Angel and 30th birthday plans

I cried! The last time a comic book made me cry was when Steve Rogers died!

Wesley is officially dead =(

Reading ‘After the Fall’ has been a great extension on the TV Show Angel but now that the ‘After the Fall’ story arc is over and all has been resolved I was utterly devastated. Angel reaching out and touching the plaque that had been placed on the library wall, dedicating the wing to Wesley and Fred, the gentle way he said goodnight to them! SO SAD!

But the positive thing is, that now that that has been resolved we can move onto ‘Aftermath’ with a clear mind and get ready for some serious ass kicking! I’m reading that Kate is coming back and what we saw of her in ‘After the fall’ was very kick ass, so i look forward to seeing more from her character!

I’ve ordered my ‘Spike After the Fall” hardcover copy to complete my collection, in a few weeks i’ll order Angel after the fall 2 which i think collects issues 5-8 which is a bit cheap considering that the first HC collected issues 1-5. But what can you do? besides whine online >.>

My brothers 30th birthday is coming up in two weeks and i’m making big plans!

As a family we’re going out to dinner on the Friday (March 20th) which is the date of his actual birthday, we’ll go out to dinner at his favorite resturant and have cake and drinks and yadayada. After that we’ll be driving down the coast to spend two nights and one day at a hotel at Surfers paradise. I’ll be renting 2 hotel rooms, one for the girls and one for the boys and saturday will be spent at the beach or pool, swimming and then shopping and Saturday night will be clubbing! we’re going to take my brother to a strip club! should be fun. The of course, driving home on Sunday!

I’m excited! On Friday night i’ll drive down with Janine, Daniel and Clinton and Sally and David will join us on Saturday lunchtime-ish! I’m just keeping my fingers crossed that i’m going to be able to afford it =\ here’s hoping!!

Who watches the Watchmen?

You can’t have a post about this movie without calling it something utterly predictable, like what i have done. So once we get past the name of my blog and the groaning is over, lets talk about the movie.

The very first thing i noticed going in (after i took note of the missing name in the credits, you know exactly who i’m talking about) was the picture of the Silk Spectre on the wall of the Comedian’s apartment and that pretty much set the scene for me. I’d watched the interviews and listened to the buzz, people were expecting this to be a true adaptation, and not just something that tries to stay as true as it can, but a true adaptation of a comic book and i wasn’t disappointed.

It’s like at Christmas time, when you were a kid? You come down the stairs and park your ass in front of the tree and you see the giant box with the shiny paper on it with your name written in your parents hand writing on the card and you think “Omg it actually looks like (*insert whatever the fuck it is you asked for*)” but no… it can’t be! You’re not that lucky! right? Then you open the box and lo and behold there it is, in all its shiny new splendor. Exactly what you had asked for, begged for, wish and hoped for, right there in your hands.

That’s what Watchmen was.

I sat down in my chair with my big ass box of popcorn and a giant drink i saw too scared to drink (The four horsemen of the Apocalypse could not have gotten me out of that seat before the closing credits, needing to pee was not going too) and i waited patiently through the movie trailers and stupid commericals and then there she was, in all of her beautiful glory.  The moment i saw the picture, the beauty of Jeffery Dean Morgan faded away and i realised that the ‘buzz’ had for once been right. I took a brief moment to be shocked (The Internet was right.) and then i was thrown head first into a world that had only been viewable to me before from the glossy pages of a graphic novel that i had quickly come to love.

I won’t ramble on about how amazing the sets and the costumes were and the small changes that made almost no change at all and can be over looked for the sake of Rorschach’s mask. (I couldn’t stop staring at it – which is a compliment) but i will make small mention of my disappointment at the lack of a giant fucking squid. The end result was the same but i can’t be the only one that wanted to see a giant fucking squid!! hehe oh well!

There isn’t much that i can say that won’t be said over and over again many, many times in the next few days but i will say how very impressed i was at the way the feeling was captured and i hope that fans of the comic were as pleased as i was with the little things.

I can’t wait to watch it again

Nobody likes a rattlesnake

I’ve been watching Chuck, really good show. Has Adam Baldwin in it, which means it’s just made of win. I’m up to date with One Tree Hill, which is both sad and exciting. I’m really, really looking forward to Dollhouse starting up soon. New 24 in a couple of days, the bridging “movie – TV Episode” was awesome and i can’t wait for more!

