Watched this with M1k3y and his dead-Xbox-owning friend. Big, loud, grainy fun. Showed them Ratchet & Clank and Uncharted as well. Suspect I might have sold a PS3 for Sony, and probably a projector also…

I need a new amp with HDMI for lossless audio, and a big, tight subwoofer…

THIS… IS… CAKETOWN!

Wordpress exploded on the theme I’m using, and naturally the theme author no longer maintains it. Fortunately, my Google-fu is strong. The theme is back up and running - lemme know if anything… odd.. happens.

And Vetti, come watch a film with us!

I finished watching the director’s cut of Kingdom of Heaven on Blu-ray last night. My opinion basically echoes most reviews on the net - Orlando Bloom just isn’t up to the task but he’s not screamingly awful, and Ridley Scott surrounded him with extremely talented actors who made his shortcomings more obvious. I mean… David Thewlis, Edward Norton, Liam Neeson and Jeremy Irons. That’s a damn high bar to reach.

Visually and aurally, the disc is terrific - an early battle scene was incredibly visceral, with arrows flying through the frame (and the soundfield) with extraordinary power. The story is dense enough that I think I’m going to need to rewatch it to catch everything, and the costuming and set design was extremely similar to Assassin’s Creed, so I guess AC must be historically accurate.

I did a bit of Wikipedia-digging to find out more about the Crusades and leprosy, so I guess the film inspired me to learn something, which can’t be a bad thing.

I need to fix my theme after updating Wordpress with the latest security patches. Things should be back to normal soon… ish.

A cool little webpage here shows the relative quality difference between a standard DVD and a high definition disc (in this case, HD-DVD). Look at Naomi Watt’s face in particular.

I’m noticing in a lot of side-by-side comparison shots (examples here) the high-definition image is so detailed that you notice mistakes in costumes and make-up (hey, Mystique’s ridges are peeling off!), and contact lenses in period dramas become a real concern.

The sales figures for the first week after Warner announced they were going with Blu-ray exclusively are in… and it’s a bloodbath for HD-DVD.

We watched Corpse Bride tonight on Blu-ray, the first full HD film I’ve watched on the projector. Looked fantastic, a great transfer with wonderful colours; completely different to watching a DVD on a television. Sound-wise it was a basic Dolby Digital 5.1 track, which is all the disc contains.

I can’t wait to watch The Shining. I haven’t seen it for years, and that was on laserdisc.

…completely LOLSloths.

Just last night I was telling Crumpet that I was feeling bad that I hadn’t bought any new music lately… then this morning I start listening to my leftover SXSW songs and find “Polynesia” by a Canadian band called Mother Mother. If the Pixies could do this well on their next album, I’ll be happy as a clam.

Listen! Embrace!

Tomorrow is inspection day, when the landlady is personally going through the house and won’t fail to notice the shelf I fitted in the loungeroom.

I did a good, clean job with only six screws, so it shouldn’t be an issue. The rest of the house is looking pretty decent and Crumpet is home today tidying her room. I’ll finish cleaning the geek room, kitchen and lounge when I get home tonight. It should be fine.

Immediately after the inspection (assuming we’re not kicked out), I’ll fit curtains.
Who wants to come around for a movie night, anyhow? Let me know.