Watta Scoop!

No, no new movie pics (I think they're all being held back for Comic-Con in July), but an interesting tidbit of info.

Latest news on the Justice League movie …

IGN Movies reports that Kieran and Michele Mulroney's script draft for the live-action "Justice League of America" movie was handed in to Warner Bros. earlier this month.

The studio is reportedly pleased with the effort which includes "a half-dozen of the best-known superheroes working together, including Batman and Superman."

The studio must now decide whether they will release a JLA movie before the next "Superman" movie. With director Bryan Singer about to shoot "Valkyrie", there remains at present no screenplay for the Super-sequel.

It’s surprising the amount of movement there is on this. When it was announced, it seemed like a pipedream. Of course, having a script submitted doesn’t really mean anything, so it’s way too early to speculate.

Man, if they screwed up a Justice League movie, Warner Brothers would have to have their movie-making license revoked!

A Little Late, I Know ...

P-A-R-T-WHY? Because we gotta!!!

... and because it's my birthday and Ashley needs to be housewarmed.

Thanks to Ben for the source material. I'd have taken the time to make the image a bit flashier, but I got sick of mouse-clickin'.

Prodigal Priest

One of my favourite bloggers has returned to the Wide Wide World Webs.

Christopher J Priest (not to be confused with author Christopher Priest) is - amongst other things - a comic writer/editor, a musician/producer and an ordained minister.

Priest's views on everything from faith to politics, to relationships and everyday life, and finally to pop culture are always a point of interest to me. His articles on race (Priest was the first African-American editor in mainstream comics) had a profound impact on the way I see the world, as did his thoughts on politics and religion. And his comic work (including his definitive take on Black Panther) is amazing.

In short, I think he's great.

Hope you do, too.

Salman Rushdie and His Wife Padma Lakshmi

Can someone explain this one to me?

Please???

We Love You, Godzilla!

I mentioned in a comment reply a while ago a review I did about Godzilla: Final Wars. I would say it probably still stands as my favourite of all the reviews I've done over the years, and I figured I'd post a link to it for anyone who's interested.

It's old, but I hope it's interesting.

My Blue Heaven

I got some really cool news today.

Dad mentioned in an email that he and my step-mum had just bought a new car. Wondering what was becoming of Dad’s old wheels, I asked what the deal was (completely innocently, I swear!).

I got a call a few minutes later from one Mr John Lochran, asking if I’d be interested in inheriting the Bluesmobile.

The timing of this couldn’t be more uncanny. I have a great deal of love for my car, the Crimson Dynamo, but after four years, it’s more than a little worse for wear. It had a great deal of trouble starting this morning, and I was starting to put my mind towards trading it in. And then, like a bolt from the blue, came this offer. I immediately leapt on, as you can no doubt understand.

Dad’s gonna ship the car down in the next week or two, after which I’ll be the proud owner of one ’93 blue Toyota Celica;

[example image courtesy of Google Image Search]

Thanks very much, Dad! A hugely appreciated (and VERY well timed!) birthday present!

I feel all slick now. Like I gotta take a job with Miami Vice.

Hell Week

I went into work today expecting the next five days to be the embodiment of torture. We’re moving offices at the moment, so everything needs to be packed up; this would be enough of a headache normally, but I found out in addition to my work space I’m also responsible for packing up the stationery cupboard and the mail room.

*shudder*

By my reckoning, it was also the time of the month for the new title briefs to be sent out to all the sales reps; this is a huge job, as the package is hundreds of pages thick and is sent to nearly a hundred people. It’s my responsibility to print, compile, pack and send it all out.

I decided to hit the ground running. Given that we’d be needing all the mail stuff up until the last minute, I figured I’d focus on the title briefs. I started printing them off first thing in the morning.

In the afternoon, we were all gathered for a special meeting. It turns out the new building’s still not ready, so the move has been deferred a week. This was obviously good news for me, even though it meant that the day off we’re getting for it moved from being this coming Monday to Friday week. Oh, well. A day off is a day off, whenever it comes.