That’s about it.

I hate you movie critic.

Now that i’m done wondering about unshuffling a shuffle (see: last post) I have to bring up a subject that’s somewhat starting to become the bane of my existence.

I like to read Empire magazine, i also subscribe to a few websites that give me their opinions on TV shows, movies, and games. All this is fine and dandy. I don’t generally listen to, or engage in conversation with people about these sort of things unless they have the same, or at least similar taste to me in these categories. Otherwise all you get is two people screaming “NO DON’T WANT I R RITE U RONG” at each other until they’re blue in the face, and i hate wasting my oxygen like that.

So, when i read a movie review i know that the person who wrote it is going to give me good, solid advice and i tend to either listen to it and go with the flow or i ignore it completely and do the opposite, just to see for myself. I’m a very firm believer in this tactic. You should always form your own opinions on things like movies, books, TV shows and games or you might accidentally end up missing out on something amazing.

So my brother picked up the new copy of Empire, with Star Trek on the cover. I got a little bit excited! I really am excited to see the revamped, reworkings that JJ Abrams is going to bring us. And so is my custom i stole the mag and snuck off to curl up on the couch and indulge in a little light reading and for the first time in awhile, i was seriously upset over a review that i read. Not because it was badly written or because it was trashing a movie that i was excited to see, but because it seriously dashed my hopes.

Have you ever read something about a movie that you know is true, because it comes from someone that you (as far as you can with strangers) trust their opinions because 9/10 times it matches with you own? This is what happened to me.

I had no idea (and this, for me is really embarrassing because i pride myself on spotting a remake and being able to be aptly disgusted, or hopeful) that ‘Quarantine’ was a remake! Not only that, but it was a remake of a movie so fresh, it hasn’t (And so I’ve read, won’t be anytime soon, because of the remake) been released in America. The original movie is called [REC] and not only is Quarantine a remake, apparently it’s very Psycho in the fact it’s an almost scene for scene, set for set remake of this (only JUST RELEASED) original.

This disappoints me on so many different levels, firstly being that if you’re going to remake a movie, surely there has to be some kind of courtesy cooling off period. They can’t wait 12 months for the original to do it’s rounds of the world and then remake it?

This is what’s wrong with Hollywood. Smothering international cinema by translating it into ’stupid’ for the American audience. I don’t think Americans (well, not the ones that would enjoy this kind of movie) are so stupid that they can’t appreciate a good, Spanish zombie flick. For what I’ve read, the original [REC] is an incredibly well made, terrifying look at what happens when zombies invade your apartment building – as told by a scared reporter and broad-casted by her trusty camera man.

The original isn’t going to be released in America until well after Quarantine has had it’s run and even then i doubt it will be given much of a chance. Which is so very disappointing.

I was looking forward to going to see Quarantine at the cinema after my semester ended but truth be told, i’m not sure i want to waste my money by feeding it to the remake machine.

<3

If it doesn’t shuffle, is it still a shuffle?

Ok, so maybe i’m a little bit slow on the up take here, I really wouldn’t be surprised if someone reads this, rolls their eyes and makes that “You moron” clucking noise with their tongue. But seriously… Is an iPod shuffle, still a shuffle when it’s not on shuffle?

Let me explain before someone has me committed. I don’t have an iPod. I used too, but it died a loud and somewhat teary death and since i was broke (*cough*cheap*cough) i brought a small little 1GB MP3 player that – let’s face it – does the exact same thing an iPod would do for me. It plays music. So i have my MP3 player and that’s all fine and dandy but it runs on aaa (anti aircraft artillery!) batteries, the little ones! So i brought some rechargeable ones, and every time the battery runs out, i take it out and switch it out with a fully charged battery from my home phone cordless handset, i then put the handset back into the cradle to recharge. It’s a good system, i never run out of charged batteries.

My brother works a good distance from out house, he has to catch a bus and a train to work and since his iPod also died, he was using my MP3 player, but since i can’t live without music this really wasn’t on for me. So he went out and brought a little, apple green iPod shuffle. So cute.

Just like Granny Smith.

