Well Saturday has been a tad more mixed emotionally. Slept soso, woke up
early, before 10. (Early for a Saturday at least). Got up, decided I would
be semi-social and go see Star Wars VII with some friends again. Since
I had time to kill, I decided to watch episode VI. Figured out the big
celebration scene at the end = emotional rollercoaster for me lately,
seems every time I've seen it lately, I've teared up or cried. Not sad, but
emotional. Had a nice cry, then got a couple of errands done, and
headed to the theater.
I enjoyed VII as much as the first time, it's not a perfect movie, but none
of the Star Wars movies are perfect. I saw a lot more easter eggs, and I
appreciated the characters, both old and new more. Favorite is still
Poe Dameron (or as I say in my head Edgar Allan Poe-Dameron), but I've
always wanted to fly a X-Wing. Plus he's what the prequel trilogy needed,
someone with a bit of swagger in them. After the movie I had to take
off, needed to drop some stuff off with Amythest. When I left the
theater my anxiety spiked up, and my moodyness reared it's head. No reason,
unlike the stressors at work. But, I took my happy pill, and skipped
out on the errands I had originally planned for post movie. Now I'm home.
Going to take it easy for tonight,
finish up the VM updates, probably going to stick to watching
movies tonight. There's a new horror flick on demand, 'Jeruzalem' which
is the first Israeli horror movie I think I've heard of (though there
has to be more). Probably will go to head with book fairly early, like
last night. Catch you all later.
Decided to treat myself to lunch and a movie today, went to see 'In the
Heart of the Sea'. It was a movie I'd been looking forward to, but I didn't
think it was something any of my friends would have enjoyed as much.
It was enjoyable, did a decent job covering the wild fun (sarcasm) of life
on a Yankee whaling ship. It also pulled no punches about how gory
things got. It added some drama bits, including the subplot of the
captain and first mate being at odds (in actuality they'd served together
on the Essex before hand). However, the bit about non-Nantucketers being
treated as second class sailors was true. New Englanders were/are a clannish
lot, and Nantucket took that to an extreme. There's some other liberties with the
later parts of the movie, but that's not unexpected. The movie itself
hangs together well, I knew the story (and read the book the movie is
based on long ago), but nothing stood out as overly implausable. 4 out
of 5 hoisted sails.
(and if you're curious, the ship in the movie was a brig, two masts and
ship rigged. The ship in real life was a 3 masted ship, at least that's
what all the pictures I've found say.)
Was a mostly good day, though it started off kind of rough. I had good
dreams, mostly about New York, and how I was planning to drive back to
Texas. But I wanted to take the Staten Island ferry, and they do take
cars, so I had to rearrange plans. Then I woke up. Thing is, I really
do want to take the ferry next time I'm in NYC. It's free, and I've never
done it. The tour guide on the cruise recommended it as one of those
things people don't think to do, plus I've only been to Staten Island
a handful of times in my life.
So I woke up, and felt off. Was going to meet up with Amythest and Nymaz
for soup day prep in a while. So I fiddled around online, and kept
reading things that hit me in the feels. No idea why, just overly
emotional. Decided to just go on down, listened to a Roman mystery
audiobook on the drive and hung out at Chez Amythest's while the other
two finished up soup prep shopping. Hung out, read more of 'Gods of HP
Lovecraft' which is pretty good, some of the authors are people I talk
to online, so I'm a little biased. Helped unload, helped set up the
loaner mega-tv for the watching of Star Wars. We had about 90 min to
kill or so, and I wanted to test the tv...and I had 'Dagon' on my flash
drive, so we watched it. My friends tolerate my weirdness, I now have
a degree of TV envy. Plus, Uxía the squidgirl is epically hot on megatv.
*grin* Soup was prepped, and as I hadn't eaten since breakfast I
dove in a little early, and had a lovely bowl of potato soup.
Some more friends showed up, and some spawning day gifts for the Dec
people were given, along with some cookies to H, who has helped me tons
with resume foo. Then it was soup and Star Wars. Which looked amazing
on the megatv. Since we all could basically quote the movies by heart, we
spent as much time in discussion about the movies and back story and
expanded universe as watching it. I love good geek talk. We got through
Episode IV and most of V, but we all were running low on steam. I left
about 10:30, with lots of leftover soup for nomming. Drove home, listened
to more SPQR. Unloaded the car, watched the last part of Empire Strikes
Back, and started writing this. I'm tired, but I'm not sure I'm
ready for bed, or even bed and book. I guess I'll just fiddle around til
I either decide on something to do, or go finish my book. For now, I'm
just glad I had a good afternoon/evening with nifty people, too much soup,
and Star Wars. Night all.
Was a very good day. Even if it started off with a profound sense of
exhaustion this morning. I think I woke up a half dozen times in the night,
I know my Fitbit step count looked like I'd gone to the mailbox twice in
the night (which was welcome, as I was behind). Got clean and motivated,
Amythest swung by and we headed to the Dallas Museum of Art for some
Roman history.
