Mission: Chef

Because I could, I watched Chef on a Mission. Simon Gault, master chef, goes to a different, typically unusual, place and gives the people there a different taste for dinner than usual. He tries to give them a restaurant meal, with "5% magic". Unusual places such as a fishing trawler, gas pumping station, secondary school...

The standard format is Day One: Simon arrives and does a bit of work that everyone else does, and eats with them too, to understand the job and get a sense of what the workers like (and he doesn't do the job well.. but does give it a go). Day Two: goes out and gets ingredients from around local supplies. Day Three: cooks up dinner and feeds them all. Then it ends with them holding up cards, giving him a rating from 1 to 10. Usually high marks, although the kids were more critical.

Unlike other chef shows, Simon isn't making a statement. He isn't trying microgastronomy. He isn't creating healthy only options. He isn't show casing spectacular items. What he is doing is giving groups of people an experience they might not otherwise get.

Which, on the one hand, makes the show stand out in that it is going for a more simple structure... but on the other hand... while it might be special for the people, it doesn't make for that amazing a televisual experience.

No sign of a second season on the website, so I'm guessing that like me, others feel that this show is missing that "5% magic"...

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It's Movie Time!

I was thinking about posting something else, but... there are some things that must be seen. All the applauses for them:

Ah, the memories... ah, the horror...

While in no way encouraging any form of piracy (and indeed, I have the DVDs), you can go to a certain video hosting site, enter in 'MST3K' and the name of any show and find the entire episode there...
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Redshirts

Right out the gate: I enjoyed the hell out of Redshirts. We all know what they are, so what happens when Red Shirts recognise they are Red Shirts? This is the premise of the book by John Scalzi, and is gets more complicated from there. And more than just the book, the audio version is read by Wil Wheaton, which was the version I enjoyed.

The main point is that the characters realise they are in a fictionally influenced reality and they decide to do something about it. This might cause a few problems for some people, but being an LNH writer, that was right in an area of thinking about I was happy with (and have touched upon myself). Meta-narrative? You want it, you got it! (And it goes one further step at the end, which I approve.)

Interestingly, the book ends with three codas. The first two, done in a different style to the rest of the book, and entertaining enough and do wrap things up. The third... is very bittersweet, and ends on a rather sour highly contrived point (again, lampshading does not make it okay!) Oh, and speaking of style, expect a lot of 'Bob said' and 'Jane said'. There are a truck load of 'said's in this.

Anyway, this is nearly enough to make me want to try another Scalzi book. Recommendations?
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And Then He Thought He Was a Fish

Peter Welch went insane. He took acid, didn't get any sleep, and didn't associate meaning as we do. (It's only because we all agree on our meanings of words that we aren't labeled insane.) It's all right, he got better. And then wrote a book about it. (This was a Kickstarter project I backed.)

I have never done recreational drugs myself. Partly because I'm not in those social circles, but mostly because I am basically scared about what I would end up doing if I stopped stopping my brain from doing stupid things. As such, I can only view this some an observational point of view. (If I have known people who experienced psychosis, I can't say for sure. Possibly one person... although we were never exactly sure how much of it was believed versus just plain bullshitting... )

Anyway, this is Peter Welch's tale, and he tells it with a sense of humour over his own antics, but also with brutal honesty. It is not a tale of 'do not do drugs', nor is it 'I did drugs and was fine'. It is a tale of 'here's how drugs can screw things up if you are not careful'. And as such, it is an interesting read. He remembers a lot of detail, so we get the lead up to the break and we know what he's interpreting, meaning we can see what's really happening during the doctor's observations.

While I can't say this has any resonance for me, I recommend it to find out about what can happen to the human mind.

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Neverlandland

Continuing the trend of reinventing children's classics, we have this remake into Pirates vs Indians.

This is more of a prequel, with setting up how Peter and co got to Neverland, and their initial adventures. Although his origin is more reminiscent of Oliver Twist, soon there are pirates and, yes, Indians. Because... that's why, because. And while there are minor bits with flying tree spirits, it basically continual on-again-off-again battle between those two forces.

