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'My Corduroyed Life' - Mark A's Journal
April has gone, and I’m still here…
WORK
Still yuck! I am getting nothing out of this job other than money (and not much of that)…
JOB HUNTING
World of Warcraft is evil…
MONEY
Why do I bother with this section? If I have it, I spend it. If I don’t have it, I find a way to get some. If I really can’t get some, I clockwatch ‘til payday.
LOVE LIFE
Things are good, in fact, they’re great. It’s been nearly 9 months now – how scary is that?!
If I was a girl from The Lunt, I’d be expecting any day now!
NINJA
I’ve been a little more disciplined at Ninja this month: turning up to more classes, etc. Still not feeling particularly badass right now though.
HEALTH
So the giving up drinking thing: I managed it for three weeks. Since then, I’ve decided that I do want to drink the odd tipple, but I’m not going to be quite as extreme as I have previously been. Over the last two months, I have only been shockingly drunk once. Prior to this it was every weekend, so that’s got to be a good thing. I have found that I do have a good time when I’m not drinking (and actually having a memory the morning after is pretty good too). So I’m pretty happy with the way things have worked out. As for health benefits, I’ve not really noticed any, but if I up my exercise for my Ninja grading (eek, brown belt) over summer, I’m sure it’ll be of benefit.
BOOKS
Oh dear…
MUSICA
I am well on my way to a completely electronic music collection. I have copied all my copy CDs to my hard drive, made backups, and then chucked them away. This has halved my CD collection, and increased the amount of music on my PC to 18 gigs (scary). The long term aim is to make my PC and MP3 player the only source of my music, and maybe even sell my real CDs. Scary thought, but very feng shui…
In general, I’ve been listening to stuff that I’ve borrowed from Rob including recent Gary Numan stuff, the complete NIN back catalogue, Bush, and Silverchair’s final album. I’ve also been listening to some rather scary techno music for no other reason that I’m strangely drawn to it.
FILM
Have seen some really good stuff recently, but still not really been to the actual cinema much.
Walking Tall
A likeable action film with a perfectly acceptable performance from The Rock. This was based on a true story, and had some great set pieces and, although glossed over, something resembling a plot! A pleasant surprise.
***
Red Beard
Another masterpiece from Kurosawa and Mifune. Typically slow paced, but with a different subject matter to usual – this was familiar, yet different, and thoroughly enjoyable.
****
Respiro
This was one of those ‘nothing ever happens, then BOOM’ films that for some reason only seem to ever happen in foreign language films. An intriguing portrayal of Italian life, and then a harrowing and impressive emotional climax. Well worth a butchers.
***
Trauma
This was tense and dark, and had a twist at the end. Thing is, the twist wasn’t very impressive, and despite being impressive, I couldn’t help but think that I’d seen it all before. Still worth a look for a tense hour and a half though (and Colin Farrel is well fit).
***
Hostage
‘A return to form for Bruce Willis’ I was told. I turned up my nose… and ended up eating my words as this was a clever, tense, dark film that amalgamated genres into an extremely enjoyable package.
****
Edukators
Breaking into rich peoples houses, stealing nothing, but rearranging all their furniture and white goods: what a wonderfully subversive idea, and what a surprise that they could plot a whole film around the concept and make it superb!
****
TELLY
I’m SO glad that Doctor Who is great and successful, even if I am gutted about Eccleston leaving. I am so getting the box set in November!
Doctor Who - The End of the World
Fabulous! After the good, but with gaping holes first episode, I felt that this story fitted the one episode format, and was an enjoyable little adventure. Beyond that, the effects were top notch, impressive stuff.
*****
Doctor Who - The Unquiet Dead
A very different episode to the previous two, this was spooky, dark, and a wonderful example of a classic ‘behind the sofa’ scary Who.
*****
Doctor Who - Aliens of London
Wasn’t all that impressed with the aliens (poorly done muppet like creatures IMO) or the plot, but the characterisation of Rose, her mum and Mickey was well worth seeing AND I got my ‘peeeeeeeew, woo, woo, woo’ ending!
****
Doctor Who - World War Three
A poor plot and a lame ending ruined what was shaping to be some beautiful depth to the Rose character. Poor rubber costumes ruined some impressive CGI work on the aliens. This was a passable episode, but rather frustrating and vastly inferior to previous ones.
***
Angel - Season 5
Loved the changes to the format, loved the new ideas and the ‘grey area’ thing, loved the ongoing plots, loved the arrival of Spike and Harmony. Loved it all; hated the fact that this was the last season. I really hope that this isn’t the end for the Buffyverse (Want Giles and Spike spinoffs… NOW!).
*****
Jonathan Creek - Series 2
Equally as good as the first series, but extremely annoying that they replaced Anthony Stewart Head as Adam Klaus.
****
Chocky
I love John Wyndham. He’s one of my all time favourite novelists, and I have always been disappointed with the adaptations of his books. Not so with this 70’s telly series: just one weakly done scene (budget according to the doco on the DVD), but apart from that an enjoyable adaptation of a lesser known, but very good book.
****
Ally McBeal - Season 1
Like Friends and Will & Grace and Frasier, I don’t get this show’s popularity. It’s better than average, escapist American telly, but not the phenomenon it’s supposed to be. Saying that, it was perfectly watchable throwaway telly that I did enjoy, and I particularly enjoyed all the surreal bits like the dancing baby, the dump thing, the foot in mouth, &c.
***
Frasier - Season 1
Like Friends and Will & Grace and Ally McBeal, I don’t get this show’s popularity. It’s better than average, escapist American telly, but not the phenomenon it’s supposed to be. Saying that, it was perfectly watchable throwaway telly that I did enjoy, and I heart Eddie.
***
RPG AND GAMING
My main character in World of Warcraft, Santu, is up to the dizzy heights of level 31. At level 40, he gets a pet raptor to ride: that’s my target for this month!
Meanwhile in Oli’s D&D campaign, Havok and Saint have been doing some disgracefully evil things to make a lot of money and to please their Lord. They are petty Lords, are the secret leaders of a bandit group, and own a huge and successful pub, logging business, whorehouse, ossuary, brewery, merchant boat, and have invested in mining. How cool is that?!
BLOGGING & T’INTERNET
I’ve been horribly uninspired this month considering that I decided not to pelt everyone with my political views just because there’s an election coming up. If there’s one thing I can’t be arsed doing is arguing politics on my blog. Other than that, I’ve not had much to blog about…
With a big nod to Mr Ed Hyland, I have discovered two delightful webcomics, and a fun webgame this month. The comics I present to you Full Frontal Nerdity which is amusing if you like D&D, and the infinitely long LegoStar Galactica which is funny if you like Sci-Fi. I’ve been playing the much fun Nation States, a game where you’re the president of a small country and have to make political decisions, and have come out the woolly liberal that I knew I was…
BLOGROLL
Some are updated more regularly than others…
Alley Katt
Blurty Friends (a number of bloggers that are on blurty)
Bowch
fishmonger malarky
mcphee
Pixie
Prince Gaz
Shooting Parrots
ANYTHING ELSE INTERESTING?
Been out a few times for people’s birthdays (Ian and Rachel), and went canoeing for the first time in years, which was fun. Also had a fab meal out at The Mongolian Barbeque with Rob, and had a fabulous meal cooked for us by our friends Mark and Nathan. The above pic of Rob and me was taken by Auntie Sheppy at Jamie’s party last week.
THE WHOLE MONTH IN A FEW WORDS
Ho hum…
Have fun,
M x
Current mood:
loved.Current music: The Hand That Feeds by NIN.