Launch Party
Last friday night, my husband and I went to a party. A Space Shuttle Launch party!
I never thought that I would attend such a party in my lifetime. Gathering a group of friends together to watch a shuttle launch into space just doesn’t seem like something that is all that fun. But sometimes fun has a way of sneaking up on to you.
Someone posted the idea on twitter. I don’t think they serious believed that people would take up their offer, but next thing we know, we are over at a friend’s place on a friday night, armed with pizza and space helmets. We were just going to stay for a little while. My husband had to start early shifts the next week, so didn’t want to stay out too late. We were going to miss the launch, but we were ok with that. But the hours rolled on, and we were still there, and we were able to watch NASA’s last space shuttle be launched into space.
I suprised myself by how excited I was by the whole experience. There were numerous countdowns, most of them counting down to a countdown, and as we heard those numbers ticking down, the room would get quiet and the atmosphere tense. Then eventually, the countdown was the real thing, and we saw that shuttle take off into the sky, leaving our planet far behind.
The lesson learnt that night is that anything can be fun when surrounded by the right people.
One of the funniest things about the evening was watching the comments on the Ustream feed. People are funny.
While waiting for the launch, we watched Hackers. This is one of my husband’s favourite movies. He made me watch it years ago when we were first dating. In a room with computer technicians, phone technicians and web designers, the movie took on a whole new level of comedy, as they provided their own commentary for the events taking place in the movie. I don’t know how serious the movie was at the time it was made in the 90s, but as the technology, and the fashion, has changed over the last decade and a half, this peek into our techological past is rather humerous.
Thanks everyone that was there for such a top night. It was a blast.
Dragon Age 2
I recently finished Dragon Age 2. This is quite an accomplishment for me, as it is the first video game that I have ever finished. There are a few games that I enjoy playing, but at some point I get stuck, it gets too difficult, i’m not sure what to do, so I give up. But this time I made it!
I loved the game. The story line kept me going along, trying to find out what happens next, especially in my imaginary relationship with Anders who is off blowing up Chantries (is that a spoiler?) and question about whether our love will ever survive.
I think its that relationship element that draws me in the most. Is that how they appeal to the female demographic, or just to me? What draws other women to the games that they play? When I finished playing, I immediatly hard to start again, and see who I could have a relationship with the next time around.
I am going to have to go back to finish Dragon Age Origins now, which i should have done before i started. I just find it so easy to get distracted and forget about what I’m playing.
The other thing that this game has taught me is how hard it can be to put down the controller mid game when your spouse comes home. So now I appreciate it so much more that my husband nearly always does so when I come home and he is playing.
Now, if only Dragon Age had a two player mode, then that would be great for my marriage and its recreational intimacy.
2010 in review
The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:
The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow.
Crunchy numbers
A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 1,900 times in 2010. That’s about 5 full 747s.
In 2010, there were 38 new posts, not bad for the first year! There were 15 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 4mb. That’s about a picture per month.
The busiest day of the year was June 21st with 38 views. The most popular post that day was Non-Lycra Superhero Costumes.
Where did they come from?
The top referring sites in 2010 were WordPress Dashboard, engagedmarriage.com, knowledgelost.org, liveforfilms.wordpress.com, and stumbleupon.com.
Some visitors came searching, mostly for hit-girl, hit girl, kick ass hit girl, hitgirl, and travis willingham.
Attractions in 2010
These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.
Non-Lycra Superhero Costumes April 2010
2 comments
Trailer for Red starring Felicia Day July 2010
1 comment
Six Things That Flung Me Into Geekdom April 2010
3 comments
Geek vs Nerd April 2010
6 comments
The Exile – a graphic novel by Diana Gabaldon September 2010
8 comments
The Great Gatsby
One of my favourite books from the high school curriculum was The Great Gatsby. I love the way its written from the point of view of an outsider, getting a glimpse into this world of wealthy socialites. I remember our English teacher telling us about the dangers of falling in love with the idea of love. I love the way it captures the feel of the 1920s, a decade that I have come to love from a distance of nine decades later, so much so that I had a 1920s themed engagement party. Its an easy read, so its a good one to pass on to someone just starting to get interested in such classics. It is one of the books I encouraged my husband to read when he first started his journey into literature.
After his movie, Australia, I had heard rumours that Baz Luhrmann was going to remake The Great Gatsby. Part of me was thrilled, while another part of me was anxious. I found the Mia Farrow/Robert Redford movie rather disappointing after reading the book. I don’t know if its because the movie never really captured that magic, or if the movie just makes the annoyingness of Daisy just too real. I was also worried Baz would be casting Nicole Kidman as Daisy, as he has cast her in his last two movies.
My interest has been renewed after seeing a clip at the cinema about the new movie.
Carey Mulligan has been cast as Daisy. Her performance in An Education was fantastic, so it will be interesting to see what she would do with Daisy.