You can tell this is an 'edgy' remake when they make Hook a woman. Well, sort of. Anna Friel and Rhys Ifans get top billing, and together they make up Hook (remember, prequel, so they both have influence over the eventual character). And Bob Hoskins returns as Smee. On the kid side, we have Charlie Row as Peter and Q'orianka Kilcher as not-Wendy.

It's a decent enough story, slightly darker, although running as a two part mini-series it could have been done as a one-parter. It also sets up a sequel/actual retelling, although I have no idea if that is happening (nothing listed on IMDB yet).

If you have the time for it, fine, but you aren't missing that much if you don't.

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Rifted

This movie was based on a true story. Without doing any research what-so-ever, I'm guessing the true story is that "once we were gathered around a camp fire and tried to scare each other with bad ghost stories, and then I decided to make a movie and stick them all together."

Somehow, a journalist researched a story about events that happened a decade earlier. Although (spoilers!) she went missing, we know what she did. And although the 'one survivor' from the time ago isn't speaking, we know what happened to the half-dozen college students back then. And the events involved ghosts and lots of strangeness, and clearly this is not made up at all.

Actual searching only shows references to this movie, so why bother to even say that this was based on true events? Especially as it makes no sense at all (as a narrative that is). Is there some added veracity from being based on true events that we are suddenly to accept ghosts and the like? For some thrillers, etc., sure, it's mainly asshole people at the source, and that is believable, but not here. Just no idea what the writer/director was thinking.

So, a bad psychological thriller, with a messy story, and nothing worthy to say. Welcome to the large pile of movies, there are a lot like you...

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More Hunter, More Vigil

More Hunter the Vigil! On off weeks from Of Steam, Steel and Murder, there's a HtV game, and I haven't been able to make it. Until now.

There are three bodies. They don't have brains. Why is this? I find out, and drag others along with me!

Nick (the GM) was talking about how the PCs can be slower in moving along the plot. So, when I finally come onto the scene (takes a while), I push forward, and push hard! And that isn't a good idea either. Ha ha!

Game 3, I think. Rapidshare. Hotfile. [There were some connection issues, hopefully everything is fine.]

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Snake-Fish!

Rolling the random animal dice we get... a snake crossed with a fish! 'Cos that will happen!

So, I knew I was in for crap when I started, this is a made movie for Syfy, which has a reputation to live down to. And in the opening credits, we get the first name: Michael Madsen. Really? I sincerely hope he was in it for the money. And then the next name is... Rachel Hunter. ...wha? Our Rachel Hunter? Yes, it turns out the New Zealand girl is in the movie. Speaking of doing this for the money...

The basic premise is that people, especially young women who are not at all there for the sexual exploitation of their bodies... no wait, that's exactly why they are there, have no reason to wander around the jungle until they are killed by extremely bad CGI. Oddly, the script attempts some plots, but nothing makes any sense, and everything is soon about the bad CGI snake/fish thing.

Oh, and a note, throwing a lampshade on it doesn't let you get away with it. Rachel, of all people, gets the line "A piranhaconda?" Every though the next line is "I can't believe you said that." doesn't make it any better! Neither does having some guy say "I'm going to wear a mask." and having someone else say "I can't believe he's wearing a mask." make it a believable excuse for the mask to hide the stuntman.

Just because you can make a movie, doesn't mean you should. Case in point...

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Chasing Madoff

So Bernie Madoff was running a Ponzi scheme (where new people coming into the pool give money which is used to pay off longer term people). This is, clearly, fraud. And some people were Chasing Madoff about this.

For over a decade.

This is something frustrating that comes out very clearly in the movie. Henry Markopolos is the main pointman for this, who realised that Madoff was committing fraud after looking at the number for only an hour or so, but was never listened to. And there are others as well. They got together, and tried to alert the proper authorities. Who did nothing. They went to papers, including the Wall Street Journal. Which didn't publish anything.

