The last three teams were already into the snow trips down either a hill on mountain bikes or the luge before switching on the television. Nicole was breaking down all over Brandon on the hill of snow as Chip and Kim were doing their best Cool Runnings homage at the luge. Twenty minutes before the end was even close and the signs were all over for the two couples caught in a snow storm of a plane delay. Just that face made it seem like all wrong for this couple to win. Anybody but them would have been good. Colin and Christie definitely were sleeping on their mission and so could have easily bagged that first place romp. Alas, this is the agony and intensity of a race for one million dollars.
Friday, 31 December 2004
That line to the box office was pretty long, haven't been standing in one such as that ever before. Not since last season's run up toward the finals. There wasn't much into the match after the first quarter, the Kings were back on track and even playing in with a rebound game. They put back the lyrics to We Will Rock You, which is excellent. There was little else in terms of entertainment, the Lion doing a quiet job, the cheerleaders doing more than he does every night. Thankfully the woman and her husband late in the first quarter snuck down to closer seats, her perfume was astoundingly overwhelming. Kings win 102 to Breakers 97.
Friday, 31 December 2004
Now, with much more text constructed on the page and a spattering of disjoints, the formation of articles is starting to take shape. The only thing left now before the actual effort is a possible crack weed of an intent. Once that arrives everything's gonna be fine. Unless of course, more time is spent reading comicbooks...
Back again, Steve Skroce is all out on the work put into the spreads and gruesome finer details such as bloody chunks from the back of the brain. The story itself is a little right-wing and could have been really beefy, but there's another issue to see where things are going. The Catholic type presented here is pretty much spot on in this climate.
Hammering around in the memory is this scene of a doctor unable to help a person with chronic fatigue. Whether or not this is even the comic really doesn't matter. Does it? The rogues gallery is pretty much all here in this issue.
Thursday, 30 December 2004
Freezing and sneezing with no alarm to mark any difference or change in time. Like nothing better to do than sit in the cold air reading off another batch of comics long overdue for some consumption...
The Sergio Aragones splash page has found a way to warp the rest of the comic. Self-serving just like any other clip show, this was a luke warm and slightly disjointed look back over the course of the one hundred previous.
Still going on with the smarts, this issue jumps a little back before going forth and delivering again why it's on the standing order.
Beauty and the Beast are left trying to run Fabletown and this certainly wasn't a good kind of jumping on point, so this stays in bed. Probably should find a way to catch up on the characters and their story since the first trade paperback.
It's like pop up video with super heroes. This issue, intended for another but kept on hand for the sake of testing it for the long box, sees constipated students front and centre. Really got into the overload of text running their madness on the pages. Two issues in and it looks like a couple are looking to break out.
Joe Bennett squeezes in a nice shot of Agent Morales in a provocative position. Priest makes good again on the story and the development of characters in what little space there is. MODOK is really getting to be a fun little head turn.
Fingers in a fist ball and a story about explosions were the keys to picking this up. Now looking for a padlock to throwaway with this. No build to speak of, nor was there any hint of what this Frank is all about. Jumping out of buildings one minute, having sex the next, this is just all over the place. Like shards blown from a bonfire after a kid sneaks in a bottle of methylated spirits. Don't care at all.
Following the not so relevatory explosion of Colossus' return, this issue was an upbeat affair. Comedy is low key, high brow, and pretty much kept on popping up here and there to join in on the story. Things are getting deeper and further into the mess of what really is going on here with the mutant "cure" and the effects it could have. Good issue.
Wednesday, 29 December 2004
And finally, with that last little wrapped in brown paper cube down the gullet, the box of chocolates given as a Christmas gift by the recruitment company is finished.
Chocolates on a whole were filled with chocolate centres. Two were dropped and missed their chance at being eaten and judged. The rest were familiar and nothing spectacular or anything to suggest another to try. Safe is the word, and a little bit of bland thrown in. In effect, the chocolate taste was slightly richer and less sugary than that of regulation block.
The wooden box itself is a nice and useless thing with compartments that might suit coins, or stamps. Outside of that, there really doesn't seem to be a use for it except possible firewood for when the next arson hit itches.
Wednesday, 29 December 2004
A month of preliminaries with kids fighting each other for their tactical slot came down to the final twelve, then whittled again to the last few standing. Three boys battling one by one on the memory board, picking out their questions, careful not to steal another lest they lose points for an incorrect guess. Host Anna Coren was audibly championing a spike named Thomas Anderson, her utter despair felt in the vocal smoothie as the penultimate run of questions for the last ever round clearly marked this boy's exit.
