Nothing to See Here

Jul. 9th, 2008

10:57 am - A brief slice of work conversation :)

... on entirely non-work topics: Whedon, The Cabin in the Woods, and rambling into steampunk!

(Beginning review: Wed Jul 9 10:37:57 2008 PDT)
# <- (10:38) From sj [awake (why?!)][WFH], to water, geektalk, Movies:
# - According to Yahoo! News, MGM has given the go-ahead for production on
# - "The Cabin in the Woods", co-written Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard. Goddard
# - will direct and Whedon will produce.
#
# -> (10:38) From ashton [@2000, la humidee], to water:
# - Coming next, "The Cottage By The Lake", followed by "The Split-Level Ranch
# - In The Subdivision".
#
# <- (10:38) From sj [awake (why?!)][WFH], to water, geektalk, Movies:
# - (which is the first I'd even heard of it, showing how out of the loop I am)
#
# -> (10:38) From ashton [@2000, la humidee], to water:
# - With the special short film "The Outhouse On The Prairie".
#
# <- (10:38) From sj [awake (why?!)][WFH], to water:
# - ashton - geez, don't ruin the trilogy!
#
# -> (10:39) From ashton [@2000, la humidee], to water:
# - In the end, it turns out that they're ALL THE SAME HOUSE.
#
# > (10:39, to cooler) ashton ruins it for sj
#
# <- (10:39) From sj [awake (why?!)][WFH], to water:
# - WUH!
#
# -> (10:39) From mjr, to water:
# - What a twist!
#
# <- (10:39) From sj [awake (why?!)][WFH], to water:
# - That sounds more M. Knight Shyamalan than Joss Whedon or Drew Goddard. :)
#
# > (10:39, to cooler) ashton . o O (Starring Mark Wahlberg as the cedar
# > siding)
#
# -> (10:39) From mjr, to water:
# - It was supposed to.
#
# < (10:40, to cooler) sj says, "He was BORN for that role."
#
# -> (10:40) From ashton [@2000, la humidee], to water:
# - For Joss Whedon, just add "IN SPACE"
#
# -> (10:40) From ashton [@2000, la humidee], to water:
# - Or "STEAMPUNK"
#
# -> (10:40) From mcl [@2000, exhausted], to water:
# - does a bisexual vampire fall in love with the ghost of a 1930's noir
# - hard-nosed detective whose spirit is trapped in the same house, and they
# - communicate by leaving words spelled out on a scrabble board?
#
# -> (10:40) From mjr, to water:
# - Little House in the Asteroid Belt
#
# <- (10:40) From sj [awake (why?!)][WFH], to water:
# - The very idea of a Joss Whedon steampunk series is mind-blowingly awesome
#
# -> (10:41) From ashton [@2000, la humidee], to water:
# - Asteroid Of Sand And Fog
#
# -> (10:41) From mcl [@2000, exhausted], to water:
# - been done. He called it, "Firefly".
#
# -> (10:41) From mcl [@2000, exhausted], to water:
# - if you're willing to overlook fusion and things like that.
#
# -> (10:41) From ashton [@2000, la humidee], to water:
# - yes, but, see, this new one is about the Cabin in the Woods /with
# - fireflies/.
#
# <- (10:41) From sj [awake (why?!)][WFH], to water:
# - hah! not exactly steampunk
#
# -> (10:41) From mcl [@2000, exhausted], to water:
# - it's steampunk with fusion reactors. Same thing.
#
# -> (10:41) From ashton [@2000, la humidee], to water:
# - Nukepunk
#
# -> (10:41) From mcl [@2000, exhausted], to water:
# - steampunk isn't even sure what it is.
#
# -> (10:42) From mjr, to water:
# - It involves lots of brass fittings, generally.
#
# -> (10:42) From mcl [@2000, exhausted], to water:
# - and petticoats.
#
# -> (10:42) From ashton [@2000, la humidee], to water:
# - Leave your personal life out of this.
#
# -> (10:42) From mcl [@2000, exhausted], to water:
# - and english accents.
#
# <- (10:43) From sj [awake (why?!)][WFH], to water:
# - I suppose there /were/ goggles in Serenity
#
# <- (10:44) From sj [awake (why?!)][WFH], to water:
# - I was about to say "it's not steampunk without goggles"
#
# -> (10:44) From ashton [@2000, la humidee], to water:
# - It's not steampunk without cleavage
#
# -> (10:44) From mcl [@2000, exhausted], to water:
# - covered in goggles, brass fittings, petticoats, and bacon.
#
# -> (10:44) From mcl [@2000, exhausted], to water:
# - with a random monocle for good measure.
(End of review)