So I went back to my station to continue on the title briefs (amongst all my other duties). By about ten to five I’d gotten to the halfway mark I’d been aiming for, and started taking the print-outs to the sorting area …

… where I was told by the media officer they weren’t ready yet, and that it wouldn’t be until next week that I should be printing them off.

[expletive deleted!]

I wasted an entire day printing this crap off on the supposition that I was being proactive and on-top-of-things. Now it all has to be chucked in the recycling bin and my nightmare week gets shifted to next week.

Razzum frazzum crap!

Walloping Websnappers!

The first image from the new webheaded animated series, The Spectacular Spider-Man;

I’m holding out high hopes for this. I think it’s a little much to expect it to reach Justice League heights, but given that it has Greg Weisman producing it (he who gave the world the amazing Gargoyles series) it definitely has the chance to. Apparently it’s focusing on Peter’s younger days as Spider-Man, much like the Ultimate Spider-Man comic book (though with far less hormonal / teen lust issues, I’m guessing).

And is this the first photo we’ve seen from the Where the Wild Things Are movie?

Man, it looks like they’ve nailed the visual style of it, at the very least. But once again, given the talent behind the camera (one Mr Spike Jonze, no less!) I’m expecting Very Big Things from this one.

Broadcast of Broken Dreams

The winner of the Invade Rage competition has been announced and, surprise surprise, it's not me. I didn't even come in as a runner-up. Dang.

Apparently they're going to have an evening where they'll play a selection of the songs that everyone submitted (apparently, there were around 4,000 entries). Maybe, just maybe, a song of mine will get on there, but I doubt it.

When Rage was running the 20-year retrospective specials (where they played music video highlights from the past 20-years over the course of a few weeks) I noticed how many of my song choices overlapped with theirs. At first I thought this might be a good sign, as it meant I'd picked Rage-centric songs. But then it occured to me that my choices might have been too obvious, and that everyone would be listing them.

I'll be very curious to see what the winner's list consists of.

But, in the meantime, here's the playlist I submitted, along with the required five rationales. They're as tragically unfunny as they are because I can never do "funny" on cue. You might have noticed ...

Anyways;

UNDERGROUND – Ben Folds Five
DO THE EVOLUTION – Pearl Jam
LIAR – Rollins Band
BIZARRE LOVE TRIANGLE – New Order
MAPS – Yeah Yeah Yeahs
FORGET HER – Jeff Buckley
DRY YOUR EYES – The Streets
RISE – Public Image Limited
TOUCHED – Vast
EXPRESS YOURSELF – NWA
SEXY MOTHERFUCKER – Prince
MY BABY JUST CARES FOR ME – Nina Simone
GOIN’ OUT WEST – Tom Waits
UNDER THE MILKY WAY – The Church
ENTER SPACE CAPSULE – Gerling
SCIENCE IS GOLDEN – The Grates
JUDITH – A Perfect Circle
GOD’S GONNA CUT YOU DOWN – Johnny Cash
TRY TRY TRY – Smashing Pumpkins
ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE – The Beatles

TOUCHED
Vast is a favourite band of mine, which makes it a bit unfortunate for me that the only song anyone seems to know them for is this one. I don’t mind too much, however, because as far as songs go, this is a really, really good one. With its belting acoustic guitar and memorable vocal sample, it’s a song that gets stuck in your head and lays its eggs there. I can’t remember much of the video beyond a bunch of hazy figures running around, so it’d be interesting to see it again and refresh the memory, which has been slipping ever since the aforementioned Vast egg infestation.

MY BABY JUST CARES FOR ME
How can you not completely love a music video made by Aardman Animation for one of the best songs of all time? Horny claymation cats are the funniest thing ever! Period!

GOD’S GONNA CUT YOU DOWN
I didn’t think you could find a more perfect song or music video for an artist to leave his fans with than “Hurt” by Johnny Cash. With its powerful lyrics and heartbreaking video looking back over a massive career, it seemed the ultimate note to go out on. Then this song came out. Like “Forget Her” by Jeff Buckley (also on my list) this video serves as a loving tribute to an immensely talented and influential artist. It’s also got a blink-and-you-miss-it cavalcade of celebrity cameos, which leads to fun name-listing games. No, I’m not above trivial distraction.

