Anduin

Gosling previously appeared in another movie that was a continuation of a Harrison Ford movie. Age of Adaline 2, I mean. What a movie. Anyway, I'm happy to see pretty much anyone cast at this point. Nothing against all the other SW media out there, but I just want more Star Wars in the cinema, where it belongs.

I pressed on with Children of Memory. And I was right! You see, the first book involves spiders. The second, octopi. My theory was that the third would either have another eight limbed creature, and I can't think of any, or go for a different biome. Land, sea... air. Birds? Yep, birds it is! Anyway, it's a good book, though told in somewhat of a non linear manner. And I'm left wondering if he contradicted himself in one spot, or what the deal is.

Today I started three books. Long Live Evil, by Sarah Brennan. Woman is transported into her favourite book in the role of a baddie, decides to go with it and go off script. Not the day for a bad guy book, however light and fun it's supposed to be. Children of Memory, by Adrian Tchaikovsky. I loved the first two in this series, but I couldn't get in the right headspace for this. Hyperion, by Dan Simmons. There's an illustrated edition coming out. The pics were enough to get me to want to read this again. But again, not the right mood. I'll get back to them soon, this weather isn't going away.

That's lower than I've ever experienced. But I'm up at 4 am, no lights, windows open. My apartment feels over 30 c/85 f already. Not at all fun.

As someone who's having the opposite of this right now, I'm quite jealous.

In happy news, Tom Baker is 91 today! Still the longest-running Doctor. :)

The Mad Emperor, by Harry Sidebottom. A biography of one of the nuttier Roman emperors. No, not Caligula, Nero, or Commodus. Instead, it's Heliogabalus. A man known for his out there religious views and sexual behaviour, but what else is there? What were his taxation policies? Who did he ally with? Where did he invade? Fuck knows. I'm half way through, he still hasn't actually reached Rome yet. Instead we get looks at his early life, the history of Rome, the history of his family, and the powers of the emperor. A page turner it is not. Apparently the author has had other books on the NYT bestsellers list, but I'm not in a hurry to buy any more of them.

You're in for a treat! Though keep in mind, while Trek tries to be progressive with its social values, it's still of its time and still screws up now and then.

Metallica are touring Australia! I've seen them twice, thinking about a third time. Who's supporting? Suicidal Tendencies, who are as old as they are, and Evanescence. What, really? Seriously? I've given them a listen and found them to be extremely whiny. Tickets range between $100 and $400. Is that how much they're going to pay people for listening to them? No thanks. If it had been someone better, say, The Warning, I'd be there in a heartbeat. But Metallica haven't been themselves since before Jason left. Whatever they had, it's long gone. This is just insult to injury.

This one hits a little too close to home. I feel like the laugh/cry emoticon would be appropriate. :)

Waterloo, 1970, starring Rod Steiger and Christopher Plummer. The build-up to and featuring Napoleon's last real battle before his eventual surrender for real this time. It's an interesting movie. Not my normal thing, but still worth a watch. God I miss the days when you could put 200 people on screen, instead of 20 looped ten times. Yeah, effects are fancier these days, we can cook up any kind of monster we can imagine, but you can't match the feeling of actually watching 200 people. However, I couldn't follow the tactics. For a movie built on one battle, you'd think a little more attention to detail. Which units are where? What are their numbers and weapons? We see a whole bunch of infantry squares, shooting at circling horsemen. Cut away, cut back, some of the squares look awfully ragged. One has reformed into a triangle. What did the horsemen do in that missing moment? That's what I want to see! There's a copy on YT with subs. Go watch it if you desire!

Just because the thread popped up. I didn't go and see Better Man in the end. Yeah, I'm interested in non human intelligence. But if he doesn't do anything apelike, then what's the point? It's just dumb cosplay. No, Robbie Williams has never interested me musically or otherwise either. I'll stick to things like King Kong or Planet of the Apes for my intelligent primates.

"Machine learning" is a fancy way of saying AI shit. I'm so disappointed that it's wormed its way into things that I love.

I was hoping for Sean Bean, but McCann is a good pick.

We have the best boy's choir, mate.