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Sep. 11th, 2009 @ 08:15 pm (no subject)
Like [info]ladybird97 , I haven't posted anything of substance in a while.  So, I post!

Work has been going along in a mixed-to-reasonable fashion.  We've got positive expression for enough of our genes to make it worthwhile to start on The Big Interactome Project.  One thing stands in our way: the ELISA that we're figuring on using to detect interactions isn't working.  Again.  We plan to work on the problem next week.  But meantime, just about everything else is ready for launch.

We had a fantastic time over the holiday weekend at the giant gaming party hosted by cerebralpaladin and orichalcum.  We saw a number of people that we hadn't seen in quite some time, and met some new - and of course cool - people.  I played two D&D games: one set in ancient Babylon, in which my thief character helped figure out why it was raining on the Jewish Quarter and nowhere else (everyone else in town was blaming the Jews for stealing their rain - turns out that basically, they were right!), and one in which all the PCs were members of a theatrical troupe.  The troupe put on plays of heroic adventures, and in this one-shot, we had to basically *become* adventurers to get our hands on a kidnapped playwright who'd promised he'd write us a play.  The last game that I played was in a system called "Dogs in the Vineyard," in which the PCs were essentially lawgivers of the One True Faith in something like mid-1800s Mormon Utah.  You can get a sense of the mechanics of conflict resolution from this Wikipedia article and the character creation and gameplay from this review.  It is significantly more freewheeling than any game system than I've ever played before (not that that's very many).  The traits and relationships that you use to define your character have essentially no limits on them in terms of their definitions: "sense truth", "skeptic", "healer", and "joyful celebration" were some of the traits in our group.  Having played a session, I can pretty definitely say that the more vague you can be in your traits and relationships, the better - it means that you can more easily bring the die values of those traits and relationships into conflicts.  It was fun, and I wouldn't at all mind playing in the system again.

We had our first choir rehearsal of the season a couple of nights ago.  We have two new people: a strong bass and a strong soprano.  Having two whole basses to our name makes a huge difference, as does having a soprano who can actually generate volume on Wednesday nights.  I'm really excited about choir this year - we're gonna be goooooooood...... :D

And next weekend we're going to see Spamalot and Yellow Face, both should be good pieces of theater.  I'll be interested in hearing what y'all think of the movie 9; it's on my 'hmm, could be interesting' list.
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Aug. 13th, 2009 @ 08:29 pm Movie squee!
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You know how I mentioned that we were thinking of seeing HP:HBP this weekend?  Scratch that.  Harry will be around for at least another week.

What's changed our plans, you may ask?

PONYO!!!!! Ponyo ponyo ponyo ponyo ponyo!  Miyazake's latest shows up in town this weekend!  And since we don't know how long it will be in theaters, we're figuring we'd better see it quick.  :)

Ponyo!!!!!!!!!!

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Jun. 23rd, 2009 @ 09:26 am Star Trek silliness
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The Editing Room has come out with the abridged script for the Star Trek movie.  Warning: do not have your mouth full of toothpaste when you get to the "yo mama so dead" part.
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Apr. 10th, 2009 @ 07:08 pm Up! up, and... sequels??
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I just read a story in the NYTimes about how Wall Street is (thus far) unimpressed with the earnings potential of Pixar's next film, Up.  (To which I say, the heck with you guys; I for one am looking forward to it.)  What I found interesting was the list of upcoming films: "After “Up,” the overtly commercial “Toy Story 3” arrives in 2010 and “Cars 2” in 2011, and there is much talk that a sequel to “Monsters Inc.” is in the works." 

I'll be most curious to see how some of these are handled.  After watching Toy Story 2 again a year or so ago, my sense was that they'd pretty fully explored the range of emotions that a set of children's toys might feel, and that there wasn't much more to say on the subject, as it were.  Cars is my least favorite of the Pixar films - I'm not a car junkie and I didn't grow up driving along Route 66.  I'll cheerfully admit that the film certainly had its good moments (the opening sequence was fantastic) and I'll judge the sequel on its own merits, but I'm not hugely excited by the concept.  Monsters Inc, though?  Now that's a world that one could do a lot in, and I'm quite excited by the prospect.  Besides, I love Sulley.  :)
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Feb. 22nd, 2009 @ 04:45 pm A brief note for future updates
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I have stuff that I want to write up in some serious detail, but I am way too busy to do so right now.  (And I've had other writing I have done/need to do: a brief reflection on a Biblical text for our church's Lenten meditation book, and something-or-other for a memory book that one of my paternal aunts is putting together for the other one, who turns 70 next month.)  So I'll just note here, in very brief form, the main points that I wish to make.