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Current Location: 806
Current Mood: [mood icon] amused
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Oct. 27th, 2007

05:10 pm - I've got a theory...

... that [info]lauratd is pretty talented at writing Whedon filk!

At the Cerrito Whedon night this past Thursday, [info]lauratd and [info]elite performed a filk variation on/parody of the song "I've Got a Theory" from "Once More with Feeling"! It was about Fox and SAG and the recent cancellations of TV episode showings in theatres (including for Cerrito and Parkway Whedon [Buffy/Firefly] nights).

The lyrics can be found in her LiveJournal. :)

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Current Location: 806
Current Mood: [mood icon] impressed
Current Music: I've Got a Theory
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Jun. 15th, 2007

02:12 pm - Can't Stop the Serenity!

This weekend and next!

If any of you have any interest in...
  1. seeing "Serenity" on the big screen,
  2. helping out a really good charity,
  3. having the opportunity to win some schwag
... then please check out:... along with http://www.cantstoptheserenity.com/ for more details of the overall effort (there's screenings all across the US and around the world).

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Current Location: 2385 Bay Rd, Redwood City, CA, USA
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May. 7th, 2007

06:00 pm - Stop-gap update, or: "Where the hell are you?"

Hi all!

I've had no time to update. I thought I might update during our trip to Japan, but no frickin' way. No time. Too much fun stuff to do/see. Since then, I planned to update, including writings about our trip, but I haven't had any time (when your boss greets you with a too-enthusiastic, "Welcome back!!!", that's an, "Uhoh...", moment). I have my "trip report" about 1/2 written. I'll try to get to the rest soon-ish.

I've had no time to read LJ either. Alas, I think I'm well over a month behind. I doubt I will come close to catching up, but I'll see if I can get back to keeping up with the present at some point, at least.

I am now on twitter. It's sort of like LJ for IM. ;) You can use it via the web site, via your existing IM account/client, or via your SMS-enabled phone (if you're crazy). I use it via the web site and via Google Talk. It's kind of nice because 1 IM window covers all of one's twitter interactions. It's silly, amusing, and fun and stuff. Definitely not so much of a useful tool. I don't have too many friends on it, so it doesn't generate much traffic for me to pay attention to. Feel free to friend me if you're on twitter, or if you join.

I have uploaded some pictures from May 5th -- from the Silicon Gulch Browncoats meet-up, from making of chocolate-dipped strawberries for a Cinco de Mayo party, as well as other miscellaneous shots -- for "24 hours of Flickr". I chose to submit this photo to the pool (limited to 1 per person).



BTW, here's some pimpage for the SF "Can't Stop the Serenity" charity screening:

Image and video hosting by TinyPic

Hopefully we'll also be getting a south bay one, but it will be on a different night, so if you're really dedicated, you could go to both... :) I know I'm tempted. I haven't seen Serenity on the big screen (or at all, actually) in a long time.

-me

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Current Location: 2385 Bay Rd, Redwood City, CA, USA
Current Mood: [mood icon] busy
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Mar. 4th, 2007

10:09 pm - WonderCon 2007 - fun, panels and--d'oh!

So, we spent the weekend (except for attending a party at [info]wendelina2's place on Saturday night) up in San Francisco, at WonderCon 2007.

