imhilien: Lady Riding (Lady Riding)
Well, the weather is up and down - some days it's t-shirt weather (hooray!) and then the next day it's put on those extra layers again. Sigh. How did it get to being December tomorrow? Some Dr Who trickery involved, I'm sure.

*whirring sounds*

TV I've Watched

I've finally caught up watching S3 of 'The Mandalorian' and I really liked it - the last few episodes made me feel happy about Star Wars again. I'm sure I've said I sometimes view the recent movie trilogy as fan fic because of *spoilers* what happened to the original cast. Must watch the new Dr Who special.

What I've Read

I loved the book 'The Fourth Wing' but after reading the sequel 'Iron Flame' I sadly felt the wheels fall off for me after the half way mark. I'm not sure how much I will be looking forward to the next book.

A new genre bookshop has recently opened in my city (hooray) and I went and bought 'All the Seas in the World' by Guy Gavriel Kay. Ah, it's so nice to have a good range of SFF books to look at again, instead of the familiar 'one whole shelf of those few for SFF must be taken up with multiple copies of Wheel of Time because there's no other SFF authors out there, ha ha' attitude that other places have.

Anyway, so this book by GGK is set during Renaissance Europe, but set on a world with two moons and there's magic too. He's written other books set in this alternate Earth, the best being the two Sarantine Mosaic books, set in alternate Eastern Roman Empire. They will break your heart at places though, so be warned.

What I've Seen

I haven't seen any movies for a while but 'Napoleon' is trying to get my attention. I've always had a soft spot for Joaquin Phoenix and I think I would almost be looking out for time-traveling Bill and Ted to nab him mid-battle for their school history assignment (Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure).

imhilien: Lady Riding (Lady Riding)
July is winter here in New Zealand and it's windy and cold right now. I have an old, hand-me-down black faux fur coat that comes down just past my waist that I wear indoors over clothes. The fact that it is lined keeps me warm.

What I've Seen

I went to 'Indiana Jones & the Dial of Destiny' the other day. I wasn't sure whether to go or not, but when I heard it featured a fantasy version of the Antikythera device (a 2,000 year old machine made by Archimedes for moon calculations, found in an early 20th century shipwreck), my history nerd side lifted its head and said 'let's go!'. The film was better than I thought it would be and featured Mads Mikkelson (sp?) as the baddie. I saw the trailer for the new Mission Impossible movie but it left me cold, unfortunately.

We recently had the French Film festival at some local theatres and I saw the docu drama 'Notre Dame on Fire'. It's from the POV of the fire department who had to deal with the fire there a few years ago. Carrying all their heavy fire fighting equipment up narrow, medieval staircases would have been a nightmare. Then there was the melting lead roof that was literally coming down the gutters and had to be avoided too.

What I've Read

At a recent book club meeting a lot of people were recommending fantasy book 'The Fourth Wing' by Rebecca Yarros. I heard it featured dragons (hmm) so I read it and it was a page turner for me. A disabled, bookish woman from a military family is forced to train as a dragon rider. If she survives that, she must try and bond with a dragon. Simone St James writes paranormal thrillers with just the rightest amount of spookiness and her latest one is 'Silence for the Dead'. Set post-WW1, a woman on the run fakes her CV so she can work as a nurse in the countryside. She ends up at a place for soldiers with shell-shock but there's something creepy about the place. Also, all of the patients seem to be having the same nightmare. The book also looks at how shell-shock was seen as something shameful by society at the time, who didn't know better.

imhilien: Celebration (Celebration)
It's a new year, how did that happen? In 2022, New Zealand came out of another lockdown and I was glad to get back to my art group. I didn't get Covid or colds so that was a relief. Although we now have a new wave of Covid so I'm always careful when going out. Christmas and New Year was just a quiet one with my folks.

I recently went to the quirky English film 'The Lost King' about the woman who went hunting for the lost remains of King Richard III (is it a spoiler to say she succeeded?). She deals with skeptical people who think it can't be done and are reluctant to fund a search. Complicating matters is that after she goes to see a performance of the Shakespeare play about him, an imaginary (or is it?), gloomy version of him then starts following her around! But there is some humour with this at times.

