Meanwhile at the gym...

The resolutionists are still making it crowded on early evenings in the weekdays. There are still new folks enrolling at what seems to be a faster clip than this summer. It's easy to spot people that just signed up, as an employee takes them around to the different machines.

It's not bad during the days when most people are at work, and Friday nights are usually dead in there. If I wasn't so lazy, I'd get up early before work and go in. Yeah, right, that will happen.

To be honest, I haven't been hitting my goal of three times per week. I'm hoping next week I'll get on the program, but it would help if my work schedule was stable. Two times a week is just enough to stay the same, at three times I start losing weight. You wouldn't think 1 more time per week would be that hard to manage. Unless you're lazy like me.

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Semi-annual website update

I went in and updated my site, mainly adding a few links, seriously streamlining the RPG section and adding some info for my campaigns.

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New D&D Books

Picked up a couple of new D&D books today. I haven't read them thoroughly, just skimmed through them, but here are my first impressions...

Complete Adventurer
Overall a pretty good supplement. It's not earth-shaking or game-changing, but experienced players will probably find some useful stuff in here. Some of it is updates for previously released material, but most of it is new. It's not a "go out and buy this now" book, but if you can spare $30 without pinching your wallet and like diverse rules for D&D pick one up next time you're by your local game store or comic shop.

Races of Destiny
Then there's the flip-side to buying new rules books without waiting for reviews. Folks that have played in my games (especially my current D&D campaign) could guess that the title would catch my attention.
I really hope I find more useful stuff as I read this book in detail, but this looks to be a "don't pay full price for this book" book.

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Hail Gofannon!

I made a new batch of mead while watching the Colts get stomped. The must is in the carbol and I've just finished the joy of cleaning up honey all over the stove and sink.

The honey I was using was partially crystallized (my usual source, Great Fermantations, had no gallons of honey, so I bought their last 2 5 lb. jars), so when it finally broke loose I got splashed with boiling honey water. Fun!

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Owww...

From today's Something Positive...

http://www.somethingpositive.net/sp01142005.shtml

Sad thing is... I bet that game would be sold out at GenCon.

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Movie Review: Electra

I've read conflicting reviews of this movie, which range from it being pointless tripe to Jennifer Garner establishing the precedent fpr female action heroes. After braving hordes of munchkins to see it for myself (frigging half-days at school), I fall somewhere in the middle.

Jennifer Garner pulls off being an action heroine much more convincingly that Kate Beckinsdale did in Underworld. Kate's heroics consisted of strutting about in skin-tight pleather...
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sorry, got distracted by a mental image. Anyways, even though Jennifer is quite fetching in the skin tight red low-slung pants and lace-up corset...
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sorry, distracted again, she plays the part much more convincingly. I have to agree with one reviewer who wrote that Jennifer Garner can actually make lame lines non-winceworthy.

As for the plot, it's pretty much standard action fare with no real surprises. It's not horrible, like the last Batman movie, but it's not Spiderman 2. There is one bit regarding OCD that I think the director could have gotten some more mileage out of, almost as if it was put in the script then forgotten about.

The bad guys are standard movie fare... nothing really unique. As a bit of fan service, the Hand really do go up in smoke when killed, and they lift Typhoid Mary in name only from Daredevil.

My rating: 3 of 5 flying monkeys.

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Win for evolution

I am so tired of Xtians trying to push their anti-science agenda and cloud the minds of kids in school with their psuedo-science dogma.

This is from the AP (Doug Gross)
Georgia Evolution Stickers Ordered Removed
Judge Says They Endorse Religion

ATLANTA (Jan. 13) - A federal judge Thursday ordered a suburban Atlanta school system to remove stickers from its high school biology textbooks that call evolution ''a theory, not a fact,'' saying the disclaimers are an unconstitutional endorsement of religion.
''By denigrating evolution, the school board appears to be endorsing the well-known prevailing alternative theory, creationism or variations thereof, even though the sticker does not specifically reference any alternative theories,'' U.S. District Judge Clarence Cooper said.

:)

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Inspiration for Firefly?

I was watching an episode of Battlestar Galactica, "The Lost Warrior", that made me wander if that episode is what Firefly would have looked like if it had been made in 1978. For those familiar with BSG, it's the episode where Apollo is forced to land on a world that is a direct rip-off, I mean homage, to the old west. It looks like a western with steel and aluminum, and the bad guy is a Cylon gunslinger called Red-Eye.

Oh, and whoever was charge of the science, specifically the space science, was an idiot. Even in 1978 I had a better understanding of astronomical terms.

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Review: Battlestar Galactica miniseries

I really went into this with an open mind regarding the whole female Starbuck controversy. I really did. But she just rubbed me the wrong way... it was almost like the actress was proving she could be Starbuck (or the writers were trying to prove it for her).

Overall, the characters were a lot less sympathetic. It was almost like the writers were trying to make sure we saw how disfunctional relationships were. Remember, if you are going to have an ongoing series, we have to care what happens to the characters.

Something else worth noting... I'd guess that the folks that worked on the CG space shots also worked on Firefly. The cinematography style is the same, with snap zooms and at times an unsteady hand-held camera appearance.

Oz's rating: 3 of 5 flying monkeys

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Movie review: The Aviator

Let me preface this by saying that I enjoy period pieces, so if those kinds of movies don't appeal to you, or if you're not a history buff, that may knock this film down a notch for you. I personally enjoyed it, and I'm not a Leonardo fan. My only quibble was that it seemed to drag in a couple of places.

Kate Beckinsdale looked great as Ava Gardner, though I know nothing about Ava so I have no idea of how good of a job she did potraying her. Cate Blancett did an awesome performance as Katherine Hepburn. Leonardo DiCaprio potrayed a seriously troubled genius that I think would have never risen to greatness in our modern society and potrayed him in a convincing, tragic manner without reducing the character to a caricature.

Oz's rating: 4 of 5 flying monkeys

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Stupid technology

I've just spent the past half hour trying to add a photo to my profile. The damned system keeps telling me it can't find the file, even though it's the same URL as the bloody photo below!

Argh!

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Profile photo... take 2

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Profile photo

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New Year's Resolutions

I really only have 2... no sense in being unreasonable about it.

1) Go to the gym 3 times per week. I have been out of that habit since I hurt my back just before Thanksgiving and my work week became 6 days during the holidays (the joy of retail). But I could tell while I was going to the gym regularly it was starting to pay off.

This is really more for my health than weight, though some of my gut was starting to go when I was hitting the gyn regularly.

2) Post on this blog once a week. They may not be big posts, but I want to try to get in the habit. Why? I don't know... I'm lucky to update my website once a year.

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