weblog August 10th, 2006
The upcoming Halo movie got itself a new director recently, but lost a script. My hit-sensing senses are still wavering. There’s no reason why a Halo film shouldn’t rock to high heaven but people screw things up all the time. Let’s look at the history of the project.
Way back in June last year, Microsoft sent out scripts to studios, carried by men in Master Chief outfits. Classy, huh? Many folk were not keen on the script, but Universal picked it up anyway. It’s unclear whether there were giant spiders in it but you can probably find the script online. I mean, I could have, but I found a bunch of links already. What do you want from me? The Wikipedia page on all this is way more informative than this post. Why do I even bother?
Ahem. Sorry. Sometimes it just gets to me, y’know?
Anyhow, things got way way way cooler when it was announched that Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh would be producing. I’ve gone on record against their insatiable addiction to slow motion and unhealthy Warg obsession. But hey, a bit of slow mo would suit Halo to the ground. Also, Weta will be doing the effects. Say “From the Makers of The Lord of the Rings,” push the adventure aspects and some cool shots from Weta and you’ve got a hit.
But then they go and change the script, in the sense that they drop the old one and get someone to write a new one. This could be an improvement, but I get nervous when scripts get switched and sorted on big films. Before you know it you’ve got seven people writing it and touch-ups from Joss Whedon and Tom Stoppard. Where’s your artistic vision then? Hmmmm?
And today the director was announced. His name is Neill Blomkamp and he hasn’t actually made a motion picture before, BUT amongst other things he made a short sci-fi film called Alive in Joburg, which you can download here (77mb). It’s pretty cute and has quite a Halo-ish sensibility about how it treats its aliens. He also made that cool Citroen commercial with the dancing transforming car. So this is probably good news too. For one thing, he’s not Uwe Boll.
The way I see it, this film has the chance to be the best sci-fi action film in the history of everything. No pressure.
Oh, and Denzel might be the Chief.
Posted by Tom Charman to film, games, halo | 2 Comments »
weblog August 8th, 2006
Oooooh. Ooooh er. Oh my.
Boy, am I glad I didn’t stay up for that. Boring! Where’s the iMiniProBookMacChat? WHERE? What have you done with it? And don’t even get me started on the ONE TRUE VIDEO IPOD. I still believe, and it says in the Book of iPod that those who believe shall receive an OTVI on the day of reckoning.
I should probably start making sense — Apple had its WWDC last night. Rumours abounded as they always do but aside from introducing the chunkiest Mac ever not a lot happened. I was hoping for some new Finder goodness in their new OS, Leopard, but nothing. They’re probably just holding back, the teases. There’s still half a year until it comes out. Whether it beats Vista remains to be seen.
What I loved was Time Machine, the new backup application. Specify specific folders for backing up, and then you can browse them like this:
Just drag to and fro and travel back and forwards in time. Awesome. Just be sure you don’t cross your own time stream. Jobs was unclear as to the specifics but it seems that if you meet yourself browsing your backup from the future then it have catastrophic implications for the fabric of space-time, or at the very least cause a kernel panic. Disappointingly, you can’t change your computer’s history — unless you were meant to, in which case, for god’s sake, don’t not change it.
Having attempted to switch to iChat the other day, the awesome improvements to that app were a little more exciting than they otherwise would have been. Screen sharing, presentations, tabs, all the IM networks…
Huh. That makes all the work I just did connecting Gtalk to ICQ, MSN and AIM seem a bit useless. But you kids at home can do it, and talk to all your contacts even in the little gmail sidebar. All you need to do is to give your password to any one of hundreds of obscure jabber servers. It’s unclear as yet whether iChat can voice chat to PC users using Gtalk but I’m hopeful.
If you want more detail on Steve Jobs’ keynote, then go to the people you know you can trust.
Posted by Tom Charman to apple | 20 Comments »
weblog August 2nd, 2006
Two seasons of the new Doctor Who down. Both far better than I could have dreamed. Season two proved contentious in fan circles, but more acclaimed by the general public, it would seem — judging from improved ratings and audience appreciation figures.
In Britain. Yes, I’m well aware no one gives two hoots in Australia. That’s just the kind of genre-scorning boring people we are. Except for Lost of course. I still don’t get why that does so well.
