Cloverfield

I have finally had the chance to see Cloverfield. Well, I was dubious, as it had been dubbed the Blair Witch meets Godzilla (I hated Blair Witch, it bored me stupid). I can see why, but there was much more to hold the attention in Cloverfield . Unlike BW, I did find that ball of anxiety in my chest during the tunnels and exploding friend scenes. However, I didn't think it was amazing. That may have been due to watching it on TV. I can see how the tension could have been built watching it on the big screen. But, I did enjoy it. Not got more to say on it than that.

On the subject of films though, one of my favourite films happened to be on yesterday. What was the film? The Princess Bride. I love it! I have never read the book - a flaw on my part - but I am worried that if I read the book the shiny of the film might be marred. Now, this isn't like me. I would rather read a book than take a film based on the book at face value. The Princess Bride is a different matter though. I love that film so much, I can watch it over and over again, that I don't want to read the book in case it does affect my enjoyment of the film. See, I might have enjoyed Eragon if I hadn't read the book, but the glaring omissions in that film just made me angry. So, I don't know if I will ever get to reading William Goldman's book.

As for returns of essays... I'm still waiting. *Sigh* I'm finding it hard to concentrate on the 60s when I don't know how I fared on the last essay. However, I am slowly trudging through the science section. I think I am quite certain that I will tackle science in the next essay, and possibly music and history, though having done okay with the art sections... We'll see. I think doing the history part is a given, just because to tackle periodisation you can hardly ignore it.

And to finish; the best swordfight (or fencing duel, I'm not sure!) in film!

Decimated!

(Pic from Eurosport)

I was quite looking forward to the French Open final yesterday, expecting a good old tennis barney between Nadal and Federer, though I knew Nadal would win. What I wasn't expecting was the comprehensive ass-whooping that Nadal dished out! 6-1, 6-3, 6-0. Hardly made the final worth watching. Hopefully, Queens will be worth watching.

I think I am about 850 words into the new draft of the Wallace essay. Still 350 words to go, and I need to squeeze socialism and the conclusion into that, with maybe a bit of cleaning up on spiritualism and the introduction. I'm kind of happy with the history of science and early life sections. I'm just hoping the whole thing gels together.

Heee! I received my first Moleskine notebook today. It was a free gift from the Folio Society, the place I buy posh books from. I loves them there posh books. But I think I need to stop buying from them for a while. It is too expensive an addiction to feed now!

Well, while Principessa and Nanny are out in the garden, I think I will try and knuckle down and finish the essay.

ARGH!

Internet! I have the internet back! Thank buggery!

Yep, as you may have guessed, I lost the internet for a week. I was able to check emails on Mumbles' computer, but other than that it's been an internet free zone. Just got to try and get another provider sorted out before June 29 now.

I had not realised how much I depended on the internet. It was quite strange looking at the computer and feeling really apathetic towards it, even though I have been trying to get the first draft for the HoS essay done. (I am 3/4 of the way through it, just ordering my thoughts before finishing it. Then it'll be fine tooth comb time.) I have had to keep myself busy - when not busy with Principessa - with Guitar Hero and reading.

I finally got around to buying 'The Myths vols I-VI'. I sat down, really looking forward to reading 'The Helmet Of Horror' by Victor Pelevin, finished it, and didn't get it at all. Bum! It was very interesting. It was done as if it you were reading the messages from a group of peeps in a chatroom. Interesting concept, but very strange story. I think it might need reading again. But, it has been put away, and I am now reading 'The Diamond Age' by Neal Stephenson. I've only just started it, so have no opinion just yet.

Principessa is made up at the moment. I bought a Dr Who duvet set for her, and she jumped around excitedly while Grandand put it on her bed. As soon as it was on, she jumped onto the bed, tamourine in hand, and sang:

Doctor Who had a bed
And he had a sleep
And he was good
And he was happy
Yay! We did it!

Don't ask me! I'm just glad she loves her bed now. Maybe she'll sleep in it more often now.

Woohoo for Moffat!

OK, so this is no slight on RTD, after all he did bring the Doctor back to our screens and made Saturday nights good again (for thirteen weeks of the year!), but I am so glad that Steven Moffat is taking over as head writer for the next series. The episodes he penned were fabulous. So chuffed!

I went to see Iron Man with Laura last night. What a fantastic film. I was disappointed when Robert Downey Jr was cast as Tony Stark, but I was pleasantly surprised. I love the fact that Stan Lee still has to do his Hitchcockian style cameo. Twas good fun!

I've also been taking a break from studying. I needed to sit down and just read a book that didn't need careful perusal. So, after ditching Un Lun Dun - it just started to drag and drag - I decided to read The End Of Mr. Y by Scarlett Thomas.

First thing to mention about this book; it is, for want of better words, deliciously Goth in its appearance. It has a lovely deep to bright red cover and the edges of the pages are black. It gives the book a little extra something.

Second thing to mention; it reads as if it was written by someone who had done a humanities degree comprising Literature and philosophy. Sometimes it feels like it should be a course book. The story itself reads like a thought experiment, but that only makes it more interesting to read. I'm not too sure about the main character though, and it does seem a little lack in characterisation. There are lots of infodump occasions too. Other than that, it is holding my attention.

So I shall go now and finish reading it. And then I will read over my TMA one last time and get it sent off. Fingers crossed it doesn't come back as a fail.

Book meme

So, I've seen this floating around for a while, but lifted it from (un)relaxeddad's blog. The following list is of the 106 most unread books. The rules are to bold the ones you’ve read, underline the ones you read for school, italicize the ones you started but didn’t finish.

