District 9 or Real Life?

I saw the movie District 9 tonight. There's been a lot of talk about the film and most people I have spoken to have raved about it. What did I think of it? Well...

Let me start with the easy part. Yes, it is a great film. Well written, well made, great visual effects, some amusing shots, gutsy story...there is really nothing bad you can say about the film. It is well worth watching, though I do not recommend it to those with a weak stomach as Peter Jackson really goes back to his roots with the gore factor.

Did I enjoy this film? That is a hard question to answer. I thought it was a really fantastic film but I don't think it is one I would choose to watch again; not for entertainment, anyway. It's a very gritty, brutal tale full of the dark side of humanity and I found a great deal of it downright depressing. This doesn't show humans prevailing over darker forces or showing the better side of mankind's spirit, it shows the brutal truth of what we do to ourselves and our own kind in rough corners of the world everyday but uses the aliens to create an outside view.

The main human character is incredibly selfish and shows almost no redeeming qualities until the very end and the only person you really find yourself relating to and feeling for is the main 'prawn'. There is a very strong use of a lot a grey area, with there being no actual villain besides humanity itself and one jackass military type the audience cheers for when he finally gets killed in a very gruesome fashion.

Peter Jackson did a fantastic job with this film, going places with it that few would have the guts to and none really expected. It isn't a cheerful or feel good movie but it IS thought provoking and eye-catching and likely to be the subject of many conversation for quite a while.

Brain Picking MBV

Recently, I was thinking about 'My Bloody Valentine' and what would happen if this all occurred in the 'real world' as opposed to a slasher film, specifically with the character of Tom Hanniger.

Here's the thing. In the film, we find out that Tom has spent the last seven years holed up in a mental institution and only released himself in order to deal with the consequences of his father's passing. During his time in the institution, he obviously would have been diagnosed and treated and we see him taking medication several times. (The fact that this is usually seen right before an 'episode' begs the question, was he getting some sort of warning that he was about to flip?)

Tom's symptoms of fear, hallucinations and, likely, blanks in his memory would have led to a diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia and he would then have been medicated accordingly. Obviously, the medication didn't work because the diagnosis was wrong; Tom was suffering from the rare Multiple Personality Disorder rather than the more common Schizophrenia.

What this comes down to is that, had this really happened, where he was misdiagnosed and released to commit his massacre, Tom would not be charged due to an obvious plea of insanity but re-institutionalized and the original mental hospital he was in would, most likely, be sued for culpability in the wrongful deaths that occurred in Harmony by Tom's hand.

Somehow, it really makes you wish for the 'slasher reality' where things are so much more straight forward and less frustrating. And where the chance for true 'justice' is a clear cut scenario (ignoring everyone's love to cheer for the bad guy) and far more likely to actually occur.

Midnight Ramblings

Oh, look. I managed to go several days without writing anything. I'm actually very good at going several MONTHS normally so right now I'm really wishing there was a 'sarcasm' button or some sort of emoticon. My monologues just don't come across the same without my native language to put them in. ;)

Well, Optus finally managed to get off their communal arses and find themselves with strong guidance and several maps. In other words, my phone and internet have been restored and I no longer have to resort to eating at the local McDonald's in order to get my daily fix of 'net and remain sane...sorta...maybe. Okay, so maybe sane is NOT the best word for me but it's the only one I can think of right now. Let me re-read my thesaurus and get back to you on a properly defined synonym for what goes on in my brain.

Anyway, not going to get into detail about what the final issue was but it WAS their fault. Like, duh!

I'm back to my regularly scheduled surfing and pretty much caught up on the goings-on of all and sundry, but then I do have plenty of time right this second to do that. You see, I'm sick. Again. That makes three colds/flus in the last eight months, which is more than I have had in the last 5-6 YEARS! I'm just going to blame the uber bugs out this year and go with that. No, it's not pigfluenza or any other variant. At the moment, it's just being tired, having a rough throat and a stuffed up but infinitely runny nose. (Can someone PLEASE tell me how the hell it is that we can have both at the same time? Shouldn't they be mutually exclusive?) This means a lot of time spent in bed with my laptop and cat for company.