TRY TRY TRY
I’m a huge fan of the Smashing Pumpkins; they’re the band that really solidified my love of music. People more or less stopped caring for them around the time “Adore” was released, but being an obsessive geek means you can’t give up on your favourite band, no matter how obscure or irrelevant or mixed-with-too-much-distortion they may become. I don’t think I’ve ever seen this video played on Rage, so I figured I’d take a shot and see if I could get it aired. Wish me luck!

ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE
It might be a bit of a cliché, or a little obvious, but I thought the song the Beatles wrote for the first live international transmission would be a great note to leave things on. It’s amazing how, in under four minutes, this song has more emotional and musical depth to it than most bands manage to produce in their entire careers. The video is especially cool not just for its historic significance, but also because you can spot Mick Jagger singing along in the audience.

I’d just finally like to say a big thanks for running this competition. I imagine just about everyone has said how programming Rage has been a dream of theirs for a long time, and I’d just like to completely fall in line by saying the same. Given that I have absolutely no musical talent, however, meant that I pretty much had to give up the dream. With this chance, though, I hope to propel myself into the welcoming breast of music video programming history, to be remembered amongst all the greats in the field whose names completely escape me now.

And that's the end of that chapter ...

Zeitgeist, or Frightgeist?

Thanks to YouTube, I finally got the chance to hear the Smashing Pumpkin’s new single, Tarantula.

I think the fact that I can’t remember a single lyric or melody from it is a really bad sign.

I mentioned in my last post about the Pumpkin’s how Billy Corgan’s been struggling to put out a song that resonates with the public ever since the release of Adore in 1998. From that album on, the Pumpkins – and more specifically Billy himself – seem completely unable to strike a chord with the general listening public.

The lead single off an album is always an important one, as it sets the tone for what to expect from the forthcoming LP. I thought Ava Adore from Adore was an interesting, if not particularly catchy, single. The Everlasting Gaze seemed to be showcasing the Pumpkin’s return to a heavier, more Mellon Collie-style sound for Machina / The Machines of God, and was a genuinely good rock song. But still, it didn’t get much interest. Honestly, from Billy’s Pumpkins follow-up group Zwan was, I felt, an excellent piece of bright pop rock that once again completely failed to generate excitement. And the less said about Walking Shade from Billy’s solo album, the better.

So now we have Tarantula, from the upcoming Zeitgeist record. I guess I can’t complain about buried, fuzzy vocals, as these vocals are so clear they almost sound like they’ve been recorded on a home PC’s microphone function. Neither the verses nor the chorus are particularly memorable, and aside from a few moments here and there, the whole song fails to get off the ground. Such a weird choice for not just a lead single, but a lead single after an almost ten-year absence.

All in all, I don’t think it bodes very well for the whole comeback effort. I think during the promised reunion tour, audiences will be there for the old material, and will deign to simply suffer through the new stuff. But for all I know, there’s some tracks on the album that’ll prove to be genuinely good stuff (as was the case with the Zwan and solo efforts) and Zeitgeist might prove to be, if not a return to glory for the Pumpkins, at least not a complete embarrassment.

And just for clarification; that Paris Hilton image is actually the single’s cover. I understand they’re going with the whole ‘zeitgeist’ motif, but it just seems like embarrassingly shallow comment without much foresight.

I Understand the "Bat" Part, But What's "Pod" Got To Do With Anything?

Being that I can't allow Ben to scoop me (even if it is with a higher-quality version of a picture I already posted) I thought I'd post some pictures of Batman's new wheels, despite them being a few days old.

This is the thing they're referring to as 'the Batpod';

Apparently this is the motor bike type doohickey Batman replaces the Batmobile with when it gets blown up in the new movie.

I feel the same way about this as I did the Batmobile in Batman Begins. It's kinda fugly, way too military-focused and fairly impractical as far as stealth goes. And what's with the machine guns? Batman's whole deal is how anti-gun he is. Does that only apply to guns that AREN'T strapped to the front of one's so-big-it's-compensating-for-something motor bike?