In fact, it was only when the recession hit and Madoff couldn't keep the scheme going any longer that he himself owned up to it. And then people got interested in what Markopolos had to say.

And this movie is about what Markopolos and others went through, particularly Markopolos who feared for his life. Because Madoff had crime connections. He built up his fraud with several people being involved, and took otherwise innocent people for everything they had.

Watch this and wonder how many other Madoffs there are running similar fraud that no-one is hearing about...

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Too Big To Flail

So back at the beginning of the recession, all the banks got monies. This is the movie of the events leading up to that. It had already started, and this is the tale of the big leaders of the banks finding out how hosed they were and of the Treasury chief trying to keep everything running.

This movie tries to put a human face to the picture, so we see the people involved and the decisions they made rather than hear about it via other people, however clearly the script writers knew they weren't going to get away it that too easily. (And that the story wouldn't have been this narratively nice.) There are some telling quotes, such as why didn't anyone try to stop the banks? "We were making too much money." And a later one about how the US Treasury couldn't put restrictions on the use of the money because then the banks wouldn't take it... what? It even ends on, basically, 'they'll do the right thing with the money, right?'

Depressingly, I can see this happening all over again if the finance sector collapses once more. [And unless they really did learn their lesson, they are probably still back to the incomprehensible (I don't understand it) practices of second derivatives and what not.] Having set precedent, they'll just get more money from the government. The end of the film states that some of the banks have paid back the loans. But not all? And certainly it wasn't like the money was used properly.

But you can certainly see the dilemma of 'if we don't bail out, then ordinary people lose terribly' vs 'they brought them on themselves, tough'. I would hope that next time they have the balls to let the finance sector collapse... but then I'm not in America, and if it happened over here, I'd want my money safe too.

Anyway, some great performances, especially from William Hurt. So from that point of view, this is a good movie to watch. But don't expect to want to congratulate anyone after seeing what happened.

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Bonus Video

From Westpac Stadium, along Fran Wilde Walk, through the Railway Station to the Bus Depot... because I could.

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Decoder Ring

Do you like adventure old-timey style? The old pulp action that hotted up the radio every week? How about super heros and detectives? No? Then don't read this post!

Decoder Ring Theatre is a group of Canadians who put on twice monthly 'radio' plays (hint: you can download them on iTunes!). Once a month is the Red Panda Adventures! Superhero action of the masked man variety! And plenty of on-going story arcs to please the punters. Over 80 adventures and still going!

The other time is split between Black Jack Justice, hard-boiled detective, with his partner Trixie Dixon, Girl Detective, and a mixture of different random plays that may be belong to a series but doesn't have to.

And, of course, the best part is the humour. Gregg Taylor, who writes Red Panda and Black Jack, does so with tongue firmly in cheek, and yet with respect for the source material and for the audience.

Even better, there are books as well, so far three for Red Panda and a new one for Black Jack Justice (as of writing this, the RP ones are in the Books tab and BJJ one is in the News tab).

I, and plenty of others, enjoy it, so give it a go!

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Heresy of Darkness!

My name is Lionus, and I am an Adept in the command of the Imperium. And this is my tale...

I was tasked with attending to a location, which, upon doing so, I found four other compatriots. We travelled down to the House of Mori [I will be getting these names wrong, I don't have the adventure in front of me, and don't know War40K that well]. There we saw the body of a worker from Coscelia. He was possibly a courier, however he had an organ inside him that was of dark tech, a heresy. As a team, we were assigned to find out where these organs were coming from, and preferably who. And we were to be subtle. [Yeah, that was never going to happen.]

Travelling to Coscelia, we go to the apartment where he live with his sister. She was there, although she knew nothing of his courier job. He had recently been laid off, and spent a lot of time at the local watering hole. Also, she had seen the local Warden looking scared about something.

We went to the bar, and failed to sweet talk to any of the gang members that were all that remained at the time we went there. They were staying in the bar, as Arbitors (enforcers) were taking people from the street at night. [I think. I'm not entirely clear about it.] And then, with extreme companionness, we get into a fight.