Anyhow, I thought I’d share three of my favourite moments of the past season, and my three top hopes for season three. Actually, let’s say four. I’ve got too many. I’d be very interested to know other peoples’ opinions too. The best moments:
- The Doctor proves what an over-curious psychopath he really is when he lets himself drop into the darkness in The Satan Pit.
- The Doctor rides a horse through a magic window in The Girl in the Fireplace. This moment stands in representation of all the awesome moments of that story.
- Rose kills the Devil in The Satan Pit. Girls are so hot when they’re annihilating evil forces from before time began.
- Sarah and the Doctor say goodbye in School Reunion. For a sad fan like me this was fantastic.
Oh, there’s heaps more, but I should get onto hopes before this becomes too soppy.
- More of the Army of Ghosts manipulative, quiet Doctor, and less of the Idiot’s Lantern shouty, bombastic Doctor. I didn’t find the shouting as off-putting as some, but it must be said, I really don’t think the “Nothing in the World” moment worked in that story.
- A story set on Earth in a country that is not Great Britain, in a location that is not an underground bunker. We kind of had this in The Girl in the Fireplace but I want more.
- The relationship between the new companion and the Doctor to be very different to Rose’s hero-worship. I liked Rose’s “I want to be the Doctor” arc this year, but I wouldn’t like to go there again. It got just a little too mushy by the end.
- An awesome, brand-new, monster/race/evil thing.
That’ll do. The gods of television seem to be doing their best to keep me occupied with TV. Who finished the week before Stargate returned, Stargate will run until Battlestar Galactica and Torchwood start, and there’s christmas specials and more Stargate to fill in the gaps between then and season three. What an age we live in.
Posted by Tom Charman to Doctor Who, tv | 20 Comments »
weblog July 24th, 2006
The situation in Lebanon is truly horrific. I was shocked that after hearing the smooth-talking Israeli Foreign Minister outline their plan on The 7:30 Report I almost thought it was a completely legitimate policy to bomb a country into oblivion and then open negotiations. Everything’s so messy over there that I can barely form an opinion either way, but there’s one particular, far less controversial, aspect which befuddles me.
How do you spell Hezbollah?
All the Australian news (i.e. ABC Online) seems agreed on the above spelling. But then I was reading TIME.com and found that they prefer “Hizballah”. Well, I thought, I’m sure we can clear this up. I’ll just google it. There’s bound to be a simple answer.
Ahem. Potential spellings of Hezbollah include:
- Hezbollah
- Hizballah
- Hisballah
- Hizbollah
- Hezballah
- Hizbullah
- Hisbollah
- Hizb’ALLAH
- Hizb Allah
I eventually found my way to Wikipedia (I would have gotten there straight away but I, er, spelled Hezbollah incorrectly). Those last ones there give an insight into the word: turns out translating from Arabic is tricky sometimes. “Hizb” means “party”, and you may remember “Allah” (God) from some of his previous work. Apparently the Lebanese dialect gets Hizb closer to Hezb, hence some of the confusion. Wikipedia claimed that Al Jazeera used the final spelling but a quick check reveals them to conform with the very common “Hezbollah”.
I hope I’ve cleared that up for everyone. I expect I’ve missed some vital piece of the puzzle where all the confusion was started as a plan to vaguely irritate the party into surrendering.
Posted by Tom Charman to politics, spelling | 2 Comments »
weblog July 19th, 2006
It’s done. I’m a biker. I know because on the way to work this morning other bikers I saw were giving me the ever so slight ‘you are one of us’ nod of the head as we past. Or they were riding over pot holes.
I’ve got one of these. It’s a Honda CBR250RR. It’s got a small engine but it’s 4-stroke so it’s zippy and fuel efficient. The petrol tank is 14 litres so I can fill it up for less than $20
Riding isn’t all chocolates and fuel economy. I almost sneezed this morning while riding. Narrowly avoided that disaster. My visor fogs up when I’m sitting at the lights as there’s no wind flowing through the ventilation in the helmet and I have to breathe exhaust fumes – I’m not a fan of traffic lights. I haven’t mastered lane splitting yet. I don’t ride on congested freeways, just narrow two lane roads so there’s not much room to sneak through, especially with trucks and buses. I’ll have to observe other riders techniques. It’s legally dubious too, and if I die I want to at least have the moral high ground. Although this training CD from VicRoads suggested it was better to not die at all — a novel philosophy. It’s also made me paranoid. Car drivers are crazy. Who knows what those cagers (as us bikers call those poor saps) are about to do?