What this also means is that I am continuing in my quest to finally watch Angel. Yes, the Joss Whedon tv series. No, I didn't really get to watch it the first time around. I was a bit busy at the time and Space channel kept airing it at weird times so I just gave it up as a lost cause. Saw one or two eps so I knew who some of the chcracters were but now I am marathoning vast tracts of the series at a time in a game of catch up. Almost done season 2 right now and I think I have already picked my fave ep. It's the one titled 'Dead End' where Lindsey McDonald gets his hand back etc. I like the story and some of the character interactions. Love seeing Kane and Boreanaz working closely together, since everyone knows they're such good friends. And I just love Chris Kane heavy eps...and bonus, he sings in it!

For me, that's a huge bonus since I have been a very long time fan of Christian Kane's music. I actually know that part of him and his talents better than I do his acting. And, yes, that is part of the impetus for me going on an Angel kick. Not only will it quiet certain friends who have been hounding me about the show for about a decade but I can finally catch up on Kane's mad acting skills. It's actually a bit odd to watch because I am also currently a big fan of Leverage so seeing the two roles at the same time is strange. Very different characters and Chris looks very different as well.

Note to anyone who actually happens to read this...watch Leverage. It's funny and it's entertaining, which are things tv shows are MEANT to be. You know, entertainment. The characters are fun and quirky and it's got a bit of a Ocean's 11/A-Team vibe to it, which means you can just enjoy it without it taking itself too seriously. The writers and creater of the series really must be comended. I mean, I have no time and the attention span of a gnat but I manage to catch this show ever single week. So, there you go. (Met Dirk Benedict from the A-Team/BSG recently. Enjoyed chatting with him, interesting guy)

Wow, just realizing this one is getting almost long in the tooth so I'm gonna wrap now and maybe try and get some sleep, if my cold will let me. If not, it'll be back to wandering the vast expanse of the internet to see what trouble I can get into. :)

PS Still loving the new phone to pieces! Best purchase I have ever made, I swear. Sad thing is, I have trouble putting it down sometimes. Will have to give blogging from it a try, shortly.

PPS I really should tell some of my mates over at LJ and what not that I have this since I haven't been posting there lately. It's just, I swear I'm scared to log on there! Love everyone there to bits but there is always SO much to read and catch up on and by the time I'm done, I REALLY don't feel like posting anything. Plus, I find this more user friendly for some strange reason. Will have to pick at my brain a bit til I can figure out why.

My Sanity Is Slipping

Day Two without my precious internet...and yet I still manage to blog!

*bangs head repeatedly on desk*

Optus sent out ANOTHER tech to have a look at things. Needless to say, according to them, there is nothing wrong on their end of things. So, of course, it must be on our end and the inside cables which they don't have anything to do with. *sigh* Tomorrow, an external phone contractor will be coming to check inside. I'm hoping he finds that there is nothing wrong inside either because then I get to go back to Optus and vent a little frustration at them.

Again, thank goodness for free wifi at McDonald's. You think if I plus them enough, maybe they'll pay to have my net fixed? :)

I just hope it all gets resolved soon because I don't want to gain weight eating at McDonald's all the time and I really don't want to miss out on some of my net stuff, cause the wifi isn't really up to handling certain websites.

Oh well. *sigh*

Maybe I should hurry and get my new skates sharpened so I have something to amuse myself because I'm already running out of stuff to clean at home.

Optus Rant

*sigh* I am currently sitting in McDonald's (Maccas to Aussies) and using their free wifi internet in order to be able to check messages and get my daily intake of netty goodness. The reason for this little outing? Optus.

