Well, I've gone and done my back in. It may be a herniated ("slipped") disc. Did it playing touch football for my Wednesday night team, I Need a Rest.
10 minutes to go in the last half, I made a nice run around their winger, and stepped inside one pursuer (who then fell over). Charging toward the line, I heard someone thundering up directly behind me, so I panic-dived for the line. But I didn't get to reposition the ball in both hands out in front of me - I just flopped on it. I was over the line, but my pursuer was going so fast, he tagged me as he skidded past, and off the field, almost into a pole.
I was winded immediately and felt a little worse for wear, but kept playing until the siren. It wasn't until I sat down in the car that I felt my back twinge. It pained me to drive home, I limped into the shower, then I installed myself on the couch, knowing I'd done something wrong to my back...
So I've been off work for a week now; can't stand upright fully, instructed not to sit at all and completely dependant on warm wheat bags, pain-killers and my stockpile of unwatched DVDs.
My physio says I'm improving and I feel that I am aswell; but I'm a long way off being 100%. I may be able to return to work soon, but with a strict list of parameters about my seating & activities. Touch footy will be out for quite a while. I have daily sessions that involve poking, prodding, sharp objects (acupuncture needles), electrocution (TENS machine) and searing heat (warm wheat bags). It's like a medieval torture chamber with a modern spin.
It does make me feel better after each session though. My physio and I have an ongoing competition to see how many time she can make me squeal like a little girl. (Little does she know that's my normal squeal).
This is a somewhat-related to an injury I did last year lifting stacks of chairs - 20 years of bad posture and sitting (working in IT...) means I have certain under-developed muscles, and some nerves (sciatic, I believe) that aren't as stretchy as they should be.
Anyway, we won our touch game 8-1, anyway. It was raining, the field was sodden and our opponents were a man down for 50 minutes of the game, and we had our freakish ring-in Alan who can dances around opponents as if he was performing in Swan Lake; but we'll take it :)
Normally, we celebrate draws!
(I still wish I'd gotten that try I did my back on...)
Exercise is bad for you
Camping in the Bunyas
Went camping up at the Bunya Mountains, near Kingaroy, the other day - and all I got was this stupid cold...
It was pretty cool though. And by "cool" I mean frickin' freezing. Lou and I had to sleep under three sleeping bags all told. And the camp site was full by the time we set up; we missed out on a picnic table AND a fireplace, so we had to haul ass over to the day tripper's area for warmth & food.
But what experience is camping but a good reason to whinge. Makes you appreciate hot showers (or any kind of shower).
Review: Transformers
It was depressing leaving the theatre last night. For the most part, I enjoyed the hell out of Transformers, but the third act brought up the notion to me that they could have hit a home run with this film (for general audiences, geeks, TF nostalgic persons, and TF faithful).
I've been following this movie's development for three years; last night I finally got to see Transformers is all it's Michael Bay-influenced glory.
Quick shot: Plot holes everywhere, muddy quick-cut camera work, busy designs... Lots of humour and heart, lots of references to the original, LOTS of asplosions. The good and the bad.
Quicker shot: Best movie I've seen this year... (of it's genre, at least)
You can really tell the way Bay made this film. Sure there was a script, but it looks like he filmed it how he wanted and the bots were added almost as an afterthought. Their dialog was, more often then not, one-sided. Either Sam was talking at them, or the bots were giving some form of soliloquy (or in the case of Bumblebee, nothing at all). There was no back-and forth or development of relationships other then with Bumblebee.
What gets me is that they could have fleshed out the bots so much more with so little effort. There were a few scenes where it was just robots on a relatively static background - here they could have expounded on, say, Starscream's rivalry with Megatron (there's only a single "you have failed me again" line from Megatron in the movie; in fact Starscream only has one line in total). I wanted more banter between Autobots and Decepticons; I wanted to hear their hatred of each other.
I thought we left quick-cutting action like that behind a few years ago. The camera was always so close to the action, where a wide shot would have suited so much better. We're lead to believe that each frame of CGI took 38 hours to render... and then they go and add a metric tonne of motion blur. I say: what's the point? When we DID get wide shots, the images were flawless.
Huh?
It's confusing to me: I liked a lot of the things I thought wouldn't like, and vice versa. Frenzy was funny and vicious; I'd have to check, but I think he actually got the most screen time - definitely the most number of appearances.
The love story mostly worked; don't see what's so special about Mikaela other than her obvious hotness. She got a bit of development early-on, but then she was just along for the ride.
Autobots sneaking around Sam's parent's backyard is classic. Bumblebee peeing on someone... no so much.
The "essence," if you will, of Transformers is in there somewhere.
"WTF" Moments
- Where's Barricade when all his buddies are being blown up?