Scratch (she is an Assassin) shots one in the knee. Therpia (she is Scum [Yes, Scum is a class]) also shoots. Grimm (he is a Cleric) uses his huge chainsaw. Tharius (he is an Arbitor) also gets into gunplay. And the gangers fire back. Meanwhile, I get to the door, and pretend to call the Arbitors in. With that distraction, we get away.

As mentioned: we were to be subtle. [Although we don't really have the skills to be subtle. Or the skills for anything else for that matter. We will muddle through, but we aren't investigators.]

[END]

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Titanic Wrath

It is a sequel, but it doesn't matter. I base this on the fact that I didn't recall anything of the original movie, and can't say I missed anything.

So, atheism is out and ruining the world. In this case, the gods no longer can support Tartarus and it breaks down unleashing all the caged up creatures onto the world. Which seems to consist of one two-headed bird, and then some weenies at the end of the movie. Yeah, big apocalyptic world destruction there. And on the other side, we have that one guy and his friends on a quest to get to random places around the world (note: the world is basically a couple of rocky plains) and form the uber-plot device to use to defeat the big bad.

Sounds generic? It is. Between this, the original, and that other movie about Greek Immortals, I was having trouble remembering which one I was watching. Lots of pointless fighting, lashes of CGI and blue and yellow palettes. Wee!

As ever, the big actors here are far more interesting than the main leads. Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes and Bill Nighy are the only people worth watching. Rosamund Pike continues to be pretty. And there are some other people on screen, but none stick in my mind.

Not an amazing movie, but a mildly entertaining one to pass the time with.

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Surreality and Happiness

[Treat this as NSFW to be safe.]

So, this is a thing you should watch:

(Also, 2 3 4 5) [There are other "offical" parts, I don't believe them.]

Also, this makes be believe that in LoganWorld, you could rob someone over the phone...

Just the odd mix of surreal humour and the brevity makes it work so well. It reminds me a lot of Cyanide and Happiness. And the art style also reminds me of :the game:.

Short, sweet, hilarious. (Jeggings is another example, but this is a different type of absurd.)

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Of Steam, Steel and Murder

We take to the skies to get from Metapol to Egypt. But the skies kick back, and we are forced to land on an island in the middle of nowhere. What do we meet first? Mad Scientist? Lost Amazonian Woman? Worshippers of a Lost Mad God? All of the above??

Geez we take time to get going. And take time to get on with it. Still, we do maange to completely subvert the plan of the GM. Woo, go us!

Listen to Game 58. Rapidshare. Hotfile.

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Trucking the Food

After a recommendation, I checked out The Food Truck, with chef Michael Van De Elzin.

The basic episode is: pick some basic fast food item. Michael eats three different examples, then visits someone to see how to make them. Act 2: he prepares his own version, trying them out on some people in some area. Act 3: goes to some event and sells his version of three meals. The kicker: they are healthier. The big question: "Will New Zealanders go for it?"

Generally, yes. One or two occasions he has a fizzer, but mostly he comes out all right. And it's an entertaining watch, however... he comes up with these new healthier versions, but.. what then? He has a cookbook, so he's getting something out of it, but... does anything happen with anyone else trying these new meals?

In one episode, The White Lady (which I had never heard of before) took on some items, but what of the rest of it? Michael shows that people will go for it, so it looks like there's a huge opportunity there to take those recipes he came up with, and take off and make money. And yet... anyone heard of these healthy options? Nope? Yeah...

I watched these via TVNZ's On Demand service. NZ's version of BBC iPlayer and Hulu. And now there are some other items I want to watch... make as well take some utility out of being in this country. [Will also have to see what TV3 has on offer.]

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Cerebus the Kickstarter

So, I'm backing the new Cerebus Kickstarter to get the High Society special edition... but I'm not entirely that happy about it. Yes, it comes down to that conflict between 'like the work' and 'not like the creator'. (See, also, Scott Adams.)

