Friday 27 December 2019

Star Wars: Damage Control

I said I wouldn't pay for it, but I did... The things I do to cultivate my friendships.

So, better than I thought. Some character moments actually made an impact this time, but it's very much yet-another-cookie-cutter party. The most obvious arch in the film is how much fan criticism over TLJ was addressed, I really would prefer the title "Damage Control". Begs the question; what will the TLJ yay-sayers say about the toxic disgusting OT fan-base now that the new film catered to them? There's also a sense of there being nothing outside of what you see, just like in Super 8 that I watched yesterday, just a jumbled mess. If anything, this one might be the best of the new unholy trinity, but as the saying goes, that statement ain't worth much.

Here's how I'd summarize this new trolology:
- TFA = ANH, FX and numbers squared, characters square rooted, boring paint job, just watch ANH instead.
- TLJ = TESB + ROTJ/2, "kill the past", did new stuff, mostly indoctrinating rubbish, just watch TESB instead.
- TROS = ROTJ/2, tried to fix TLJ:s mistakes, do its own thing, reshape the original end, all in one film, just watch ROTJ instead.
I.e. I'll keep re-watching the OT thank you very much :) Too bad Disney's making so much from this, and I participated, ugh...

Ordered a white Kobo Libra last night, and I'm collecting free epub:s of what are considered all-time great works to "start out" with. I'll probably cancel my Netflix account early the coming year and just read instead. Somehow, the idea of having Netflix at hand is more enticing to me than actually using it, cannot say I got much out of the junk I've watched :p Let's see what junky books I'll read...

EDIT 2019-12-28: For a while I heard Rango was at most an ok film. Then I started hearing it was pretty good. It is pretty good. My faith in "new" films has been restored :p

So, EFAP has an almost 12h long review on Damage Control, and I'm enjoying and agreeing with a lot of it. I should just listen to those guys (with ads) and stop paying for trashy films.

Wednesday 25 December 2019

God Jul 2019!

I'm really 33 min too late to post this. But, some parts of the world celebrate the 25th, so I should be fine, I'm only bending the rules a little bit.

God Jul! A few days of discounts and then it's a wonderful new year! See you there.

Monday 23 December 2019

Dan före dopparedan

Iiiih, so close! The childish excitement is not that tangible any more though, mainly looking forward to seeing my family opening their gifts.

The same time my parents picked me up, their kitchen tap started leaking just a little. It's some 30 years old, so we decided to replace the thing, and I tried to understand the vague descriptions of what to put where. Building a physics experiment is a bit different from plumbing, and the stakes are actually a lot higher at home. In the end I found the small pieces we needed, my dad and I paid with half our backs (wasn't that bad) and some cut thumbs to get rid of the old copper pipes in the old tap, and we now have a brand new Swedish made tap, packed with amazing features such as ceramic smooth closing, adjustable pipe limits, cold start, and more! Was a fun way to start the holidays, felt really nice when it was done.

Was at a party at the University the evening before I went home, I was thinking one beer should be enough. Ended up being involved in a drinking game record time, and I cleaned and packed at 2-3 in the night, went to bed at ~4, had an alarm for 6:30 in the morning, and had a relaxing trip all the way to the plane (unlike unprepared idiots who have to take shortcuts). Fortunately I don't get too affected the day after most of the time ("most of the time"...), but I've been thinking for some time that I should find some new friends who don't drink so much :D That's one good reason why I keep in touch with my friends in Sweden. It's nice to have holidays away from the indulgent continent for a bit.

Just had my first practice session on the old student violin from my childhood, intonation was all over the place because no violin is the same, but my mother told me I should start playing for others anyhow. Well, I'm getting there, I guess, but not quite yet! It has to be perfect :p Finally I noticed that my violin is in fact a lot nicer than the old one, so I'm at least that comfortable playing nowadays.

Thinking about a Kobo Libra (come on mellandagsrea, gimme!) and canceling Netflix, it was fun in the beginning but I haven't used it much recently. Could spend my time better reading books... What usually stopped me was I really don't like holding heavy unruly books and they take so much space. Tech ftw.

So people know now I'll take the week before the next beam time off. Let's see how that goes... Excited but also a bit worried...

Tomorrow! Gifts have been bought, so no need to be a nice kid any more (jk, be nice).