- Bumblebee can talk all of a sudden? (Ratchet did hit him with a red beam of light at one point, though)
- Optimus Prime and Megatron are brothers? Red Herring. Needed some setup and more pay-off than a single line.
So what would you have done, tough guy?
- Ditch the Qatar base survivors thread (irrelevant);
- ditch the virus/hackers thread (not overly significant) OR have them face-off with some Decepticons of their own;
- spend more time introducing the Autobots when they first arrive and meet up
- show Starscream leading the other Decepticons in the Allspark search (Barricade/Frenzy & Blackout/Skorponok did all the hunting). That would lead to more development of the 'Cons and let them be differentiated more.
Where to from here?
Well I'm going to have to see it another time (or two) for a start. I need to see if the annoying bits are as terrible as I first thought.
All told, it was a nice Introduction Movie. It was a glimpse, a taster. A sequel should have Sam (if Shia LaBouf isn't a supamegastar by then), but actually centre on the 'bots - show us some motivation, character and actually build up the mythos (for the third film!). Mikaela is an optional accessory, of course.
DON'T have our military being so damn tough. We need to be scared of these robots!
They left open little doors to things like the Matrix of Leadership (Allspark & Chest Cavities), Megatron's "spark"/soul may be contained within the remaining fragment of the Allspark...
They need to clarify the whole "scanning" thing. The seem to be able to transmogrify themselves instantaneously into any (similarly-massed) object; why not just do that instead of transforming?
I thank Michael Bay for helping to re-shape Transformers for the big screen, but he's not welcome back for a second run. A Sequel needs to tone it down, take it's time, flesh things out, and leave room for a stomping great third film.
I'm starting the clock now; I want Transformers 2 in June, 2009. Get on it! :)
Burninating!
Well, my Labor day weekend didn't go so well for my Xbox 360. Less than a month old, and it's started locking up, showing two red lights after a few hours playing Halo 2. After a few hours, I tried again - same thing. Did it again the next day after an hour in Crackdown. The rumours are true!
It runs okay at night, when the ambient temperature is lower. I've requested a repair from Xbox Support, and the process is underway... but the Halo 3 Multiplayer Beta is in 6 days! I'm going to delay sending it in until I absolutely have to.
Getting a 360 is a bit of a lucky dip. I wasn't so lucky... I got a console with a build date of October 2006; so it's got an older, noisier DVD drive and seems to have problems dispersing heat. Nothing I can do, except:
- Put up with it
- Get it repaired (now or after the H3 Beta)
- Trade it for a 360 Elite!
The Elite idea isn't SO crazy. It should be $750 RRP when it gets released in Aus, some time before October. Random-EB-Games-Guy told me that 360's get a trade-in value of $400. If I trade in a few games aswell, I should be able to get a brand new, recently manufactured, better console. Then mine can be someone else's problem!
Whatever I do, I'm going to ensure I get my value out of the Halo 3 Beta first! :)
What a week
It's almost over... I haven't felt this crap in ages. This week has been a doozy. Short version, in no particular order:
- My cousin, David McCabe, died of cancer; aged 31
- Almost failed yet another rental application
- Current flatmate is giving me grief for leaving
- Work is impossibly busy
Next week can't come fast enough - I need a fresh start. The best possible news would be a call from the estate agent, letting me know we've been approved for the Indooroopilly property; then at least I can put my troublesome flatmate out of my mind, and just get to the task of packing up my life! :)
Crossing fingers... now.
The search continues
Lou and I, along with Megan (another recently-graduated Vet) are trying very hard to find a rental property together. I've been in the same place in Taringa for almost 7 years now - and it's time to move on (and to see what living with Lou full-time is like!).
Unfortunately, I get constant reminders why I've decided to stay in this one place so long - looking for properties sucks big time. We've been at it for months now; properties often appear on realestate.com.au and are snapped up that same day. Several inspections I've been to have had in excess of 30 people there, all vying for a 2 or 3 bdr unit.
The worst bit is when you get very attached to a particular property. You start picturing living there; where you're going to put your couch, where you're going to flake out and read a book on Sunday arvo's...
We have (unofficially) lost a place we were extremely keen on. It seemed to be a rare find - 3bdr/3bath/DLUG. Perfect for a couple + 1. You're flat out finding a place with TWO ensuites, let alone a double lock-up garage.
Anyway we've apparently lost it - though a freak chance we learned that the current tenants have just decided to re-sign their lease. SURELY once you've informed the estate agent that you're leaving, that starts an irreversible process??? I guess not. If Megan finds a place on her own now, we're going to have to go back to looking for sub-$300, 2bdr places again.
Gah!
Anyway, Aus PC Market says my replacement video card is on it's way back to me. At least I can get my website back up, and take out my frustrations in Battlefield 2142.
