so, so that's more suck-up points for me....
Anything else of note escapes me at present, so I'm off to get my dose of fan-service. Just have to decide if it's the muck of Gravitation or if it's time to clear that out of my system with some Bleach. Hurr. Hurr.