1.  Coraline the movie was really really good.  Coraline the book was also really really good.  The movie did some things differently from the book, but they all work surprisingly well (including the generation of an entirely new character).  But because there are some things in the book that didn't get into the movie (including my very favorite scene which, admittedly, would have been difficult to film), you should read the book as well as see the movie. 

2.  Sweeney Todd had his beginnings in a penny-dreadful serial called The String of Pearls that was recently recorded at Librivox and which we just finished listening to today.  The story is essentially a mystery - what's happening to the customers who enter Todd's barbershop and are never seen again?  The modern reader likely knows the answer already, of course, but that doesn't stop the original tale from being interesting, mildy horrifying, humorous (intentionally or otherwise, sometimes it's hard to tell), and at times even pretty well-written.  This recording is a collaborative effort, and there's a wide variety of styles and abilities of readers ranging from folks for whom English is not their first language to professionals.    The catalog page is linked above.
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Feb. 6th, 2009 @ 08:58 pm Movie ponderings
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• I just read a neat article over on nytimes.com about the fact that the ten short films nominated for Oscars this year are being put together and shown as a single 'movie' in select cities. From what I can see on the official website, you're out of luck if you don't live on the East Coast in Washington DC or points north. Folks in the NYC, New Haven, Rochester NY, and Boston areas, take advantage of what you've got - these look really neat. Hmph - maybe they'll open in other theaters later.

• Want to see Coraline! Huz and I are reading the book to each other now, and enjoying it quite a lot (Gaiman does so much with so few words!). The film has mostly been getting quite good reviews, and looks (somewhat astonishingly) to be regularly offered in 3-D even on non-Imax screens. Want want want.

• Also want to see Slumdog Millionaire! I remember listening to a blurb about it on NPR driving out of Berkeley one evening back in November, and I've heard almost nothing but good stuff since then. Especially since digitalemur says you gotta see it on the big screen.

So, the movie industry will be getting some of my dollars soon. That's fine - it's stimulating the economy, right?

EDITED to add: Ooo!  Ooo!  Ooo!  According to their official website, Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog is now available on Amazon, complete with "Commentary!  The musical."  Huzzah huzzah huzzah!

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Jan. 25th, 2009 @ 09:19 pm Various and sundry
Life update: Cats, work, health, music, movies, videogames )
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Dec. 25th, 2008 @ 09:10 pm Christmas in California, 2008
Certain of my friends (most notably [info]hoshikage) have been posting pictures of the snow they've received this year for Christmas. I thought I'd post a few pictures of my own in return. The pictures were all taken today - yes, all of them! )
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Nov. 29th, 2008 @ 09:47 pm Movie ponderings
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On the long leg of the flight back from Boston yesterday, I watched much of this year's version of Journey to the Center of the Earth. The aboveground part at the beginning looked dull, so I didn't bother switching my headphones from IGN's Nintendo Voice Chat podcast to the movie till the intrepid trio of Brendan Fraser, Josh Hutcherson, and Anita Briem were ready to fall down the rabbit hole. Journey to the Center of the Earth, Brendan Fraser, and Inkheart )
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Apr. 21st, 2008 @ 06:57 pm Master and Commander
Current Mood: amused
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We watched it this weekend, admittedly some years after its theatrical release.  We enjoyed it.  I think it can be reasonably well summarized thusly:

Russell Crowe bears a striking resemblance to William Shatner.

'Nuff said.
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Apr. 1st, 2008 @ 02:16 pm Oh, how I wish they were joking.
Current Location: work
Current Mood: tired
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Someone decided that it would be a good idea to make a Zelda movie. 

IGN has the first trailer of the live-action flick here.  It... doesn't look promising. 

For starters, I really don't believe it was wise to carry the trope of Link as Silent Hero to the film medium.  Second, I have a feeling it'll look a little like a speed run of a Zelda game (or there'll only be, like, 3 dungeons).  Finally, while it's fun to watch someone else play (and to yell suggestions when they get stuck - Zelda film crossed with Rocky Horror, anyone??), it's generally much more satisfying to play Zelda yourself.


EDIT: Wooops... fooled me!
-----

As a lighter, better bit of humor, I offer you the short story Wikihistory.  It's about time travel and what all the new members of the International Association of Time Travelers do on their first 'trip'.  Enjoy!
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Feb. 5th, 2008 @ 05:08 pm And now for something totally different...
Current Location: work, though not for much longer
Current Mood: bemused
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Apple has the trailer for Prince Caspian up; just saw it for the first time. 

Looks neat... but WTH is someone who looks rather strikingly like the White Witch doing there???!?
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Jan. 5th, 2008 @ 04:06 pm The bloodiest movie I've ever enjoyed
Current Location: home
Current Mood: good
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The huz and I just got back from watching the Sweeney Todd movie.  For the most part, we were quite pleased with it.