Mary Beard is one of those historians, who not only gets all her historical
ducks in a row, but can make a dry subject very lively. I've seen her on
TV a few times, and read some of her work. She also gives a good lecture.
Basic stuff, mostly about how her new book is about how defining 'Roman'
changed repeatedly over the course of the empire. Fun bit, she had a
Roman woman's epitath on the display, from near Hadrian's Wall. The woman's
name, her status as a freed slave, that she was from a tribe further south
in England, and that her hubby was from Palmyria in the Middle East. Those
Romans got around. But before she started explaining it, I was picking out
the Latin. The name, that she was an ex slave, her age at death, that
Palmyria was involved. My Latin, while still nothing resembling more than
a passing nod, is better than it was 10 years ago. Go me. The rest
was basically how we can't just say 'Ok, that's Roman history, finis'. What
we know, what we understand, how we interpert it, changes as time passes,
and as we change. Which I'm in whole hearted agreement. In the Q/A she
answered a few high brow questions, as well as stateing that besides
Mary Renault, her favorite historical fiction writer is Lindsay Davis,
of the Falco Roman mysteries. (I recommend them too.) Then we broke
for the book signing, which me and Amythest passed on, due to the huge
crowd. We instead went to our favorite bits of the DMA, then headed
to the car and back out of Dallas. (Btw, if you're interested, Professor
Beard's new book can be found on Amazon/B and N/other bookstores. S.P.Q.R.
I'm pretty sure if you like history, you'll enjoy.
We got in contact with Nymaz, and met up to see 'Spectre' in the theaters.
I'd heard some less than stellar reviews of the latest Bond flick, and
I kind to have to agree that it wasn't great. Solid enough, but nothing
spectacular. Unless you're talking about the title sequence. Which was
full of tentacles and girls and more tenacles, and tentacles with guns...
I was a very happy cultist. I also blame Charles Stross for no longer being
able to watch a Bond flick without thinking 'But what would Bob Howard do ?'
Seriously, Bond would be so much more effective with a Warrant Card, a
Tilligast resonator and a iPhone with the OFCUT suite. (If you have no idea
what I'm talking about, well Google 'Charles Stross laundry', buy some of his
books too.) 3/5 dry martinis for a decent Bond flick, 5/5 perky tentacles
for the title sequence.
(wow, call me the book pimp today)
The three musketeers talked about the NYC trip next week, I dropped Amythest
off at her car, and I came home and wrote this. I'm zonked, and probably
will make a very early night of it. Not too early, as I'll just be skewed
off kilter tomorrow as well, but no 2am movie marathons tonight. Will
probably catch up on TwitterBook then go to bed with a book. Not sure
which one, the Mythos story I was reading today, Templar fanfic-history,
my copy of the above mentioned SPQR (got the ebook). or something else.
Oh lord, I probably should write a book randomizer for the Kindle app for
nights I have no decision making skills. For now though, it's the
interwebs and creepy Lovecraft music til bed. And this got long fast,
so night night all.
Crimson Peak is del Toro's love letter to Gothic literature and movies. Vincent Price and Peter Cushing would have approved. If you're on the fence because it's a 'horror movie', hop down. It's not a horror movie, it's a love story that happens to have ghosts. A rather screwed up love story in spots, but a love story none the less. 4.5 out of 5 bleak moors.
Well I finished the 8 Films to Die For. It was a lot of fun this year,
All 8 films kept my interest, and there wasn't one I would have said 'Nah,
I could have lived without seeing that'. So lets tackle each movie with
a short blurb.
Lumberjack Man. Flick flick, a send up of the slasher genre. Rather
funny, with a nice amount of gore. You'll never look at pancakes quite
the same afterwards. 3.5 out 5 machetes.
Re-Kill. Imagine the 'COPS' show after a zombie apocalypse. Between
the decent zombie hunting scenes there are amusing TV commercials about
life post apocalypse. Sounds goofy, but it worked well. 4 out of 5 brains.
The Wicked Within. Demonic possession and dysfunctional family. A
little forced in spots, but it was enjoyable enough. 3 out of 5 spewed
pea soup.
Unnatural. What's worse than a killer polar bear? A genetically modified
killer polar bear, who's hungry. Wins for the most epic final kill of the
night, and was good all around. 4 out 5 scientists playing god.
Suspension. Tortured teen has issues. Wasn't the best movie, paced
kind of slow, and too much teen drama. But it gets points for a fairly
unique plot, and some inventive gore. 3 out of 5 slaughtered prom queens.
Bastard. Weird flick, serial killers on a road trip pick up a pack
of people with major issues, and are then killed off by another maniac in
a mask. High on the suffering and enough foul language that I even went
'Err, ok?' Probably my least favorite of the night, but even so it had
me guessing. 3 out 5 crazed maniacs
Wind Walkers. I think the mostly first Native American zombie flick I've
ever seen. Slow to get started, but it once it got into gear the gore
and inventiveness. 3.5 severed pig heads.
