If, like me, you're stuck at work when you'd really like to be any place else and you're bored to tears, go and read some Full Metal Jacket quotes. It sure livened up my last half hour.
"These are great days we're living, bros. We are jolly green giants, walking the Earth with guns. These people we wasted here today are the finest human beings we will ever know. After we rotate back to the world, we're gonna miss not having anyone around that's worth shooting."
Tuesday July 29, 2008 -- #31
I'm pretty fed up with my current traineeship. Luckily I have only 3 more weeks to go and then my 5 month period will come to an end, but these last few weeks have been hard. They make the first 4 months seem like a breeze. My latest hardship has been the other, new, trainee, who has the unfortunate habit of blazing loud music through his headphones bugging the hell out of me. Partially because it sounds a bit parp, I question his sanity hearing some of the stuff, but also because it's hard to actually make out what he's listening to. I spend half the day trying to work out what it is he's trying to sing along with "is that... oh no it isn't", "oh great song, oh wait it's the other version, boo" or my favourite "is he playing that tune AGAIN?!". Sweet jesus on a stick, let this be done with already, I'm sure that whatever I have done in my previous lives I have suffered for it by now. 3 more weeks, 3 more weeks! *grumble*
Monday July 28, 2008 -- #30
Well according to my blogposts it's taken me well over 6 months, but I've finally seen Cloverfield. I love the entire "amateur POV" direction films like this use, although I can only think of a lot of porn and The Blair Witch Project effort besides Cloverfield, but they do tickle my fancy. Storywise Cloverfield is a bit "meh", the entire city is being run over by some giant creature with little spawns killing just about everyone and destroying just about everything, and that is ok with me. Where the whole "we have to find our friend, because I think I love her" thing comes in however is a bit unneccesary. This isn't a storydriven movie and when you tend to create a movie filmed by amateurs at least make them act like amateurs/real people and get rid of a higher motive behind the peoples actions. There are people dying left and right, and stuff being blown to sh*t, so they want to run like hell, I get it. No need for more. I personally don't think I'd go back into a place being raped back and forth by some unnaturally big creature, just for someone who I once kissed and who might make a dandy wife if we ever happen to meet up and take it from there. Nope, I'd run my toes, feet, legs and ass off getting the hell away. It probably would have given the movie a little more of that amateur-feel as well watching 4/5 people just trying to save themselves getting out of the city.
But truth be told, I liked it. I don't rate it as way up there /me points to the sky, but also definately not way down there either /me points down to the inner workings of the earth. Now where to find the soundtrack hmm.
Sunday July 27, 2008 -- #29
Is there a place where they still use cassette tapes? There is! Why oh why didn't I think of that when I wanted to get rid of all my videotapes? I could have made money selling them to the Dutch rapists, robbers and murderers, they'd be happy to see me. A real missed opportunity. Maybe there's a market for used toilet paper as well somewhere.
Friday July 25, 2008 -- #28
Wowzee, been a while. Yet again.
Lets cut to the juicy stuff: Kung Fu Panda. Not quite for Dreamworks what The Incredibles was for Pixar, but a lot better than all the lousy efforts since the first Shrek. It's a very stylish and fun movie, with a wooly (or is that furry) panda as star, teh win? Almost. Unfortunately some jokes are played out rather childish and the oh-so-annoying "believe in yourself" message carried throughout the movie is once again right up in your face. Kudos to the people who worked on it, I found it very very enjoyable, but it doesn't quite has that Toy Story/Finding Nemo/The Incredibles/Spirited Away standard, even if it's not a whole lot worse. Saw the movie in IMAX where the quality really did look spot on and I thought it was just marketing! Loads better than the last few times I saw a movie in the theater, which almost always tends to have a rubbish picture quality these days. For a minute I thought No Country For Old Man was an homage to 8bit gaming.
A movie that might just get into that 5* list, and sparked a lot of interest and warm fuzzy feelings when seeing the trailer, is Wall-E.