Anyway, the other day i couldn’t find my MP3 player, and when everyone in my house is home and i want to clean and they’re watching TV, i can’t play music on the stereo so i rock my MP3 player. In this case i borrowed my brothers. I knew it was charged and since he gets his music from my laptop, i wasn’t all that worried about what music was on it. I flicked the little switch to turn it ON and the litle green light flicked on. That’s when i saw it. An extra little flick over switch with two little lines on that on the first instance were interlocked, but when you flicked it the other way, were parallel.

This was when i discovered you can unshuffle an iPod shuffle.

Doesn’t that somewhat defeat the purpose of the very object? It’s main purpose, which it is named for, is to take a playlist of music, shuffle it and spit it back out at you. The minimal of all iPods, the baby sister. The iPod that all other iPods were born as before growing into a ‘touch’, ‘nano’ or ‘classic’ iPod.

So if an iPod shuffle doesn’t shuffle, is it still an iPod shuffle? If not, then what is it?

<3

What’s the key to having a great Thanksgiving?

A Turkey of course. Get it? Tur – key?

You love it and you know it.

So it’s that time of year when Americans all gather around a table and eat excessive amounts of food and give thanks for all of the things in their life that they’re… well thankful for. I don’t celebrate this holiday and I’m not that sad that i don’t get an extra day a year to eat food and spend time with my family, we, after all get a day off of work to celebrate the birthday of an old woman who lives in another Country. (The Queen, in case you were confused.)

But at the same time, i hate feeling left out (And i’m avoiding writing a science paper from scratch) so i thought i would share with everyone what it is, that i’m thankful for!

Ride the Rainbow.

Skittles. The one candy that rates the highest on my list of study snack foods that i really can’t live without. I have this Nescafe Gold coffee jar and every couple of days (depending on how much work i have to do) i refill this baby and i’m good to go. I pour the delicious chewy goodness into the lid, or sometimes i drink them straight from the jar. At the end of the day, these yummy mini lollies have gotten me through many a shitty days.

The Brain

I won’t go into too much detail about how mch i love Joss Whedon, because… well we’ve already been down this road and i think by now it’s quite obvious how much i enjoy his work. This time it’s not really just him that i’m thankful for but the people that he’s brought together. Not just the actors and the stories that he’s told through them, i’m certainly grateful for that. But the fans as well, i’ve never really seen anyone inspire the kinda of loyality in a fan that he does. (Well, anyone that isn’t a Trekkie)

Everytime i speak to someone who is a Joss Whedon/Buffy/Angel/Firefly/Dr.Horrible fan, it’s always the same. It doesn’t matter who you are in the real world, the moment you enter his world you become this fangasmical being that exists for one purpose alone, to worship the characters and the soft, almost unnoticed genius of his work.

There are so many people out there who proudly wear the tag ‘Browncoat’ or ‘Scoobie’ and i tell you what, it’s never been so awesome to be a geek. So I’m thankful that Joss Whedon has given us that.

The not-so Idiot Box.

I’m also incredibly thankful for what has been a stellar year of Television shows. For so long  there was nothing but boring, second rate TV shows that were just the same thing recycled over and over again. How many versions of CSI, or Law and Order do we really need to have? This is why i’m so excited about all the great new shows that have been on the air this year, some who returned and some who just started out fresh.

I’m a big fan of HBO, and they really delivered for me this year. Giving me Generation Kill and True Blood. They’ve been responsible for some of my favorite shows, like The Wire, Rome and Deadwood. And now they’ve topped it off with Marines and Vampires.

Add to this a great new season of Smallville, the first half of season 4 of Battlestar Galactica, Dr. Horrible (granted, a web show) Sanctuary getting picked up, the final season of Atlantis really delivering, The Legend of the Seeker, Merlin, Supernatural kicking some major ass and of course, we have Dollhouse to look forward too.

January is going to be a great month for TV, the new series of Dollhouse kicks off, 24 and Lost along side the last half of season 4 of Battlestar Galactica!

Taken in 2006 - stolen from facebook >.>

Chris! I am incredibly grateful for this strange little munchkin. He’s mean and rude and he treats me like the little orphan girl Annie… wait… maybe that was just in my head.

