Virtual Tourist 4/22/12 - Star Wars The Old Republic and Minecraft

Let's see what trouble I've been in the gaming world this past week, shall we? :P (New planet so the bombardment will be heavy! Hee!)

Last few pics of our Republic toons on Balmorra.

Imperial base we ran across. Intimidating isn't it?

Lots of bug flumes spewing green gas.

Close up of a bug flume. Seems more than just bug town have been infected now.

Finally tried to get some pics while in space. Not EASY! I am fighting for my life here. No time to do proper tourism. All space missions are timed. Fun too.

Hubby's smuggler got sent back to Tatooine for a personal mission. I joined him when he ran into some issues.

Loved how the sun was glinting off the sand crawler.

Dune sea. We also went back to the spot with the datacron we'd found before but could not reach. Still didn't find a way (but wait till you get farther down! Bwahahahaha)

Tried to take more space combat pics. 

Love the sun on this one.

We then traveled on to Quesh. Found the officers companion interesting.

Isn't that gorgeous?!

Quesh is a poisoned and polluted planet. Very dark atmosphere literally and figuratively.

Some local Quesh plants.

Yet even here there are things of beauty.

Freshly killed frog thing.

Nasty hunter thing.

Now for my Imperial Spy - she's on Tatooine.

Cool panel array.

Destruction R Us.

Imperial base inside a cliff side.

Ah, home sweet home! Or as my companion said - A piece of Nar Shaddaa.

This poor soul had been taken over by a nano machine infestation guided by a malicious intelligence. He glowed and had weird red vapor. If you click for the larger image, you should be able to see it. 

Ah, Sith guards. So very intimidating.

A field of debris from a crashed spaceship. 

A pissed off sand people mount. Shot him on accident. :( 

Thought this was a cool approach to the hideaway. 

Bwaha bwaha bwahahahaha! Was finally able to find the way over to this datacron! (It shone red when I saw it with my Jedi but white for my spy.) Had to sneak through a high level zone of Sand People and worse past a super nasty one at the final edge, but climbed some rocks to get by.

Finally! After staring off and on at this thing I find my way to you! Aim +3 X-620 Y -25 Z 479. Bwahahahahaha!

Tried to catch the cool graphics that appear when you hit the buttons for a pickup. Hee!

Only a couple of shots for Minecraft this week. Didn't get to play as long as usual.

Tunnel through the jungle. Easier than doing a road up top.

Road construction into a second tunnel. Vegetation is really thick in the jungle biodome. Dang!

Movie Review - Cabin In The Woods

Cabin In The Woods

Starring: Kristen Connolly, Fran Kranz, Chris Hemsworth, Richard Jenkins, Bradley Whitford, Amy Acker, Anna Hutchinson, Jesse Williams, Brian White, Tom Lenk, Sigorney Weaver, Jodelle Ferland, and more.

Directed by: Drew Goddard Written by: Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard Original Music by: David Julyan

Premise: Two couples and a fifth wheel go off to spend the weekend at an isolated cabin. Unbeknownst to them, there are people watching, people who know these college students are about to die and are willing to go to any lengths to make it happen. (Rated R)

Review:


Memorable Quote: "Let's get this party started!"

1) Acting - Thumbs Up - A lot of actors whose work I enjoy graced this movie - Amy Acker and Fran Kranz, who've been part of other Joss Whedon productions; Sigorney Weaver from the Alien films and Avatar; and Jodelle Ferland, who is an expert at looking like a creepy little girl. Acting veterans Bradley Whitford and Richard Jenkins made a great team as the project leads. I must give Kristen Connolly kudos for the 'truth or dare' make out scene. I wanted to applaud as heartily as her mates did. Tim De Zarn was creepy as could be and hilarious during the phone conversation scene.

2) Special Effects - Total Thumbs Up - Someone had a lot of fun making lots and lots of blood and then coming up with interesting ways to splash it around. Towards the end, the blood made wonderful statements without the need for words. Kudos for the beautiful eagle scene not far from the beginning of the film. The motorcycle jump was superb. Some of the entities seen later in the film were definitely fabulous.

3) Plot/Story - Total Thumbs Up - The beauty of this film was the story. A slowly unfolding set of events with hints given throughout as to what was being done and why. Many tongue-in-cheek moments as Mutant Enemy took this genre and others and played with the usual cliches and twisted them, made them into something new, or forced them to happen as those in the film were not falling for it. (I can't say too much. The film is better appreciated by knowing as little as possible before hand.) There are a ton of genre related in-jokes as well.

4) Locations/Cinematography - Total Thumbs Up - Some real and some CGI locations but all outstanding. I loved the play with camera angles, especially on the final approach to the cabin. The scene with the eagle was beautiful and breathtaking. The panning back sequence from the elevator said all there needed to be said. They did a nice job with the cabin as well. Looked pretty much like a dump on the outside and surprisingly decent, and weird, in the inside.

5) Costuming/Makeup - Thumbs Up - The guys will very much enjoy the costuming for the two college coed leads. The makeup for the undead was well done. The makeup for Phantasm's cousin even more so.  

