Mid-Summer Ramblings: More Meth, Superfolks, and Some Great Canadian Scenery

Ok. Done with Breaking Bad, all 4.5 seasons of it. Interesting show. It's interesting how it goes in tides, where it pushes the characters as far away from likable as possible, and then reels them back in a little ways so that you still want to watch. I almost gave up in late season 3 - there was no one I was really feeling good about. Jesse and Mike appeared as the most likeable characters, and they pulled me through. I almost stopped watching at the end of season 4 too - it seemed like a good place to bring things to an end. And if the rest of the show was an indicator, things would only go downhill from this brief respite. But I was 4/5 of the way through, so I figured I'd see it through to the end. It's really painful to watch, particularly how the White family falls apart. Mike died a good death, I suppose. One of those 'live by the sword, die by the sword' things. I hate how at the end of the first half of the last season things are going well, and Walt is supposed to be likable. I actually found it rather jarring how abruptly he quit considering how fanatical he was about things. I think he'll need to die by the end of the show, possibly in a Scarface-esque standoff. I hope Jesse survives and gets some sort of redemption, maybe in a Horatio-esque fashion. I hope Hank gets closure. I think I want Skylar and the rest of the family to get away in one piece.

I saw Man of Steel the other night. Interesting movie. I think it was pretty well cast (especially the fathers - Russel Crowe and Kevin Kostner were great fits), and the story was pretty solid. Although I wasn't quite sold on the art direction of Krypton, I appreciate the back story to it. Let me clarify; the art direction was incredible (especially the part with the history of Krypton and the computer displays), but it didn't feel like a good fit for the culture. But that's probably the issue - I'm stuck on the Christopher Reeve-era Krypton, that was a bit more peaceful and slick. These ones were more imperial. I appreciated that direction (it explains why they destroyed the planet), but I can't quite shake some of the aesthetic qualities that feel similar to the Gungans from the worst Star Wars movie ever. Total disconnect of visuals and culture types in my head. Anyways, I also appreciated how they also rationalized why/how Superman got his powers. I was REALLY impressed that they followed it up when they brought Lois onboard the ship by giving her a respirated. I like that consistency - they could've made it easy to just have her on the ship like anyone else. Also appreciated was how he wasn't formally called Superman and how they didn't use kryptonite. I'd be happy if they didn't use it in a sequel either, but save it for one or two more movies down the road so that it's actually a threat rather than a cliche. Other notes... Shirtless Clark Kent was disgustingly chiseled. It was kinda gross, personally. Very pretty visuals and explosions and destruction of property. Decent plot. Neat doomsday device. Lois was too action hero-y. Jor-El commanding the ship was awesome. I like how they showed Clark growing up through a bunch of flashpoints. Bonus points for some Canadians mixed into the story. Minus points for the painfully obvious Christian/church scene and an onslaught of product placements. Also, fight scenes. The problem with Superman vs Zod's Super Squad of Seven Superpeeps is that... They're all indestructible. It doesn't matter how many buildings good/bad guys get punched through, or what they're attacked with. Of course they'll survive and shrug it off. They're invibcible. After watching the first half of the first fight scene, it became obvious that there was no suspense during fights. Yes, I get the point, they're beating eachother up and they can't damage eachother. Can we move on with the story, already? Kinda lame, in my opinion.

In other news, FLOODING. That's exciting. I live and work far away from any threatened region, so it's been kind of surreal. This morning I went down to the city core, and while the waters have receded there's plenty of garbage and mud everywhere. It was good to actually go and connect what I've been seeing in the news with an actual experience. Hell, in my area the rain wasn't even that bad.

I bought Scribblenauts on Steam. I thought it would be fun and would run well on my laptop. So far (one hour of mucking around), it's cute, but not quite as fun as I thought. I played Bad Company 2 yesterday. Twas fun. I was hoping to have a new computer by now to do things on (such as BF3), but that didn't pan out. I think the only other game I'm holding out for is Far Cry 3, which I'll keep an eye on for during the Steam Supper sale. Aside from that... I'm not doing much in the way of gaming these days.

Speaking of purchases, I've destroyed large swathes of my budget this month. Particularly due to too much eating out. Some of it planned with people I wanted to have lunch with, some of it was spontaneous, some of it was from social pressure.

Did I mention that I went to Banff?



Yeah, I went to Banff. With my sister/brother-in-law/neice and my other sister. We had a great time. We went to the top of Sulphur mountain. It was pretty awesome, and sickeningly Canadian. You know, trees and rivers and mountains and snow and all that stuff.

And finally, there's a letter in the mail. It bears with it something that's going to have a profound effect on my life, in one of two possible directions. I'll be sitting on pins and needles until it arrives, at which point there will probably be a Big Post.
-Cril

Picture now a car ride through the plains
Where east meets west and only sky remain
Were you faking death to only gain concern?
The cut out lights and signals told us wrong

Damien Jurado - Hoquiam