Leonardo di Caprio has been cast as Jay Gatsby. Leo previously starred in Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo and Juliet, so they have worked together before. I’ve never seen that movie though. When it came out, I was going through my anti-Leo phase, because all the other girls were crushing on him, but the older I get, and the more I see of his performances, the more I love Leonardo di Caprio. I must go back and see Romeo and Juliet. I think Leo will be fantastic as Jay, but i worry about the age difference between him and Carey, but that could just be because the only thing I’ve seen her in is as a high school student. Baz released a photo to Deadline.com of the actress in her new role.
Photo: Baz Luhrmann. Copyright: Bazmark
Tobey McGuire has been picked as Nick Carraway, who i think is a superb choice.
I really hope that this movie will be a success, if only for the opportunity of a whole new generation of people to read the book and fall in love with it, too.
The Rebooted Buffy Scandal
It seems that Buffy the Vampire Slayer is being rebooted. Its causing contraversy all over the place. I don’t really have much to say about it, because I was never into Buffy.
My experience with Buffy involved my sister locking my keys in my car on the night of the series final. I spent an hour trying to get my keys out with some guy while my sister watched tv. In the end, we decided having a torch might be helpful, what with it being dark and all. So i ran up to my sister’s room to borrow hers. She didn’t react well. apparently i walked in on the last 5 minutes ever and ruined everything.
Its all about priorities, isn’t it. Buffy final > sister stranded in your carpark in the dark with some strange man with no way to get into her car.
However, you can read all about my sister’s take on this very important subject at her shiny new blog
Armageddon Expo
I think I may have developed a taste for Pop Culture Expos. After having such a great time at SupaNova last year, I’ll looking into attending Armageddon in Sydney in February this year.
Only one name is recogniseable to me, and that’s Christian Kane, who is my favourite character in Leverage. However, I still found heaps of awesome guests at SupaNova last year that I had never heard of before and never even dreamed of being interested in, like Travis Willingham and Vic Mignogna, anime voice actors. Who’d ever thought i’d find anime people interesting?
It is the same weekend as Soundwave, so if we make it to Sydney, then its definitely going to be an action-packed weekend. I can’t wait to experience the pop culture expo phenomenon with my husband, after he missed out last year.
Ooh, I wonder if they will have a special Leverage package, so we can have dinner with Christian?
The Exile – a graphic novel by Diana Gabaldon
Do Graphic Novels count as real books? Its come up in conversation recently as my husband has included quite a number of Graphic Novels in his list of books read this year, while his mother claims they don’t count. Even in Neighbour’s recently, the character Callum won the school’s readathon by including quite a few graphic novels. It was allowed in the rules, but his best friend didn’t seem to agree.
I’ve discussed before about the genre of Comic Books and Graphic novels, and the interest in them seems to be gaining worldwide. As seen in something like Maus, by Art Speigalman, something in a graphic novel form, can’t be instantly dismissed as light hearted.
With the movie, Scott Pilgrim Vs The World, I think even more attention is being given to this sort of format. Lots of popular TV shows, have developed a graphic novel or comic book that goes with the show, like Chuck. Also, alot of author’s, are recreating parts of their stories with a graphic novel version.
One of my favourite authors is Diana Gabaldon. I am madly in love with the relationship of Jamie and Claire in the Outlander series, and every book just keeps me yearning for more. I’m very excited about discovering that Diana Gabaldon has release a graphic novel retelling the events of the first book, from the point of view of Jamie Fraser, gorgeously rendered by artist Hoang Nguyen. I hope I’m able to track down a copy locally at some point in the near future.
You can check out the book trailer here:
Do you know of any other graphic novel adaptations worth checking out?
I’m on a horse!
Old Spice Guy has to be one of the hottest things on the internet at the moment. Everywhere I go, people are talking about him. and if they aren’t, I’ll bring him up. I introduced him to the girls at work today, and they are looking forward to seeing more of him in their own time.
This Old Spice Campaign has changed the face of advertising, i think. It was a very clever move. It became interactive with old spice guy responding to questions on twitter and other various places on the internet. he involved some of the bigger twitter celebrities, which only help spread the name Old Spice even further. The flowers to Alissa Milano were a very nice touch.
Its going to be interesting to see what other companies do in response to this. Its going to be difficult to pull off something just as clever without looking like a lame imitation.
And now my Old Spice fan girl can revel even further at the discovery that the actor who plays Old Spice guy, Isaiah Mustafa, seems to be appearing in the upcoming series of Chuck. What an awesome combination!
Trailer for Red starring Felicia Day
SyFy released the trailer for their upcoming TV Movie for Red starring Felicia Day.
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via Syfy Video.
Its got the usual TV movie feel to it, but it will still be pretty awesome to check out.
PS: I wish i was at Comic-Con
