Alden Bates' Weblog

This would have been a Friday night movie, but no one seems to be playing it at convenient times for me to go see it after work, so I had to go and see it today instead. My life is so hard.

The Incredible Hulk starts out with a recap of how Bruce Banner became gamma enhanced (though not the caught-in-a-nuclear-blast comics version) and picks up with Bruce hanging out in Brazil, trying to keep from getting angry, and searching for a cure. Of course, it's not long before he's detected by General Ross' forces, and the hunt is on!

Continue reading "The Incredible Hulk"

Continue reading "Wordless Wednesday: Stay Frosty"

Trailing on from Doctor Who Series 4 (Part 3), this time we get two Russell T. Davies (OBE) episodes. Marvellous!

Continue reading "Doctor Who Series 4 (Part 4)"

Time marches on for both Harrison Ford and Indiana Jones, for this movie is set in 1957, with Nazis replaced by Soviets. As the movie starts, he and pal Mac have been taken to the warehouse from the end of Raiders to locate an artifact for said Soviets, which leads to the hunt for the crystal skull of the movie's title. And it does actually live up to the legacy of the previous three movies, though I can see why some aspects may have annoyed some of the stauncher fans. Anyway, go see it!

Shia LaBeouf's character is a lot less annoying than his character in a certain other recent movie, by the way.

Spoilers ahead!

Continue reading "Friday Night Movie: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull"

(Wordless Wednesday)

When Doctor Who author Craig Hinton sadly died in 2006, he was in the middle of writing a book. That book has been completed by Chris McKeon and will be published with proceeds going to the British Heart Foundation. You can read about Time's Champion here. From the sketch published on there, the Alister Pearson artwork on the cover looks like it's going to be really nice.

As Battlestar Galactica is taking a break for a while, I thought I'd take the opportunity to post a few pictures of Doc Cottle actor Donnelly Rhodes appearing in a 1969 episode of The Wild Wild West titled "The Night of the Cossacks":

Continue reading "Donnelly Rhodes in The Wild Wild West"

Since Doctor Who Series 4 Parte II, the news broke that Steven Moffat is replacing Russell T. as series producer as of the start of series 5. I swear the cheering woke me up that morning. As usual, spoilers ahead!

Continue reading "Doctor Who Series 4 (Part 3)"

Which idiot programmed the predictive text feature on my phone?

Me: 286253233
Phone: You must mean "bunckeade"!
Me: No! I mean "bumblebee"! What the hell kind of word is "bunckeade"?!

[Five minutes later]
Me: 286253233
Phone: "bunckeade"!
Me: *sigh*

So, yeah, I'm thinking of getting a new phone.

In the interests of improving the internet, some questions from the postbagsearch engine queries:

Can hard drive crash be caused by microwave oven?

Probably! Print out your recipes, people! Don't just stick your laptop next to the microwave!

Is Martha's boyfriend really the Master?

It's probably to early to say at this point, but I'm going with "no". I'm not willing to rule out the idea that he's the Meddling Monk though.

What does "mille anni passe sunt" mean?

With the aid of Google and Wikipedia, it appears to be Latin for "A thousand years will pass". (No one seems to have the lyrics for the rest of Corvus Corax's song though)

Why doesn't Tom Baker appear with the other doctors at conventions?

The Blinovitch Limitation Effect.

Who are the mars refugees on earth?

The chances of anything coming from Mars is a million to one.

before and after pictures of results of energy drinks

Before =
After =

Looks like I really was tempting fate (or the spammers) by commenting a month ago on how I hadn't had any spam comments for a while. They're back (and pinging harmlessly off my spam protection).