Dave Sim descended into Christian based misogyny towards the end of his Cerebus run, and is entirely unapologetic about it. Indeed, some of what he writes is entirely him re-interpreting the Bible, including where men are good emitting energy, and women are bad sucking energy. That's the way he sees it, so that's the way he calls it. [He's still a hardcore Christian, see the last pledge item, no idea if his attitudes towards women have changed...]

And yet... Cerebus! Have you read it? It's good stuff (before the extremely pretentious stuff that begins after Sim ended his planned arc). And there's still sections on F. Scott Fitzgerald I haven't read (never read the actual author), and I don't get the Stooges... but the earlier stuff is great. And I already got Cerebus Zero, so aiming for the special edition and world tour book (which I don't have). Cerebus has had a hell of an impact, and... yeah, why haven't you read it?

Now, they have said if they get 200K they will do all the phone books. But... I'm thinking that's not happening. Yeah, I'd like a special edition, but... that would be tough going for some of it.

Still, other people are pure fans of the work without taking into account what Dave Sim is like, so they'd enjoy it all. And I would still get it anyway.

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I have an idea!

And I'm not the only one.

I'm not sure if it is a good thing or not that the inventiveness of humans aren't limited to just one person. On the one hand, we have that no-one person is necessary for the continued development of humanity. Evolution and calculus (to pick two random topics) were 'in the air' at the time, so it was inevitable that it would come about.

On the other hand, you know what no matter what thought occurs to you, someone else has already got there. And, of course, you can find that other person somewhere on the internet.

For example... how about a video of the Red Shirts of Star Trek dying? Here it is!

(I don't know if it is every red shirt, but certainly a fair few!)

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The Marines are Marching!

Marching Band that is! Or just band. The US Marine Corps Forces, Pacific Band are currently playing at a few venues to celebrate 70 years of being in New Zealand (since the war), and one such free concert last night was at Old St Pauls. And I was there. And I have the pictures to prove it.

They played a range of pieces, starting with the national themes, having a few symphonies, then opening into jazz/swing pieces and then telling the story of the US entering the war and ending up in New Zealand. And then a few more pieces to finish with (can't go wrong with Souza). At 90 minutes, it was a good time!

They are also playing twice more in Wellington today, and other places... check the link.

Here they are playing New World Symphony:


Although, as my dad was in the US Navy, I'm obligated not to like these jarheads...

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Heard some Doctor Who

While I get all the books and, of course, watch the TV show, my interest is cooled towards audio content. That said, I have just listened to some of the audio books of the Eleventh Hour.

The Ring of Steel by Stephen Cole, read by Arthur Darvill (although it doesn't feature Rory). It is set on the Orkney Islands, and has them fighting pylons. And chemicals. Really. However, it is quite good, despite my intentionally bad description of it. It keeps going, it keeps up the interest of what is happening, and has interesting characters. It is also well read by Arthur Darvill, without going over the top on the voices.

The Runaway Train by Oli Smith, read by Matt Smith. There was a train in this? Oh yeah, maybe for a little bit. Not really. Pretty basic plot (these are only one hour audios, so not a lot of time for building complex story structures), but there's an alien device, the Doctor gets it on a train, and... it's not 'runaway' more 'stolen'. And something happens with Amy... I couldn't keep interested enough to track everything. And, this sounds like a terrible thing to say, but Matt Smith doesn't seem to be able to do the Eleventh Doctor well. He sounds like him, but doesn't bring the enthusiasm and passion he has when on the screen. Meh.

The Jade Pyramid by Martin Day, read by Matt Smith. Historical Japan, alien device in a pyramid, guarded by big robots. However, it does feel like there were a few missing sections of plot. You can guess what the gaps are, but never quite sure what exactly happened, and if it was intentional or bits were cut to get the audio to fit on a disc. Matt Smith does a better performance here too. This isn't as good as Ring of Steel, but far better than The Runaway Train.

