Roderick

Since yesterday I've decided to get RockBand 3 with the keyboard. I've researched it and found such overwhelming praise and evidence that you could actually take your first few steps on learning the keyboard/piano with this game, that the investment seems quite worth it. I hope I can find it in stores still

I had forgotten about this, and am now delighted to have this spirit of Christmas rekindled.

Yeah, what's up with that? Nachimir, were the children equal parts happy with the toys and creeped out at a cleanshaving santa with a mouth full of snow? I hope so.

Telltale will be pleased to hear I've taken them up on the offer to receive BttF ep1 for free. I know, I know.

Very late to the game, I finally got my hands on The Mighty Boosh and am currently enjoying season 1. I had no idea what to expect, only ever having seen some random clips on Youtube. And if you know The Boosh, you know that can be quite random indeed. It's excellent so far. Those two characters, Howard Moon and Vince Noir, are spectacular.

This is completely true. At the office we don't have a formal wear policy at all, so my dressing like this is my own, personal choice. I don't know how I'd like to it if it was expected. Wearing a necktie doesn't bother me, actually. Sure, there's a goddamn noose around your neck, but in a way it improves my posture. It's a subtle reminder that I want to present myself in the best way.

This is how I go to work nowadays. Fuck casual friday. Print is dead and neckties own. This gets the job done of making me feel on top of my game at the office.

Though you do make a good -and dreadful- point there, I've decided to delete the whole thing. Not because of your wake-up call themed post, but rather because I wasn't being fair at all. It is utterly impossible for me to boil down ten years worth of experience, feelings and events into one post. Thereby I fear I've completely misrepresented myself, also because there are some things I deliberately didn't say. Because of this, I gave you only tools to misunderstand the situation. For that, I do apologize!

[deleted a whole rant about love, explanation below]

Let this be a cautionary tale, folks: don't be too quick to endorse I've had other experiences. A friend once recommend a book quite highly. I read the whole thing and it quickly transpired that it was shit. When I later confronted him with it, it turned out he had only read the first chapter, recommended it, then saw it turn to crap himself and didn't even bother to finish it while I did because I wanted to see in it what he had seen. D'oh!

WASSAP JUGGALOS?! Fighting Trousers I have relinked through Facebook, so as to spread it amongst my friends in a more efficient manner. Chap-hop!

Pfoohh, that does turn into a downer. Starts out as an interesting new take on mediating conflicts, and then it turns to save the world, new age poo. Not that I'm necessarily against that, but it so didn't fit the tone that started the talk. You think you're getting a bonafide ambassador and it turns out to be ambassador Bono.

I don't know whether this is parody or not!

Miffy, no the guy is definitely a manager. Just got the terminology mixed up. The Next 3 Days, with Russell Crow supported by hot nurse from Scrubs on one side and hot nurse from House on the other. I guess (wait for it) at his age he'll need two! All jokes aside, the movie doesn't quite work. Next to being really long, it's also hinging on two thoughts that in the end don't gel at all. But this one wants to eat his cake and have it. The trailer would have you believe it's about a desperate man attempting to free his wife in prison by means of an Ocean's Eleven-type affair. In actuality most of the movie is him bumbling around as he prepares for his Mission Impossible. And Brian Dennehy has gotten OLD! Daaaamn.

Fantastico!

Toblix once sent me a half of a rooster stuffed with horse shoes So mean! I'm allergic to horse shoes.

Miffy, I'm always mildly surprised whenever I discover that cinema employees do not watch the movies themselves. I now frequent the sneak preview every Tuesday, and always want to go to the guy organizing it afterwards to talk about the movie, only to hear that he didn't see it himself, but he might once it's showing regularly. Is that weird? I really hope Rare Exports gets a release here in the city.

About the Blizzard novels, I can only say that all are pulp, but some are definitely better than others. I enjoyed Day of the Dragon (Warcraft) for what it was, and was pretty happy with Liberty's Crusade and Speed of Darkness (both Starcraft). But then Shadows of the Xel'Naga (Starcraft) was absolutely atrocious. As for other gamingrelated novels, I'm very interested in reading the Mass Effect ones. They're written by the lead writer of the games, so they should be, if not properly written, at least quite consistent with the tone of the game. Looking forward to reading those. (Riiiiight after I finish Tolstoy, and Rand, and a book I have on Japanese history.)

The Bethesda Podcast is quickly becoming my new favorite thing. John Carmack is a competent, indescribable person, almost the opposite of someone like Cliff Bleszinski. A genius who doesn't play it to the media, but goes his own, elusive, wonderful way. Fantastic. I never imagined him to sound like this. Also, people will die.

In an article on Chud it was put rather succinctly: Deathly Hallows borrows a lot of elements, not just from Lord of the Rings, but also Arthurian legend (the sword in the lake!). It's rather plain to see, but it doesn't have to be all bad. The elements are used in a rather effective way, it's almost an homage. Furthermore, in the breadth of scope throughout the whole story, it doesn't feel unhinged -it's balanced out by plenty of original stuff. If we're going on the 'plagiarism!' tour, the first claim would be Anthony Horowitz's, for his monster school book series

Just back from the cinema (it's becoming obvious to a lot of people here that I have a subscription to it nowadays, so on average I go there twice a week) to see Fair Game with Sean Penn and Naomi Watts. It was kinda messy. The subject matter (the war in Iraq was based on a lie) gave the movie easy but false gravity, which it didn't manage to own up to with its own themes and execution. It was almost the opposite to Unstoppable in this respect: Fair Game is a movie that doesn't know what it wants, it has an unclear vision. After a while it decides on the marriage issue between the two protagonists, but then it changes to a kinda weak afternoon RTL-drama. And I guess, a movie about the Bush administration being full of criminals... that's just not that relevant anymore, after movies like W., and during the Obama administration. Sean Penn was pretty great though.

The changing of skins/costumes seems to be wholly more in the service of puzzles and cerebral challenges, rather than fighting. It's about the only thing the games have in common, it seems.

GAH, of course I meant Denzel Washington. I don't know why my fingers turned it into Wesley Snipes. That was uncalled for.

Fantastic. I was wary of Costume Quest too, the JRPG gameplay just doesn't interest me a whole lot. But this seems like a barrel of fun and exactly the quirky thing I'd like.

I think you're making a mistake, Orvidos. The discussion is about the language of the Harry Potter books, not Lord of the Rings. Unless J. K. Rowling was also a mid 1900s English professor On-topic: I saw Unstoppable yesterday in the sneak preview. It was thoroughly entertaining. Denzel Washington is a really good actor, there's nary a role he plays that I won't completely buy into Unstoppable is an unpretentieus, entertaining film with a clear idea of what it wants to be.