Just get a nice little Yahama, Batman! Jeez!

Internet Killed the Video Star

There’s this Internet phenomenon that doesn’t really seem to get much discussion about it – to the point where I’m unsure of what exactly it’s called. On You Tube they seem to be listed as “tribute videos”, where somebody cuts together clips from a TV show / movie (I’ve only seen TV shows so far, but I’m not ruling films out) to the tunes of an appropriate song. The first one I remember seeing was a collection of Spike and Buffy romance scenes set to “Crash into Me” by Dave Matthews Band, way back in 2003 on Cara’s laptop, which was very well done.


I recently re-discovered them on You Tube, with clips from Justice League set to all manner of different songs. For the most part they’re not bad. You can see where laziness sets in as the person editing it can’t be bothered cutting away, allowing scenes to run long and including characters speaking muted dialogue.

While I don’t really have the technical set-up for it, I’ve already started cutting together music videos I’d like to make myself in my head.

They include;

- “The Ground Beneath Her Feet” by U2, cut together with clips from Buffy.

- “Do the Evolution” by Pearl Jam set to action sequences from Heroes.

- And just for Li-Kim, I’d be willing to consider “The Power of Love” by Huey Lewis & the News, set to relevant images from Horatio Hornblower.

On a tangential note, in the magical world where I’m an actual music video director, I’d love to do a clip to U2’s "Vertigo". It would involve taking the band on a world tour, where they’d play a series of free concerts outside famous sites, (Statue of Liberty in New York, Eiffel Tower in Paris, Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro, Sydney Opera House, etc.) Each verse / chorus would involve them playing at a new monument, intercut with shots of them travelling all around the world (if you gave each band member their own camcorder, you could probably get some good shots, as well as ample documentary material).

The final chorus / show would be played at a small venue in Ireland; one that had great personal significance for the band, like a school hall they practiced in or a pub they played one of their first shows in or something.

It doesn’t necessarily have to be U2, but they’re the kind of band that has the popularity to justify such an expensive shoot. I figured it’d also be a good way to take a medium-sized band and introduce them to the world as the Next Big Thing.

Maybe someday. In the meantime, I’m gonna think of songs that’d make for good Justice League videos.

Keeping Myself in Monocles and Top Hats

You might have read Li-Kim’s report on our impromptu Monopoly night. The general consensus was that, before too long, I had become a wheeling and dealing tycoon (or as fellow game-players might have put it; “pushy and annoying”).

In my defence – and I made this argument at the time – if we didn’t broker any deals between ourselves, the game wouldn’t go anywhere. And I proved this by going bankrupt almost immediately after Ben and Carol left.

Why did it take Ben and Carol leaving for me to lose my shirt (figuratively speaking, of course)? Well, see, Carol took it upon herself to keep Ben from making any stupid deals, and as Lindsay and I were trying to wheedle him unfairly out his property every five seconds, and seeing as he was easily talked into selling his properties for less than he paid for them, it was a tough job for ol’ CK. But that said, what a coupla party poopers!

*shakes fat millionaire fist at them*

And I'll Form ... The Head!

I found this review of the Voltron movie script and, my God, it sounds absolutely terrible! The cool thing about Voltron (or at least the Golion version of Voltron, as opposed to vehicular Voltron) was the way it blended fantasy and sci-fi. But this review of the script makes it sound like it’s been made over into just another generic, humdrum, post-apocalyptic drab-fest.

I understand that the cheesier elements would have to be removed. I’m not an advocate of slavish devotion to source material; Harry Potter fans who cry foul when quidditch matches are ever so slightly changed between book and film adaptation strike me as being more than just a little zealous. But from the sound of it, the writer of the Voltron screenplay has simply taken Escape from New York and added giant robots to it.

The guy who reviewed the screenplay absolutely wet himself over it, declaring it to be the best thing since sliced Robeast. But I was a little sceptical, given that in the span of one sentence he used the words “dope” and “whack” in a completely non-ironic manner. That sets off alarm bells in itself.

