Buys
Those 2 Doctor Who DVDs I was talking about last week came in - The Time Meddler (1st Doctor) and Black Orchid (5th), which makes me officially 6 stories in the hole as far as Classic Who releases go. I've really go to start flipping them soon, but I keep getting into these involved tv series on DVD... Case in point: Also got The Wire Season 5, and well, I've been watching it through the weekend. It'll take me a little more time than that to flip it, though. AND I also got Junebug, a film my friend Carolynn has been mildly harassing me to get. I suppose she'll be mildly harassing me to watch it now...
"Accomplishments"
Books: Didn't read very much during my three weeks' vacation, mostly because I prefer to read while walking and I had no place to walk to. So it took a while, but I finally finished Michael Chabon's latest novel, The Yiddish Policemen's Union. My break did show how memorable his prose is, as three weeks later, the characters, situations, even tiny moments, were right there in my mind for me to pick up. Chabon's interest in genre fiction has made him write a police novel AND a "what if" alternate history in which the Jews were never given Israel, but a patch of Alaskan land instead, but as usual, it goes well beyond its genre conventions, giving us an incisive, poignant yet funny portrait of Jewish attitudes and culture. Chabon remains at the top of my authors list.
DVDs: Flipped the complete Birds of Prey series, which I wasn't able to watch on tv the first time around. I don't regret the purchase, though I wouldn't call BoP perfect by any means (in particular, that opening monologue has to go). Lots of nice winks to DC continuity without being a slave to it (I would call BoP the reverse-Smallville), some very hot girls, and hey, the fight scenes are better than, say, The Dark Knight's. The DVD includes the unaired pilot, which is pretty much the same as the actual pilot, but with Harley Quinn totally miscast (Mia Sarah is so much better), and 30 webisodes of Gotham Girls. It's like an extra hour and half of Batman the Animated Series!
RPGs: Finding last week's Call of Cthulhu-inspired scenario too slow for our high octane action set-up, I got myself forgiven by making Part II wall to wall action. Sure, Shub-Niggurath still makes you go a little crazy, but there's great fun to be had when you can hit the Mi-Go hard with your shotgun. Lots of explosions, a dogfight atop the Fungi for Yuggoth, and the coolest entrance those cultists ever saw!
New Unauthorized Doctor Who CCG cards: 13, completing the small Premium set that featured one card from every story in Doctor Who Series 4, and even getting to start on the next full expansion: Lords of Time. Here's the booster pack art:
GTA4 completion: 93.67%. Addiction Level: Intervention Time (going right past Hitting Rock Bottom).
Someone Else's Post of the Week
I almost feel bad sending more people Kevin Church's way on this, but his simple point-and-laugh post at a retailer who wrote a "don't buy" review of product he's supposed to be selling and sent it to his customers got some an interesting discussion going. Just skip the flaming in the later-middle part of the comments section. The follow-up.
Those 2 Doctor Who DVDs I was talking about last week came in - The Time Meddler (1st Doctor) and Black Orchid (5th), which makes me officially 6 stories in the hole as far as Classic Who releases go. I've really go to start flipping them soon, but I keep getting into these involved tv series on DVD... Case in point: Also got The Wire Season 5, and well, I've been watching it through the weekend. It'll take me a little more time than that to flip it, though. AND I also got Junebug, a film my friend Carolynn has been mildly harassing me to get. I suppose she'll be mildly harassing me to watch it now..."Accomplishments"
Books: Didn't read very much during my three weeks' vacation, mostly because I prefer to read while walking and I had no place to walk to. So it took a while, but I finally finished Michael Chabon's latest novel, The Yiddish Policemen's Union. My break did show how memorable his prose is, as three weeks later, the characters, situations, even tiny moments, were right there in my mind for me to pick up. Chabon's interest in genre fiction has made him write a police novel AND a "what if" alternate history in which the Jews were never given Israel, but a patch of Alaskan land instead, but as usual, it goes well beyond its genre conventions, giving us an incisive, poignant yet funny portrait of Jewish attitudes and culture. Chabon remains at the top of my authors list.
DVDs: Flipped the complete Birds of Prey series, which I wasn't able to watch on tv the first time around. I don't regret the purchase, though I wouldn't call BoP perfect by any means (in particular, that opening monologue has to go). Lots of nice winks to DC continuity without being a slave to it (I would call BoP the reverse-Smallville), some very hot girls, and hey, the fight scenes are better than, say, The Dark Knight's. The DVD includes the unaired pilot, which is pretty much the same as the actual pilot, but with Harley Quinn totally miscast (Mia Sarah is so much better), and 30 webisodes of Gotham Girls. It's like an extra hour and half of Batman the Animated Series!
RPGs: Finding last week's Call of Cthulhu-inspired scenario too slow for our high octane action set-up, I got myself forgiven by making Part II wall to wall action. Sure, Shub-Niggurath still makes you go a little crazy, but there's great fun to be had when you can hit the Mi-Go hard with your shotgun. Lots of explosions, a dogfight atop the Fungi for Yuggoth, and the coolest entrance those cultists ever saw!New Unauthorized Doctor Who CCG cards: 13, completing the small Premium set that featured one card from every story in Doctor Who Series 4, and even getting to start on the next full expansion: Lords of Time. Here's the booster pack art:
GTA4 completion: 93.67%. Addiction Level: Intervention Time (going right past Hitting Rock Bottom).Someone Else's Post of the Week
I almost feel bad sending more people Kevin Church's way on this, but his simple point-and-laugh post at a retailer who wrote a "don't buy" review of product he's supposed to be selling and sent it to his customers got some an interesting discussion going. Just skip the flaming in the later-middle part of the comments section. The follow-up.
Comments
Interesting. A couple of years ago, my friend Holly harrassed me into watching Junebug. I learned later that her recommendation was based on the hopes of something else happening. Being a geek and all, it didn't occur to me.
But if it's what I think you mean, I'm afraid it's really not that.
If wishes were horses though...