Anotherblog

Long time, no post

I’m slightly startled to see how long it has been since I last posted anything. Fortunately, so little has happened in the last almost-two-weeks that it barely rates reporting.

Contracts
I got the contract with Baltimore, for two weeks of work on an old product. I’ll be training Raman-from-Systems-Integration who will then go to Hong Kong and face the rather unpleasant mob for whom they’re doing the contract. I was offered Raman’s current albatross earlier in the year, but expressed profound misgivings along the lines of “Not at any price”. So now we have a sacrificial lamb, who I must train to be a butt-heading ninja sheep. Now, where are my chopsticks?

I also applied for a very small contract doing video editing, but I suspect I’ve been undercut on that one - they haven’t called me back. It’ll be a bit dodgy if they do call me back next week, because I start the Baltimore job on Monday!

Resident Evil
That bloody director doesn’t have an original synapse in ‘is ‘ead. I only realised who the director was in the title credits - should have paid closer attention. He’s the same guy who directed the excerable Event Horizon, which was even more notable for its unpleasantness and cheap rip-offs. Resident Evil was especially frustrating, because I reckon if I’d had my hands on the raw footage, I’d have been able to make a fairly decent film out of it. Many of the action scenes were unnecessarily confusing, and since it was impossible to see where the characters were or where they could go or where the baddies were, there was no tension at all. Oh, a monster behind her? Gosh.

Films they directly ripped off:

Dawn of the Dead
Cube
2001: A space odyssey
Aliens

Real work
I’ve done some more work on Fork, believe it or not, but on the other hand have become completely stalled on Cesura. Bullet hole re-editing continues, and now that Ted’s back I can get his voice for one of the extras.

Squash
It turns out that Roland, ex-boyfriend of sister of semi-friend of Anna, is a squash player, and since we’ve become friends through short film work (he was in Reach Out And Touch Someone) he invited me to play with him and his friends on Tuesday evenings - can’t say no! And it has been very good for me too. I’m improving heaps, since I’m slightly better than Roland and worse than his friend-who’s-name-I’ve-forgottten. It’s a nice combination. Once I improve my fitness, I should do even better - my best games are usually my second to fourth, and after that I go into a bit of a decline…

Film appreciation
Roland and fellow film buff Suzanna and me have started a film appreciation night, every second Wednesday at the moment. So far, we’ve watched and discussed Brazil - Suzanna has done a film course recently and we’re going to start watching the films on her course. The first one, oddly, is John Carpenter’s “The Thing”.

A.I.

I’m not too sure what to say about the film A.I. I’m slightly too annoyed to say anything witty and cruel, as I would like to. Suffice to say, I really disliked the film. A lot. My emotional response isn’t entirely deserved, ’cause it looks great and the acting is fine, and there’s plenty to like. However, the film has a DEAR GOD MAKE IT STOP ending of awe-inspiring misguidedness and the view of artificial intelligences is taken straight from the golden age of SF. I imagine Greg Egan seeing it, laughing bitterly, and rushing off to write a sequel to Diaspora. That’s what I want to do.

Lazy
Very lazy indeed. Yawn. I went over to Chris & Amanda’s for the usual roleplaying night, and came home suffering from horrible hay-fever (alarmed that it might have been a cold - they both were getting over a horrible virus, but it doesn’t seem to have taken.) Anyway, the hayfever knocked me out for all of yesterday, tight chest, puffy face, headache.

Ico
I finished Ico yesterday, and it proved to be the bright spot of the day. I was feeling fairly fragile, but I’m not sure whether it would have mattered - the ending was devastating, even though I knew it was coming, and I had a few tears and a big lump in my throat. The game was gorgeous, a wonderful experience (if a little too easy).

Another Cesura

Sorry about harping on about this/but I managed another two Cesurae today/partly, I’m rather surprised that they’re so easy to write/partly, I have to admit that for the most part, they’re not particularly good/I don’t have the skills to do anything better yet though/so the experiment will continue.

Panic Room
David Finchner/Jodie Foster/surprisingly ordinary/Hitchcock may retain his crown.

Cesura

Good going so far - I’ve finished off an older one, done two new ones, and a new ending. Unfortunately, they’re not as innovative as I was originally planning, but that’s just another mental block preventing me getting things up there, isn’t it? I’d rather let the quality decline at this point, rather than slow down the rate of posting. I’m beginning to notice the signs of procrastination, and the first one is an obsession with quality that really gets in the way of getting things done.

I’ve decided - officially launch Cesura (ie. put links to it somewhere on otherleg) once I’ve done 20 of them. That’ll be enough issues to tell me whether it’s a goer or not.

Ico
I bought a new PS2 computer game today - Ico, a rather remarkable platformer. What makes it so compelling is that it doesn’t try to be frenetic and showy - instead, it is genuinely cinematic, and has actual characters with personalities. Atmosphere abounds. I’m greatly enjoying it at the moment, despite the familiarity of the platform setting - it most closely resembles Tomb Raider.

Golf
I played golf with Sandor and Marco back in Townsville and went out to breakfast afterwards (we play the traditional hit-off-at-first-light ambrose game). Marco took the opportunity to let us know he’s spawning again - Kylie is pregnant with their fourth child. Congratulations!

Back again!

So, one rather hot week away in Townsville, and a couple of days in Brisbane. I caught up with my parents, Jen, CB, Sandor, Marco, Ev, Astley, and met Ev’s girlfriend Sam. Bought “Risk 2210AD” which Astley proceeded to use to beat Ev and me about the head and shoulders. Went to Magnetic Island and drove around like a lunatic with Anna in a moke. Relaxed a lot. Played tennis. Didn’t access the internet at all. Showed off “Society Cookery 2″, “Hand Relief” and “Bullet Hole”, the last of which was the big hit. I’m starting to see some of the subtler problems with Bullet Hole now, so some time soon I’ll have to do some re-edits of the sound… but not yet. Anyway, an enjoyable trip but not one that inspires me to write much.

Cesura
First, there’s catching up with Cesura. I’ve worked out a fair bit in advance what I want to do with it, so I’ve also decided what the hell, I’ll try and catch up - I have an imaginary schedule of one every two days, and it’s about a week and a half behind. Over the next week and a half, then, I’ll try and do a Cesura every day, which would get me back on “schedule”. It is a very silly schedule, but I’m unemployed. I can do it. Revisions of the schedule may take place when I get a job some day.