I wouldn't mind seeing the new Avatar movie but at 3 hours, 13 mins I don't think my chronic fatigue brain would like that, ouch. Instant headache. I'll have to wait until the DVD comes out and watch it in stages.

Resolutions for 2023; my art group often has exhibitions so I want to put one of my paintings in the next one. I've only done this once before but it was one of my tiny paintings and that was nerve-racking enough! But I can offer a bigger one this time. Keep writing.  Try and find a part-time job.
imhilien: New Zealand (New Zealand)
Well, Happy Midwinter to those of us in the southern hemisphere. It was freezing last night as it went down to 5 deg C / 40 deg F. I'm a summer person and struggle with cold like that. At least the weather is fine - last week it was wild and stormy.

Sunsets (and sunrises too, apparently) have a lot of bright pink in them these days, that's apparently due to the aftereffects of the underwater volcanic eruption in Tonga a while back. I'm old enough to remember years ago after Mt Pinatubo (sp?) erupted in the Phillipines, we had primary-colour sunsets for months afterward.

My local theater in conjunction with others recently had a French Film festival, so I looked at the catalogue and decided to go to 'Murder Party', which was loosely based on the game of Cluedo. There was a reasonable crowd and most of us were masked, so that was good (my city still has thousands of cases each day so I'm always careful when leaving the house). It was entertaining enough and there was a plot twist I didn't see coming, so that was ok.

I recently watched the two seasons of 'Bridgerton' after each other, I had found S1 a bit boring in places but I adored S2.

Library books and tea are keeping me going right now. I go for walks when I can and I have a cross stitch project I'm working on.
Tags:
imhilien: New Zealand (New Zealand)
Well, although New Zealand has mostly squished Covid-19, there was a bit of a scare recently when two people were let into the country on compassionate grounds from abroad going down south and it turns out they were infected and hadn't been tested properly. That was an anxiety episode I didn't need that day. Testing at the border has been tightened up apparently and that's where any new cases are picked up these days (they then have to go into quarantine).

I still wear a face mask if I'm going on public transport for a decent length of time and try and keep some distance from people. My book club has started up again, so that's good. Art group is back on, though they clean the place to the nth degree at the moment and make sure hand sanitizer is on each table, which is OK. My board gaming group has started up again, though I haven't been back yet as it's at night with not much ventilation, lots of strangers etc, so I'm still a bit cautious about returning.

I went to the movie 'The Booksellers' the other day with a friend, which was good. It was about the rare book scene in New York (pre-Covid, of course). Was good to see a few book shops came with resident cat. :)

It's definitely winter here now, when I wake in the morning and it's below 5 degrees (40 F) I Do Not Like. About a week ago there were tornadoes in our region that sent a few trampolines flying here and there, ouch.

Still hunting for a new part-time admin job, a process made much harder of course now in these interesting times. Still, some of the job web sites are starting to list jobs again.

Season 5 (part 1) of 'Lucifer' is turning up in August, yay. I do want to see new adventures of my Chaotic Dumba** babies. Two new seconds of S5 footage were made available and the fandom went crazy, LOL.

Here are some fic recs set in the mid-90's when Windows 95 was released (I remember!). However, this version is an Eldritch Horror that wants to be Your Only Friend. 

1. Welcome to Windows 95!
Done entirely in realistic (and creepy) screenshots.
https://archiveofourown.org/works/24073393

2. Re: Windows 95
People talk about their experiences with Windows 95 (Eldritch Horror version) on a mailing list. Things get creepy.
https://archiveofourown.org/works/24853906

imhilien: Tea (Tea)
Well, we had midwinter the other day and it's become colder in the mornings, brr. Yesterday it was a struggle to leave the warmth of bed but I made sure I had some hot porridge as soon as I could. 

Last night was board gaming night, which was fun. I played 'Cards Against Humanity' for the first time, lol.

I went to the 'Tolkien' movie recently with a friend and had a good time. It wasn't completely perfect but still a good watch.

Envy is seeing that your boss had a copy of the 'Good Omens' box set delivered to him at work. I feel like one of the few people who hasn't watched it yet.