The truth is, so very few of us have friends that we’ve met online that we can be completely, 100% ourselves with. I have 2 female friends and now Chris, it’s great to have someone that messages you and is always happy to talk to you. Someone that goes out of their way to be ‘that’ person. The one person in your day that makes you smile and doesn’t create drama just because drama can be created.

So i’m thankful that i have someone i can fangasam with over comics and TV shows and someone who knows that when i tell them to ’shut the fuck up -.-’ knows that in reality i’m probably grinning. So thanks fucktard, i <3 you.

What else? I’m thankful for a lot. Who the fuck knew i gave a shit about this much!

There is another friend that i’m incredibly grateful for, but i won’t say their name. This person recently helped me get past an incredibly difficult hurdle in my life. I had a choice to make and although it seemed obvious as to what i had to do, it wasn’t just black and white. This person advised me without flat out telling me what i should do, then supported me when i had done it, despite the fact that the consequences of my actions were less than ideal. So thanks.

So thats it thanks.

I am fangirl, Hear me roar.

I am a total fangirl and I’m not ashamed to admit it.

Most people hear the term ‘fangirl’ and their immediate reaction is fear and loathing. But not all fangirls are insane or mentally deficient, in fact some of us are downright awesome. There are two main things that set off my transformation from normalisim to fangirl status.

Rockin' it old school.

The first being Marvel comics, in particular – Captain America, X-Men and anything Avenger related. I’ve always been a little bit of a comic freak and nothing get’s me going the way that Marvel does. I enjoy the odd graphic novel, i’ve read a few manga but in all honesty i’m more for the lighter side of the comic book world. Recently i’ve become obsessed with the Serenity and Angel comic’s from IDW publishing and i can’t wait to get my hands on the new ‘30 Days of night” books, written by David Lapham.

I think that in reality if i could afford to buy all of the books that i wanted, I’d have enough books on hand to paper the walls, and the roof… and the ceiling and well, you get the idea.

The one other thing that really gets me going (more so than anything else) is a small man with a shiny forehead.

Strange and somewhat shiny.

It’s not even that i find him particulary good looking. I don’t spend hours of my day imagining him naked and drooling over all of the sick and somewhat twisted things i’d like to do to that deliciously large forehead of his. In fact it’s quite the opposite and i’m pretty sure i could survive happy from here until the very end of time if i never got to see him naked.

But there is something about him that makes me so happy, i can spend hours on end talking about him. He writes the most amazing characters and songs i’ve ever had the privelige of reading and experiencing.

Whedon fans are some of the scariest i’ve ever met! They’re tenacious and proud and browncoats to the very core of their souls. Once you’ve been touched (in the non creepy way) by something he’s written, you can’t help but fall back to it at the most darkest times of your life.

Oh baby, oh baby.

As sad as it is, this pretty much describes it as acuratly as it can be described with human words. Its been this way since 1997 and it’s probably going to stay this way until i can no longer breath.

One of the things about Joss Whedon that inspires such loyalties is his ability to deliver each and every single time. Without fail, he prepares us for awesome and then gives us exactly what was advertised. And it never fades. From Buffy the vampire Slayer, through Angel and Firefly and Dr. Horribles Sing-along-Blog and now, hopefully onto Dollhouse.

I’m a little concerned about the time slot that Fox has put the show in, but i guess things will fall where they may and we’ll just have to wait and see what happens. I have my fingers crossed but in reality i’m not that scared.

He keeps on writing, and we’ll keep on watching. No matter what the project is.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Angel

Firefly

Dollhouse

Let’s all grow moustaches.

I woke up in bizarro land this morning. It’s possibly the only way to explain this…

First let me throw some names at you and see if any bells start a-ringing.

Alien. Blade Runner. Thelma and Louise. Gladiator. Hannibal. Black Hawk Down. Matchstick Men. Kingdon of Heaven. American Ganster. Body of Lies.

I bet all of or at least a few of those movies ring a few bells? They all have one thing in common. Ridley Scott. They were all directed by him and in my opinion, are all amazing movies. He’s also been producer on some 44 other projects, some of them good and some of them ok. But now… this is where bizzaro land comes into it, I’m reading that his latest project is none other than… Monopoly.