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A Flash of Maddy

Another sign of the end times (probably), Maddy flashed the crowd at Istanbul. Well, this made the paper, but... this isn't that special. (Although the crowd goes batshit on the associated video...)

You want to see Madonna's body? Go rent Body of Evidence. Or get the book Sex. Or if you really want esoterica, photos from back in Playboy. Although that was 20, nearly 30 years ago.

But... when I read this... I thought about this...

Chris Rock on Janets Superbowl Tittie by cramchur
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'eckta!

I spent too many hours playing a point and click game by the name of Hector. A three parter, it is a British police man who is trying to stop a villain from... all range of things. And this is basically the most extreme stereotypes you could hope for. (Which is really unfortunate for the women, who are basically all 'chav's of the lowest kind.)

It's by Telltale games, and it's not a bad point and clicker. However, there are a few moments of 'what do I click next?' In one case, this was because I only single instead of double clicked. Another time, I knew I needed an item, but I couldn't get it until I did something that I knew wouldn't work because I didn't have that item! But it did set off a trigger that enabled me to get it... but why would I do that if I knew it wouldn't work? That was annoying. But, basically, it was point and click on everything, and fortunately there are large hit boxes so it wasn't pizel hunting.

The story is more solid than I was expecting, and definitely works over the three games/episodes. Episode 1 took me two hours, episode 2 took me three hours, and episode 3 took me four hours. However, taking longer doesn't mean it was better, just that there was more stuff and it was more confusing. To that end, episode 3 did drag on a bit, and could have been profitably shortened.

Fun enough game that I'm glad I got on sale. but... replay: highly unlikely, although a 'speed run' might be something to try.

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Bonus Video: Kilbirnie Walk

I decided to put the four videos I took while out and about together. Negative side: less quality. Positive side: easier to upload.

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Promotheus

[I've been waiting to use that reference to The Critic!]

Not only did I see Ridder's latest movie, I saw it in 3D! (Because it was shot in 3D, and not post-converted.) And not only did I see it in 3D, I went to the Gold Lounge! (Because it was only a few dollars on top of the lots of dollars I was already paying for the ticket.) I'll just address the 3D part now... you don't need it. Aside from some displays being more realisticly in front of/behind the actors, it doesn't matter, there are no 'mein gott, this must be seen in 3D!' moments...

As you know from the trailer, ancient humans all said 'go there!' when they couldn't know about there, so now we can go there, we go there to find the aliens. And then we get there, poke around, and some bad stuff happens. And, once again, we prove that sex = death.

But, really... I do have to say that this movie is 'a big pile of meh'. Seriously, I was just not blown away by any part of it. The story was mechanical, a bunch of nice ideas put together (as one person put it), but nothing developed fully. The visuals weren't over the top gorgeous. The acting was too emotional for the emotionless characters, and not enough emotion from the emotioning ones.

Everyone reading this is more than likely to see the movie anyway, but don't hurry for it. [And while there is an easter egg at the end of the credits, don't feel like you need to stay unless you usually watch all the way through like I do.]

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Cool thing alert!

While my musical tastes do center a lot around Madonna, I like me a good mashup. And not just of Madonna.

One artist I found from others is Girl Talk. He's done a lot of stuff, and one item in particular is All Day. Which, if you click on that link, you can download for free. He's got other, non-free, stuff, but this is cool. Over an hour of great music mixed together in a fantastic way. (Just check out this list of who he sampled.)

However, the problem with this kind of mashup is... what if there is some particular piece that you like, or at least want to hear more of? Trying to work out what the song is can be tricky, or just near impossible. You can hope others put together, for example, a video and give a hint:

Or you can google search for lyrics and hope to find the song.

Or you can use this interactive tool that plays each track and has each sample in its own box, mashupbreakdown. Now that's useful, and a neat way to listen to the songs!

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The Other Portal

I spent a little too much time running through Portal again, trying to get two achievements, and then getting annoyed that one of them didn't even register, grr, that I didn't get around to coming up with something to post.