Normally, I have not had much bad to say about the illustrious phone company. From all I have heard, they are far better than Telstra in most things and we've been pretty happy with them. However, last Saturday I picked up the phone to find it had no dial tone. No buzz, no static...nothing. At first thinking it might just be a temporary fault, as does happen, we waited to see if it would come back on. No such luck. Called the fault in to be told that it looked like something had caused our phone line to literally be disconnected. WTF? We haven't changed providers or done anything to our phone of late so we were baffled.

They said they would get a technician to look at it, booked us in for Tuesday morning (no Monday???) and wished us a nice day. Fortunately, the internet seemed to be unaffected so we happily kept ourselves amussed, secure in the fact that Optus would fix everything and we had cells if we really needed to call someone.

This morning, the tech came (never saw him as it was an 'external' booking only) and then got a message saying the phone should be all fixed. No such luck. Messaged them back, they booked another tech for tomorrow morning and voila, more waiting. Only, now I go to get onto my computer and the internet? NO...LONGER...WORKS! Call into the fault line and am pretty much told there is nothing they can do until the phone line itself is fixed. *headdesk*

Um, hello? The phone that was meant to be already fixed? By the tech who did SOMETHING to now knock out our net? *sigh*

Amazing how only a couple hours without reliable internet makes me a little crazy. *twitch*

I'm hoping that all will be fixed tomorrow. In the mean time, I may actually get some cleaning done without the distraction of the computer. Go figure!

Oh, and I have now had my new cell phone for a whole day. I am really starting to get the hang of all the features, have gotten almost everything set up to my liking and have yet to find a fault with it. For most people, the main issue is the lack of external volume control but I see how they have worked it for the different settings and aplications, so it's all good. Lots of texting has already been done thanks to the so-easy-to-use Qwerty pad. So far, so good. Shall keep you posted! *laugh*

New Phone

I'm very excited because today, I have finally gotten a brand new cell phone. I always had one but it was pretty simple and out of date and the new one is very high tech. No, not an iPhone. I didn't think I needed to go quite that direction. Went with the Nokia E63 instead and so far I'm pretty happy with it. Still going to take me a little bit to get used to everything and all the new things it can do compared to the old one. Like Twitter and surfing the net from a phone!

Wanted the red one but I had to go with the black but I'm still happy with it. Go the nice and easy Qwerty pad on it. I would recommned it as a new phone to people. I'll post updates as I get more used to it and if there are any issues I find with it. :)

New Beginnings

Today seems to have been a day for new starts and beginnings. Perhaps somewhat appropriate as it is currently Imbolc here in the Southern Hemisphere.

The first new start came with a purchase. After a very long time, I have finally gone out and bought myself my own pair of ice skates. Skating, in many forms, is something that has always interested me (I love to watch it) and a very large part wishes I had gotten into it more heavily as a child...possibly even up to competition level. However, I still love and enjoy it and I'm determined to become as comfortable on the ice as I am on my own two feet. I chose figure skates, as more of the type of skating I am interested in is in that vein but I do intend to get a pair of hockey skates as well in the near future. The girl who assisted me in my purchase actually mentioned a local women's hockey league so I make look into that in the next year and maybe join up.

Some of the people that have inspired me in skating, over the years are:
Kurt Browning
John Zimmerman & skating partner Kyoko Ina
Elvis Stojko

The second new start is this blog. Part of me is wondering why on earth I am starting it since I have proven to be an inconsistent blogger at best but we will see how things go. I mean, I have a myspace I almost never use, a livejournal I rarely use, a deviantart whose journal gets update when I think of it, a facebook, a twitter, a flixster, a photobucket and a flickr I have never posted images on. I seem to spend most of my life on the internet and it feels like it has always been that way. It's really too bad someone can't come up with a mega super net program that can magically combine all your social networking into one handy site/tool. Then some of my more ignored sites might see some traffic.

Like I said, we'll see how long this lasts and if I end up sticking with it. Couldn't been any worse than some of the other net homes I've had and lost track of.

Meanwhile, I'm going to attempt to keep on top of my myriad of insane hobbies and hopefully accomplish something with some of them.