Holy Crap!

DSL ’08 is less than a month away.  I can’t seem to wrap my head around that figure… less than one month.  Are we ready?

…

Are we ever?

Thanks to some incoming assistance from some friends, a lot of stress has been taken off our shoulders, allowing us to focus on other parts of the event, as well as the dozen or four other projects that all suddenly popped up.

Umm… yay?

So, we’ve gone to see a few movies since my last post.  Indiana Jones And The Crystal Skull, Hancock, and Wall-E (which we caught last night in Abby).  Thoughts?  I was actually impressed, for the most part.  I’ll explain a bit here, without spoiling the movies.

Indy.  Well, other than the weird-ish ending, it was a fairly well-done movie, I thought.  Yeah, they deterred from their usual topics of chasing after Xtian relics, and into a mythical outlook (or a different mythical outlook *wink*), and it’s sad to find out that the actual real life Crystal Skull(s) were found to be fake, but overall it was pretty good.  Shia LaBeouf could very easily take on Indiana’s legacy as a treasure hunter, and I think that the movie may have actually left that option open.  I guess it’s whether Lucas and Spielberg are in need of a new gold-plated Mercedes or not.
Speaking of gold plated… HOLY CRAP HANCOCK!!  I have heard a lot of bad reviews about this movie, but honestly, I came out of it happy.  Why?  Other than the fact that everything that Will Smith touches on a July long weekend turns to solid gold, it was like Superman with actual human traits… primarily the flaws.  Sure, one of the flaws was the ability to put back a 40 pounder of any hard alcohol like we drink water… then take out a sign or two while flying drunk… but it brings up the question “If you had the power to save people over and over and over… would you still do it when they stopped thanking you?”.  Throughout the movie, it also moves (somewhat slowly in points) towards the idea of one person being able to change the world.  Yeah, in this movie, part of that seems to involve destroying buildings, cars, trains, streets, people… you know, change the world one piece at a time.  Great ending though (no, I will not spoil it).  Some of it was disgustingly predictable, but overall, I enjoyed it enough that I would seriously like to see it again when it comes out on DVD.
Wall-E.  Great animation, although a bit more “cartoonish” than a lot of the Pixar movies we’ve seen lately, and a strong storyline that remains consistent throughout the movie.  The downside to the storyline?  Well, while the movie was obviously done to market primarily to kids, a lot of the storyline was a bit on the mature side for them (like a lot of “cartoons” now).  It weighed heavily on the Environmental impact humanity has made on the planet, and what it takes to make it better.  Now, this may spoil part of the movie, but it (the movie) also takes a quick jab at American Lifestyle… as people depend more on junkfood and machines, and less on such strenuous tasks as walking, what happens to their bodies?  Hover chairs, though… gotta get me one of those.  The movie touches peoples hearts a few times, like when Wall-E (obviously the main character) starts to… wait, can’t tell that without spoiling things.  Just be ready to tell the kiddies that everything will be alright… Pixar wouldn’t hurt their pocketbooks… I mean, their characters like that.  they did a nice touch of using live action “movie reels” inside the cartoon to give that feel of looking back on “old Earth”… something that, so far as I am aware of anyway, Pixar had not done for any of their other movies.
Oh, and you adults will also get to see a few mini-references to 2001-A Space Odyssey in the movie, so be watching (like you could miss these).

So what’s up in my personal life, other than DSL?  Well, some of the things, I can’t… actually… say.  Well, I can, but I would probably get in trouble and be moved to the couch until after the things are over… that’s a long time, and I’m not THAT into our new couch.  One of the things that I can talk about though, is how creeped out I was the other day at a customer that came into work… she was, I kid you not, airport security’s worst nightmare.  I mean, piercings in moderation is one thing (though not really MY thing), but DAMN, she probably breaks a sweat whenever she’s within 15 feet of a magnet.  She had, and I am not making this up, like 3 in her eyebrow, two in her lower lip, and two in her upper lip, she had both sides of her nose pierced, the center ring (why?  Well, why the hell not.. she’s already going for a 50/50 flesh to metal ratio), she of course had her ears turned into a pin cushion, and the trademark tongue piercing… and that was only what we could see (without asking, which I certainly had no intention of checking into).  Why would someone trash their body like that?  I mean, fine, pierce your ears… but know where to draw the line.  Maybe I’m just alone in thinking that when I look at someones face, I don’t want to be looking at shiny crap ON the face.  Plus, and I mentioned this earlier… imagine what damage could be done if they were to be near one of those big car magnets… or an older microwave.  So, how much do you want to bet that she screams and yells when she gets a paper cut or a sliver?  😉

At any rate… yeah, piercings and tattoos have never really appealed to me, and this example just made me… ick.  Other than that, it’s mostly SSDD syndrome in the NightStorm way of life.  Things are going well, and they’re of course going to just get better as time progresses.  Check back over the next few weeks, because there’s going to be some awesome announcements coming.  I wish I could make them now… but, well… couch.

Also, check out Tami’s blog (or villagegamer.net), as she’s reviewed a couple of great books on there in the last week or two (well, a lot more than a few, in a much greater length of time, but a couple stand out in my recent memory of 7 days… that’s about all I’m good for right now) that I suggest people check out.  Especially people who like, play, or live within 100 miles of someone who plays, video games.  That’s all of you, for the record.  Just in case you missed that.