In which case, I'll point you to someone else playing Portal. But not Portal as you know it. After Portal came out, it was liked so much, that someone did a Flash version of it (which you can play here). Notably, this is a 2D version of the game.

Valve liked that so much that they turned the 2D game into a 3D map in the original engine! And this is referred to as Portal: Still Alive, released for the X-Box. And, I have to say, it looks far more annoying than the original. It's longer, but also far more fiddly, without the polished feel of the original. Basically... it's a fan mod. There's been more than one of those around for various games. (And a whole platform for them I should look into more some time.)

Here's part one. You can find the complete list on lparchive (including the original game). The guy is rather abrasive, but at least you can see the levels without having to put up with them yourself.

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Chef v Food

There's a... I don't know if 'trend' is the right word... rising of a theme of chefs taking on the food industry in some way.

Heston Blumenthal was the Big Chef taking on Little Chef, and more recently he did a Mission Impossible by trying to get large food providers to change their ways.

Arthur Potts Dawson set up The People's Supermarket to set up an alternative to supermarket chains.

Jimmy Doherty takes on the Giant Supermarket, aka Tesco, and tries to get them to change their meat practices to use more high welfare animals (as in animals that have been well cared for, not animals that need government subsidies).

There's a common theme of overcoming bureaucracy and institutional thinking. In some cases more successfully than others. Although I do wonder about the story arising editing and/or producers getting them to make more of a (if you'll excuse me... although you shouldn't) meal of it.

Now, you'll probably note these are English chefs. Moreover, they are all from Channel 4. Do we have the same things happening over here in NZ? Or are there other examples of similar shows? They are quite interesting, and I could stand to watch more.

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Vigil the Huntering

We went to Travesti so that Robert could catch up with a contact. They did have a chat, and we could be getting more information on the Sarah Haversham front.

However, then the kid turned up. The kid that sucked out the life energy of whatever creature was pretending to be the body guard in front of the club. I made my move, calling out to the punk while retrieving the shotgun from the back of my car. Boom! Yeah, first blood to me.

Not that the kid cared, and in he went. Took down another bouncer, people started running, and I shot him again. This time, he cared some more (eight successes bitch!). However, instead of going after me, he healed himself, then grabbed a vampire chick and started killing her. Boom again, but now other people started joining in the fight. The bodyguards laid into him, and JD took an axe to him, and I went for body organs. It was a slow fight.

However, then Jack Cottage turned up, and touched him with his hand, on which he had drawn the symbol we found out about. And that did something to the kid (the hell??). And Jane body slammed him from a floor above, and that put him out. The owner of the club then invited us to get the hell out.

In the car, more hand action from Jack evicted the evil spirit inside him, and we found a woman's hand (guess she was innocent after all). We dumped the kid with a hospital, and gave the hand to a priest (don't ask, they didn't!). And that, for us, was a happy conclusion...

[And now we take a break from Hunter to do some other things...]

[END]

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DDPiranhaDD DD3DD

Yes, this is a thing, it seems. No-one really wanted the first movie, and now we have the sequel no-one asked for. But they know what they want, and so pack it in the title...

The fish are back and 3Der than ever. And there are more women, and more nudity, and a guy gets his penis bitten, and everyone is attacked and... sigh. There really is no point to this movie. There's a water park, we are all waiting for the mass piranha attack, and yet when it happens, it's still boring! To be honest, the only thing worth watching in this movie is the end credits.

And Christopher Lloyd and Ving Rhames are back... I supposed, don't remember them in the previous movie. And others are probably also back, but again does anyone care about these returning characters? I had to remind myself several times that I was supposed to care, but it never stayed with me. And the big guest star for this movie is the Hoff. As the Hoff. And basically parodying himself. And no, that doesn't make anything better.

This is not a movie anyone should bother watching for any reason.

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Documentary 2012

So for those of you who kept track, I did see all 20 movies on my list. And significantly contributed to the local economy.

Speaking of which, one comment made by the organisers (who always introduced each movie) was that this was partly funded by the Wellington City Council, and so they wanted plenty of people to watch the movies so there would be incentive for WCC to keep giving money.

