21Dec2006 1836: Holiday Gifts

Before I disappear into the Midwest for Christmastime, I leave you with two videos that have been making the rounds. A new Transformers movie trailer and a NSFW gift from Saturday Night Live.

13Dec2006 1934: Quest for Fire

Apocalypto was okay. At its heart it's really a very small story, but Mel Gibson filmed everything with the epic lenses so the movie ends up a beautiful 2.33 hours long. If you want to see the movie I'd recommend the dollar theater; Apocalypto needs the big screen to work at all, but it's not meaty enough for full price.

Rounding out my weekend tour of "extinct peoples movies", Quest for Fire was really damn cool. Ron Perlman really sold the whole "I'm Neanderthal Man" with his thick distorted features, and then probably some makeup on top of that.

The movie was an interesting experiment, and near the end it granted us, the faithful, two gifts for sticking it out:

I'm putting this game at the bottom of my post because otherwise you wouldn't bother to come back and read the rest.

10Dec2006 1423: Brunch Configuration

This just in: a dining room table that doubles as a portal to the realm of the Cenobites.

09Dec2006 1349: Christmas Looms

I was going to start typing something here, but Morgion intervened with a link to something both joyful and terrible. I'm not sure how to feel about this; on the one hand, I do enjoy me a good graphic novel or illustrated series of unfortunate events. On the other, Buffy jumping from a helicopter with a scifi-looking gun. So...I guess she's The Initiative's bitch now? Joss says he's writing the overarching plot, so (a) it will match his plan for the show and (b) at least it has an overarching plot.

I just bought Kirby Squeak Squad to while away the long XMas road trip. It turns out that may not have been the best use of my monies; I turned it on to give it a little test and whoops ended up beating two worlds out of (I think) seven. They were delightful, colorful platformer romps, don't get me wrong. I just wish...I mean, I feel stupid saying this, but this Kirby game seems too easy. Wow. Wow, that looks even dumber in print like that.

Here's something else that makes me feel stupid: I should have installed Windows XP years ago.

02Dec2006 1841: Constancy

I just asked Windows XP what components may not work if I upgrade, and after a ten minute scan I am confronted with the entire hardware history of my machine. 56k modem (not present)? I don't even remember having one. Gamesurround Muse 5.1 sound card (not present)? Where did I put that? PDR-M61 (not present)? What the hell does that even mean?

02Dec2006 1743: Change

It has been, and is going to be, a day of big changes in Maison de Monty. First, I replaced my living room thermostat. The best part -- the only good part -- of being so mechanically inept is that any little task which doesn't result in my immediate electrocution/amputation feels like winning the Super Bowl. The old 'stat sorta worked; it would turn the heat on, but more often than not the digital display was screwed up and it never actually turned the heat off. It would quite proudly tell me that it was 70 degrees in the room and that I had set it to 60. Last night it was inexplicably in Celsius. Now I have a cheap plastic dial that seems to be working as it should.

After I wrap up this post I'm going into my computer room and finally upgrading my Windows. I've been shepherding a Win98 installation for eight and a half years now but new games have finally stopped supporting it. Guild Wars specifically has problems running longer than two hours at a time, with symptoms that indicate a very slow memory leak in the textures. I'm hoping XP can handle itself a little better.

Internet stalkers will probably want to download and install the latest self-definition file, as the previous one is outdated.