You will be missed.

I know everyone else can't seem to work up an appetite for this because of its frankly awesome brother, iron man, but I get the chillies every time I see something new on this movie; the fact that they haven't pushed anything publicly can work for and against them, but I personally can alread see that it's going to be so much better than the Ang Lee version that frankly, hurt. Ed Norton as Bruce as well is just inspired. It looks like someone on the marvel production side made the very, very cool decision to take a cue from the ultimates era for modelling the movies, as iron man is also in that kind of vein (nick shield is black and looks like Sam L. Jackson, for example.) It should be interesting, and I really hope that the next avenger they give limelight to after Thor, is Captain America, because I'd love to see him in action on the big screen.

It all makes me kind of wonder where it's all heading though; Both John Favreau and Louis Leterrier have stated the way the movies finish leave them way open for the possibility of returns to both the franchises, but what's also interesting is that the rumour milling generated by guys who've seen dailies etc., indicate that the stories all thread into at least a second movie which will lead into the avengers movie thats supposed to be slated for 2011. Exciting stuff indeed, and it leaves the possibility open of being able to take some of that proverbial "phat cash" away from the DC movie franchise. Although I don't really think it'll work out that way, as most people who read comic books will probably see a DC and Marvel movie side by side.

Ross' boss! For this. I love it when people with money tell the etsablishment to fuck off.

Firstly:





I've found all the other bits and pieces to make everything synch up nicely, like my microsoft office gui is now black instead of the default blue, and I'm really rather quite fond of the wallpaper as well. I quite enjoy the whole dual display thing, and the graphics card has been running extraordinarily well; I reccomend sapphire to anyone. I reccomend nvidia graphics cards more, but if ATI is your thing, then sapphire is your baby. The HD2400 pro renders most 720p .mkv files beautifully through GOMplayer, and pretty much allows you to ignore it and get on with things. the one bug I have noticed is that regardless of graphics card, I keep crashing in the moghouse while playing FFXI, and it seems to have gotten worse since the last update; if I thought for a minute square enix would listen to their customers, I'd complain, but they won't, so bollocks to it. I will note though that the 2400pro doesn't handle 1080p files so well, but that's pretty much to be expected.

Secondly, and speaking of FFXI, I hit 21 WAR in vana'diel last night; I like the game, but am noticing the flaws in the game; as scratch_toy pointed out, the game is great if you're in a linkshell from the start, and I admit, that is very much the case; I'd be completely screwed if there weren't set parties to help with the levelling and completion of missions...The other thing that bugs me, is that the wiki is, in no way designed towards inexperienced or non-linkshell players; it has aquite a comprehensive help guide, no doubt, but its all based upon having someone there to hold your hand.

And that is, namely, that Leona Lewis pisses me off. She's got a good voice, no doubt, but she insists on being all depressing, and boring, and putting no real soul into her performance. So there you go. random new info on my little mind. I'm watching the box right now and it's just...turd. Do kids really listen to shit like this all the time? At least kylie had some joy in her performance when she was factory made.

Anyway. I thought I'd post an update, as two people have asked if I'm ok, which I am, I'm just taking time to myself; speaking of which, aside from it being hawklord2112's birthday, I'm probably going to sit sunday out again; I'm feeling a bit blah, and feel I should be doing something a tad more constructive at the minute, which for me basically means I'm fucking about in photoshop when I'm not playing FFXI. Next week is busy though; I'm hoping iain and scartch can get off their butts and hop along to the flicks with me, and I'm meeting up with becci (at some point, when she gets back to me) to pass her clerks II; I'll pass the rest to you when I have them burned off iain, but I have to confess I'm taking my time with LOTR, because despite their faults, I rather enjoy the films. Speaking of films, I downloaded Transformers on HD 720p last night, and it's a lot easier to understand with hi def - on standard DVD, all the metal just looks a mess, but with 720, you can actually see some definition in the hulks of metal; Optimus prime actually looks really good, cause if you peek at the bits and pieces underneath the bodywork, there are loads of moving parts. Really intricate stuff.

I have the alternate ending version of I am legend I want to watch next, and I have to confess I'm really looking forward to it. So yeah. basically watching a lot of movies, keeping tidy and planning what to do next; I think part of the issue is that I have the birthday blues; I hit 31 a little over a month, and I'm feeling like I haven't achieved again. I have, and I know I have, but I really really hate stagnance.

I don't know. I'll figure something out. I'm considering pissing off for a couple of months to get my head together; I've been told I can camp up with a mate in wimbledon if I wanted to, so the breath of (relatively) fresh air might be good for me, the change of scenery most certainly will.

Anyway. That's enough from me today. I think I'll leave you with my pick for this summer's surprise hit at the flicks:




That is, assuming marvel and ed norton can agree on how to edit the footage into a movie. But either way, it's going to be a big fuck you to ang lee, and a nice little double whammy to go with this:

I like the 2400pro, I do. I honestly do. It renders FFXI well, you can see the difference when you're using DX10, and the only problem I have is with the catalyst control centre, which I reckon if I just didn't install it, would fix things completely. The computer has frozen a couple of times, but I'm fairly certain that it's a result of doing too much at once more than anything else, I may do a clean wipe of vista, install service pack 1 and go from there. It is, however, not nvidia, which I think I've grown increasingly fond over the years, so I'll probably give this a spin for a week, and if it persist in freezing, take it back to computer base and ask for a nvidia replacement...I am, however fairly certain that the root of the issue is the catalyst control centre, as it's an abominable piece of programming. I think I might play with the omega drivers and see if that improves performance.

I spent the evening playing in half life 2, and I pretty much automatically fell in love with it when I saw the physics handling the water, the plant life and even the rocks and walls - it really does the job well. The best bit of all though, is that I have both my screens back!

Top of the list is Tabula Rasa; it has me intrigued, to say the least. Another MMO, so it'll be a while as I'm rather heavily in love with FFXI right now, although what scratch had to say about DDO has me interested. I'm also going to pick up Dawn of War: Soulstorm. I'm also gonna go retro and have a look around for the star trek:armada series for old times sake.

I'm actually pretty chuffed, I bought an ATI HD2400pro which seems to have resolved all my freezing problems, and to boot, it's furnished me with copies of Half Life 2: Deathmatch and Half Life 2: Loast coast to play. Score for me I think.

edit: I think, perhaps, I'll be picking up the orange box when I have spare cash. Half Life 2 is simply gorgeous, even if it is 4 years old.

Except they're not setting it in high school, they're moving it to an airport, making the whacky kids a bunch of 20 somethings,a nd it's all going to be directed by some person who's learned all her directorial tricks from McG. McG. I ask you. Why the hell do they even bother?

And there I was, hoping Juno might actually show hollywood that quality productions don't have to mean small profit margins.