Posts filed in Pleasant surprises

Even a pessimist can be pleasantly surprised at times. In fact, we’re probably pleasantly surprised more often than more optimistic people. After all, everything can’t go wrong all the time, while by the same token everything can’t go well all the time. Anyway, I’m usually pleasantly surprised mainly by some movie or other, or by myself, in fact. I mean, I think of myself as a lazy underachiever, so when I actually manage to do something right, I’m pleasantly surprised.

A Case of Tolkien Hommage

“I tipped an imaginary hat to him. ‘At your service.’
‘Yours and your family’s,’ he replied politely.”
— Kvothe and Stanchion,
The Name of the Wind, page 374.

Ninja Scroll

My Exalted GM is always complaining that I don’t get into the spirit of the game enough (a spirit which can be summed up as “there is no such thing as over the top!”, and yes, they use that exclamation mark), so I thought I’d check out one of the movies that are recommended in [...]

The Princess Bride

In the latest issue of SFX (that I’ve got my hands on, at any rate), Neil Gaiman said something along the lines of, “Stardust will fall into that same genre in which The Princess Bride has been hanging around in all by itself for the past 20 years.” That’s the gist of it. And seeing [...]

Norske språklyder

Jeg kan hverken fatte eller begripe at Gudene har sett med slik velvilje på meg, og latt noen skape dette fantastiske programmet, utelukkende for min convenience. Jeg føler meg som universets navle. Eller, navler er egentlig ikke så jævla tøffe. La oss gå for øyesten.
Ja, øyesten høres bedre ut. (Ikke dermed sagt at det er [...]

X-Men: The Last Stand

I hadn’t watched this one since it was in theaters, so it was about bloody time I got around to it again. I guess I might have been postponing it for the last year or so because I wasn’t too impressed with the movie the first time I watched it. I thought they’d crammed too [...]

Ultimate X-Men, issues 66-74 and Annual #2

Marvel finally published the seventh Ultimate X-Men hardcover, collecting “Date Night”, “Phoenix”, Magical”, “Breaking Point” and the second annual, “Why Xavier’s Cat Is Named Mystique”. The four normal “issue-collections” — “Date Night”, “Phoenix”, Magical” and “Breaking Point” — dealt with pretty much the same storylines. the Professor’s dealings with the Shi’ar; Jean’s relationship with Cyclops [...]

Bragging…

Is a thing commonly approved of in our current culture. But seeing as Ithink most of our current culture is crap, here’s what my English professor had to say about the first obigatory activity I handed in a couple of weeks ago:
“Hi, Terje–
This is VERY nicely done! While there are a few slips here and [...]

Moonlight, eps. 1 and 2

It’s as good as the first couple of episodes of Angel, possibly better, with some interesting characters (Jason Dohring’s Josef Konstantin’s a favourite), a sound mythology (excepting a bit of inconsistency what concerns shadows and reflections and the like), and a few moral semi-ambiguities. It’s more pure noir, though, and the dialogue isn’t as sharp [...]

Love In Rainbows

It’s been over four years. There have been times when I’ve almost given up hope. But on Monday, all my prayers (well, at least some of them) were answered.
Too bad I won’t get my hands on the physical record before some time late in December, but at least the digital version’ll be avaliable in five [...]

My Gods, I feel lucky…

… to be born in this day and age, and in this country.
As an example of the former, I choose the fact that it’s no more than perhaps two hundred years since chimneys became common in Norway.
As an example for the latter, I must say that even though I am baffled, at times, at how [...]

Gudenes Fall

Gudenes Fall, by Cornelius Jakhelln.
2007, 428 pages.
Now, this might be a little weird. Gudenes Fall (The Fall of the Gods) is a book that most likely never will be translated into English, and yet, I choose to review it in English. But hey, my English is still worse than my Norwegian.
In the year 1000 AD, [...]

Red vs. Blue, season 1

I never thought a show about a bunch of morons standing in the middle of nowhere, with a lot of heavy weaponry, could be this fun.
Good stuff.

Ugly Betty, season 1

What a nice little show!
Or, perhaps, what a nice, bug (edit: this is obviously supposed to be “big”, but I think the typo’s amusing enough to be spard correction) show, as it’s a 23 episodes long season, with 42-minutes long episodes.
Well, no matter its size, the fact remains that its a nice one.
The characters were [...]

Movies Galore: A Summary

It’s nearly two months since my last movie review — a review, I might add, where I was unreasonably hard on the reviewed movie, as the fact that I’m in a foul mood shouldn’t really count against it. Anyway, since then I’ve watched a lot of movies: excellent movies, great movies, good movies, mediocre movies, [...]

Angel: After the Fall

Here I isolate myself from the world (i.e. the wondrous interblag) for a mere fortnight or so, and when I return, what do I find out? That The Eternal Master, Mr. Joss Whedon, is helping some guy (his name’s Brian Lynch, I think) write an in-canon “Angel season six” comic!
It’s too much. I have to [...]

Doctor Who 2006 2×03 School Reunion

Tony Head as a reptile-bat alien disguised as a headmaster.
Awesome.

Issue 5 — The Chain

My immediate reaction to this issue, is that it is the best one this far.
Because while it lacks those “OMIGAWD!1 IT’S HER/HIM/IT/THEM!!!1″ moments, it was a beautiful and sad story, with elegant pathos and an endearing main character whose name we never even learn.
Quite a treat; if all the “short ones” they intend to stick [...]

Romeo + Juliet

For long periods of my life, I’ve nurtured a completely irrational dislike for the actor Leonardo di Caprio, a dislike probably rooted in my background as a male kid in the late 90s, when “Leo” was the dream boy of every girl, and the envy of every boy. And, as is so very often the [...]

Serenity

It’s been over a year and a half since the (first and) last time, but I finally got around to watch “Serenity” again.
And it was a pleasant surprise; before I watched it again, after having watched the series a second time, I feared that the relationship between the characters would be messed up, and that [...]

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

I finished the book five minutes ago, some 18 or 19 hours after I found it in my mailbox. I’ll try to review it, and I’ll do my best to do so without any spoilers, but for those who doesn’t want to know a godsdamned thing, I’ll hide it. Naturally, there will be spoilers for [...]

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