Back from the semi-dead !

Ah – holidays.

Man – did I NEED these ! Which is why I haven’t updated for awhile. I have been knitting together the frayed ends of my sanity. Mostly through the medium of video games and watching comedy DVD’s. On that video game subject - Starwars Battlegrounds 2 is freaking awesome !! The ability to play 'hero' characters is soooooooo cool ! A quick ranking of some of the ones I've encountered so far :

Obi-Wan Kenobi + Luke Skywalker - A
These guys are great - really fast and both can hurl their lightsabers at opponents. I think they both have force push too - which is pretty cool.

Darth Vader + Boba Fett - B+
Yeah - I know. Sacrilege huh ? Well - they are both still very cool - it's just Vader isn't all THAT fast ( that'll come of having cybernetic limbs and NO SKIN I guess ... ) and Boba has the new "Jake the Muss" voice. I prefer 'classic' Boba. Still - that repeating blaster is pretty freaking nifty ...

Jango Fett + Count DooDoo - I mean - Count Dooku - C-
Meh. Jango is really just Boba with a more pants gun and a gayer suit ( it's kinda pink ! What kind of Mandanlorian wears pink ??? ). The Count at least has force lightning ... but the cape ? C'mon ! What are ya- a Marvel superhero ? Yeesh ..

The Emperor - D
Yerk. He is slow AND ugly. Sure - the force lightning is nice ... but a CIS droid can be quite happily shooting you in the face with a missle launcher while you're trying to swing you're lightsaber at the stupid fucker ...

Princess Leia - F-
OMFG ! She SUCKS ! Her crappy blaster overheats after 3 shots - and her 'special' ability of making OTHER people tougher is NOT fun. She's not even wearing the slave girl bikini !!


Anyway ...

The last couple of weeks at school were really mental. Mostly due to getting the play together. I gotta say though – it went REALLY well ! The first night had some line malfunctions … but still, it was pretty good. But the second night – they freaking nailed it! It was just so good ! The students did REALLY well – I was very proud of them. Greek comedy – you gotta love it.

Also – my birthday this week also. I had a nice, if rather solitary, day. Viva got me the two DVD’s of Ricky Gervaise’s stand-up stuff ( and pretty damn funny it is too ). My sister-in-law and their family got me some book vouchers ( haven’t decided exactly what to get with those yet. I see that there are some nice hard-back re-releases of the “His Dark Materials” trilogy – they are tempting, especially the first two which I only have in paper-back ). My parents and sister are visiting in the weekend – which will be very cool too. I just got a call from my best pal Conrad in London ( which was great ! ). Viva and I went out to “The Flying Burrito Brothers” for dinner that night ( after I spent the day lurking around town – I like a bit of lurking I do … ). You ever had a frozen strawberry margarita ? Fecking hell – those things are great !

I also got my expensive new mouse today ( that’s a computer mouse too – my solid gold vermin arrive next month … oh come on ! That was KINDA funny ! ). I cashed in some points we earned on our credit cards ! Ha ! I forgot about those ! So it turns out I CAN justify a stupidly expensive mouse ! Yay reward points ! I love the little ajustible weight pack you get with it so you can 'customise the heft and flow' of the mouse. That's JUST what my life was missing !

Hmm - I was trying to load some photos of the play on here ... but it didn't seem to want to. Damn. I'll try again later.

Here they are !

These are the masks that have so dominated my life of late. I think the neatest one is Euripedes ( bottom middle ) - though I quite like Dionysus ( middle, second from right ) and Pluto ( middle, far left - the blue one ).

I'm going to be freaking happy when this production is over !

Ted ... I'm going mad...

Right - well, the MASKS are done now anyway. Fifteen of the bastards ( or it might be fourteen - I kinda forget right at the moment ... ). AND a giant pair of scales prop made and painted. AND the reverse side of the flats painted with a fetching pastoral scene. Sheesh.

And you know how much help I got from the freaking students ?

None !

None at all ! Not even from the guy who's supposed to be doing all the tech / stage stuff !

DOUBLE bastards !

I was going to take a photo of them to put on the ole blog with the dept. camera ... but SOMEONE has taken it and NOT put it back in the electronic equipment drawer !

TRIPLE bastard !

Hmmm ... maybe triple bastard anyway ... I could well be the HOD who took it for the arts awards evening on Friday ( that went to freaking ten thirty - that's a REAL fun way to spend a Friday evening too ... actually, it was a nice event - but it's not so nice when every fibre in your body is screaming at you to sleep and you've spent the last three Friday evenings threading wool hair into masks or constructing supports for the flats in the production without any help from the QUADRUPLE bastard students who are supposed to be doing this stuff ... argh ! ).

Sigh. So I'm very tired now. A weekend working at school will do that to you.

I think I just want to go home and play video games - but we've still got the food shopping to do ( and with Viva being on call till 11, she really can't go out ( yay ), and then there's the ironing.

Feck.

Masks draining my will to live - New mouse dilemma

I spent most of the weekend threading hair into a series of masks I've been making for my 7th form production of "The Frogs" - a Greek comedy.

Not that it was real hair or anything - it was bargain basement wool ( hopefully from some kind of sheep - but at the price I paid I'm sure it might well be from some kind of South American killer bat. You can get wool from a bat can't you? I'm sure the witches in 'MacBeth' had some ... )

I've had more enjoyable weekend activities - but there was something kind of fufilling about it.

I'll try and get a photo of how they're all coming along a bit later.

Our work laptops got upgraded - which is good. But it won't use my old laptop mouse now - which is bad ( I freaking can't stand using touch pads - they NEVER work properly and they're too damn fiddly ). I have to get a new mouse. I figure I should upgade my home PC one to a cool new laser mouse ( with a freaking laser ! How cool is that ? Sure - you can't shoot someone with it - but it's only a matter of time ... ) and then I can use my old optical USB mouse on the lappy - which is good. But the laser special gaming mouse that looked like it really rocked cost around $125 ! Which is bad ! As much as I would like it - I really can't bring myself to pay THAT much for a mouse. So screw it - I'll get a decent mircosoft / logitech optical one.

Beh. So - ruminations on buying a new mouse arn't all that interesting.

I think I'll get back to painting my masks and making noses for the ones I still need to.