Murder in the Dark. Last one I watched, and it became my favorite.
A multi-cultural party of medical types in Turkey visit a castle, and
become the target of organ legging. Who's the person legging it? Well
I guessed wrong, repeatedly. (Oh and extra points for the director and
actors revealing that the film was mostly improv) 4.5 harvested kidneys.
So yeah, we had 2 zombies, 4 slashers, 1 supernatural and 1 monster. I'd
have liked some more supernatural and less slashers, but that's just my
tastes. All the movies had high production qualities, and as I said, nothing
was bad, even my least favorite, 'Bastard' was more a question of tastes
verses quality. So yeah, if you're looking for horror this Halloween
season, check out the 8 Films to Die For. You'll have a good time.
Because I can, I decided that I'll be celebrating my Spawning Day all weekend.
Woke up, got moving, started watching the 'After Dark Films: 8 Films to
Die For' set. I've been a fan since the first set was released oh so
many years ago (Gravedancers in the theatre with Ufies). The 2nd year
me and Amythest watched all 8 in the theatre over a weekend, and I've
watched the rest when they came out on DVD. This year, it's Amazon
Streaming. Yay movies. Yay quirky movies of horror. One zombie, one
horror comedy, and now one haunted/possessed. So far, all have been pretty
decent.
While watching movies, I've made lunch, and I'm working on my Friday VM
updates. For dinner I'll probably order a pizza, or go get a cheesesteak.
Classic Vulpine dinner. Good way to spend day one of Spawning Day weekend,
geeking...computer, horror, and Mythos stuff. I have a bunch of unsorted
props and papers I was thinking of organizing. Yay organized eldritch
horror.
So that's about it for right now, I'll catch you all later. *waves a
tentacle*
Ok, saw 'The Martian'. I'll be honest, I think I enjoyed this movie the
most out of the flicks I've seen in 2015. The science is good, with
nothing jarring me out of the story, Matt Damon has some epic snark lines,
and it hit me in some emotional spots, without being overdramatic.
Really, it was what space exploration flicks should be. I haven't read
the book yet, but I will. So if you like space, and a good story, go
see it. 5 out of 5 Red Planets.
Well, as expected, I had weird dreams. The one that stood out was a
repeat of Mom coming back from the dead, and me trying to figure out the
paperwork to prove she was alive. Oh, and everyone hated me because
obviously Mom never died, and I was a bad son. *sigh* My brain hates
me some days.
Oh well, I'm up now and moving. Going to go be social in a little while,
hopefully best friends will overwhelm the last bits of off feeling I have.
Plus, going to see 'The Martian', yay science. Yay friends.
So yeah, that's about all I have for today. Here's to being social,
friends, and hopefully an upswing in general fox feelings. Catch you
all later.
Friday night of 'classic' horror movies. First the original 'Poltergeist'.
Oh wow, this movie is a poster child for bad parenting decisions from the
80's. But the creepy bits and the effects hold up well enough. I'm
still amazed that with all the horror elements it got a PG rating.
More movies today need skeletons leaping out at leads. 3 out 5 disinterred
bodies up.
I've now moved on to one of the scariest movies, period. 'The Exorcist'.
Ooh, they just started 'Tubular Bells', now that's a theme song. (Plus
I like Mike Oldfield in general). Downside, I forgot about the scene
with Father Damien's mother in the hospital...that stirred up some unpleasant
memories. At least it was a short scene, and now on to to the possession
warm up. No pea soup yet. But that will be soon.
On non-horror movie side, I'm doing the usual Friday VM updates, and I've
finally fixed Cthylla's dual boot set, Windows 10 and Ubuntu 15.10's last
beta, with the usual Mate desktop. Mostly it's just to see how well things
run on that hardware, with the idea that if Dagon ever bites the dust,
I'll be able to swap over with minimum headache. Also, if I end up
getting a fancy monitor, the video card on Cthylla supports a 2560x1440
display. That would be shiny, once I was gainfully employed again. But
that's just future thoughts.
Otherwise I'm wandering on Wikipedia. Somehow I went from 'The Exorcist'
to all the variations of Christian Tribulations, to Zoroastrianism, to
pre Indo-European religion and culture (currently on the
Kurgan hypothesis
. Amazing how I go all over the place. I love the internet. I also
have up the alleged exorcism that Blatty based his novel on, but I haven't
started reading. I may just bookmark it for later, depending on how
late I stay up.
Ok, pea soup was had. Gah, poor Father Damien, he looks like hell. Not
even going to mention how rough Regan/Pazuzu looks. Ooh, the old priest
just showed, and he's taking no shit.
Ok, that's enough of a post I guess. I guess I'll call it. Going to
finish 'The Exorcist', then I'll decide if I'm staying up later or not.
Still have about 30 more min, and it's the big finale. And it might
be good to end on a high note...or if I stay up, I'll change gears
and watch something utterly different. Catch you all later.