But then we’re treated to the “hardcoring” of all the characters. The leader of the Voltron force, Keith, was always a stalwart, highly ethical guy; the prototypical leader, along the lines of Cyclops from X-Men. Being that I always related to that kind of uptight character, he was my favourite, but most people preferred Lance, the smart-alec ladies’ man who had as much animosity with Keith as he did respect and friendship.

But in this script Keith is some sort of badass mamajamma, sporting all manner of tattoos and ill-manners. And Lance is played as nothing more than comic relief. The setting has been moved from the alien planet of Arus to an Earth that’s been invaded by an alien force, and all the main characters are the survivors of this event. The reviewer makes constant comparisons to the Mad Max movies.

Essentially all of the fantastical elements have been stripped from the script, replaced instead with pessimism and “gritty realism”. It reminds me a great deal of Batman Begins, a movie that, while I enjoyed it, leaned far too heavily on establishing everything as “real”, and completely jettisoned any of the more fun or theatrical elements of the Batman character.

Grant Morrison wrote that “Only a bitter little adolescent boy could confuse realism with pessimism”. There have been a number of genre adaptations that have made this mistake (or at the very least there have been a lot of aborted adapted screenplays that have) and from the sounds of it this Voltron script is a prime example of it.

Not that I really mind that much. I was of course curious when the news was announced that a live action Voltron movie was in the works; it was a property that I really enjoyed as a kid. Does it surprise me that, from the sounds of it, they’re on the path of completely fucking it up? No, not really. Does it disappoint me? Sure. I think a Voltron movie that made some real attempt to capture the spirit of the original series would make for some great entertainment. But I don’t care so much that I can muster any sense of outrage.

I still reserve that for Batman & Robin.

GOD DAMN IT!

So after over four years of senseless, chaotic violence on an unimaginable scale, the UN has finally, finally decided to do something about the wholescale slaughter taking place in Darfur. They're putting together a peace-keeping force to try to put an end to the horrible situation that's seen an estimated 400, 000 people die since 2003 (that's around 200 people a day!).

The UN's asked Australia to supply troops to the effort, and despite years of posturing we've done over how something has to happen, WE'RE NOT HELPING AT ALL.

And you know why? Because of the endless quagmire we're stuck in in Iraq. They're not even making any pretenses about it. Alexander Downer has simply said we don't have the troops because they're deployed in Iraq (and of course Afghanistan, East Timor, etc) and because we don't want to risk hurting relations with the US, we won't be withdrawing our forces to redirect them to Sudan.

GOD FUCKING DAMN IT!

Here we are, finally in a position to do something to help people who are being outright slaughtered en masse, where families are getting torn apart and gang rape is being routinely used as a weapon of war, and despite everything we've said over the years we're not going to do ANYTHING because we're too stupidly anchored to Dubya's Modern Vietnam, a war that was declared "won" FOUR YEARS AGO!

The last I heard, all the Australian troops are doing in Iraq is safeguarding Japanese engineers in an area where there's no fighting occuring. If that's still the case, I don't think it'd be too much of a problem if we took at least a few and put them in a place where they could actually do some freakin' good.

Yet another decision by the Howard government that demonstrates exactly how they feel about people who either aren't white or don't have a backyard full of oil.

PRICKS!!!

Okay. So with that gut reaction out of my system, I think it's worth noting that an Australian doctor who's served with Doctors Without Borders has expressed reservations about applying a military solution to the problem, and the amount of lives it would cost in the crossfire. That said, given the insular militia structure that the Janjaweed works in (as well as the other groups battling it out in Darfur) I doubt the collateral damage would be anywhere nearly as significant as that in Iraq, where all the fighting has been taking place in built-up civilian areas.

But the second you start talking about "collateral damage" is the second you start developing the "gonna make an omelette, gotta break some eggs" mentality that some have so flippantly and scarily applied to situations like Iraq throughout history.

The other thing to note is that we are in places like East Timor, helping out there. But I can't help but feel that, after years of simply standing by and watching as Sudan ate itself alive we finally have the chance to do something about it (you know, in an internationally legal way, unlike Dubya's unadmited civil war) and we're not going to do anything, because we've already painted ourselves into a corner with Iraq, a place where we've, by all arguments, done more harm than good.

