Muddlin’ About

Finally over the bout with shingles for the most part and a little frustrated with having even lower than normally low levels of energy. My hands have been too shaky to paint miniatures or work on plastic models, so that has rankled a bit too.

Just finished watching Citizen Kane for review purposes and once again was blown away by what a great film it is.  I’ll have to watch the documentary on the second disc, then do screen captures from both. It is a nice change of pace from the fantasy and science fiction I’ve been writing about and well needed.

Also received a Frank Herbert omnibus with Whipping Star, The Dosadi Experiment, The Santaroga Barrier, and Soul Catcher complete and unabridged in it.  Only read Soul Catcher many years ago and am looking forward to reading about the Bureau of Sabotage in the first two novels.  Glenn Reynolds mentioned the concept of it in a post over at Instapundit earlier in the week and I had to look it up.  Fortunately, I found a cheap used hardcover on Amazon and got it today.

I suppose I should write something positive about some of the good manga and anime out there soon, but I feel like procrastinating on that. It is too easy for me to get burned out on a genre if I have to deal with it for a lengthy amount of time.

Only Now Are They Getting It

There has been no economic recovery.  People need to get that through their heads.  The stimulus was based on the mad idea that you can spend your way out of debt when you have no savings to fall back on. Needless to say, it failed utterly.

Via The Drudge Report, CNBC has a headline that tries to downplay the content of the article.  What Drudge had up is the quote of the article that should have been used.

We’re on the verge of a great, great depression.

Duh. We’ve been in the opening stages of one for years now.  Smoke and mirrors can only get you so far and it looks like people are finally tumbling to the disaster that is already upon us. Take the latest job reports for example. Captain Ed at Hot Air has a good summary of what is going on with that.  Instead of 177,000+ jobs added to the private sector, 38,000 was the figure for May.

It isn’t surprising that the stock market is down from the latest data. What is surprising is how long it took for them to start noticing there was a problem. But I wouldn’t be surprised if they buried their heads in the sand again.  Look at the tone of the first article begging the bears not to rock the boat. It strikes me as desperate.

A great depression is the best case scenario, in my opinion. We may be seeing the eventual fall of the Modern West.

It Appears to Be Shingles, Again

Or how I despise the Herpes Zoster virus.

I’d preferred an allergic reaction, but now that I’m hurting like a band around the chest I recognize the symptoms.  At least it is a light case of it compared to the last time – that episode really hurt. It may be that the pain management I do is helping as well.  So I will have to ride this out, since I hate what prednisone does to me.

Now most people would go to the doctor over any little thing, but I don’t unless I can’t get an illness to end (exempting CFS, of course).  Bronchitis, pre-pneumonia, and sinusitis I’ve had so many times that I’m a pro at dealing with them.  That and antibiotics barely working on me anymore makes the choice to endure rather easy. Not to mention it doesn’t waste more tax payers dollars than necessary.

The itching is at a minimum, at least!

As much as I hate whining, perhaps it would be wise of me to document my health issues for posterity here on the blog.  Somehow, I doubt I’ll be consistent on it. Spreading negativity isn’t my idea of fun and it is inconsiderate of others. But hey, there aren’t that many readers, right? Have to find a silver lining somewhere…

Memorial Day 2011

It feels strangely like the calm before a storm and I’m not talking about the weather.  A feeling of melancholy lingers in the air as I listen to 60’s music while writing this.

While it has been decades since the Vietnam War ended, Memorial Day is reminding me of it and other conflicts, past and present. Names like Bosnia, Gettysburg, Mogadishu, the Ardennes, Bougainville, Restrepo, Fallujah, Normandy, Okinawa, and many more flit through my distracted mind, but Vietnam keeps coming to the fore.  I suppose that is because of my half-brother Steve, who served two tours there.  While he came back unlike those we honor today, he didn’t come back undamaged.

So many have made the ultimate sacrifice for their country and I’m deeply grateful for the lives they led and gave.  In an era of fewer and fewer serving in the military, a price has been paid by the general public.  That price is detachment from the sacrifices made as the burdens have fallen on a shrinking number of families. My prayers and thanks go out to those families.  Let the deaths of those soldiers not just be remembered – let them be not in vain.

