Kimputer's Weblog

I just finished the Harry Potter: The Prisoner of Azkaban PC game. Took about 3 days, combined to roughly 15 hours of play time. Does this mean I’m damn good, or did I just finish a children’s game ?

Cutie ogre gets beating by magically cutie Harry Potter, with a second best opening ever, around $92.7 million in its first weekend.
The ogre breaks another record on his runner up post, this week it hauls in another $37 million, with a record breaking 18 days to pass the $300 million mark, besting a certain spider that took 22 days.
Third place is for The Day After Tomorrow, good for $28.1 million. Not a total disaster, as its total will end up higher than Troy and Van Helsing.
Raising Helen takes in a modest $6.7 million in its second week, good for number 4.
5th place is for Troy with $5.7 million, its total barely beating that of the lousy Van Helsing.

Rate 1 (FR#^&% MESS !) to 5 (how very tidy !). Only rate the latest picture, otherwise I can’t keep track of the average.

Total: 1107 out of 326 votes > Average is: 3.396

A world premiere, the proof it’s not me ! Definite proof. But I had to shoot a video for that. You know what they say. A 43 sec video says more than a 640 by 480 jpeg.

Download the first My Messy Desk video here. (It’s 1.3 MB) If you can’t play it, you don’t have the XViD codec installed. (Codec can be downloaded here)

Rate 1 (sucks) to 5 (cool). Only rate the latest pictures, otherwise I can’t keep track of the average.

Total: 558 out of 168 votes > Average is: 3.321

You might not have noticed, but I have been .. .. .. bizzy.

Someone tampered with my internal bio-clock. I already noticed it in the weekend, when I could get my usual 10 to 12 hours of sleep. But on the working days it became even more clearer. Known for sleeping through fires and bombs, I always have 2 alarms armed. But these days I jump off my bed, shockingly looking at the light shining through the window. In a panic move I reach for the alarms and read the time, my brains can’t comprehend it all. Again, it’s somewhere between 6.30 and 7.00. Roughly an hour to go. With some effort, I can still try to catch up on that hour. But still… it’s weird. DAMN you ALIENS !!!

There’s a long list of the most obvious changes. First there’s the darker material filmed in a darker setting and a darker tone. Then there’s the growing up of the junior actors, both physically and professionally. It’s nice to see them less stiff after 2 movies. This make the movie flow with a less contrived feeling than before.
Then there’s the focus on Harry’s character, which cuts off screen time for most of the other characters. Magically strange though, it’s the past that drives the future, yet we get to know almost nothing new of it. Harry seems slightly more mature, and magic comes more easy to him, even to a point where you finally get the feeling he’s more special than the others (where the previous movie had the other characters do more magic than Harry)
The changed actor (unfortunately, to replace the late Richard Harris) for the Dumbledore character might have been the hardest thing to swallow. With a whole other demeanor and style (which might be done intentionally ?), the change is too big to take it all at once. You will get used to it though.
Then there’s a short list of things that are the same. Character-wise, you learn almost nothing new. The story layout is mostly the same, but it’s still as enjoyable as before, even with less jokes to laugh at.8-.

New stuff and old habits. The old habit is, of course, the Irish folklore influence that touches all the songs in some degree. Then there’s Andrea’s silky voice that grows sweeter with the years. The new stuff is the various other musical influences they’ve put in the songs. It gives the whole album more variety. That said, while I can crack down a few songs already, the ones that are less sophisticated and therefore less likely to grapple the hook, I have enough favorites already to give this album a thumb up.7+.

They got to me again. I woke up in the middle of the night with a mighty cramp in my left leg, and as a result I still have pain, probably because of the reaction to the pain which caused me to strain some muscles there. Then there’s also a small wound on my hand I can’t explain.

Why me ? Why always me, you damn aliens ! Abduct someone else will ya ?

Rate 1 (FR#^&% MESS !) to 5 (how very tidy !). Only rate the latest picture, otherwise I can’t keep track of the average.

