What´s my/your current reading/viewing/playing amusement?

[Dave Syrinx]

Number one works, but the second I´ll have to up once more.

[Mr. Handy]

The other three PDFs are just as messed up as the first two. I cannot access the ones on Dropbox, as I don't have an account there.

[Dave Syrinx]

OK, this turned out to be more work than I anticipated. I brushed up some screen dumps in Photobucket and attached them to an Articles thread. I´ll post the text in a quote post after the jpegs. I´ll get the other articles up later.
I hope this way works for you guys.

/Dave

[Mr. Handy]

Thanks! It might take me some time to read all that.

[Dave Syrinx]

We have all the time in the world, right?
Feels great not to work against a deadline.

[Dave Syrinx]

Just watched Source Code, with Jake Gyllenhaal.
I watched it with no prior knowledge - that´s the best way to see films! And was pleasantly surprised.


Spoilers

Spoiler:

Quite a good take on Groundhog day from -93.
The time frame, for the episodes in the film, could work for a segment at the Aquitania scenario. Where the PCs work towards the clock to get a puzzle right. Strict time management and multiple tries.

[zielonobrody]

Currently reading:
Bauchelain and Korbal Broach novels by Steven Erikson. These are much simpler and easier to read than the whole Malazan series, which I've found make me use my brain while reading. The guy is the Tolkien of our time, a real pleasure to read some high literature in the loads of crap we're bound to read.
Speaking of crap, I've been rereading the Harry Potter series for some light reading. These books don't require much brain usage Which is pleasant after a month of physics of optics day in day out.
I've also started reading a history of Poland pre- WW1 to almost present day.
Yes, I multitask, but it's hard to read anything consuming with a year old girl runninga around the same room

Currently watching:
Would like to see Dexter season 2 sometime soon. Also House season 7 is halfway through, and I'll be seeing the Game of Thrones which is an all time fav book of mine.
I don't watch many movies, but I finally bought the Dark Knight DVD and intend to see it soon.

Haven't had much time for anything lately, so there's lot's of catching up to do. I saw a bit of "the great escape" recently. I decided I have to watch it. Also have the dirty dozen lined up (book).

If looking for aquatic adventures and ideas, definitely read some Clive Cussler books. Sahara is a classic bestseller with a film on top of it (that wasn't all that great, but fun to watch).

It's good to see people of totally different interests here

[Mr. Handy]

I just finished The Gap into Power: A Dark and Hungry God Arises, the third book out of five in Stephen Donaldson's Gap Cycle. I read the first two books a couple of years ago and just got back into them after a long break. I'd forgotten how good they are. Syrinx first pointed me towards them, as he used the character of Morn Hyland as the inspiration for one of his characters in my Zombie Apocalypse game. I'm planning to read the fourth book (The Gap into Madness: Chaos and Order) soon, but I just got the new Mongoose Publishing version of Lone Wolf Book 15: The Darke Crusade (part of an epic gamebook campaign), so I'll be reading that next.

My Doctor Who marathon is nearing the end of Season 17, and I'm 3/4 of the way through The Horns of Nimon. Next up is Shada (or at least what exists of it), also written by Douglas Adams. Last year I saw the animated version of this with the Eighth Doctor (Paul McGann) instead of Tom Baker along with Lalla Ward as Romana and John Leeson as K-9 instead of David Brierley. That's a great story, and it's a shame they never managed to finish it. I'm getting to the end of Doctor Who's Golden Age, so it kind of goes downhill from here, but there are still some gems to come.

Oh, and I've just rediscovered Star Blazers! I first saw it over thirty years ago and used to watch it all the time when I was little. Now that I'm older, I finally get some of the aspects of it that I had completely missed then. Star Blazers (and the original Japanese version, Space Battleship Yamato) is the granddaddy of anime, and there was nothing else like it in its time. SyFy finally brought it back to TV, but they put it in an awful timeslot: two episodes from 2:00-3:00 AM every Friday morning. I can't stay up that late, and I'm having a problem with my VCR, so I've been watching it on YouTube instead.

[zielonobrody]

There's a lot of cool stuff to be taken from the Scooby Doo series, I'm sure. I hope to watch some soon Space Ghost was a favorite of mine too.

[Airbornexo]

Currently reading: Just started Game of Thrones, as I liked the look of the series pilot (not watched the rest yet), just finished a steampunk novel called Terminal World that was pretty good. I returned to Abnett's Ghost's novels frequently and also Lovecraft's main earth based works but have always struggled to get into the dreamlands with the exception of the Carter cycle. I also enjoy Cussler and have read nearly all of them - good 'popcorn' novels.