What bullshit.

Scooping Ben (Take 2)

Behold, the new Batsuit!

Take that, Chuah!

Personally, I don't know what to make of it. I was hoping for less technological/utilitarian, not more. But it looks like the face mask has been re-sculpted a bit, and if they've found a new/better way of attaching the cape, that's all I ask for. Last time, Batman looked like a facially malformed freak with a hook nose and a theatre curtain clipped to his shoulders.

To Quote Martin Prince

"I'm as unpopular with the ladies as I am with the chaps!"

This has been repeating in my brain over and over the last few days. I have, of course, been giggling crazily as a result.

So Swank

If I could dress like anyone, it'd be Robert Downey Jr in Zodiac.

Of course, I doubt I have either the money or the swagger to pull it off, and I don't know how practical it is to rock up to your admin assistant's job wearing a vest (with matching neckerchief!), but still, one dares to dream ...

Not So Lost

After hearing about how mind-blowing and unpredictable the season 3 finale of Lost was, I sat down to watch it with Ben with a great deal of excitement and anticipation.

By about the first quarter, I'd worked out what the twist ending was going to be. And beyond that (and the fate of one major character) there really wasn't much else to it.

I guess I had high expectations not only because of how much general Internet chatter there was about it, but because of an article posted on Chud.com that absolutely eviscerated Heroes and its finale in comparison to Lost.

I haven't seen the Heroes season final yet, but given how much more I've enjoyed that show compared to Lost this season, I'm expecting it to not only be pretty damn good, but to cost CHUD a lot of credibility in my personal credibility bank.

I'm sure they're quaking with fear.

Beating a Dead Horse

Spider-Man 2 had really great dialogue. It was hard to tell exactly who was responsible for it, given that it was written pretty much by committee, but seeing that parts 1 & 3 had nowhere near the same level of dialogue, and that 2 was the only one that Michael Chabon worked on, and that Chabon wrote Wonder Boys and The Amazing Adventures of Cavalier & Clay, my money is on him for giving the actors such great material to work with.

There are a lot of exchanges in that movie I just love, but one of them really sticks out, every time; it’s Aunt May’s speech about heroism –

“… Everybody loves a hero. People line up for ‘em, cheer them, scream their names. And years later, they'll tell how they stood in the rain for hours just to get a glimpse of the one who taught them how to hold on a second longer. I believe there's a hero in all of us. That keeps us honest. Gives us strength. Makes us noble. And finally allows us to die with pride. Even though sometimes we have to be steady, and give up the thing we want the most. Even our dreams … ”

[excerpt taken from the IMDB]

Not only is that a fantastic speech, but Rosemary Harris performs the absolute hell out of it, and helps solidify Spider-Man 2 as a film cut above the rest.

Of course, I’ll never forget the time I heard that speech recited at a wedding by a groom about his bride. The realisation dawned on me very slowly, but when it hit, it hit hard. I couldn’t help but wonder if I was the only one in the room who knew where this guy had stolen his whole speech from; it reminded me of how, on Scrubs, Turk couldn’t come up with a speech for his wedding rehearsal, so his future brother-in-law offered to write one for him. Turk didn’t realise the speech he was giving was directly lifted from Jerry Maguire (or Ghost, or Dirty Dancing, or some schmaltzy girl movie I can’t remember), and was left mystified why every woman at the dinner, including his soon-to-be wife Carla, was instantly horrified at his insensitivity.

Not to mention, I don’t know how much of an upper it is to talk about how your new bride allows people to die with dignity. What is she, an angel of death at an old folk’s home?

To sum up; Spider-Man 2 = yay! I know, I know, I haven’t posted about that enough already, right?

Blue Crush

So I have a bit of a crush on this girl.

Well, to be more accurate, it’s actually this girl.

Her name is Amy Allen, and she played Aayla Secura in the Star Wars films. But the interesting thing was that before that she was a production assistant with Industrial Light & Magic, working on all different kinds of movies behind the scenes. Pretty, geeky AND smart! She reminds me of my ain true love, Kari from Mythbusters!