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Anna Karenina
Crime and Punishment
Catch-22
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Wuthering Heights
The Silmarillion
Life of Pi : a novel
The Name of the Rose
Don Quixote
Moby Dick -
Ulysses
Madame Bovary
The Odyssey
Pride and Prejudice
Jane Eyre
The [A] Tale of Two Cities
The Brothers Karamazov
Guns, Germs, and Steel
War and Peace
Vanity Fair
The Time Traveler’s Wife
The Iliad
Emma
The Blind Assassin
The Kite Runner
Mrs. Dalloway
Great Expectations
American Gods - On the shelf, waiting patiently!
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius.
Atlas Shrugged
Reading Lolita in Tehran : a memoir in books
Memoirs of a Geisha - Though Geisha of Gion, the autobiog it's based on, is much more interesting
Middlesex
Quicksilver
Wicked : the life and times of the wicked witch of the West
The Canterbury Tales
The Historian : a novel
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Love in the Time of Cholera
Brave New World
The Fountainhead
Foucault’s Pendulum
Middlemarch
Frankenstein
The Count of Monte Cristo
Dracula
A Clockwork Orange
Anansi Boys - on audiobook. Maybe that's why I didn't get all the way through it. I like Gaiman's stuff.
The Once and Future King
The Grapes of Wrath
The Poisonwood Bible
1984
Angels & Demons
Inferno
The Satanic Verses
Sense and Sensibility
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Mansfield Park
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
To the Lighthouse
Tess of the D'Urbervilles
Oliver Twist
Gulliver’s Travels
Les Misérables
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Dune
The Prince
The Sound and the Fury
Angela’s Ashes : a memoir
The God of Small Things
A People’s History of the United States : 1492-present
Cryptonomicon
Neverwhere
A Confederacy of Dunces
A Short History of Nearly Everything
Dubliners
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Beloved
Slaughterhouse-five
The Scarlet Letter
Eats, Shoots & Leaves
The Mists of Avalon
Oryx and Crake
Collapse : how societies choose to fail or succeed
Cloud Atlas
The Confusion
Lolita
Persuasion
Northanger Abbey
The Catcher in the Rye
On the Road
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Freakonomics : a rogue economist explores the hidden side of everything
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance : an inquiry into values
The Aenid
Watership Down
Gravity's Rainbow
The Hobbit
In Cold Blood : a true account of a multiple murder and its consequences
White Teeth
Treasure Island
David Copperfield

Hmmm, don't know what that says about me, or what I was taught in school. Seeing as I was in the top class, it makes me wonder what in hell was on the curriculum that I never read any of these books for school. I see why it's a list of the most unread books. I'm shocked at the number of them I haven't read. Ah well.

Hellboy and Stardust

I finally got around to watching two of the DVDs I have purchased over the last couple of months.

• Hellboy.

I really enjoyed this film. I have to admit I haven't read the comics, but maybe I'll go and search some out on Ebay now. Other than I enjoyed it, I haven't got anything else to say as I watched it to relax and free my brain from thinking.

• Stardust.

Watched this last night (after Principessa went to sleep while watching Hellboy. She was supposed to watch Stardust with me, but she wanted to watch the red monster instead). After hearing so many people say it was awful I was quite surprised as I quite liked it. Okay, so some of the plot points from the book were missing, and other things were there that I don't quite remember from the book (I'll have to read it again now), but otherwise it was okay. I was hoping the the fight between the unicorn and lion would still be there as that scene, for some reason, really stood out for me. But no, just the unicorn appeared.

I might get around to watching Daywatch tonight. I really loved Nightwatch. I've got the books sitting on the shelf waiting to be read, but there is a pile of books to get through before I get to them. Reading Dust by Elizabeth Bear (or I will when I find it... the gremlins seem to have picked it up for their plaything at the minute. Can't seem to find it. Hmmm...) in between reading Block 3 for the OU course. God it's boring! Block 3, that is. I'm hoping it will get easier and less like my brain trudging through a quagmire.

*Sigh*

Brrr! Shiver...

It's bloody cold! Okay, I know it's probably not as cold here as it is in other places in the world, but for here, and for me, it's bloody freezing! I have to say though, it's the first morning I've got up (thank you Principessa, I had I lie in until about 9.30am) and there has still been ice on the road. BRRRRRRR! I know I'd complain, but I just wish we had some snow, then it would be worth being cold.

Nanny is downstairs at the moment, as Principessa has kicked Nanny out of her room so she can watch the TV. She is such a little miss! She was very lovely this morning, getting up on the chair on the landing so that she could give me a hug a and a kiss. When I went into Nanny's room, she jumped up on Nanny's bed so she could continue with the hugging. Aw, she is so sweet! I just hope she gets out of this phase of calling things 'bloody'. (She shouts at her books; 'Get up there, you bloody books,' she will say.)

I am still stalled with my story. I think I need my starter motor kicked! I've not stopped writing completely though. I've started writing a short story, the first since I was about 16 years old. Long time ago! I am having a go at writing an updated version of Little Red Riding Hood. So far, I think it is going well. But I think I realised what one of my writing problems is while pondering on words for the new story. My brain works faster than my hands, and I continually mull things around, even when I'm not writing, so I can almost write the whole story in my head way before I write it on paper. This causes my head to think that the story is done, causing me then to stall. I don't exactly know how I am going to get around this, but I will have to work something out.