Weekend rundown
Well, I'm sure I'm not the only one whose weekend just flew by. I did some work on the next Girlz 'N' Games web comic - due for debut this week - and reconfirmed my belief that slightly tackly, slighty run down family-run restaurants have so much more character, and are therefore so much more enjoyable as eating experiences than the latest overpriced trend-slut hangouts. Yup, this weekend I actually sat down and dined (doing the whole 6 course meal thing) at the Unforgettable Chinese Restaurant at Sandy Centre, Pinetown - a place that most locals treat as an excellent take-away but nothing more. My hand still hurts from the frenzied chopstick use.
Otherwise, in terms of pop culture consumption, it was largely a weekend of Gaming and Film.
In terms of Gaming, there was a mix of video gaming, board gaming and tabletop pen-and-paper role playing. The video gaming was, as usual, World of WarCraft playing, although this weekend I actually did get to do some questing with my paladin instead of money-making with my professions for a change. Oh and he now looks like this - doing nothing to dispel the commonly held belief that all blood elf males are gay:
Although, I think removing his plate crop top helps to reduce the gayness of his look a little bit. Here's one for the ladies:
Herkon the WOW paladin is, of course, based on my D&D character, who is apparently nearing the end of our 3 year+ campaign. On Saturday, our heroes reached the ice city of a Misherak, the powerful, centuries-old dragon lich. Thing is, Misherak is now under the control of Veckna, one of the planar beings (with their armies) that entered the Empire via portals over the past few years. Having recently defeated the last remaining celestial forces on our plane, demon Veckna has claimed the title of "god of our plane", and we have maybe a week or so to stop him before his deity powers kick in and he becomes too powerful.
We ended our weekly D&D session on a cliffhanger, with a shadowy flying creature swooping down on us as we sneaked into Misherak's apparently deserted city. This week we'll be starting with combat so let's hope the dice rolling goes a lot better than it has been recently - else there's probably going to be level drain and death on the cards.
Speaking of dice rolling, I had 2 shocking games of Settlers of Catan on Saturday evening, largely due to the fact that my numbers were never rolled and I just could not build up resources to do anything. The fact that we were playing the expansions of the original game, Seafarers of Catan and Cities & Knights of Catan, didn't help speed up proceedings as A) more complex gameplay means longer player turns, and B) we had to continually pause to refamiliarise ourselves with the more complicated rules.
Film watching this weekend was confined to revisiting older favourites. We eschewed the MNET Sunday night movie, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crappy Skull in favour of Hot Fuzz, easily one of the best action-comedies of the past decade. Simultaneously poking fun at small town English life, and big budget buddy cop movies, this British film really is a well-crafted blast. The more times you watch it, the more intricate details and witty dialogue you notice.
The other film I re-watched was Hellboy II: The Golden Army. There's no doubt about it, the film has a number of flaws, mostly related to an over-reliance on coincidence to drive the storyline. Otherwise, though, the film is a visual feast packed with clever, memorably dark treatments of fantasy creatures. Plus, and this is a biggie, scroll up to the pics of my WOW paladin and then look at the still below, and you realise that director Guillermo del Toro has achieved the near impossible: he has created high elves who are genuinely badass - in appearance and action. I much preferred The Golden Army to the original Hellboy, and it may just find its way into my DVD collection soon.
Otherwise, in terms of pop culture consumption, it was largely a weekend of Gaming and Film.
In terms of Gaming, there was a mix of video gaming, board gaming and tabletop pen-and-paper role playing. The video gaming was, as usual, World of WarCraft playing, although this weekend I actually did get to do some questing with my paladin instead of money-making with my professions for a change. Oh and he now looks like this - doing nothing to dispel the commonly held belief that all blood elf males are gay:
Although, I think removing his plate crop top helps to reduce the gayness of his look a little bit. Here's one for the ladies:
Herkon the WOW paladin is, of course, based on my D&D character, who is apparently nearing the end of our 3 year+ campaign. On Saturday, our heroes reached the ice city of a Misherak, the powerful, centuries-old dragon lich. Thing is, Misherak is now under the control of Veckna, one of the planar beings (with their armies) that entered the Empire via portals over the past few years. Having recently defeated the last remaining celestial forces on our plane, demon Veckna has claimed the title of "god of our plane", and we have maybe a week or so to stop him before his deity powers kick in and he becomes too powerful.
We ended our weekly D&D session on a cliffhanger, with a shadowy flying creature swooping down on us as we sneaked into Misherak's apparently deserted city. This week we'll be starting with combat so let's hope the dice rolling goes a lot better than it has been recently - else there's probably going to be level drain and death on the cards.
Speaking of dice rolling, I had 2 shocking games of Settlers of Catan on Saturday evening, largely due to the fact that my numbers were never rolled and I just could not build up resources to do anything. The fact that we were playing the expansions of the original game, Seafarers of Catan and Cities & Knights of Catan, didn't help speed up proceedings as A) more complex gameplay means longer player turns, and B) we had to continually pause to refamiliarise ourselves with the more complicated rules.
Film watching this weekend was confined to revisiting older favourites. We eschewed the MNET Sunday night movie, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crappy Skull in favour of Hot Fuzz, easily one of the best action-comedies of the past decade. Simultaneously poking fun at small town English life, and big budget buddy cop movies, this British film really is a well-crafted blast. The more times you watch it, the more intricate details and witty dialogue you notice.
The other film I re-watched was Hellboy II: The Golden Army. There's no doubt about it, the film has a number of flaws, mostly related to an over-reliance on coincidence to drive the storyline. Otherwise, though, the film is a visual feast packed with clever, memorably dark treatments of fantasy creatures. Plus, and this is a biggie, scroll up to the pics of my WOW paladin and then look at the still below, and you realise that director Guillermo del Toro has achieved the near impossible: he has created high elves who are genuinely badass - in appearance and action. I much preferred The Golden Army to the original Hellboy, and it may just find its way into my DVD collection soon.
Comments
Now look at what you've reduced me to - discussing the sexual orientation of a digital game character.
I hate prolongued scenes where characters are supposed to show how awesome they are with a sword or spear or whatever weapon.
MJenks, lol, very true! The kata sequence has always been a staple of these kind of films.