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for the first time in a long time...to see
One for the Money
Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum, first novel, as a movie. I was excited to see that this was being filmed, I love those books (funniest things in the english language after Wodehouse), but I wasn't too sure about the casting.
Katherine Heigl looks just right as Plum. Debbie Reynolds was good as the kooky grandmother (although I think Ruth Gordon of the 70s was more the right thing). The actors playing Ranger and Morelli I'm not so sure about. Ranger needed to look/be a little more mysterious, and Morelli needed to look less scruffy. (It could be that I misremember how they started out in the first book, been a few years since I read that) Vinnie Plum seemed less weasel-y than I think he should have...we didn't meet or hear about some standard things (grandma's interest in going to the funeral parlor for viewings and cookies), but Stephanie's car did properly explode at one point (this especially is a theme in the books), she had to go to Stark Street several times (a recurring location for trouble of one sort or another). They did do voice-over for what Stephanie is thinking, which is great for filling-in things that need a little explanation but not necessarily screen time.
Apparently this story had been made for TV ten years ago--I wasn't aware at the time, hadn't read the books yet; no idea whether that was any good or not.
I hope this did well enough that more are made...the characters take time to develop properly.
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
YAGB 2
So I was wondering if I could ever play Alpha Centauri again...highest rated game ever by PC Gamer, and it didn't even make the top 100 in this year's list.
My installer doesn't get it done on Win7, but apparently GOG.COM has adapted it somehow, and the result works just fine. I was going to try to make myself a Win2k VM and run it there, or maybe even a Win98 VM, but it was $5 on GOG, and my time is worth more than that to try to figure out how to get a VM created and running properly. Won't be able to do this at all on my Mac, because SMAC was an OS9 game, and there's no longer any software path from there onto the Intel processor; I'd have to keep an older Mac around, not interested in doing that. (OK, and older Mini would maybe do it, and at least be small, but still...that'd be the only purpose)
So now I can play SMAC again--which is good, because that is a game with a lot of replayability, very challenging, especially at the higher skill levels, or smaller maps (wherein conflict stars a lot sooner).
Apparently you can also get Total Annihilation, so I did. Haven't tried that yet, and I didn't finish it way back when, but now I can try again. Also for $5. Hard to beat, esp given that for $5 NWN2 still sucked big time.
GOG is great.
My installer doesn't get it done on Win7, but apparently GOG.COM has adapted it somehow, and the result works just fine. I was going to try to make myself a Win2k VM and run it there, or maybe even a Win98 VM, but it was $5 on GOG, and my time is worth more than that to try to figure out how to get a VM created and running properly. Won't be able to do this at all on my Mac, because SMAC was an OS9 game, and there's no longer any software path from there onto the Intel processor; I'd have to keep an older Mac around, not interested in doing that. (OK, and older Mini would maybe do it, and at least be small, but still...that'd be the only purpose)
So now I can play SMAC again--which is good, because that is a game with a lot of replayability, very challenging, especially at the higher skill levels, or smaller maps (wherein conflict stars a lot sooner).
Apparently you can also get Total Annihilation, so I did. Haven't tried that yet, and I didn't finish it way back when, but now I can try again. Also for $5. Hard to beat, esp given that for $5 NWN2 still sucked big time.
GOG is great.
Follow-up on the Jaguar
It turns out that when the oil-pressure gauge shows low, it means low oil. Seems obvious enough, in retrospect, but given that newer cars don't vary even slightly about what the gauge shows, I didn't know that...and with an older car, you could wonder if it means low oil, oil sender has probs, gauge has probs...no way to be sure.
So I eventually looked at the oil dipstick, and it looked way down. Added 3 qts (car takes 8, which is more than US cars). Things looked good after that, pressure varied from 20-40, and it sounded smoother. A few weeks later I added another qt--I don't know what my consumption rate is, although I certainly know I have several leaks. Two are the valve-covers, you can *see* the crack in one where it was over-torqued bolting it down; I have a replacement for that one.
Still...car is running just fine, have been enjoying the driving, even though it is winter and the heater doesn't work.
So I eventually looked at the oil dipstick, and it looked way down. Added 3 qts (car takes 8, which is more than US cars). Things looked good after that, pressure varied from 20-40, and it sounded smoother. A few weeks later I added another qt--I don't know what my consumption rate is, although I certainly know I have several leaks. Two are the valve-covers, you can *see* the crack in one where it was over-torqued bolting it down; I have a replacement for that one.