I had a little trouble getting the bike registered. Between Tom’s unholy electrical draining power and the 28 day limit on road worthy certificates, I only had one chance to get to VicRoads for registration which my bike refused to start for. Several hundred dollars later, everything’s fine. Spark plugs were replaced, carburetter balanced and the wallfor reoiled.
But that’s all over now. Vrooom!
Posted by Andy Cocker to bikes | 4 Comments »
weblog July 5th, 2006
In a joint statement earlier this morning, Thomas Charman and Andrew Cocker, speaking as representatives of the vast ATYPICALREVIEW staff, declared war on Italy and all its sundry bits and pieces, if indeed it has any of those.
“This is the last straw,” said Mr Cocker. “The straw that broke the camel’s back. The straw basket that fell apart dropping all your eggs. The straw kryptonite dagger stabbing you in your back. Do you know those conniving dogs have been playing games while we slept? We’re not going to take this lying down any longer. And their nickname ‘Les Azzurri’ — the translation is ‘les blue’. How stupid is that? Les blue. Doesn’t even make any sense. What else are they hiding from us?”
The announcement came hot on the heels of Italy’s defeat of home team Germany in extra time in the World Cup semi-finals. ATR betting funds already decimated by Italy’s defeat of Australia last month were further damaged by Germany’s loss.
“The Italians have grievously and maliciously sabotaged our monetary interests in the World Cup,” declared Mr Charman. “They have dashed our hopes and dreams of boodles galore. I hereby declare war on the country, and a boycott of all their products. No more will I wear Armani Suits. My Prada shoes — in the bin.”
“Life memberships of the We Love Puccini Opera Club have been burnt by our white hot rage,” interjected Mr Cocker.
“I’ve seen my last film at Cinema Europa,” continued Mr Charman. “What else?”
“No Italian foods. No Espressos, no Spaghetti,” added Mr Cocker.
“Er. Hah. Yes, alright, no Spaghetti.” proclaimed Mr Charman hesitantly.
“No more tasty Bolognese, creamy Alfredo or bacony Carbonara sauces,” suggested Mr Cocker, “And no Minestrone.”
“Hrmmmm. OK, no Minestrone. None of those creamy and bacony and tasty sauces.” declared Mr Charman with rapidly diminishing fervour.
“No Risotto, No Lasagne,” announced Mr Cocker as he counted items off on his fingers.
“Ack! I mean, yes. No risotto, and no … sob … lasagne.” said Mr Charman, fighting back tears.
“And no pizza,” Mr Cocker concluded.
“And no… no… ” Mr Charman paused, cast a shaken look at Mr Cocker, and collapsed to his knees, eyes skyward, fists raised in rage.
“Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!” howled Mr Charman. “I’ll get you next time Italy. NEXT TIME!!!“
NEWS FLASH — BREAKING UPDATE
This just in; a second, somewhat hurried statement was tearfully issued later in the day, cancelling the war and ordering a Spaghetti Bolognese Pizza from Lygon St.
Posted by Tom Charman to myworldcup, soccer, sport | Comments Off on ATR Declares War on Italy
weblog June 30th, 2006
I apologise. I remember in my innocent youth, I accused you of being a boring character. Boy scout, dull, goody goody, lacking angst and pain and all that stuff that cool characters like Batman had.
Now, I see Superman Returns, and I’m reminded of how fresh you are for lacking a lot of that. Not many superheroes remind those rescued from a crashing plane that air travel is still, statistically, the safest way to fly. And even if they did, none of them could do it and still seem as cool as you. How could I forget how awesome you were?
Oh yeah, Smallville. Huh. Ah well.
I’m also very glad that, even though there were potential angst-inducing moments in Superman Returns, your character didn’t wallow much. You get on with the job. I like it. You’re a straight-forward guy, and therein lies your charm.