* siiiiiigh *

Ow's Ya Mutha?

If you've read Ben's blog, you know Mum stayed during the course of the long weekend. It was great to see her after over a year, though it did come at the cost of having to sleep on a paper thin mattress on the living room floor. Ouch. I hope the crappy sleep I got while she was here didn't make me too snappy with her.

In any case, Ben covered the main points in his post, so I'll just add that, if you're reading this Mum, it was great to see you!

And back to your regularly scheduled blog.

Damn Damn Damn!

I knew it! I knew this would happen!

It was going to be perfect. I was going to have a lap top. Nothing fancy, just something I could load Word on to and work on whenever I was out and about. But my plan was foiled. FOILED!!!

As I mentioned before, the IT department at work was having a sale. I came in at 9 and saw the guy setting up. I asked him how long until they were ready for business, he wasn’t sure, but said I could take a look. I spied a couple of spare lap tops, asked a few questions about them, and took my leave, planning to return a few minutes later and purchase one when the good gentleman was ready for my coin.

I got back. And the vultures had descended.

The first lap top was already winding its way out the door. The second was in the hand of someone from another floor, smiling with a great deal of pride in her purchase.

My window had closed.

[silent rage]

I bought a printer for Sarah for $2, but I felt hollow inside.

[shakes fist with a sense of disappointment, heartbreak and annoyance]

Oh, blogging. You’re my only comfort in these dark times.

Belated Gratitude

So thanks to the Ikea website, here's an image of my new bedframe. It occured to me that I forgot to mention in my previous post all the help I got in putting it together.

First of all, both Sarah and Charlie did me the massive favour of getting up early and catching public transport to be here so they could receive the delivery. Then Sarah went the extra mile of putting together the exterior frame - a very heavy and difficult job that I more than likely wouldn't have been able to do myself!

When I got home in the evening I set to finishing it off, and ended up pulling Ashley, Carol and Ben into my room to help (without meaning to, I swear!). Ashley helped me with the metal supports while Ben - like a man possessed! - set up the slats for me. Carol gave invaluable input as project chief.

So all of this is to say thank you very much to everybody, and that my gratitude knows no bounds. It's thanks to you all that I'm not sleeping in amongst a garbage heap of broken Ikea components!

I Don't Feel Right

As some of you know, every now and then I get these dizzy spells, where I feel light-headed. Generally, if I sit/lie down and sip a lot of water, I feel better and I can get on with things. I ended up feeling light-headed at work today about mid-morning. I sat down, sipped some water and, by the time lunch came around, I was feeling pretty normal again.

With the theory that I was feeling light-headed because I hadn't had anything to eat, I went and got some lunch. The moment, the very moment I bit into my food, the nauesea came swirling back, double-strength. I left my food at the conference table (I was eating with my co-workers in the board room) and found a couch to lie down on. Rest didn't help, though, and I had to go running to the men's toilets to vomit up the few mouthfuls of food I'd eaten.

I was still feeling pretty terrible after that, so I told my boss and he said I could go home. As I'd parked in the pay car park across the road, he agreed to move my car to one of the company's private car parks for me as I took a cab ride home.

I get into the cab and told the driver where I wanted to go, and said I was feeling sick as reason for why I was exciting so strangely (I thought it'd also be decent to give him a heads-up in case the travelling made me sick and I had to ask him to pull over so I could puke).

Most people, upon seeing someone in a weakened and vulnerable position, decide to take some form of mercy. Others will decide to take advantage. My cabbie did the later. Instead of following the one road back to my house, he took a complete dog-turn that ended up on the exact same road. I couldn't be bothered getting bent out of shape about it, as the company's going to re-emburse me the cost, but it really pissed me off that someone could be as cynically calculating as that. It was also pretty stupid on his part, as I was the slightest bump away from vomitting, and could have very easily done it in his cab. As it was, it was simply the first thing I did as I came running through the door.

I slept throughout the afternoon and feel quite a bit better now. My plan at the moment is to tell work that I'll be in tomorrow after midday.

