Avatar – initial thoughts

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So, just got back from Avatar (Digital 3D).  Totally engaging movie experience.  The time flew by.  I’ll write a longer review (maybe) later, but for now, here are my initial thoughts.

  • 3D worked well in some places (looking through windows, heads-up displays, floating embers), didn’t really get in the way, not sure how much it added to the experience having not see the non-3D version.  It does give you a headache afterwards, because (I’m guessing) your brain gets pissed off with seeing in 3D but not being able to choose what to focus on.
  • The CGI – breathtaking.  Really, just astonishing.  It’s a step and a half up from anything I’ve ever seen, anywhere.  There’s plenty of stuff on screen that I truly have no clue if it was CGI, model work or real.
  • The story – go with an open heart and let it affect you, and you’ll love it.  Go and don’t open up to it and it’ll look cheesy.  I hope you can empathise and get involved because it’s truly, honestly, moving.
  • Some people will call it Dances with Wolves meets Dragon Riders of Pern meets Aliens meets World of Warcraft.  Maybe they’re right, frankly, I don’t care.  It rocked.
  • The trailer, no matter which one you have seen, does not do the movie justice.

Will Avatar change Cinema? No, I don’t think so.  Is it groundbreaking?  Yes, in parts.  Is it a fantastic fantasy/sci-fi movie with a heart?  Yes, totally.

Every so often a movie comes along that not only begs to be seen on the big screen, but requires it.  Avatar is one of those movies.  If you do not see this on the big screen, if you do not let it fill your vision, your heart and touch your soul, you’ll not be seeing the same film as those people who do.

Go and see it, please.

More snow?

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When we were deciding which day to head south, we almost decided to leave it until Monday / Tuesday in the hope of the weather having cleared up.  As it happens, we made the right choice going on Sat / Sun,

Thousands of people have been trapped in their cars overnight after snow and ice brought roads to a standstill.

More

In which I provide updates

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It’s been a little while since I just blogged about life.  Mostly it’s been about games or movies or movies about games, or games based on movies about games.  Or books.  Or games based on books.  You get the idea.

We tend to do a little bit of travelling around this time of year, up to the North East to see my family and down to the South Coast to see Grete’s.  In terms of distance there’s not much in it either way, 160 miles North East and 200 miles to the South Coast.  Okay, so there’s 40 miles more going south.  But those 40 miles make a hell of a difference, because most of them are around the M25.  In fact, I reckon it’s about ~45 miles around the M25 from the M1 junction we arrive on, to the M23 junction we leave via.  It’s only 20-30 miles more going around than it would be going across London as the crow flies, but those miles are often the most painful.  This time we went north twice, and each time went up and came back on the same day, it’s about 3-4 hours depending on traffic and stops, and it’s a pretty easy run (especially for me, since I can’t drive).

Going south has traditionally been our nemesis though.  We once missed a wedding while we sat on the M1 and then the M25 for about 5 hours and only just made it for the reception.  The M1 is usually okay, but the M25 is often slow, busy, and inexplicably stop-starty (it might not be a word, but you know what it means).  Sometimes we’ll chug along at 15mph for ages, and then speed up with never any sign of what’s going on.

We set off for the South Coast late morning on Saturday (11am), the weather reports had us concerned and while we would normally head out at 8am, we didn’t want to set off without checking ahead, making sure it looked clear.  The terrible weather of Friday had mostly cleared, most of the main roads looked fine and although there was still some ice on local roads near Grete’s folks it wasn’t too bad.  We made good speed down the M1 and were about 7 miles out from Toddington services when,

  1. traffic slowed to a crawl, it took us about 50 minutes to go those 7 miles
  2. we were passed, in the hard shoulder, by 2 ambulances, a fire engine and several police vehicles (and some cheeky bastard using it to bypass traffic)

We went into the services, there was a maintenance vehicle parked in the chevrons of the junction before which we thought little of.  We picked up some drinks, used the toilets and were ready to set off, when we noticed another maintenance vehicle now blocking the route back on to the M1, and no traffic at all passing down the M1, or arriving at the services.  I can’t find any reports on the web, but from what I heard a couple of vehicles had to be cut open, and the police investigated the causes.  Which left us in the services for about 3 hours.  It’s better than it could have been,

  1. we could have been stuck on the M1, behind the closed junction
  2. we could have been in the accident, and I truly hope everyone involved came away as well as they can be

Once we got going again everything was clear and other than a minor issue on a local road (sheet ice, preventing us from making it up a hill three times before we found another route), we got there fine.  Pretty cold the whole way, made it to minus 7 Celsius at one stage.

It’s always worth the journey of course, both North and South.  Grete’s mum made a lovely roast dinner for us when we finally arrived, and we got to see her sister and their kids, some friends of ours in Hailsham, and my mother, sister and kids when we went North.

But now we’re home.  It’s still bloody cold and we’ve had (well, once again, Grete’s had) a hectic day, but it should be calmer now on the run up to Christmas.  Some quick shopping today, then a physiotherapy appointment for Grete (the first to see if they can work out what’s up with her back), then Grete taking Fizz to the vets to see why she’s lost her meow, and finally Grete went to the gym.  While she was out I quickly tidied, put our Christmas decorations and lights up and sorted out some stuff I’d been meaning to do for ages (recycled about seven hundred free newspapers).

Already three days of my holiday gone, but the next few should be nice and relaxing.