Currently watching: Finished a CSI marathon of seasons 9 & 10 last night, I do like that show and also watch it with the wife. Next up on the slate is criminal minds boxed set of s3. Literally cannot wait for the adventures of Sam and Dean Winchester to start up again next week in S6 (no spoilers please), I think that might be my favourite show on TV.

Also watching all of BSG again from the start as they have double bills on my satellite network. Another must not miss for me is Castle starring Nathan (Firefly) Fillion as a writer working with the NYPD, cheesy but fantastic. As I have had a week's vacation I can also not get enough of The Wire, which again I've started from S1 and am mid way through S2 now.

Movies: Cannot be arsed with film at the minute, I quite enjoyed the last Harry Potter and will be waiting for the final instalment as I haven't read the books beyond Order of the Phoenix. Last film I really loved was:



Cheers, Hal

[Dave Syrinx]

Welcome to our reading/writing/watching corner Hal. We have some varied tastes and all seem to have the time watch and read some. Regarding Game of Thrones, I started to read the latest novel, A feast for Crows, but it went missing when my car got stolen. Got the car back but not the book . Now, I´m watching the series and it´s quite good but very comprised.

Never saw Supernatural, might give it a go.

Now, I´m off to the beach to get some tan and read the first three chapters of The Dead White World.

[Airbornexo]

Supernatural (despite all the promos that tell you it is a girly show like vampire diaries or some such cack) is about as close to a CoC modern TV series as I have seen. Occasionally it gets bogged in a 'creature of the week' or some crazy religious-war overtones. But seriously it is a massive winner! Give it a go, but make sure you watch from season 1 for maximum viewer pleasure.

http://www.tv-links.eu/tv-shows/Supernatural_656/ enjoy!

PS and there's enough hot chicks in it to keep the fellas interested as well.

Cheers, Hal

[Dave Syrinx]

Yes, I sure will. Like Chuck then? Modern investigative agents with hot girls!
What did you think about the background material for the scenarios btw? We haven´t got around to much writing yet, but the general idea is out there.

[Mr. Handy]

Welcome, Hal!

I recently finished Chaos and Order, and I went to the library today to return it and get the final Gap Cycle book, The Gap into Ruin: This Day All Gods Die, only to find that the room where the books are kept is being renovated and all the books put into storage. They won't be accessible again until January, and this is the only copy the library has in the entire city. So it's back to Lone Wolf for now. My recent attempt at Book 15 started out well, but my carefully cultivated character died at the end because of a random unavoidable instant death. I'd gotten past quite a few of these throughout the series, but this one was worse in that it has a 20% chance of killing you instead of 10%, and there's nothing you can do about it. I'll be starting over from Book 1 and try to get through the series again before Book 16 comes out.

I'm finishing up Season 18 in my Doctor Who marathon. I'm currently in the middle of Logopolis, Tom Baker's last story. I remember watching it when it was new 30 years ago. I've also finished the first 20 episodes of Star Blazers, with 6 more left in the first season. SyFy has moved its timeslot up a little, but 1:00-2:00 AM is still too late. Next week it'll be from 12:30-1:30 AM and I can sleep late the following day, so I think I'll watch it on TV then, but otherwise I'm stuck with the low quality YouTube videos.

[zielonobrody]

There seems to be a new series out called Teen Wolf. Lot's of lacrosse, so I'll have to check it out I'm going to have to stop watching Game of Thrones until my wife reads the book, so we can watch together. Loving it so far. Feast for Crows was worse than the first three. I hope the next one is better.
Started reading the Wheel of Time series again, as I got book 12 as a present but I seem to have totally forgotten what was going on in book 11, so I decided to start over and relive the fun I also received a Kindle 3.0 in the meantime so I'm reading on that, as my books are starting to fall apart, and I'm missing books 7 and 8 which I lended out and didn't get back.
Started watching True Grit today, but I'll leave it for the evening with the wife. Looks like a good one Can't wait to see X-men: first class and Kung Fu Panda 2. Had fun watching The Hangover, might catch the second sometime.

[Mr. Handy]

The first ten books of The Wheel of Time plus an introduction (The Strike at Shayol Ghul) and a prequel are a free download on the Android Market; you just have to put up with some ads that pop up and cover the page navigation buttons. I started reading the intro, but haven't had much time to get into it.

I may be able to get the last book in the Gap Cycle a lot sooner through Interlibrary Loan, as there are copies at universities in town. I requested it, but it's possible I won't be able to pick it up, as I work 9-5 during the week and there might not be a way to pick it up on weekends. In the meantime, I found a sample online that had the first three chapters, so I devoured those.