Down to the wire, two of the kids were taking it over each other with the third included only to humour his parents. The last question, the tripper, one on which the actor who was Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves threw Paul, crowning Aaron Chong who played a slack jaw at his stunning just-by-one win. No tactics employed here in the final, just raw fear keeping them on their toes and guesses made in question with a high degree of luck involved. The beefy kid in the final three never had a chance.
Monday, 27 December 2004
Glances from one side of the floor to the other were on high and suspicions all likely. Wine started the week and the food proffered went half consumed; one mouth not feeling enough energy to feed its sorry face. Flowers arrived to send off two women, moving on to at least another division. One hour before regulation, the voicemail messages were being recorded, dates mentioned and all that. And before the close of 1900hrs, the entire floor was emptied out. Gone for at least the next two weeks.
Jesus H. Christ. The individual you have chosen to make contact with is unavailable and will continue to be in this state until the tenth day of the first month of the year 2005. Any messages left on this voicemail will go unanswered until the return.
Or words to that effect.
Friday, 24 December 2004
Setting up a friend with a new jolt of sample comics leaves a chance almighty to read what isn't featuring on the standing order...
Gritty with a nice layer of silt, the major players are set up with only faint mentions of what has gone on in the first volume, their present used to show some of their character. Could not understand how the cover was fine and yet the pages inside were punched right through. Amazing stuff that. A good starter issue, well onto thinking about picking up the next. If not for budget limitations already blown out of the water by stuff like Don't Eat the Electric Sheep and Shaolin Cowboy.
Moving halfway into the end of the story, the plot is fractured and clearly doesn't make for an easy jump. Apparently there's a big return, or it could have been a collective hallucination. Do robots hallucinate? Chaotic cheese.
Codenames on a level to irritate and to subtly collude with the dialogue, there was no clear line between what they wanted to say and what they wanted themselves to say. At least it was a snapping issue. Action figure.
Having watched stuff like this before, the story itself ate too much and was found lying in a corner with a trail of trill mix from the ear.
Annoying is the first thing that comes to mind. Spoiler is making no claim or stake toward any favourability and comes off as a whiny little sidekick wannabe. The primer does serve as a prelude to whatever action is going on and tries to bring about the start of a keg of potatoes ready to fall into the fat vat. Robins are introduced, which was a nice refresher on the dangerous hobby of siding with Batman.
Opening with the ever vain Vega, the direction on the mirror felt no reason to make sense. Up on that, the rest of the issue sailed on competently enough before a fight scene between Chun-Li and Cammy jumps back in time. The Rolento back up story was the best of the issue, the one with the weird crystal ball just a gyration.
Wednesday, 22 December 2004
Well, in the face of possible extinction and an ever rising need to come up with some ideas for a possible magazine appearance, it was high time to revisit the ever impending stack of comics that sits there like a waste of money...
All action aside, things were quick to bring together a few threads hanging over from previous issues. Moose's "problem" is revealed, May patches things up here and there and a nice little dragon makes for a well wanted departure from the regular monster fare. This was a good nothing issue, no fighting, just summing things up in a way and taking the time to close them out.
Gabe is some kind of arrogant hot shot with no time to hear any body out. Wait, how did this issue end again? Can't even remember that. Oh yes, that scene.
This sucked. No words, no movement of the story, just two guys looking at each other and then looking at a row of soldiers with them orange goggles. Pick this up? No. Where's the drama?
Halfway through and things are looking choppy for a clip-comic. There is a solid string holding things together, but there is fraying as they cut in and out of one flashback to another in quick succession. Fifty more pages to go and things are still looking okay to keeping up with the wry.
Monday, 20 December 2004
Boxed in a wooden box, and with a dead moth in one compartment, the box of chocolates in a wooden box fell victim to the ravages of heat. Morning inspection showed up a fine array of blocks, solid and with no give whatsoever. Hours later and with no movement from the original location, they find themselves supple and gooey. Shards of glassiness also found its way in there.
Monday, 20 December 2004
If having dubious amounts of free time were any indication of things to come, then surely this contract will not be renewed on the end of these last few weeks. Days were spent figuring out a problem that threw itself into a recursive and all inclusive loop of frustration and madness. Extra tasks assigned were done away with in quick succession, all but the two remaining. One, a hold over in flight from the last week and the other, the other, a screaming headful of unhelpful help files and no sense of logic within the operation. This stinks in both regards.
Saturday, 18 December 2004
Sydney Kings took on the Hunter Pirates for what many believed to be another wash. As with any other expected walk over, things didn't turn out the way they planned. First quarter looked solid and with the Kings in charge. From there on in it just disintegrated into a farce with poor shooting and choppy defence. Pirates were all over the Kings and had no reason to apologise. That is until they were in the final minutes. Pirates were just too overeager for their own good sending Jason Smith to the free throw for what was pretty much a six shot play. That sealed the deal and brought the Kings another home win.