If I was disappointed at seeing you in action this time around, it was only that your body was tested so much more than your mind and ethics. You’re a smart cookie, and Returns didn’t give you much of an opportunity to show that. Here’s hoping there’s a sequel.
P.S. Kate Bosworth is really cute.
Posted by Tom Charman to film, superman | 4 Comments »
weblog June 24th, 2006
Tonight marks the start of Stage Two. Three quarters of the matches have been played so I imagine you’ll all have piles of boodles by now, especially since I gave the second lot of boodles three days ago. Hmm, Shannon’s up 26 boodles, Daniel’s up 3.5 – not bad.
Everyone else: I’m very disappointed in you. I see Matt’s squandered the boodles he made with his lucky bets and his second fifty boodles already. Jackson hit 0 boodles when the Sparrowhawks, aka Togo, didn’t make it to Stage Two. I hope people are noticing that betting large amounts of boodles is not successful; or was not in the past. Maybe in this new stage will be more amenable to large bets. I’m putting 50 boodles on Argentina to win v Mexico – 1.33
Jackson tells me he wants 40 boodles on Germany to win v Sweden – 1.61
Something to note about Stage Two: If you pick a team to win, I’ll assume you mean in normal time, not in extra time or with penalties. If you’re betting to go through make sure you pick the to qualify bet, or extra time or penalties if that’s what you want.
You’ve got your orders, now wager your hearts out. And hey, let’s be careful out there.
(There used to be a table here but the website hosting it died. So it’s not here now.)
Posted by Andy Cocker to myworldcup, soccer, sport | 29 Comments »
weblog June 19th, 2006
Some day in October, 2005. Huh. You ran out of batteries after just an hour the other day. You’ve been fine today though. Probably not worth worrying about.
Some day in September, 2005. It happened again. Maybe I should return you. CRAP! It would have been free if I’d done it yesterday. $100? Bugger that. I don’t want to look like a fool and return it so soon after the date. I’ll look very clever by wandering round with a dying iPod.
Some day in February, 2006. You’re out of batteries? But I haven’t even gotten to the train yet! You could at least have the grace to konk out when I get to work. I’m not walking with you again. I can’t cope with the disappointment. I’m sending you away.
11am, 10th June, 2006. Ah, you’ve come back. Did she treat you well? Was it fun backing up icky PC data? Has your battery magically repaired itself? Let’s have a go. How long can you play Dark Side of the Moon for?
11.10am, 10th June, 2006. Oh dear. Right, it’s time to take action. Do Apple take Boodles? I’ve got 50.
15th June, 2006, $100 later. You’re being “diagnosed” are you? I told Apple what the problem was with you. They don’t trust me. Bastards. Hopefully the diagnosis will be “too old” and you will be replaced with the ONE TRUE VIDEO IPOD.
16th June, 2006. The “issue” has been “identified”. I remain hopeful, but the picture on the site still depicts your classic, ‘no moving parts’ form. Perhaps you’ll have a new shiny metal back at the very least. I am struck by a fear that the “issue” is my brief installation of linux. I mean, they don’t say “issue addressed”. Just “identified”. I’d already done that, dammit. I wanted them to fix the issue.
9am, 21st June, 2006. You have been returned to me! And by “you” I mean a completely new replacement 3rd generation iPod! So very shiny. The letter I receive with you specifies that you retain the Soul of my old iPod (but not the R&B, or the Country). I’ll charge you up and take you to work. Where are my headphones?
9.10am, 21st June, 2006. Noooooooo! Where are my headphones? Dammit. One day more.
Posted by Tom Charman to apple, ipod | 4 Comments »
weblog June 6th, 2006
Round 4: We were licked clean! The four spring traps set up with peanut butter have been cleaned out. They’re sparkling even. He’s a little bugger. He might be too light to trigger the trap. Or too clever.
Seb hasn’t eaten the peanut butter in the catch-’em-alive trap. Maybe he doesn’t like the look of it. Or was full from all the peanut butter from the other traps.
For round 5 I’ve got ham rind stuck to the trap as well as this device.
Posted by Andy Cocker to pests | 6 Comments »