The gore )
 

General impressions: If I hadn't been so completely familiar with the story going into the theater, I'm certain I would have been considerably shell-shocked by it.  It's such an incredibly violent story, and most of the surviving characters are so clearly going to need serious therapy for the next several years, that an uninformed viewer could hardly help being walloped by it.
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Nov. 16th, 2007 @ 02:05 pm Fun links for Friday
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For the gamers:  Not that I have a Windows machine, but even if I did, I sure wouldn't buy a copy of Jericho.  (GWJ scathing review here.)

For the programmers: Want to learn a new coding language?  How about LOLCode?

For the movie-goers: Why in the name of heaven did they do basically CG stuff for the human characters in Beowulf as well as the monsters??

For the rest of us: May brainless (or brain-ful, depending on your preference) happiness be yours - enjoy the weekend!
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Oct. 25th, 2007 @ 10:20 pm Fun for Friday!
Current Location: home
Current Mood: ready for bed
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I'm taking my birthday holiday tomorrow (Friday)!  I hope to have the dress for my costume completely assembled by the end of the day - wish me luck!

Meanwhile, two bits of amusement:

IGN has an amusing article as part of its Halloween celebration on RPG Cliches That Need To Die.  The hero who starts off as a simple farmer... monsters that have no business carrying any items at all... they're all there, and roasted till very well done.

The theatrical trailer for Tim Burton's film version of Sweeney Todd is available for viewing!  Why they've moved the release date back to just before Christmas, I dunno... it's not exactly a nice, family-friendly happy holiday story.  Maybe they're hoping for an Oscar nod.  And the trailer is trying very hard not to indicate that there's lots of singing in it.  It's clear from the little that's shown that Johnny Depp is no George Hearn, but hopefully he will suit nonetheless.
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Aug. 20th, 2007 @ 01:19 pm Weekendy stuff
Current Location: work
Friday night we went to go see the movie Hairspray.  In concordance with the paper reviews, I can say that yes, it is a fun movie.  John Travolta does a remarkable job of never letting the viewer forget that, well, that's John Travolta!, while at the same time doing a good portrayal of Edith.  Never having seen the musical, I'm just kind of assuming that it's a good movie adaptation.  That said, Hairspray wasn't as interesting a musical or movie as Dreamgirls was.  Here's hoping that the next movie musical on tap, Sweeney Todd, is good and that the actors can sing well enough to hold up the parts.

Sunday night we had a nice time at [info]shoutingboy's birthday party.  Nice apt complex and pool, good food, good company!

We've been enjoying the Final Fantasy Retrospective video series over at gametrailers.com.  (Thanks, GWJ!) They have five parts posted of a planned thirteen, releasing one every week.  The ratio is generally more than one game per video, so they've gotten through Seven (and the various spinoffs of #7) at this point.  I'm impressed by how informative the series is.  There's commentary on the storylines (which so far is not tremendously spoiler-y), the graphics, and of course the gameplay in each iteration of the famous series.  Great watching if you're a fan.  Maybe we'll check out their Zelda Retrospective while waiting for their remaining episodes of the FF series.

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Aug. 9th, 2007 @ 09:50 pm Leisure stuff (including Potter - NO SPOILERS)
Current Location: home
Current Mood: pretty good
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We've been reading Harry Potter aloud to each other the last few nights.  Things have happened, some unexpected.  I decided that it would be both useful and fun to write up quickie summaries of each chapter as we finish them, with new mysteries highlighted.  Each chapter summary is then followed by reactions (what was surprising? what not?) and new guesses as to what will happen or be revealed later.  It's an interesting exercise, and it'll be a good record of how our thoughts change based on what happens.  Some of it will probably end up here eventually.  But given that we're only five chapters into it, that'll be a while in coming.  Do be assured that it'll go behind LJ-cuts when it does... assuming we haven't gotten confirmation by then that we are the absolute last people on the planet to finish it!

We just watched the first 40 minutes or so of the 'Director's Journey' section of the bonus material in the Lion Witch and Wardrobe Special Edition DVD set that arrived last week!  I'm pretty pleased so far.  The narration is reasonably interesting and content-ful most of the time, and the visuals are all very interesting indeed.  I'd wondered a few things while watching the film: what the carvings were on the front of the wardrobe (elements from the story of Magician's Nephew), how the heck the legs of the various hybrid creatures worked (the actors wore green-screen tights with mo-cap markers on them - it looks pretty funny), and how much of the battle sequence was CG (a pretty large fraction).  I'm impressed yet again with how good the creature models and animation are.  Clearly a lot of work was put in to get them as spot-on (plus emotive faces) as possible.  Congrats to all involved!  I'm very much looking forward to watching the rest of the bonus stuff.

