Saturday, January 31, 2004

About absolutely nothing

Not much going on now. Been making some changes to the look of the blog, esp. the font sizes. They were huge and now they're a lot more pleasing. There's a lot I have to do and one of those things is that I have to find some space that can host pics for me to post here. And where's my HTML book when I need it....

Today I was supposed to get some drivers for a pair of computers I have to fix at home but I forgot my thumb drive so no joy there. I was also supposed to buy some SDRAM but boy those things cost nowadays. I should never have sold my old ones. They were CAS 2 too. Damn it !

Also, I've been reading other people's blogs for the last hour or so. I know, I know I'm really dumb that way. Isn't it better if i had read other people's blogs first, BEFORE I do my own.? Of course it is, but since it's me I don't usually think of such things until it's too late. Still, very sobering and educational. They are a lot of talented writers out there, whom I suspect to be a lot less lazy and more creative than moi. One of those that I found quite impressive is tales of ordinary madness. Now this is a well done blog. I'd mention f.u.b.a.r.com but that place is so advanced it would be an insult to include it here. Which I already have. Included. Here. Therefore I have inadvertently insulted it. Oh damned.

Anywho, it's stuff like that I'd like to do. See I got this problem. It's call the I-Want-To-Do-Something-Cool-But-When-It's-Time-To-Start-I-Choke syndrome. Very debilitating. Very embarassing. Anybody else got this problem ? Contact me. Maybe we can start a club. Or an encounter group. It's just like the time when I wanted to start writing that Buffy fanfic. I had it all planned out, characters, plot everything. So I power up my all-powerful (at the time) AMD2200XP clone PC and began tapping away at MS Word. I got as far as the character bios before "putting it on hold" (read, giving up). And, and all the other stuff I "put on hold".

Maybe now, since I have a weblog which I am obligated to update everyday (mainly because I told my friends about it; now they'd expect to come and read something entertaining everytime. Me and my big-ass mouth...) maybe I'd be able to write the damned Buffy fan-fic. Or the script for the movie. Or maybe write movie reviews, which I can then sell to local newspapers and help me make a living as an acclaimed movie pundit. Or something or other. Or maybe not.

Anyways, back to the reading-other-people's-blogs topic. Yeah some of these blogs are just so cool. I just hope that this one will be half as good. Enjoy and have a good day/night.

Incidentally, I got the title "Riding the Mellow' from a Buffy episode I was watching. It was "Inca Mummy Girl" and Xander said it. Just in case you were wondering.

mac
macdyne@mailcity.com

Friday, January 30, 2004

Blood, Gore & Logging Equipment

What do these have in common ? That's right boys & girls, Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Just watched the DVD last night. Fun.

The movie starts out with an interesting montage. Grainy black & white footage, the case vaults, the 1300 pieces of evidence. I particularly enjoyed the crime scene walkthrough footage(really wicked twist in the end involving this).

Basically the movie is about 5 teens who pick up a strange, rather incoherent girl along a highway. The girl, obviously overwhelmed with gratitude, spouts more incoherent garbage and promptly shoots herself in the mouth in the kids van. (Of course, the movie never explained how the hell do you stuff a .38 revolver between your legs and not have trouble walking).

The kids panic of course and they end up at some kind of farm. And of course this is where they get picked off one by one by deathmask-wearing, chainsaw wielding mad person. And the mad-persons relatives weren't a big help either.

As far as slasher flicks go, this one was not bad at all. Definitely better than "Wrong Turn", of course that movie had Eliza Dushku in it (YUMMY !!). The pacing was right and the movie never slowed down, except for the beginning part. Jesicca Biel was fair as the main character Erin, not that you need too much acting ability to scream and run around in a farm in the dark. Also nice to see Eric Balfour as Kemper in this flick (Jessie from Buffy Season 1).

The main creep factor in this movie was the lighting and the camera work, not the bad guy. I thought they showed him a little too early. I would've been better if they had kept him out of sight until at least the end of Act 2. Keeps the audience guessing. On the other had, scenes of him doing things in the basement and his interaction with the rest of his twisted household did give the Leatherface character some meat.

Overall, this movie was okay. Pretty good for a slasher flick but if you expect a gorefest, you won't find much here. They are worse (better?) flicks out there, gorewise. Just don't expect too much and don't take this movie too seriously. I've read some user comments on IMDB and thought "Dude, it's a slasher flick, not a modern reinterpretation of Hamlet". Don't take this movie seriously and enjoy it for what it is. I'd give this movie a 6.8 out of 10.

Historian's Note:- Despite the "Based on a True Story" tagline, this movie is not based on a real event. The Leatherface character was partly inspired by the serial killer Ed Gein (the hooks, the death masks). The rest of the movie is fiction. Read up on him at crime library of somewhere.

Also earlier this evening I watche Final Destination 1 & 2. Now these two movies rock. I'll write about these later.

Thursday, January 29, 2004

Too much water or not enough

Last week, it rained. A lot. In fact it rained so much that it flooded. In town. And I couldn't go to work on Monday. Which sucked because I woke early and got stuck in traffic for two hours from 5.30 in the freaking morning. Also, there was no electricity for like 20 hours. So what can one do at home when one is cut off from town and having no electricity. Nothing that's what. No Buffy DVDs. No Championship Manager. Heck not even regular TV. Boy that was a sucky day.

FYI, that was the second time in a row we had a flood that big here in Kuching. Last year same thing happened. Also around Chinese New Year. In a way, it was good that it happened that way. Sometimes it takes a natural disaster to teach people not to take things for granted. Like electricty. Or the potholed, uneven road that connects my house to town. Or some other thing like that. I'm sure there's a lesson in here someplace....

Funny how boredom makes people get all rambly heh..

mac
macdyne73@yahoo.com
macdyne@mailcity.com

PS Say, did anyone catch this week's episode of Angel ? The one where Andrew was supposed to come to LA. That would be so cool. And I have to say, putting Spike in LA was a really good idea. And Harmony.! Really, Angel is a good show but they really need more chicks on it.

I miss Buffy :(.

How do we do this again ??

OOOkkaaay. How do you do this ? Thoughts and random ramblings, right. Okay2

I'm sitting here in a cybercafe and yes I'm quite bored thank you. It isn't raining and that's a good thing since if it rained like last week I'd get flooded out and get cut off from town again. Plus, there would be no electricity and I'd be really cranky.

I'm also browsing a Buffy website now and if you ask all my friend's, they'd tell you I'm a biggish fan (they should know, I told them, incessantly, over the last 7 years..) Why did I write that ? Dunno but it seemed like a good idea at the time.

I can't wait. I just applied for broadband at my house. That means I can do this blogging thingie at my house instead of a cybercafe. Yay ! Plus, I need to find a DSl router so I can hook up all the PCs in my house (we have three).

So what to do this evening ? Hang out and try to think of something important to write. That's it for a first post.

See ya.

mac