I was there …

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These posts are archives of forum / blog entries I made on my EverQuest guild website. The website won’t be around forever, and I wanted the posts all in one place so I didn’t lose them, this blog seemed like as good a place as any.

You were there.

You were there when the first of our enemies fell. You were all there when blind, we still prevailed against The Itraer Vius.

We were all there the day the Avatar of War fell to our combined might, the moment the cursed snakelords of Luclin gave up their treasures, and when the Emperor’s presence was diminished by our deeds.

I remember.

You were there, risen from near death when we beat the Trial of Endurance and found our way into the lair of the Overlord, and we were all there when he was vanquished to the cries of our revenge. His mightiest lieutenants long dead, the chaotic power of Hulcror nothing before our righteous strength.

Time will not weaken the memory of our journey through its very plane of existence, the effort it took to get there, the sacrifice, the team work. We were there when Quarm fell, we were all there.

I was there when you forged through the Gates of Discord and defeated the best it had.

I was there when we rewarded our allies with epic weapons beyond compare.

I was there when headless monstrosities, dragons, giants, daemons and all manner of creatures from our collective nightmares learned there was something in the darkness to be feared more than they themselves. We were transcendant, resplendant, and we gloried in our power.

We were TNF, and I was there when we learned we had nothing to fear.

It’s only a game they might cry. And we laugh for none know the truth of that as well as we do. It is only a game, but you, you are real. Friendships are real. Shared experiences, triumph, defeat and victory are real.

We were all there, connected, together, a team, friends.

I know who you are because I have seen you in the shared moments, I respect you all, miss you all.

Whatever you’re doing at this time of year, I wish you all the best and hope you can share this moment with those you love, in spirit if not in body.

Here’s to 2010. You will be there, in my thoughts.

Mirkwood, Galadhrim reputation and Lord of the Rings Online

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Mirkwood, the latest Lord of the Rings Online expansion has been released (on-time!) and the game servers are busier than ever.  I wrote a post a short while ago about Galadhrim reputation, and how to get enough to get into Caras Galadhon.  You can read it here.  At the end of that post I wondered how Mirkwood would affect the reputation process, knowing that access to that area would be through some part of Lothlórien.  I’m pleased to say that Turbine have done two things,

  1. You need access to Lothlórien wood in order to gain entry to Mirkwood, and they haven’t lifted the restriction on reputation to get into Lothlórien wood at all.
  2. They have added a bunch of new quests once you’re in the wood which all provide reputation.

The result is that once you’re in the wood, there are more choices about how to get enough reputation to get into Caras Galadhon, but the process takes just the same amount of time as it used to (just more choice).  Additionally there’s no ‘fast track’ to Mirkwood.  If you want to go there at the moment, you have to earn enough reputation with the Elves to be allowed into the Lothlórien wood, and that suits me fine.

On the road (kinda)

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So I’m in a hotel in Winchester on a course for work. The hotel caters to businesses so they provide broadband in the rooms. You just have to pay 30pence per minute! There’s a cap on the total cost which I guess they hope business users will just accept and claim back, but in the current climate I wonder how many do.

Luckily the iPhone gives me more ways than ever of being in touch without needing a real net connection. The battery life is still the main issue though.

Why do hotel TVs always have the colour settings so high everyone looks orange, I can actually hear anyone dressed in red it’s that bright.

I’m missing the first few days of the new Lord of the Rings Online expansion while I’m down here which is making me feel like a member of Felicia Day’s The Guild web series.

The Guild – Season 3 – Out-takes

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I did write a post with this title, and embedded two videos, but they didn’t work.  I deleted the post, but not until after Google had already crawled it, which is why this page shows up in their search.

I never did get the episode 9-12 out-takes (gag reel) working embedded, but you can see the post I made with Episode 12 here.  You can watch the gag reel here, but try as I might, I can’t get it to embed correctly, sorry.

Disks, data and paranoia

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I’m currently going through about 15 IDE/ATA  hard disks and wiping them.  I’m using an old machine to do it.  A friend asked if they could have some of them after they’re wiped, for a friend of theirs.  I guess this post is my way of responding and saying no, sorry.

I have no doubt that the data on them is gone.  But, I intend to wipe them, take them outside and hit them a few times with a 4lb lump hammer, and then take them to the local recycling centre.  So the platters will be clean and the devices themselves will be broken.

This isn’t just my data we’re talking about, it’s the personal data of anyone who communicated with me since I started using computers for electronic communications in around 1992.  I don’t think there’s anything, anywhere on any of those disks that could incriminate me or anyone else, or cause any embarrassment, but hell, why take the risk?  When people talked to me on FidoNet, bulletin boards, by e-mail, usenet, IRC, or any other mechanism that may have kept a record on my machine, I bet they weren’t thinking ‘in 17 years, I wonder who’ll be using the disk this is being stored on’.

So anyway, no sorry, you can’t have my old, crusty, IDE disks, I’m destroying them.

The most amusing thing about the process is that the machine I’m using to wipe the disks (with the case off so I can swap drives in and out easily) is clearly dying, sometimes it boots first time (from Darik’s Boot and Nuke media), but most of the time it gives a random combination of beeps and needs another power cycle.  I think it’s the graphic card slowly dying but it’s hard to tell.  So, if the box lives long enough, I’ll finish wiping these disks and then I get to play with my lump hammer.