We got to see the first public screening of "300" (as mentioned in my last post), attend some interesting panels, collected some pretty cool schwag (including "driver's licenses" of the main characters from Tim Minear's upcoming [April 15th] show, Drive and cool metal Transformers pins [autobot and decepticon logos]). We got autographs from Jane Espenson (yay!), as well as getting to chat with her a fair bit. Jane is so cool. :) We got to hang out and chat with Richard Hatch a bit too, and get his autograph also. We both managed to get (though not quite the way we were meant to get them [which is to say, drawing the magic tickets]) special wrist bands which allowed us to get Nathan's autograph, along with his co-star Kristin Lehman! Studio provided item (really nice glossy promoting Drive), and got to chat with them for a minute while they were signing.

Panels:

The one really blah thing about the weekend was ... that on Saturday morning, not long after getting pictures with Jane, my camera went missing. Probably stolen from my pocket. Perhaps left somewhere or dropped (though I don't think so) and if that is the case, then it walked, because it never did show up at Lost and Found (not too surprisingly really).

My trusty Canon SD400, gone. :( ... with the 2Gb SD card in it, and containing all my pictures up to that point.

The good news is that we were able to get Lori's camera and get photos with Jane Espenson and with Richard Hatch again, and about the only photo we didn't replicate was Jane eating Dan Tat (egg custard tart) from Golden Gate Bakery -- we had brought 24 of them along on Saturday morning. Oh well. So, other than that it's only the cost of the equipment, not really loss of data (which is really more important).

That combined with e-mail from Costco with the deals of the week including mention of a Canon SD900 started me looking at the SD900 (10MP!) and, after I found out that it does not have the image stabilization of some of the other new SD series models, the SD800 IS. I'm seriously considering the SD800 IS, as it has both image stabilization and a better lens -- 3.8x zoom compared to the 900's 3.0x, and apparently impressive wide angle for a point-and-shoot. Sure, it's only 7.1MP compared to the SD900's 10.0MP, but I don't think the resolution is quite as important as the lens and IS.

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Current Location: 806
Current Mood: [mood icon] exhausted
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Mar. 2nd, 2007

11:48 pm - If I had a mini-USB cable...

... then I could include a picture of us with Mr. Richard Hatch, but, well, I can't.

We won (or I should say [info]urox won, but it was a 2-person pass [or, really, a pair of wrist bands]) the right to go and see "300" tonight on the IMAX screen at the Metreon. This was apparently the first ever public screening of the film (according to the director, who was there [as were the producers and a tonne of people from Warner Brothers] and spoke before the movie).

I wasn't sure whether it would be lame, awesome, or just eh.

I have to say, it was a lot of fun, and despite not getting the best seats in the house (3-4 rows from the back, central are the best seats, which is why they were "Reserved for WB" :) ... it was really awesome on IMAX.

BTW, this was not just the regular 35mm print of the movie blown up to (somewhat) fill the IMAX screen (when we saw Serenity on that screen, that was what it was, and while fantastic, you could tell the quality wasn't what it could be). This was "the IMAX version of the film" (according to the director; and given how crisp it was, I believe it).

We're both thinking we might have to see it again -- definitely on the IMAX screen, and we'd have to show up early enough to get good seats.

Incidentally, the movie should appeal to guys, girls and definitely to Siglerites ("... and lots, and LOTS, of violence!"), due to the prevalance of eye-candy for all of the above. It's not Shakespeare. It is awfully fun. Unlike the 45 minute snorefest of extreme boredom of the battle of helm's deep in LotR, this movie made epic battles interesting, compelling, and not in the least boring.

See it -- on as big a screen as humanly possible!

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Current Location: Just off Union Square, San Francisco, CA
Current Mood: [mood icon] media'd
Current Music: "300" soundtrack in my head
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Feb. 20th, 2007

06:30 pm - Kitchen Confidential available for pre-order on Amazon.com

You should all buy this. :) It was a great show, and Amazon.com has an excellent price on it ($20.99).

