A Brit Team America!
Movie Review: Prince of Persia: The Sands Of Time
So this past Monday my sweetie-wife and I went out and watched Prince Of Persia: The Sands of Time. This is a movie based on a video-game franchise so I went in with lowered expectations.
Frankly, I enjoyed myself. Oh this not Oscarâ„¢material by any stretch of the imagination. It’s not as good as the first Pirates of The Caribbean film, but this movie entertained and it was fun.
Of course you have to accept that this is an unreal movie, like Pirates, or Alladin. So the heros are capable of amazing feats. There are no surprises in the plot, the film is capably written, acted, and directed. For summer popcorn fare this worked just fine.
Two things of note.
1) Alfred Molina stole every freakin’ scene he was in. The man is an amazing actor and his comic sense was spot on. He’s underworld business man was a great addition to the story and he never failed to bring a laugh.
2) If I were to cast the voice of Niven’s Puppeteers it would be Gemma Arterton In this film and in Clash of The Titans I was memorized and seduced by her voice. The effect I think Niven wants for his Puppeteers.
This movie was not enough of a hit with me that I will buy it on disc, but it was worth a morning’s matinee price.
And Hollywood would thinks it’s a good idea.
What’s really funny is that director James Cameron is being consulted because of his deep water experience.
h/t to the wonderful people at xkcd
This CPAP thing is getting kind of rough
So, I got a new CPAP machine last week. This one — the exact same model as my last one — is covered by the insurance because it came through their vendor. Since I was changing machines and vendors I thought I might switch masks as well.
I had been using what are called nasal pillows.
As you can see it is a very minimal mask system. It’s light and when I tried it in the hospital during the study it seemed to work for me.
Alas at home i didn’t work out so well. I toss and turn a lot in my sleep and the nasal pillows would shift and move, breaking the seal and then jetting air outside my nose. I would also wake up to find the nasal pillow in my hand. I had taken them off in my sleep. No good.
So I switched to a nasal mask.
This thing has two straps coming off the forehead piece, two more that come off the bottom of the mask making for a very secure fit. I was fairly confident that this maks would not slip as easily as the nasal pillows.
It doesn’t. However it seems in my sleep I do find it uncomfortable. I have awakened in the night, or had my sweetie-wife wake and tell me, to find the mask off and discarded. Last night it only happened once so I happy about that, but it’s a problem that is proving tough to lick.
I will have to lick it. Not only is sleep apena very dangerous to your health, I really really like the way I feel when I have gotten a good night’s sleep.
How very Cool
A new air speed record has been matched.
Yesterday, the USAF launched an experimental aircraft, the X-51A, and it achieved Mach 6 for more than 3 minutes. It used scram-jet technologies, a stepping stone towards space-planes.
Now there is still a long way to go. Mach 6 is fast, but three minuets is not very long and to reach orbital speeds you need something on the order of Mach 16 or 17. Still is is very cool that the USAF is still in the record busting business.
General Chat
Well Cawdor is doing nicely. I think I can safely say that I have less than 100 pages to go to reach the end of the novel. At 5 or more pages per day that less than twenty writing days or four weeks. So If I hang in there I should have the first draft done by the end of June. Maybe the third week of june as i tend to write faster as I get closer to the end of a story.
One thing I have certainly learned  is that I really don’t know what my novels are about until I write them. This book was going to be a simple retelling of MacBeth but with an SF setting and playing around with gender to explore the character dynamics in a new light.
It has become a book about human nature, cynicism, culture, and how much do you owe your culture?
Blu-ray Review: In The Loop
So my sweetie-wife and I came across this film, In The loop, when a trailer for it appeared on the blu-ray of Dog Soldiers. The trailer grabbed us and we just knew we had to see this movie.
In The Loop is the story of a build-up to war in the middle east my the USA and Great Britain, but rather than tell a serious tale dealing with Presidents and Prime Ministers this film is farce and centers on the middle management civil servants and elected officials.
The cast is primarily British and unless you follow Brit Tv most of them would be unknown to you. (The phrase in the image to the left should be delivered shouted and in a heavy Scottish accent for full effect.)
There are people trying desperately to stop the up coming war and others equally committed to seeing it realized. If you are humorless when it comes to your recent events and politics then you might want to give this film a pass. However if you can let go of your personal politics and enjoy the madness of rampant cursing Scotsmen, bewildered MPs, conniving suck-ups, General more Political than Military and back stabbing office politics then give this blu-ray a spin.
I was disappointed that there were more bonus features, though the 28 minutes of non-stop deleted scenes were a treasure.
After the cut — the trailer.
Food poisoning
So it seems that last week I was suffering from food poisoning. A friend of mine who had gone with us to JPL’s open house had the same symptoms over the same period of time. In some ways he had it worse because he was vomiting but my symptoms persisted longer. (Perhaps because on the ENbrel medication I am on for arthritis.)
Anyway yesterday was the first day I could eat without stomach cramps. (Though tonight I did have mild cramping after a dinner of fish.)
It has cost me a weeks writing, but I got back onto my horse today and Cawdor is moving forward again.
Been Sick
Sorry I have been away so long my friends but I have been ill.
Now, not all of my absence has been due to the illness. On Sunday , my sweetie-wife, Gun-And Rockets, and myself drove north to Pasadena visiting the Jet Propulsion Lab on their open house. It’s really a geek disneyland with kiosks about their missions, but past and future. It was fun, though my knees hated me by the end of the day.
Anyway I got home way too tired for a Sunday Night Movie.
Monday my throat began to hurt and I did not feel up to making any sort of postings here.
I struggled to work through nasty stomach cramps, but after just two hours I called it quits and returned home and to bed.
I can say I have truly broken in my CPAP machine. When I am sick I sleep. With a fever of 102 I slept a lot, and I used my CPAP machine throughout. Well I missed work the next day and that brigs us up to today.
I made it back to work, struggled through another tough day, then I skipped dinner as my stomach was in no mood for one. Instead I watched Dr Who with my sweetie-wife and finished a round of edits on Cawdor. (More than 60,000 words, 240 pages or past the 2/3rds mark.)
Post Birthday
So yesterday was my Birthday. I celebrated by getting up early and going to see a sleep specialist. He informed me not only do I have sever sleep apnea but I have a jaw that is too small and is contributing to the sleeping problems.
However all was not lost. I did prescribed a CPAP machine and I was told I could pick it up right away. So I left the doctors office and drove to the company suppling the CPAP machine. That went well and from there I made a brief stop over at my work to bring home person items. (My day job is moving to a new location at the end of the month and bringing home your personal items is part of the process.)
I spent the rest of the afternoon with my sweetie-wife getting ready for Birthday celebrations for that evening. People showed up about six thirty and we had a very pleasant evening of chili, cake, conversations, and games.
I went to bed and slept my first night at home with the CPAP machine. It went pretty well, except once during the night I awoke to find I had taken off the mask. I slipped it back on and went back to sleep.
Today I am feeling more refreshed and more energized than I typically do so I think the machine is the right call for me.