Thursday July 10, 2008 -- #27
I know the bottom element says I'm currently reading War&Peace, or at least that's what you're supposed to deduct, but I'm not. Only 30 pages or so in I just found it too hard to stay focused, it felt too much like a chore reading it. So for now I've put the book down and I am reading'less. I still have a few books I should read, but I'm not in the mood for scores of letters right now. Instead I have turned my eyesight on Graphic Novels and have caught up a bit on that. The Dark Knight Returns, Flight, Watchmen, Preacher and Sin City: The Big Fat Kill have gone through my hands and seduced my eyes these last few weeks. Hopefully the need for stuff less graphic will return so I can get back to some "old fashioned" entertainment, I really want to reduce some of the backlog I have before new books find their way into my room.
I also hope to get working on a re-design on memike.net soon, as the current design doesn't do it for me anymore. When I came up with it I was really glad and felt it did all I wanted from my personal little site, I was rather proud even. But then came about a year of "fine" tuning, and back-tuning if such exists, and now it doesn't fancy me no more. Currently however I'm busy doing my final year traineeship for my college so I'm a but busy with that... well not so much busy as just very unwilling to sit behind ye old PeeCee when I get hpme. Unless it's for a game of PES.
Also something you may probably have heard about, but if not: Nine Inch Nails are giving away their latest album, The Slip, for free. The download anyway. While it may seem like nothing more than a cheap way to please fans, and non-fans, it's something I will grab anyway. If the album turns out any good then they will have earned my simple and honest blessing. I believe their Ghost albums are up for grabs somewhere as well, but I can't find it right now. And to think I have downloaded a few NiN albums already and haven't even listened to them! Does internet really cause a "quantity over quality" vacuum? Feels like it.
Tuesday May 20, 2008 -- #26
I just ab-so-freaking-lutly love the stuff this guy makes, check it out! It's a real pixel rush. And I just goddamn love the iPod in this collage. Just love it.
I wanna be him when I grow up.
Oh and I failed my drivers exam a few weeks ago. But I have finally decided that a PlayStation3 will enter casa-the-memike when I pass it. Yup, decided for real.
Wednesday May 14, 2008 -- #25
First I was sure I was getting a PlayStation 3, then there was the initial doubt, then came the definate no...followed by a "if I pass my drivers test, I will get 1" and now I'm not too sure anymore. There are few games on it that I would like to play, and probably even fewer coming, but GT5:Prologue was 1 of those few games I wanted. After reading some forum posts however, I'm not too sure it's worth the money. A.I. is said to be poor, online is full of fuckwits and still no damage model to be found. Not all things are the error of Polyphony, but all the stuff combined has dented my expectations for it.
So why the vid? Well it does look lush. If eye-candy alone would be enough I'd be all over it.
Wednesday April 09, 2008 -- #24
Pondering is what I am doing on a possible redesign of this site. I haven't been on the web for long, but I have already found that I want a different approach to my blogging. Perhaps with some "work" added to it, or just a different design. Not sure, don't know. Maybe you'll come back tomorrow and find all has changed. Or maybe it'll take many moons before I'll have changed anything.
Monday March 24, 2008 -- #23
It was on 1 of my many visits to Amsterdam, with my GF, when I figured it was about time to spend some of that money I had earned over the last few months. And what better to spend it on than comics. Really, what better to spend it on? So we dabbled into a store here and there until I arrived at the, always, beloved American Book Center. Now ABC has always had a special place in my heart. It's where I lost my discworld virginity (ooooooeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrr), where I first came in contact with an insane amount of coffee table books and, to a certain extent, it's where I first found out that besides reading them, I also just really love the look of hundreds, if not thousands, of books lined up in bookcases.
So anyway, besides the apparent love, it's also always has been 1 of the more expensive stores. Whatever ABC has, Play.com has it cheaper, and whatever Play.com doesn't have, Amazon has it. Way way way cheaper. Most of the time at ABC I just spend looking at books.
Occasionally I might flip through 1 or pick up something handy (list of Nebula and other sci-fi awards winners)for free, but hardly ever do I buy something there.
That's why I was completely... enthralled, flabbergasted, when I found a lot of comics lying in their bargain bins. Not just the crappy, who gives a sh@#e comics, no no also the very decent stuff had made their way over there. Including the long loved, and longed for, Flight series. If it wasn't for the scratches and poor state of the second volume of Flight I'd have bought them all. Instead I "just" made it out with the other 3 volumes. For the low total price of just
Monday March 24, 2008 -- #22