Am crocheting a pair of purple fingerless gloves as I lost my previous pair.
imhilien: Tea (Tea)
June has started and with it, winter (brr). When the weather drops below 15 degrees (60 F), I don't like it at all. It's back to hats, scarfs and gloves.  At least today is a lovely fine day, though icy in the shade. Saturday was quite stormy, I was out and saw two different rainbows in the morning alone.

I'm planning to go to the 'Tolkien' movie with a friend when it comes out soon, it sounds good.

I went to a board gaming evening last week, one of the games we played was a fantasy-Victorian variation of Cluedo, great fun.

I've heard that 'Good Omens' came out last weekend; I don't get Amazon Prime so hopefully my local library will get the DVD version.  I recently rented the DVD of 'A Discovery of Witches', which was nice if slightly gorey (which I was expecting). It's set in Oxford so lots of lovely library pr0n. :D

When the night is clear, at the moment I can see the Orion constellation on its side in the west, while the Southern Cross is in the eastern sky. :)
imhilien: Fangirls (Fangirls)
We had daylight saving last week with the clocks turned back an hour. The mornings are lighter again, but the suddenly darker evenings always take some getting used to. My electric blanket is being used again and so is my scarfs.

So, new Star Wars trailer. Looks interesting! The title 'Rise of Skywalker' has been debated a lot and could refer to: a) The new title of Force users, b) A  new spaceship (Sir, the Skywalker is approaching! Run away!) or c) Angry at being fridged* in 'Attack of the Clones' the ghost of Shmi Skywalker is back for vengeance.

I recently saw and enjoyed the film 'Woman at War' which is (deep breath) an Icelandic eco-thriller comedy. Featuring a middle-aged Katniss Everdeen-type character in sensible jumpers with her bow and arrow. Lovely landscape. Subtitled of course.


*When a female character is killed to further the storyline of a man. I saw this in a book trilogy once, the main character was a woman - no, sorry, she has to go because the trilogy is really about a minor male character who turns up. I didn't read the third book.

imhilien: Rainbow (Keep Calm)
Last Thursday was the autumn equinox and the morning started with a heavy, damp fog that had rolled in. Fortunately by late morning it had gone and it became a nice hot day. It's been like that ever since, although there is some stormy weather on the way later this week. Mornings and evenings are getting darker more quickly though.

I went to see 'Captain America' recently to cheer myself up and enjoyed it. It was set in the '90's and I liked how it poked gentle fun at '90's things such as video stores, boxy computers with stone age internet (and how long it takes to download stuff) and pagers.

Some links:

An Incel's life turns around when he gets some pet shrimp

https://www.reddit.com/r/IncelTears/comments/b4phgp/love_it_how_his_life_became_better_when_he_quit/


A poem - 'I got told what to call this poem by my male colleague"

https://blogs.cardiff.ac.uk/rsrc/2019/03/08/i-got-told-what-to-call-this-poem-by-my-male-colleague/

Best part:

A special thank you to my dissertation advisor
Who, when I told him what I wanted to write about,
Told me about his son’s last holiday abroad
And how his son had told him something interesting
Vaguely related
To my interests
And wouldn’t that be a more interesting topic to write about?
imhilien: Fangirls (Fangirls)
Well, the weather is still warm but it's getting darker in the mornings now. I've got a hair cut booked for this week as I'm starting to feel like a woolly sheep.

I've been enjoying watching season 2 of 'The Durrells' on TV. It's based on the book 'My Family and Other Animals' which I confess I've never read. Anyway, it's a quirky comedy about an English woman in the '30's who takes her four children to live on the island of Corfu. Youngest boy promptly goes 'yay!' and starts bringing home animals such as otters and pelicans. There's been a debonair chap with a red sports car who's been charming the mother - who sounds just like Remus Lupin from the Harry Potter movies. So, every time he speaks I keep thinking, 'Remus?' :D