Conclusion: If you're a fan of Joss Whedon or a fan of horror movies, this is for you. Modern horror movie fans may find it a little tame, but the deviation from the norm will make it totally worth it.

Rating: 4.25 out of 5 (No Hubby Rating This Week)

Picture Kaleidoscope 4/18/12

Happy Wednesday!

Flying saucers anyone? Hee!

Bruschetta Appetizer at Macaroni Grill - Mmmmm. Though it was lunch time, it was dark enough the flash came on. 

Chicken Milanese. Just can't take an appetizing picture of this one even though it's so good! lol.

Tried hard to capture the cool grays and blues in the sky from Monday, but the color was changing fast as the sun rose and before I could come to a stop somewhere. Bummer.

The Sky is Burning by Mishbahul Munir. Wow!

RUSH HOUR from Wilson Axpe.

Horizon from NASA. 

Studying the Edge of Space from NASA. Chemicals released to see the edge and jet streams. Kinda cool!

Hope the rest of your week is awesome!

Mind Sieve 4/16/12

Monday, Monday!

Official Zetman Trailer. Ah, destruction as only anime can. lol. 

Kinect Star Wars Light Saber Duel. I was dying! Dying! lol. It's so bad. lol.

A new Woody Allen Film - To Rome With Love. 

Total Recall Trailer! Woot!

The Dictator Trailer 2. Crazy stuff! lol. 

RUIN a cool animated short!

Designing From Bones - Isle of Dystopia from Gene Lempp. Wicker Man! Wicker Man! Just saying... :P

Understanding Author Platform Part 2 - All The World Wide Web's A Stage from Kristen Lamb.

3 Important Steps For Your Vlog by yours truly. (You've been warned!)

The Wonderful World of Tweetdeck and Twitter Management from The Writer's Guide To E Publishing. Ooo, time to update my Tweetdeck!

From Chuck (NSFW) Wendig - How To Be A Full-time Writer - A "25 Things You Should Know" Investigative Report. As always, so utterly right and illuminating! Go Chuck! Go Beard!

How To Outline Any Piece Of Writing from Aliventures. I definitely liked how she coped with fiction novel outlining. Because it is totally true, sometimes they decide to go places you never saw coming. :P

Huh, this week's post went rather smoothly. Who knew? Enjoy!

Virtual Tourist - Star Wars The Old Republic and Minecraft 4/15/12

Morning!

Let's start with Balmorra and the Republic.

Imperial stronghold area.

Ah, this Sith I'd met before. She was the woman placed in charge of putting Balmorra under heel when I first came here as an Imperial Spy. I'd left things wrapped up quite nicely. Then here comes my Jedi Consular and she's brought the Sith woman to ruin. Was fun seeing the storylines connect like this.

The Empire's super weapon. Makes most normal weaponry malfunction.

Yes, I know, "what? another picture of Balmora's skies?" What can I say, it fascinates me.

Some special Imperial flyers we got to destroy. 

Mid destruction pics. Heh heh.

A really lovely set of waterfalls.

YES! Another Holo/Datacron! Woot! 

View as we struggled for an hour to figure out how to get to it! (We went the hard way. Sigh. Quite easy once we really figured it out.

Aha! Found you!

X -771 Y 2050 Z139 Willpower +4 Booyah!

Now for Tatooine with my spy.

Some super cool lit mushrooms in a cave.

Giant dead thing in the same cave. Poor thing.

Sand People cloth with much needed information on a lost corporation site. (Yeah, some one I already had fun with with my Jedi. Can't wait to see how this one goes a different direction. Heh)

Back to Balmorra.

The big Legacy 1.2 update happened this week. First thing we found, synchronous dancing with your companion. Yay! (Hey, it's important!) 

Approach to Bug Town, where the Republic is holed up. 

Hah! Synchronous dancing with my spy. Hee! (What?)

Minecraft

Blacksun and Perelay have done a bunch of work. This is their place from a distance.

Interior of the open area.

The netherbrick is looking pretty cool.

Ah! My road! My first road since we've had to start over. Nothing like seeing the sucker glow in the night.

Magic room.

Finally found the second village. Spent the night safely indoors at the church. The zombies who've been banging on the door just caught fire in the growing sunlight. Yes!

Long tunnel in the nether and here's one of the denizens. Bad hygiene for sure. :P

Nether plant. For some potions? J had a nice little patch growing. He lives so far away from everyone else, they built a shortcut through the Nether to get to him. Dang!

J's bridge to his watermelon and pumpkin fields.

J's front.

View of J's place from the bridge.

Inside J's place. Swanky!

Heard there were multiple sandstone styles so did a little experiment while waiting for night to pass. Top are 'hieroglyph' sandstone (not impressed - thought it would be more hieroglyphy). Bottom has 2 regular sandstone and a smoother sandstone.  

The jungle by village 2. Building a road through there is proving challenging. Whee!

Hope everyone is having an awesome weekend!