Lucky Number 2D6

Not dead, just busy

Been quiet around here for a while now, thanks largely to a stinking cold and a job interview (not the ideal combination, but fingers crossed), as well as my innate laziness. I'll try to post a bit more regularly this week, but in the meantime, here's a quick summary of things I have seen/done/played:

• 500 Days of Summer is a fun reaction to rom-coms, and one of those rare movies where the ending is actually the best bit, as opposed to tacked on, implausible, just downright bad, or some combination of all three. Dead Air is okay, but not as well produced, intelligent or effective as the almost-identical-in-basic-premise Pontypool. Pandorum and Spread are both extremely forgettable. Gamer is just downright bad. And not in that appealing, so-bad-it's-actually-genius way, just in a bad way.
• Have been working my way through Seinfeld, finally. It takes some time to find its rhythm, and the short first season is very weak, but it gets much better from the second season on, and I can already see why it was such a big hit in its day. 
• Haven't seen the latest Doctor Who special yet, but I do have it recorded for a rainy afternoon, which are becoming increasingly frequent here in sunny Brighton.
• Modern Warfare 2 is very slick and very good, at least in multiplayer - haven't actually done much single player yet, as online always beckons. It's definitely more of an evolution than a revolution, but when the previous version was so strong, that's no bad thing.
• Work on the Superman car design for Forza 3 has been slow, but I'm hoping to have something to show for it this week.

Doing bonfire night right

After something like five years in Brighton, I finally made it over to Lewes for Bonfire Night yesterday, and it was definitely an experience. I knew that it was supposed to be a big deal, but didn't quite grasp how much time and effort the inhabitants of this usually sleepy little town throw into a night of pyrotechnic mayhem, or quite how many people would be packing the streets (and this was supposedly a 'quiet' year).

Of course, what with low light conditions, constant jostling and ever-increasing state of inebriation, hardly any of the dozens of snaps I took with my phone camera actually amounted to anything beyond indistinct blurs of flame against black backgrounds, but I am glad that this one came out - the juxtaposition struck me as immensely amusing at the time...

Here's one of the only other shots that came out quite well, although it didn't really pick up the haze of smoke that by this time had settling over all the main streets of the town centre from the near-constant torch-lit processions and countless firecrackers that they strew along their routes...

Thanks to Sam for hosting the evening, and the people of Lewes for unleashing their pyromania in such memorable fashion.