I finished Logopolis and plan to start watching Castrovalva, the first Doctor Who story to star Peter Davison, tomorrow. I finished Season 1 of Star Blazers and am about five episodes into Season 2 now.

[Dave Syrinx]

Video diving for a while over here. Found one gem:




Some neat close encounters . I watched the dubbed version. From French to English.

[Mr. Handy]

Nice! I generally prefer subtitles to dubbing. I do like Star Blazers, which uses dubbing, but one of these days I'd like to see Space Battleship Yamato in the original Japanese with English subtitles. I do know some Japanese, which is helpful, but not enough to follow it without the subtitles. I finished Season 2 of Star Blazers and saw the beginning of the first of two movies that takes place between Seasons 2 and 3. These movies are only in Japanese, but they have subtitles.

I'm currently reading The Gap into Ruin: This Day All Gods Die, which finally came in a little over a week ago. I'm just over 40% done, and things are really getting good!

My Doctor Who marathon is in the middle of Season 19 now, early in The Visitation (Peter Davison's fourth story).

[Dave Syrinx]

This cat has never watched Dr Who. Maybe I will give it a go? Anyway, I saw some episodes of Supernatural and found it quite good. Still, I prefer Chuck - no angels and mythos but a good sense of "this could be a rpg session" feel to it.

On Midsummer´s Eve I had a look at The Dunwich Horror (1970) - for the first time. I didn´t know Dean Stockwell had done that great amount of films! The library scenes worked out quite well and had the feel of what might have passed in Masks, and some of the scenes could work in a trailer for that campaign, Airbornexo...

On that note I stumbled upon a review site: Beasts in Human Skin Mountain of the Cannibal God (1978) could be something similar to The mountain of the Black Wind? I´ll have a look

Apocalypto - some neat sacrificial scenes.

Besides Mountain of the Cannibal God, I´ve put a few more films on my watch list.



Vampire flick with HPL influentions, I think I read that Medusa’s Coil by H. P. Lovecraft and Zealia Bishop was an inspiration to the film. Have to see it to be sure.

From the review site, I had to watch Just for the Deep Ones similarity. Guess there´s a certain boob warning here.
I watched Pirahna (2010) the other day and thought that the clicketi click sound when the fish came, would work as mood setter in a table RPG, just drum with the fingers against the table! Hilarius take on the music dum, dum, dum - from Jaws

On a completely different note I decided to watch this one!


A pastiche of James Bond, duh?! Well, it got to be an early version of Shagalicious

Which makes me remember this old game:

Excuse my ranting and non stop image dropping. Must be the-day-after-remedy of ten cups of coffee talking. Cheers! Off to watch those flicks now!

/Dave

[Mr. Handy]

Doctor Who is definitely worth it. I'd start with the classic series. The new series is kind of different, and you'll probably appreciate it more and get the references to the classic series if you're familiar with it first. I finished The Visitation, but I'm watching the new Series 6 Part 1 episodes on On Demand in HD before they fall off before I watch the bonus features and then move on to the short but sweet Black Orchid, which is set in the 1920s and has a certain Lovecraftian vibe, though there are no monsters/aliens in it. It was the first pure historical adventure in a very long time, and the last one they made.

I've passed the halfway mark in This Day All Gods Die. Just keeps getting better and better! Can't wait to find out what happens next, but also don't want it to end.

I've seen the 1970 version of The Dunwich Horror, but it's been a while. Dean Stockwell has been in many movies for well over 60 years now (he started as a child), in addition to TV series such as Quantum Leap and the new Battlestar Galactica.

I saw Apocalypto once before too, but my memories of it are a little hazy.

That cover's from the 1996 remake of Humanoids from the Deep. I saw that one (an edited version on SciFi) before I ever saw the (unedited) 1980 one, which is even more boob-filled. I haven't seen the 1996 version since then, but the explanation for the creatures' existence was less implausible in that one. I've never seen the 2010 Pirahna, but I did see the original 1978 movie long ago.

I've seen both Our Man Flint and In Like Flint years ago. Classic spy shenanigans! I've seen all three Austin Powers movies, but the only one I watched recently was Goldmember. And I love No One Lives Forever! I haven't played those games in so long, but I still have them. I have the Game of the Year Edition of the first game with a bonus mission, the second game, and Contract J.A.C.K., where you play a hit man who gets caught up in the middle of things in a story set between NOLF 1 and 2.