As a note to myself: (1) Have a decent-sized snack before playing Zelda.  (2) When you start feeling dizzy, for heaven's sake, stop!  I don't care if it's in the middle of a mid-boss battle.  You need to stop,  then and there, otherwise you'll end up feeling very ill! 
I'm better now... don't worry.
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Aug. 1st, 2007 @ 10:12 pm Okay, hungry now!
Current Location: home
Current Mood: hungry!
Current Music: French film noir music
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We just went and saw Ratatouille.  Wonderful, wonderful film.  I don't think I've ever had my mouth water during a film depiction of food... but there it was, at the title dish.

Dang, I wish we had something around to cook.  Like eggs.  You can do a lot with eggs.

Ah well.  Yogurt it is, 'cuz that's what we got.
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Aug. 1st, 2007 @ 10:41 am Good stuff
Current Location: work
Current Mood: good
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We watched our copy of the (TV-screen-size) Lion, Witch and Wardrobe last week.  I was enamored enough of it that I went and ordered a cheap copy ($20 including shipping) of the extended edition with three discs of supplementary material on Amazon.  Early happy birthday to me!

I have just pre-ordered the 'Dragon Fossil' shirt from [info]pandemonium_bks.  It will be purple.  Purple is good.  More early happy birthday, though I'll actually pick it up my birthday week.

We had a great time this past Saturday with [info]orichalcum and her family up in San Franciso.  It was, somewhat astonishingly, sunny and reasonably warm weather up in the Embarcadero. 

The huz and I started reading HP Deathly Hallows aloud last night.  We finished chapter 1.

The huz is unexpectedly on vacation for a week before starting his new job next week.  He'd originally expected to start in September after finishing up the project with his current employer.  But on Monday, said current employer decided to cancel the project.  You know, the one that was only a month away from shipping, and that everyone in the group has devoted the last year and a half to completing?  Yeah, that one.  But he gets a week of unexpected (and paid-for) vacation, so that's a good thing.

I practiced singing for the first time in a week yesterday morning (I'm finally basically all better).  Tazz really liked it - he was meowing and purring, and got up on the table and made as if he wanted to jump up on my shoulders. 

I got to spend close to two hours with Zelda yesterday morning after practicing.  I hadn't intended to spend anything close to that much time on it!  I had a great time, even if I haven't yet found Ooccoo in the desert dungeon.
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Jul. 17th, 2007 @ 03:57 pm Harry Potter and the Amazing Chocolate Store
Current Location: work, soon to be home
Current Mood: good
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We saw Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix this past weekend.  Unsurprisingly, it was a significantly better movie than the book.  Rowling was starting to suffer from Writer's Fame (a disorder in which an author is so famous and sells so many copies that editors become less and less willing to edit their new books) at the time she wrote Book 4, which is presumably why it was so much longer than the previous three had been.  The director of Movie 4 very sensibly cut out quite a bit of the book's material, and in my opinion the movie didn't particularly suffer for it.  Book 5 is the longest book in the series thus far, and needed editing even more badly than Book 4 did; it's my least favorite of the series thus far, and (except for 6, which I haven't reread only due to a plethora of other things to read) the only book that I haven't bothered to reread, due primarily to the fact that I just didn't enjoy it very much.

Happily, the director for Movie 5 cut out lots of stuff.  He also put in a few nice little modifications, most of which are not major, but do add nicely to the movie.  It's not the best film of the series, but it's pretty good. 


After the film, several of us went for dinner at a local chi-chi mall.  Tasty food court food.  We then went to CocoaBella for dessert, and are thinking that a visit there may be a requirement whenever we're in that part of the city.  They sell a variety of very high-quality chocolates, generally with absolutely amazing fillings.  The huz and I both chose a kind that had a strawberry, lemon, and thyme filling (called Kerry).  The thyme was actually the strongest flavor of the bunch, followed by the fruit notes, and there was an interesting spice burn at the end of the mouthful.  Our friends got ones with (1) tea, (2) violet, and (3) caramel with fleur-de-sel (3 individual chocolates).  I tasted #1 and #3.  The tea flavor is subtle, you have to kind of wait for it.  And the caramel with fleur-de-sel starts off with a perfectly balanced salt-sweet mix, followed by a gentle caramel flavor.  (Yes, I'm deliberately mimicking the BPAL-style reviews I've seen in several people's LJ entries!)  All delightful, and all more than worth the $1.50 or less per piece.  Yay, tasty chocolate!
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