Only one movie of the lot I attended was anywhere near packed. And one session I was in had only three people... Yeah, I'm not seeing this an incredibly successful on that front. If, next year, it didn't make it down here again, and was only in Auckland, I wouldn't be shocked. (I think Auckland had higher attendance, they seemed to suggest so.)

Also, this is currently screening at Readings, like at least last year if not the year before. These don't count as Reading movies, so you can't get Readings points for them (unless the ticket person doesn't know this, in which case cha-ching!), and can't use Reading discounts for it.

Also, the D-card wasn't great. You could either get $5 off a fifth movie, or a tenth one free (I got both for the number of movies I went to). And you couldn't use that in the Gold Lounge section (where docs cost $5 more), because they 'don't have the button for that'.

Not to mention that there could be a better screening process for selecting movies...

Ultimately, they are doing what they can to bring these movies to Wellington, so good on them for that. However, there is a lot of room for improvement, and a lot of room for it not to happen at all.

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Of Steam, Steel and Murder

Party time, time for a party! And what goes better at a party than a dead body? Nothing! But why was there a dead body there? Will we ever know?

We were to go to Egypt, but Bert wants to read more Cthulhu Egypt first... um... anyway, we seemingly have a typical 'dead body' case, however it looks like it was a Logan-burgler, and while we know what's going on locally, there are international things to think about, and more eyes are on us than before... it's more of a setting episode.

Hear our antics in Game 57. Rapidshare. Hotfile.

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Animal Talks

Shot while at Wellington Zoo.



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Bonus Video: More Animals!

Late in the day is obviously a good time to go to the zoo. I finally got to see some animals I hadn't seen before!


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2 Portal 2 2

With stuff still to do, Richard [yes, I'm naming names!] and I got together again to start with the DLC for Portal 2.

"Art Therapy" is like the game in miniature, with each chamber more or less recapping a course... okay, to be honest, since we did so much afterwards, I can't remember it that well. We did have fun, and it is a more 'behind the scenes' look at Aperture, with it being reminiscent of the 1980s look to it all. And we got to fling around portal gel! I like the reveal at the end of the mastermind behind it all. Fun!

Then we went back to getting achievements. This took a damn long time, with one of them being an achievement for getting through an entire course without dying. That was hard, and then bam, I died. And then we get to the second to last room, and bam, another death. Sigh. We can do those rooms great now, but it would be nice for some way to switch off GlaDOS's dialogue. We know it already, and just want to get to the next chamber! And, yes, again we looked up some things online. I doubt we would have gotten Portal Conservation Society otherwise. Still, we now have all the co-operative ones we can get without bringing in other people... so, who else plays Portal 2?

And then, at the end... we cheated. Enable the cheats, then start throwing portals anywhere! And calling things into existence! Invented some new games of sliding a block around, and seeing how easily we could kill each other (it really should keep a tab on that). And the first course was incredibly simple with cheating too. (Of course.)

Lots of fun was had by all (well, us), and if there is more DLC then we must return. However, back to the single player to try for those last achievements...

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I Ron Sky

Nazi's on the Moon! Yeah?

Um... I'm going with 'no'. It's like they had this great set up, but didn't know what to do with it. Were they going for a comedy? Because it wasn't that funny. And if it wasn't comedy, I'm not sure what it was.

In 2018, two astronauts find a Nazi base on the moon, and one is taken captive. A black man, so there's the first humour! A Negro vs the Nazis! Nope. And then the Nazis come to Earth to get a decent computer, only to join with the President of the Americas, because America is just like the Nazis! Get it! GET IT!!! Really, the movie tries to make this point, but doesn't really get that working either. [To be honest, it was when they ripped off Downfall Hitler that I knew there was serious problems, and they make plenty of other references too.]

Even the giant space battle didn't inspire excitement. What does it take for that to fail? There was no credible threat, and everything was treated as a joke, so I couldn't take any of it seriously either.

This should have been far better than it was...

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