Yarg.

Ill again, this time with a spotty rash that started on the face last night after midnight but has spread to the chest and back.  I feel punchy at best and while not having a fever I’m staying put until it clears up.  Hopefully it is an allergic reaction of some kind rather than something communicable.

This is what I get for going out to do things two nights in a row, I suppose.

Thor (2011)

I just got back from seeing Thor in 3D at the Spring Grove Cinema tonight.  It was better than I expected and Kenneth Branagh proved he can handle a big budget action film better than most directors. Clearly his directing got the most from all the actors and nobody acted like they were sleep walking through their part.

The cast was excellent and Chris Hemsworth was perfect as Thor.  But the real scene stealer was Tom Hiddleston as Loki, which is appropriate since Loki is always a scene stealer in the comic books and even the original Norse mythology.  I even like Natalie Portman in it, which is a first for me!  Anyone complaining about Idris Elba playing Heimdall just needs to go see the movie – he captures the gravitas of the character and is a proper guard of the Rainbow Bridge.

While there are plenty of explosions, vicious fights, and effects galore, the main story is very Shakespearean. At the heart of the movie is a classic story about two princes trying to be worthy of their father, Odin the king.  One is fair and foolish, the other dark and cunning, but both crave their father’s love and approval.  A shaky truces between races, old age, and intrigue complicate things enough, but the brash arrogance of Thor starts a tragedy.

Having proven himself to be stupid and vain, Thor gets himself a one way ticket from the realm of Asgard to Midgard, aka Earth, as punishment. Stripped of his powers and rank, he has to prove himself worthy to regain his godhood.  That sets up some of the drama and all of the comedy as we get to see the now mortal god deal with being a mere man. It also is chance for him to gain some humility and find out what really matters through his interaction with Dr. Jane Foster (Portman) and her colleagues.

Effects were excellent, if overwhelming at times.  One scene did annoy me greatly and that was because the humans hit with shattered glass came out of it uncut.  Nice 3D effect, but come on!  The 3D wasn’t that exciting to me and certainly not up to the standards of other films I’ve seen in the format. At least it wasn’t distracting.

Now for some comic book geekery.

The Destroyer was interestingly and well done.  In the comics, it was an engine of destruction capable of taking on gods and it lived up to that. It was a little fragile in this rendition, but it was faithful to the look and menace I remember as a kid.

The art design was a loving tribute to Jack Kirby’s designs and I saw hints of Walter Simonson’s renditions as well. Asgard and Jotunheim were both sufficiently alien to be believable.

The Warriors Three translated well into live action and were the characters I always enjoyed.  The SHIELD agent description of them and Lady Sif cracked me up.

The way Mjolnir was used was faithful in all ways to the comic and we pretty much got to see every variation except one: the ability to transport across dimensions.  Even the twirling was used multiple times.

Hawkeye’s unnamed cameo wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.

All in all, Thor was a good movie. Not a great movie, but a good one. Worth seeing and stay after the credits for a very big hint about The Avengers movie it sets up.

What a Tsunami Does to a Nuclear Power Plant

Over at The Mainichi Daily News they have some amazing photos of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant being hit by the tidal wave. The car being throne up into the building is particularly impressive and give an idea of scale.  It truly shows how gigantic the wave was and it was amazing that events weren’t worse at the reactor – even as bad as they were. 

Looking at this and other articles there, I realized that I want to post about such events here and not on Facebook like I did in March. Things get lost there and aren’t easy to find again for posterity, since it is a very superficial place. Events like the devastation of Japan by the tsunami is not something to readily forget, but human memory is what it is and that is limited.

It will be interesting to see if I can divorce the reality of what happened there from the fantasy of Godzilla movies the next time I watch one. Watching the footage and viewing the photographs was surreal, because in a way I’d already seen things like that happen in Japan thanks to the movies.  These photos did not help with that and I wonder if I’ll be able to enjoy those films again.