Wasted Days and Wasted Gas...

Was planning on liquidating the better items (including the furniture) from the flea market endeavor at an auction in Jasper today. Drove to Jasper, a trip which involves a very busy, very narrow two-lane bridge in the middle of a causeway across a mostly silted-up reservoir. Nerves raw, transmission overworked- quite a few hills. Got there and was told sorry, no room for your stuff, you should have called ahead. (I -did- call, kept getting answering machines or no answer.)

Used cel phone (for a change), arranged to drop stuff off tomorrow at an auction in Spring (extreme north Houston- not quite to the Woodlands). That auction is Saturday night, so I'm going to use that auction as an excuse to be in Houston Friday evening and Saturday all day at OwlCon for some gaming.

Found a mediocre Chinese place in a strip mall next to a uber-fundie church, had some moo goo gai pan, got my fortune cookie, which read, verbatim, letter for letter:

"Striving for the best will bring you loser to the best."

Deteriorata... Deteriorata...

I am a fluke of the universe. I have no right to be here. Whether I can hear it or not, the universe is laughing behind my back.

I believe I'll go watch the H2G2 movie (thank you, Blockbuster.com) and contemplate how much different life would be with a restore-to-saved-game feature...

Wasted Days and Wasted Gas...

Was planning on liquidating the better items (including the furniture) from the flea market endeavor at an auction in Jasper today. Drove to Jasper, a trip which involves a very busy, very narrow two-lane bridge in the middle of a causeway across a mostly silted-up reservoir. Nerves raw, transmission overworked- quite a few hills. Got there and was told sorry, no room for your stuff, you should have called ahead. (I -did- call, kept getting answering machines or no answer.)

Used cel phone (for a change), arranged to drop stuff off tomorrow at an auction in Spring (extreme north Houston- not quite to the Woodlands). That auction is Saturday night, so I'm going to use that auction as an excuse to be in Houston Friday evening and Saturday all day at OwlCon for some gaming.

Found a mediocre Chinese place in a strip mall next to a uber-fundie church, had some moo goo gai pan, got my fortune cookie, which read, verbatim, letter for letter:

"Striving for the best will bring you loser to the best."

Deteriorata... Deteriorata...

I am a fluke of the universe. I have no right to be here. Whether I can hear it or not, the universe is laughing behind my back.

I believe I'll go watch the H2G2 movie (thank you, Blockbuster.com) and contemplate how much different life would be with a restore-to-saved-game feature...

Just watched the Disney version of H2G2...

... and all in all, I'm glad I didn't spend money on it. If I'd gone to the theater, I'd have walked out of the theater with the opening credits.

That said, I don't actually know yet if I like it or hate it. You see, there are large parts I really, really like, and large parts I really, really, REALLY hate. The parts I like tend to be those which come direct from the old story, plus one new item- no spoilers.

The parts I did NOT like:

(1) Zaphod. Zaphod is not funny. He's not entertaining. He is FUCKING ANNOYING. Worst of all, he is not even the least little bit charismatic... and charisma is supposed to be nine-tenths of his character. The explanation for his second head is barely given, and when said second head is removed midway through, it feels less like a plot point than a way of ditching a plot device that just doesn't work. There really isn't a single bit Zaphod is in that I liked at all.

(2) The Arthur-Trillian Hollywood-style romance. Not only does it not work- at all- not only is it cliche as all hell- but it is so obviously superfluous to the story that it scalds the eyeballs.

(3) Compression, especially in the early parts, as material is cut, cropped, stuffed and overlaid so that the vital points from the earlier versions may be crammed in... to make room for the long, empty, dreary bits like, for example, the entire Vogsphere sequence. A lot of the "new" stuff could have been ditched; but if it was necessary, then guys, you should have made the rest of the movie as dense and rich as the early parts. And you didn't.

Later this week, before I send the thing back, I'll re-watch it with commentary tracks and see if they mention what is and isn't Adams' work. (Not that that means much; I thought Mostly Harmless was a crappy book, representing a deliberate attempt to kill off the novels. I prefer to pretend it was never written.)

Overall, visually wonderful, storywise... very depressing.

(Oh, and guys, could you have made Marvin a little less obviously guy-in-a-suit? Even the TV series Marvin was better than -that-...)

Just watched the Disney version of H2G2...

... and all in all, I'm glad I didn't spend money on it. If I'd gone to the theater, I'd have walked out of the theater with the opening credits.

That said, I don't actually know yet if I like it or hate it. You see, there are large parts I really, really like, and large parts I really, really, REALLY hate. The parts I like tend to be those which come direct from the old story, plus one new item- no spoilers.

The parts I did NOT like:

(1) Zaphod. Zaphod is not funny. He's not entertaining. He is FUCKING ANNOYING. Worst of all, he is not even the least little bit charismatic... and charisma is supposed to be nine-tenths of his character. The explanation for his second head is barely given, and when said second head is removed midway through, it feels less like a plot point than a way of ditching a plot device that just doesn't work. There really isn't a single bit Zaphod is in that I liked at all.

(2) The Arthur-Trillian Hollywood-style romance. Not only does it not work- at all- not only is it cliche as all hell- but it is so obviously superfluous to the story that it scalds the eyeballs.

(3) Compression, especially in the early parts, as material is cut, cropped, stuffed and overlaid so that the vital points from the earlier versions may be crammed in... to make room for the long, empty, dreary bits like, for example, the entire Vogsphere sequence. A lot of the "new" stuff could have been ditched; but if it was necessary, then guys, you should have made the rest of the movie as dense and rich as the early parts. And you didn't.

Later this week, before I send the thing back, I'll re-watch it with commentary tracks and see if they mention what is and isn't Adams' work. (Not that that means much; I thought Mostly Harmless was a crappy book, representing a deliberate attempt to kill off the novels. I prefer to pretend it was never written.)

Overall, visually wonderful, storywise... very depressing.

(Oh, and guys, could you have made Marvin a little less obviously guy-in-a-suit? Even the TV series Marvin was better than -that-...)

Poetry Time:

The most wonderful thing about titties
Is titties are wonderful things
They bounce like India rubber
They wobble around in their slings
They're roly poly Jello bowly
Full of fun fun fun fun
And the most wonderful thing about titties is
You don't have to stop with one

Poetry Time:

The most wonderful thing about titties
Is titties are wonderful things
They bounce like India rubber
They wobble around in their slings
They're roly poly Jello bowly
Full of fun fun fun fun
And the most wonderful thing about titties is
You don't have to stop with one