Friday, 17 December 2004
Store signings, like the rushed production of a convention line; one item please, no dawdling, keep the line moving, and don't touch the stars.
Now, for an unknown reason, Stanley Tucci was between Ryan Reynolds and Jessica Biel signing whatever was handed to them on the elevated table. This may very well have been David S. Goyer, but the tattoos on his arm didn't have a name to suggest otherwise.
In town to promote Blade: Trinity, the three were preempted by a radio DJ from 2Dayfm who would not let them speak into the mike. Or do anything more than look rude. And she pretty much tried to take up the time from the three every other seven minutes.
As they were signing whatever landed on the table, the Blade and Blade II DVDs, placed in the line for a Goyer-graph, found themselves with Biel and Reynolds alongside. There was time to run the queue three times, after that, they left as noted on the just noticed notices. Though as with any other in-store, they arrived at least seventeen minutes after they were scheduled.
Snagging that Texas Chainsaw Massacre action figure with Jessica Biel in a look not unlike Eliza Dushku would have been a better item to lay on the table than three DVD covers.
Thursday, 16 December 2004
Saturday, 11 December 2004
Congratulations, you're not funny enough for MAD. Fantastic, the envelope works well delivered from the shores of the US with an Australian stamp. There was never any doubt at the weakness of the samples sent, never holding a spine of their own. Hope was the only thing keeping it alive. Poor idiot child. Next time, conviction.
Tuesday, 7 December 2004
Venturing lands is great when in the company of someone with the clarity of mind to take along a map and a CyberShot. The lands of the Botanical Garden are extremely expansive and kill legs not quite used to trodding such large distances in one continuous stream. Playing with the CyberShot in hand—and with no idea what the little icons stand for—it wasn't really noticed how much memory the casual avant garde frames were playing with the Mystic Krome. Three quarters of the lands done, and the three walked with no more crazy out-of-your-mind digital stills shuttering in the background of the path ahead. What is left is taken by the mind and a forehead that walks right into a cactus point. To watch the Sydney Kings win after their last two losses, it was a great cap to the day.
Monday, 6 December 2004
With the option of failing based on performance never to be a reality, the chances of ending back with noon specific wake up times rests on the shoulders of friends. In particular, those that are able to help make an hour long lunch break stretch out into two and a half hours. Coupled with the presence and audacity of returning to the office with a stack of, at least to the casual eye, a day's worth of shopping at record and comicbook stores, things become that much jittery and the rest of the week is left in question.
Doubts rise to the fore and have a hard time to fall. Can there really be that much time to allow for campaigning webzines in the forest lost of message boards and forums? No, but nobody is really taking stock of the time burnt in that regard.
And here they have what should be an end of year shuffle. Cubicle inhabitants move from one end of their line to a corner, flanks swap, the rotation is mirrored and everybody settles two hours later to find themselves at their new location, orientation jarred.
Found a heavy mudcake on the eighth floor. Removed a slice to eat on the seventh. The occasion is unknown.
Saturday, 4 December 2004
Announced with as much lead time as previous outings, the players from the Sydney Kings were shooting hoops at a cocked basketball ring with school kids taken aside from their excursion. Shortly after they left the foot traffic appeared from nowhere to cram in the space and end up potting shots from all over the place. Harbour waters just over the back of the gallery, the bombs to and fro were close enough to lose themselves into the liquid.
Unlike previous attempts, two baskets actually sunk through. Though, it was back to the usual come the finals round with nothing but board and a look of pity from Brett Wheeler and Bradley Sheridan. Goorjian also looked disappointed. Just before the stock ran out, a grinning Jason Smith was nice enough to hand two tickets for the Saturday game in which their fresh import, the new guy hanging around with the team, would show of his play.
Much a buzz was had when the Lion, after having shaken hands, realised who he was shaking hands with.
Saturday, 4 December 2004
Tooling around in the day, wasting away any lead up into the night is blasted asunder by the fact that both Scrubs and Arrested Development have teamed up for multiple shots in the summer non-ratings weeks. Stealing precious moments that would make sure sleeping on the train was a rarer occurrence. For sleep is traded by laughter and well executed scripts and nicely timed acting by pretty much the only two good comedy shows to have surfaced in a long while.
Thursday, 2 December 2004
Elemunk scrambles the loose connections bouncing about the mind of Soon Van.
Feel free to ask questions on any topic. Or spend some quality killswitch time poking about reading the vintage synapses
Or maybe a torrid trail of job interviews?
Elementary Funk by Soon Van is licensed under a Creative Commons License. Feel free to read up on the scope of the copyright over the posts and photos.
Results may not reflect actual experiments executed