(The reason for the "books" tag is that it's loosely based on/inspired by Anthony Bourdain's book of the same name, and the "joss" tag is because Nicholas Brendon plays a significant rôle in it).

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Current Location: 806
Current Mood: [mood icon] excited
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Feb. 6th, 2007

04:58 pm - Nathan/Drive, Wal*Mart Video, Steve Jobs/DRM, etc.

So, there's a new promo spot for Tim Minear's "Drive", with Nathan in it!



Wal*Mart has apparently just launched a video download service. In Firefox, it looks like this:



Isn't it a good thing they only support IE/Windows/WMP10?

Steve Jobs has spoken out on DRM and selling music on-line. I am quite surprised to see him write so frankly on the topic, when it seems like a large portion of their revenue stream relies on big music companies deluding themselves that DRM really works.

A former colleague of my father's, Aftab Khan, has been honoured with a prestigious award from the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS). Very cool. He deserves it.

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Current Location: 2385 Bay Rd, Redwood City, CA, USA
Current Mood: [mood icon] cheerful
Current Music: "Heroes" opening theme
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Jan. 11th, 2007

06:46 pm - An 'essay' on "The Operative"

Some time ago, there was a discussion of what happened with respect to The Operative at the end of Serenity (the movie) on one of the Browncoat mailing lists I'm on. Lots of people had interesting (and surprisingly varied) ideas on this. Some were dissatisfied with how it ended with respect to his character; others (including me) were not. I wrote a response which turned, unintentionally, into somewhat of an essay. I rather liked what I wrote, so here it is:

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Current Location: 2385 Bay Rd, Redwood City, CA, USA
Current Mood: [mood icon] contemplative
Current Music: "Love" -- David Newman (Serenity soundtrack)
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Dec. 26th, 2006

04:25 pm - Joss to the World!

The following popped into my head when someone said "Joss to the world" (meaning to evoke the hymn/carol) in a post to SoCalBrowncoats:

(ref: Jeremiah was a Bullfrog)

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Current Location: Killiney, Co. Dublin, Ireland
Current Music: "Joy to the World" - Hoyt Axton
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Dec. 15th, 2006

11:19 pm - Funniest reaction to Firefly MMORPG I've read so far...

... by a friend of mine. :)

For the record, I look forward to the game. :)

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Current Location: 806
Current Mood: [mood icon] giggly
Current Music: Firefly theme - Joss Whedon
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05:37 pm - Random

I posted my first video to YouTube! Wow! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTiV2DkpD-g

If I didn't own Delicious Library already, I would so totally buy the $49 package (including it and 9 other apps) currently on sale at http://macheist.com/ ...

This is pretty cool: http://www.aaronkoblin.com/work/faa

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Current Location: 2385 Bay Rd, Redwood City, CA, USA
Current Mood: [mood icon] busy
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Dec. 12th, 2006

11:35 pm - Browncoats' Backup Bash Retrospective

This post is my attempt to keep a somewhat comprehensive list of links to people's photos and accounts of the Browncoats' Backup Bash, a set of private events held by and for Browncoats (along with some wonderful TV stars and other helpful people!) when Flanvention II was canceled at the last moment by Booster Entertainment LLC (aka Booster Events). Obviously it won't really be comprehensive, but I'll make my best effort! Please help by forwarding URLs to me! :-)

Browncoats' Backup Bash (B3) in the "news":

Relevant/useful sites:Photographs from B3:Accounts of B3:Oddities/Fun Stuff:[info]bdbdb's account of B3 also has a set of links to other people's photos, accounts of the event, etc., much like this entry.

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Current Location: 806
Current Mood: [mood icon] bouncy
Current Music: Cedric's Flan B song, in my head
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Nov. 28th, 2006

06:38 pm - California Browncoats possibly to the rescue?