Apologies to Sarah and Charlie, as I'd made plans to have dinner with them (and bring around Sarah's washing / table). Feel bad about that one.

$1700 Later ...

New glasses. $600. New bed frame. $500. Car registration. $560.

Credit card bills? Priceless!

So I got my new glasses on Saturday. Quite spiffy, if I do say so myself. The sunglasses are still on their way.

After a year of sleeping on a matress on the floor, I finally bit the bullet and went to Ikea to buy a bed. I'm very happy with the choice I made, and my room looks a little less hobbo-y as a result.

Car registration? Necessary evil.

I'm looking to add to all the expenses fairly shortly, as it looks like the IT department at work is having a sale. I'm hoping to be able to get a laptop. Given that they've said that nothing will be above $20, the added cost won't be too bad, but I'll definitely have to get in there early to make sure I don't miss out.

Nerd Porn

No, I don’t mean literal nerd porn, though the accompanying image might confuse things a little. I’m actually referring to the third and final season of Justice League Unlimited, which I received in the mail the other day and have already greedily consumed. Highlights include;

- Shining Knight and Vigilante discussing the merits of Dirty Harry.

- Supergirl getting a much needed re-design, and the animosity she has with Stargirl.

- Flash and Lex Luthor swapping minds in a magical accident. Clancy Brown’s performance as the Flash-possessed Luthor is hilarious.

- Flash consoling the villainous Trickster about being off his meds and wearing “the costume” again. Flash tells the Trickster to turn himself in after he’s finished his beer, to which Trickster responds by raising his mug and cheerily saying “Got me again, Flash!”.

- The squabble Green Arrow and his former sidekick Speedy get into over whether Speedy should be referred to as “ex-sidekick” or “ex-partner”.

- Huntress trying to talk dirty to the Question over the phone and failing dismally.

- The overall Legion of Doom arc, with the power struggles between Lex Luthor and Gorilla Grodd over who should lead the villainous secret society.

- The introduction of Hawkman.

- The staggeringly exquisite animation in the series’ final episode. The attention to detail on this one is amazing, even if the story feels a little rushed.

Negatives?

- Not as much Batman as I’d like, but seeing as he’s had such a huge amount of development over the course of the DC Animated Universe, it seems only fair that other heroes should get the spotlight for a while.

- The way they set up the potential for Hawkgirl and Hawkman to enter into a relationship, as it was in the comics, only to quash it a few episodes later.

- The fact that the series had to finish at all.

I’m a little bummed that I’ve run out of Justice League Unlimited; it was quite exciting waiting for it to arrive in the mail. But I still have the first season of the original Justice League to get, as well as Superman: The Animated Series and the rest of Batman: The Animated Series. Maybe even Batman Beyond, though I find that show – set in the DC Animated Universe’s future – to be a touch depressing.

But overall, man, do I love Justice League. It distils all the best things about superhero comics and puts it into a highly accessible, fun, exciting and incredibly well-produced series. Much re-watching to occur, no doubt!

This Is Me.

Exhausted!

What a week of work! Since Monday I've been compiling a document that consists of about a thousand pages, to be sent off to sixty different people. This is in addition to my normal responsibilities, plus a bunch of other work that got lumped on me. I packed and sent off 23 boxes today! 23! Soooo glad it's Friday.

I got invited into the Marketing Director's office yesterday at five to five. Basically, he's taking the responsibility of acquiring promo stock from one of his people and giving it to me. It's increased responsibility, I'll learn a bit more about the business and what not, but given my mental state at the time, he might as well have asked me into his office to say "Steve, shit flows downhill, and the bad news is you're living in the valley."

I'm gonna need some galoshas.

EDIT (from 9 / 5 / 08):
Just wanted to comment on how funny it was re-reading this. I considered deleting it out of concern that Paul (the Marketing Director referred to in the post) would read it and be offended. But I think it's interesting to see the anxiety I had at what turned out to be a pivotal turning point in my gradually-building career. You don't intend for a blog to be a diary, but it ends up becoming one in the end by de facto.

In retrospect, this was a good day for me, even though I didn't see it at the time.