Did i climb into bed last night and tumble down a fucking rabbit hole and wake up in another dimension where someone who can bring us Russel Crowe actually being a bad-fucking-ass in Gladitor is going to direct a movie based on (granted one of the more fun and yet) least action filled board games available to date. (not including Trivial Pursuit.)

At least if you were going to make a movie based on Chess you could whack out some epic war movie that has explosions and horses and a king and queen. You take the Game of Life and you make a movie about.. well life and i promise you it’s going to be more interesting than REAL ESATE. Because i guarentee you i would probably be more entertained watch comb over porn (*winks and gargles* you know who you are) than i would watching a movie… any movie that’s based on Monopoly.

At the end of the day, as fun as this game is to sit around and play with your family when your other, cooler friends are too busy… it’s just about real estate. Buying, selling, renting and hoarding as much as possible until you’re the richest person on the board! Are we going to see a Giant Hat, owning Train Stations and a Giant Dog going to jail… directly to jail. DO NOT PASS GO, and by all means… do not collect $200.

So it leads me to ask “WHAT THE FUCK?!” and not in some mild mannered kind of way, this kind of thing rattles the cage of the fangirl inside me that wants to know where we draw the fucking line. First they let Uwe Boll make movies (I have trouble grasping the fact that they continue to give him money to accomplish this feat) but now they’re taking every game they can get their hands on and making them into movies. This perversion is now leaking into board games.

STOP IT BEFORE YOU HURT YOURSELF.

Hero…es

Heroes this week was actually Villains and yet that still couldn’t save it from it’s slow decent into Hell. The only thing waiting for it at the bottom is an empty bottle of vodka and a soggy packet of cigarettes.

I thought “Hang on, this might actually be interesting! This might be one of those episodes that won’t make me feel like someone is shoving an oversized carrot up my nose” but alas, i was wrong. The concept was on mark but the execution was so poorly done i felt the need to weep for Tim Kring. What the fuck was he doing while this episode was being written? Fucking Donald Duck in the ear?

I can understand that writers are given a certain amount of leeway with the episodes that they write but Tim Kring is the one that’s approving these fucking episodes. Is he asleep? Has he perhaps been taken over by a Smiletime! puppet while everyone was busy watching the train wreck that is now, offically Heroes?

The start of the season was strong but i don’t think you need to say “WTF?!” more than once when watching a Televsion show and their need to constantly shock the audience got old fast. There was some information missing from the episodes that might have been nice for the viewer to have right off the bat. And i can’t be the only one that is sick to death of the ‘Time travel’ angle.

We get it. No really. Hiro and Peter can travel through time. LET THE FUCKING HORSE DIE! stop whipping the poor bastard.

The only thing that’s really rocking my boat this season is the Gabriel/Sylar progression. I was a fan of Sylar’s from the get go. I love me a good villain and he was seriously giving me what i wanted and i really didn’t mind that he became a Hero, in my opinion it’s ok to let a Hero become a Villain so long as you replace him with someone suitable. So far they’ve failed to do this. And then to discover that he is infact a misguided creation of the Companies is just reatrded. Like… window licking retarded.

I liked that he and Elle had a thing but i wasn’t sure where it came from, it felt like an after thought, the kind you have after you let your boyfriend cum on the sheets only to remember you don’t have any clean ones to replace it with.

The discovery that Flint was Meredith’s brother was another pointless act for me. It also added some more fundamental questions to my ever growning pile. For example, it seems that when a family has powers they all fall into the same kind of catagory. The Daddy and Mummy Petrelli both have mind powers and to a large extent the father seems able to take powers away. Peter can absorb powers from people and Gabriel can also ‘learn’ powers, thus taking them away. Nathan can fly but that’s not important because his power was given to him in a lab.

But this rule doesn’t seem to apply to anyone else. It’s all somewhat confusing.

Too many characters, not enough time to tell the stories and all you end up with is something similar to a group of 15 year olds trying their hardest to have an orgy but really only accomplishing sticking their soft, soggy peen’s into someone’s ear.

Someone better do something soon or all that’s going to happen is a great concept is going to become and example of what not to do when you have an awesome TV show.

Wonder… what?

So far it’s just speculation but the latest rumor is that McG will be on board for the Wonder Woman movie.

You may as well take me out the back and stab me in the face with the rusty spoons now.

What THE FUCK is wrong with these people.