California Browncoats - http://www.californiabrowncoats.org/ - are working on backup plans for if Flanvention II does in fact end up cancelled. I don't know what's going to come of them, but some people (James, Lynn, Adam, Karla, Arielle, Louise, ...) are doing their darnedest to make sure that something worthwhile happens if Flan II doesn't happen in any official capacity. In "honour" of BE (Booster Events), some are referring to the backup plan as BEscrewed, though I suspect that's not an official name in any sense of the word.

It's heartening, anyway, to see so much effort being put in regardless of what comes of it.

Hopefully on Friday we'll find that Flan II isn't cancelled after all, they won't have to put the backup plans into operation, and I won't have to start calling my credit card company. I'm not hopeful, but we shall see how it goes.

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Current Location: 2385 Bay Rd, Redwood City, CA, USA
Current Mood: [mood icon] impressed
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Nov. 27th, 2006

11:33 pm - Absolutely furious.

Flanvention II to be cancelled?!?!

The person who posted the link on Whedonesque accompanied it with a comment, "Can this be serious? How can a sold out convention be having financial problems? It makes no sense."

Damn right it makes no sense.

This makes me absolutely FURIOUS. The only way you can possibly have a sold-out convention have to be cancelled due to lack of financing is if there is disgraceful, horrendous mis-management. I am disgusted beyond words with Booster Events.

I stopped short of saying it on the Browncoats lists, because I figure it could be like throwing petrol on the flames, but ... this sounds like criminal negligence. It's not like they charged too little. The tickets were a similar price to last year's Flanvention, there's fewer headline guests than last year, I believe more people bought tickets than last year (last year didn't fully sell out), and yet ... they're having funding problems? Someone suggested in a thread about this that BE had used the funds from Flanvention II ticket sales to fund other underattended conventions. This sounds plausible and, frankly, criminal. If they can't afford to put on the convention, how will they afford to pay us all back for our purchased tickets?!

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Current Location: 806
Current Mood: [mood icon] furious
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Oct. 24th, 2006

04:13 pm - Universal bites the Browncoats that feed them :(

The following is a copy of an e-mail I sent to various Browncoat lists in response to the fact that Universal has apparently started sending nasty letters to creators/purveyors of fan-produced merchandise:

Alas, I suspect they can make any demands they like. The demands may just not have any legal standing. If the target of the demands acquiesces, they win. If they fight back, likely most demands will be unenforceable.

I'm really frakking angry about and disgusted by this.

11th Hour has given so much of herself to Firefly and Serenity, and has done so much to help market Universal and Fox's products. It is *sickening* to see these vile thug-like strong-arm tactics being used against her by a company which ought to be really grateful to her for all she has done.

Sending her a Cease & Decist would have been distasteful and kind of obnoxious, but especially if worded in such a way that she could tweak things a little and continue as she has been ... I suppose could be justifiable protection of their intellectual property. Sending her a Cease & Decist AND ordering her to close her store entirely AND ordering her to pay licensing for the past AND ordering her to pay damages is BEYOND disgusting. It is evil and morally reprehensible and disgusting thug-like behaviour. I am SO disgusted with Universal right now. It makes me sick.

I'd assume Fox had a hand in telling Universal to crack down on transgressions except that even Fox's lawyers haven't been CLOSE to this obnoxious. :(

This is even more obnoxious given how Universal has kind of implied in the past that they have a don't ask don't tell policy on such things, and has even provided fans with logos and stuff precisely for the purpose of making t-shirts for guerilla marketing purposes and has even encouraged fans to / rewarded fans for creating such guerilla marketing stuff (e.g. they gave fans a PDF with a fairly high quality Serenity logo in it, encouraged them to make t-shirts from it, and rewarded them with points [redeemable for merchandise] for doing so and submitting photos of themselves wearing said t-shirts).

I suspect a case of left hand not knowing what right hand is doing. OTOH, I don't know whether they can really make legal demands and then say "oops" and retract them. :/

I love a lot of what Universal has done for us fans, and I assume that the majority of the corporation rocks, and this is just some small part of it really sucking, but ... ouch. This leaves a really bitter taste in my mouth.