Total: 1094 out of 322 votes > Average is: 3.398

Somehow, there exists this strange notion that I’m a messy person. But judging by the average, well above 2.5, people seem to ignore that number. Hence this special monday before and after session.

Before:

Exactly 11 mins 23 secs later:

Although a certain spider was faster, Shrek isn’t a slow one at that. In 10 days the sequel raced past the $200 million mark. Still at number one with $73.1 for this week.
The current biggest worldwide opener, comes in second. The Day After Tomorrow scares some $70 million positive cashflow.
Third spot is for Troy, another big drop, to just $11.5 million in its third week.

With any world endangering disaster movie, it’s easy to make a comparison to either Deep Impact or Armageddon. This one would be somewhere inbetween. There is no story to speak of. But somehow, after seeing this movie, it’s actually not that necessary. The events follow up each other at such speed, smalltalk is the only dialogue possible. The rest is filled with extraordinary special effects, displayed with subtle techniques where you do get the feeling this is the biggest disaster movie ever made. To fill the other gaps, acting is very acceptable, and other cinematic tricks are well-oiled together to make a storyless movie as enjoyable as possible.7.

Take a look here. Yup, that’s Emmy Rossum, currently starring inThe Day after Tomorrow. Having only smaller movies till now, she kept a pretty low profile till now. Just one notch down the ladder from the likes of Jeniffer Love Hewitt and Jessica Alba (both talent and looks), she’s a hot chick nonetheless. Only one project is upcoming (Phantom of the Opera), maybe she likes the low profile.
More pictures here.

Time for a simple one:

1. Which of the following DVD’s do I own, but haven’t watched it yet (as in unpacked, (or at least, not by me), and still not put in the DVD player):
a. Star Trek TNG series box
b. Training Day
c. Harry Potter 2: The Secret Chamber

2. Which of the following invention has been seriously on my mind:
a. Multi floss device (almost as big as your mouth, has enough extensions to fit all the gaps between your teeth, flosses it at once in less than 30 seconds (electronically, as opposed to the current manual labor that takes at least five minutes)
b. An electronic device that continuously monitors the internet connection (be it through software on the pc, or built-in the device itself), and when it concludes after a range of conclusive test that the internet is dead, it shuts the power down of the ADSL modem, and after 20 seconds, turns it back on. (As you know, it still happens sometimes, and it’s not just ADSL modem, wireless routers/access points also suffer this fate from now and then)
c. A solar outfit. As I carry several electronic devices with me, wouldn’t it be nice to have a continuous source of power (which we get from the sun) to keep all your devices going without carrying all those ac/dc power supplies ?

3. Pringles:
a. is an emotional subsitute
b. makes me aggressive
c. has been officially made into an essential food group.
d. is the only all-in-one food (breakfast, lunch, dinner)

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So, today I ran outside, to catch my ride to work. Halfway through, the shocking thought reached me that I didn’t put gel in my hair. My hairdo isn’t that overly complex, but somehow it felt wrong.
Then halfway through the day I feel this headache coming up. Must be those late night Unreal Tournament sessions. Usually it means one or even two hours less sleep, which I don’t catch up on until the weekend. So, half functioning limping through the other half of the day, I finally got home after 18.00, for my well-deserved nap.
Around 21.30 it’s time to get up. Still a heavy head, but I couldn’t keep on sleeping. With a bad case of migraine I do sleep till morning, but this was a case of tiredness.
Then comes dinner. But it was the day I was supposed to get some groceries. So diner consisted of an orange, 2 Snickers ice cream bars, and a cup of Malaga ice cream.
So, the moral of the story ? No matter how strong you are, no matter how many asses you kick in UT, it always catches up with you (and in the worst case, as you have noticed, it takes half a day from your life). Ah well, almost weekend.

Rate 1 (sucks) to 5 (cool). Only rate the latest pictures, otherwise I can’t keep track of the average.

Total: 542 out of 164 votes > Average is: 3.305