 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Hey gang, Thoroughly busy weekend. Saturday, ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) paleboat's company had their Company Picnic @ King's Dominion. Myself, paleboat, rigelkitty, toponympony, Darth Rob, and paleboat's mom had a great time! The lines were a tad long, but we managed to hit Flight Of Fear, Avalanche, Anaconda, The Italian Job, and Ricochet. toponympony and rigelkitty hit Hypersonic XLC, which I wasn't too particularly interested in. My favorite of the day? The Italian Job. It's a 'pocket coaster' but man, is it FAST! It's a shame, however, that the theming on that one wasn't working. Hopefully Cedar Fair will invest some more $$ in King's Dominion and fix that. King's Dominion is a great little park, but knowing that Paramount doesn't own it anymore, and seeing the Paramount logo all over the place, makes me wonder if Cedar Fair will fix that next year and make things a little more consistent. The impression I got was that Cedar Fair either hasn't gotten around to making improvements or kind of said "Eh, it's not one of our star attractions park-wise, so we'll just run it as is and not improve anything". I hope the latter isn't true. I was also a bit non-impressed that Volcano was only running for about half the day. Wonder what's up with that? When we finally got home Saturday night, a big 40# box of goodies was waiting on our doorstep. We had made two separate orders through thoughthammer.com, the first of which had an item that was on back-order. We were anticipating that the first order wouldn't arrive until late Sept. when the back-order item finally came in, and from emails I had received from TH, our second order was to arrive Saturday, so, that's what I expected to find in the box. Turns out TH shipped EVERYTHING we ordered with the exception of the back-ordered item! Woohoo!! We ended up with Babel, Blue Moon City, Descent, Dungeon Twister, Hive, Warrior Knights, Stonehenge, two Blue Moon card game expansions, Citadels (Dark City expansion included), Caesar and Cleopatra, Odin's Ravens, Duel in the Dark, Robo Rally, and the Battlelore: Goblin Marauders Specialist Pack. (whew!!) Sunday we stayed put @ the hobbit hole for the most part, only journeying out to run a few minor errands. paleboat and I cracked open Hive and Blue Moon City to play, and we both really liked both of them. Sigh. Unfortunately with school in full swing, it'll be at least Thursday before I can get any gaming in. Grrr...... Tags: games
Current Location: we
Current Mood:  blah
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Well, dear readers, on Saturday I managed to check out a movie I've been anxious to see for quite a while: 'Grindhouse'. I grew up watching schlock horror movies back in the days when independent TV stations still existed. Back then I just couldn't get enough of the low budget, creepy crawlies that guys with names like SuperHost and The Ghoul would dig up every Friday and Saturday night. That's primarily why, when I first saw the trailer for Grindhouse, I knew instantly I'd get a major kick out of it. And did I? Did I ever!! I absolutely loved it! Not only was the entire idea completely original, it was maverick moviemaking at its' best. For those of you that are completely unfamiliar with the concept of a 'grindhouse', it's a reference to seedy, cheap movie theaters that would show low budget horror/sexploitation/camp movies, often as a double feature. Grindhouse harkens back to an era where budgets didn't matter (or quite often didn't exist), and the more blood or boobies on screen, the better! Planet Terror, by Robert Rodriguez, kicks off the festivities. Basically it's your small town survivors up against the world gone sick with infected zombies. Rose McGowan, hardly a great actress in her own right, does a great job of showing off other, um, assets that she does have. =-). Great over the top performances from Jeff Fahey (The Lawnmower Man), Michael Biehn (The Terminator), and Josh Brolin (Hollow Man) add to the campy feel of Planet Terror. Oh, and let's not forget the liberal splattering of blood combined with Rose McGowan's character, Cherry Darling (yes, you read that right) being fitted with a machine gun/rocket launcher for her zombie-gnawed-off missing leg. Complete cheesefest all throughout which I absolutely loved. Death Proof, the Quentin Tarantino side of the double bill, follows after some great, and I mean GREAT, coming attraction spoof-trailers. Kurt Russell, in his best badass role since Snake Plissken, plays Stuntman Mike, a grizzled Hollywood stuntman who seems to have a major beef with any young and hot lady that crosses his path. His problem is so severe that he feels the need to kill said young hotties using his souped up, skull and lightning bones-adorned muscle car. I have to say that if it weren't for Russell's great performance in Death Proof, I probably wouldn't have enjoyed it as much. Tarantino breaks out his usual endless dialogue about nothing in particular, which makes certain parts of the movie drag and slows the movie down significantly. When it does speed up shortly after, folks, hang on. The car chases and stunts that make up the second half of Death Proof are amazing and incredible to watch. Between the two features, I have to say I enjoyed Planet Terror a bit more than I did Death Proof. The reason behind this is because Planet Terror took off being over the top and stayed that way all throughout. Whereas Death Proof was rather jerky, going from zero to 100 MPH, then abruptly hitting the brakes, idling for longer than it needed to, then peeling out and getting back up to 200MPH and finally staying there. If you're looking for good performances, great acting, incredible dialogue, and stunning effects, then my advice is to seek cinematic pleasure elsewhere. However, if you're in the mood for three (yes, THREE) plus hours of brain melting, adrenaline pumping, boob bouncing, gore-tastic fun, then Grindhouse is most definitely the way to go Tags: movies
Current Location: werk
Current Mood:  giddy
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
ch-ch-changes". It seems that every so often, life isn't quite content to just sit like a still pond. It has to start churning and burning, throwing up foam mixed on huge waves. It's almost like the deep seeded, comfortable sediment of life has to be stirred up every once in a while. Maybe that's God's way of getting us to take a look around, see where we are in our lives, where we're going, or figure out where we want to go. For me, the waves have started churning in earnest. My two roomies, whom I've managed to get along with very, very well, are leaving the house come beginning of March. A good friend (at least I consider him a friend) and co-worker was let go from his position with my company yesterday, leaving us shorthanded on our team. Grad school has started to kick into high gear; midterms are only three weeks away. Things are going better and better each day between ![[info]](http://stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) paleboat and myself. It just seems as if things have started to shift not on just one front, but multiple fronts. And it's a bit unsettling, trying to deal with change after change after change, especially when they are simultaneous. The only strategy that comes to mind in dealing with all of these changes is to tackle them one at a time, to the best of my ability. Maybe not even tackle them, just deal with them mentally piecemeal so that they don't seem like such the huge Hydra my mind and emotions are making them out to be. Mind you, some of the changes are very good, namely my wonderful relationship w/ paleboat as well as progress in school, whilst others, while not threatening, are none the less unsettling. I guess my summary would be that changes nowadays in my life seem to be running in parallel, and I have to figure out a way to deal with them or build upon what they attempt to teach. Tags: introspection
Current Location: work
Current Mood:  thoughtful
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
*HIGHLY*