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Sep. 28th, 2006

12:46 pm - Browncoat Ball Retrospective

Photos from the Browncoat Ball, 2006

The following is a collection of links to photos from the Browncoat Ball posted by a whole slew of people (including me!), since this is easier to keep track of than hundreds of e-mails. :) I know [info]waywardbound said he'd post a list on browncoatball.com at some point, but I can't find it yet, so I don't know if it's up yet or not and, well, maybe he can use this list to help populate it. :)

Accounts of the Browncoat Ball, 2006Fun Stuff:

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Current Location: 806
Current Mood: [mood icon] happy/tired/sick
Current Music: Congress of Vienna
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Sep. 25th, 2006

10:37 pm - Ow.

Two of my left toes (big toe and toe next to it) hurt. Enough, following their unintended meeting with one of the steps of the stairs up into our apartment, that we went to urgent care and had my foot x-rayed. Apparently nothing broken, but they may have missed a hairline fracture, or that's [info]urox's theory. They bloody hurt.

P.S. The Browncoat Ball rocked! Met friends old and new, and danced a fair bit, including at least three instances of Congress of Vienna.

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Current Location: 806
Current Mood: [mood icon] ow
Current Music: Congress of Vienna
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Aug. 10th, 2006

03:59 pm - Lobster Alice

We have tickets to see Lobster Alice! Yay!

Incidentally, when buying the tickets, I got quite a surprise when it listed three of the head staff/board of The Blank theatre: Chairman of the Board: Loni Peristere. HUH! Cool! Loni rocks!

What do you mean, "Who's Loni?" ... Dude, Zoic... Firefly, Serenity, BSG, ...

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Current Location: 2385 Bay Rd, Redwood City, CA, USA
Current Mood: [mood icon] excited
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Jul. 4th, 2006

01:58 am - Movie Night, etc.

So, I went to see 2 movies, back-to-back, tonight.

The DaVinci Code - Not having read the book, I really rather enjoyed the movie! I'm sure it's historically ludicrous, mythically nutso, and totally unfaithful to the book, or whatever, but I really liked it. While many of the puzzles and twists were not too surprising or were down-right obvious, it ehlp my interest and entertained me, and that was really all I was looking for. I imagine my reaction might have been quite different had I read the book, and I'm fine with that. I will probably read the book at some point, since it's been sitting on the shelf waiting to be read for a couple of years now, and hopefully that will be entertaining too. We shall see.

Mission: Impossible III - Ignoring all the various mediocre-to-terrible reviews of M:I-III, I knew I wanted to see it because, well, what-the-frak-EVER about Tom Cruise ... J.J., man! Frickin' J.J.! How could I not see it? Well, ok, that is a little bit of a silly question since I damn near let it escape theatres before I found time to see it, but ... ur... it's the thought that counts. People dissed it as being like a 2hr episode of Alias. I say it pretty much rocked because it was like a 2hr episode of Alias! The music and the on-screen locational cues were a bit ... TV, but it was really quite entertaining, and, well, J.J.! Oh, right, Philip Seymore Hoffman was bloody good as the awfully evil guy too.

Oh, hey, BTW... topic switch... someone took some great photos (not sure how they managed that given the 'no cameras' directive, but perhaps they had some dispensation, or perhaps they were just a major chancer) at the Serenity Premiere After-Party which [info]urox and I (and quite a few friends of ours) had the honour of attending. Yes, I know this is many months later, but "ooh! pretty pictures!".

P.S. Happy 4th of July.

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Current Location: home
Current Mood: [mood icon] movied
Current Music: Mission Impossible theme
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Jun. 27th, 2006

11:44 pm - Joss is such a goofball!

I love it! He's so totally procrastinating. :)

http://whedonesque.com/comments/10703
http://www.vikingprincess3.org/

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Current Location: home
Current Mood: [mood icon] sleepy
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