A nice movie I saw recently was 'The Kid Who Would Be King', which is a contemporary King Arthur movie, starring Patrick Stewart (TM) as Merlin (hooray). Alex, a bullied schoolboy, finds a magic sword in a stone at a semi-abandoned building site. It must be a joke, right? But this gets the attention of Merlin and Morgana Le Fey, who was banished underground and has been waiting for the swords return (she believes she's the rightful heir to it). Can Alex rally his fellow students to fight Morgana and her undead army of knights?  Nice scenery of Cornwall and Glastonbury Tor. Some of my ancestors came from Cornwall near Bodmin Moor (where the Lady of the Lake was supposed to reside) so I always throw my money at movies like this. :)

If it helps, the previous movie the director made was 'Attack the Block' (starring 13th Doctor Who and Finn from Star Wars) about a poor English council estate that had to fend off an alien attack.
imhilien: Rainbow (Keep Calm)
Wow, what a week. On Tuesday night there was a wild storm in Auckland that knocked down trees and powerlines, so a quarter of Auckland was left without power. I was without power for two days (back on now, phew). The storm sounded like a jet engine at times and there must have been a mini-tornado through the neighbourhood; trees came down and some kids pink paddling pool ended up in my garden (!). At the end of the street there is a trampoline that was tossed into the neighbours yard like it weighed nothing, eep.

Yesterday I was glad to get out of the house and treated myself to go and see 'Ready Player One' at the movies - as a geeky child of the '80's, I was the target audience. The movie was different in a lot of ways from the book but I was ok with that. The villain was played by the actor who was the villain in 'Rogue One' - there was a lot of good ham and cheese in his performance and I chuckled when he made a Star Wars reference. Will hopefully see the film again on the big screen.

Today it's that time of the month, ugh. *reaches for more chocolate*
Mar. 10th, 2018 03:17 pm

Cyclone #3

imhilien: Rainbow (Keep Calm)
Well, last month New Zealand had to deal with two cyclones that came down from the Pacific Islands. Ok, they had mostly reduced in size by the time they got to us, but still there was a lot of wind and rain. We've been told Cyclone #3 is heading down here around Monday, urgh. Cross fingers.

A few weeks ago I was watching the Bafta's (Brit film awards) and I confess to sighing over actor Daniel Day-Lewis whenever the camera alighted on him. Even though he shaved his head(!) he just has this slightly fallen-angel look to him (sigh). He's made some interesting films over the years - I think he was almost cast as Aragorn in LotR. He's a bit of a method actor, and he would have gone Full Tolkien(TM), I'm telling you. :D

We recently had the Oscars, but it was on a cable TV station that I don't have. It will probably turn up in some nowhere weekend slot on ordinary TV, so I'll have to stay sharp and look out.

Movies - I recently went to see 'Black Panther' - oooh, yeah, that was a great film. I confess to enjoying it more than 'The Last Jedi' (which I still have mixed feelings about - don't get me started). I loved the princess who was in charge of research and development of Cool Science Stuffs(TM).

Easter weekend is coming up at the end of the month and the national sci-fi convention (aimed at people who read scifi) is on here in Auckland this year. I'm not staying at the hotel it's at this time, but will go each day by bus.
imhilien: Rainbow (Rainbow)
Well, it's definitely winter now (sighs). I've got my warm clothes on and I'm currently near a heater. One thing I do like is seeing the autumn leaves; there are a lot of trees in the CBD whose leaves are various shades of gold / bronze / red right now. It also gives me an excuse to make a pudding from scratch - I recently bought a bag of cooking apples and made an apple and blueberry (from the freezer) crumble, yum.

Mothers Day was a few weeks ago and Dad & I took Mum out to lunch at Devonport, a suburb on the North Shore that always seems a step or two in the past, in a good way. I had pasta and didn't need any more meals that day. Afterwards I went to a second-hand bookshop on the main street and bought a book on archaeology that I'm still happily reading in doses. Afterwards we drove up to Mt Victoria to look at the view. Half way up I noticed this lovely old Victorian house painted various shades of green with a notice saying it was a writers residence. How lovely (sigh). We took some photos looking back to the city and I'll include one under a cut.Clicky-click... )

Movies - I recently saw 'Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2' which left me wishing yet again that I had my own spaceship that could play '70's rock and whatever else I felt like. I should look at my music and make my own list of 'Spaceship Music (To Play Really Loudly Going Past Something i.e. Mars).

PS: My sympathies for Manchester, what a horrible event.

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imhilien

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