Still...car is running just fine, have been enjoying the driving, even though it is winter and the heater doesn't work.
Friday, February 10, 2012
Another round on the Jaguar
So it turns out that the oil pressure gauge tells you exactly what it should be telling you: when the pressure is low it means you need to add oil. I finally checked it, needed to add quite a bit, and it was just fine after that. Problem is that unlike a modern car, which keeps/shows a constant reading until you are dry, this one varies based on speed, and given that it's an old car, I wasn't sure that it wasn't something else wrong...now I know.
It still leaks oil, but that's normal for this car...it's not very fast, but it does happen. And there's more than one leak, two of them are the valve covers; both are tiny, but not necessarily hard to solve. I have one replacement cover now, got for $25. As they are aluminum, that may be not too hard to weld back closed. The current cracks are from having been torqued down too tight.
Got the voltage regulator replaced, which was critical. Old one was misbehaving badly. No surprise, it's a crappy two-transistor design that doesn't really regulate voltage so much as reduce fluctuations. Still, better than a mechanical one, which is just turning one flavor of AC into a pulse train which is just a different flavor of AC.
Car drives pretty well, although more work is needed. As it's drivable, I do that unless it's bitter cold out, because I haven't gotten the heater repaired. That is a job for the spring--I think I can do some/most/all of it myself. I'm sure it's rusted sealed, and the motor doesn't turn. Can't work on it in the winter, tho. Too cold out.
But it's now at the point I wanted it to be at--I can drive it. That is good fun.
It still leaks oil, but that's normal for this car...it's not very fast, but it does happen. And there's more than one leak, two of them are the valve covers; both are tiny, but not necessarily hard to solve. I have one replacement cover now, got for $25. As they are aluminum, that may be not too hard to weld back closed. The current cracks are from having been torqued down too tight.
Got the voltage regulator replaced, which was critical. Old one was misbehaving badly. No surprise, it's a crappy two-transistor design that doesn't really regulate voltage so much as reduce fluctuations. Still, better than a mechanical one, which is just turning one flavor of AC into a pulse train which is just a different flavor of AC.
Car drives pretty well, although more work is needed. As it's drivable, I do that unless it's bitter cold out, because I haven't gotten the heater repaired. That is a job for the spring--I think I can do some/most/all of it myself. I'm sure it's rusted sealed, and the motor doesn't turn. Can't work on it in the winter, tho. Too cold out.
But it's now at the point I wanted it to be at--I can drive it. That is good fun.
YAGB
"Yet Another Game Blog" entry. been several months...
During which time Skyrim has come out. I have played it a lot, and I haven't even started the main sequence about the dragons. Just about everything else, tho.
Thoughts: this is not as good as Oblivion, in a variety of aspects.
#1) it's buggy. I don't mean crash buggy, but rather that various tasks break irrecoverably. Example: "buy a house in Markarth" -- if you don't do this the very first time it is offered, it will never be available again, but the quest won't go away.
#2) the color pallette is bland. territory is bland.
#3) it lacks the overall variety of opponents, and map areas.
#4) too much emphasis on "crafting". no offense intended, but BFD. *pointless*
#5) magic is harder. in fact, it's really different. How is it that Morrowind has different magic from Cyrodiil from Skyrim? We're not talking about entire other planets or something.
#6) the "skills tree". BFD. also pointless.
#7) "shouts". pointless. you don't need them for anything. as I have yet to kill a dragon, I can't use them anyway, and that's not any hardship.
#8) no auto-attempt on lockpicking. sorry, just not interested in this little micro-game over and over. this is an FNV-derived thing, and I was tired of it there, too.
things that are good:
#1) total map is huge. this is always good.
#2) plenty to do. except for the bugginess, which means some things can't be done, or can't be completed.
#3) your helper doesn't actually get killed (unless you do it, which I did a few times)
#4) chameleon is gone. just a flying disappeared after morrowind, chameleon is gone now. which means you have to be more careful, even at sneak 100.
#5) it's still possible, for some skills, to find a way to level them really really fast. sneak is one. armor is another (just the same way as in oblivion, too, which was good), summoning a Dremora runs that one up damn fast, even at the top end, although it only seems to count when it attacks something.
but overall, well worth the $50.
unlike NeverWinter Nights 2, which I just got (again). This time it was $5, on my Mac. Still has the same extremely annoying set of UI misfeatures and other failures. This game really is all about whether you like the D&D R3 details. Screw that, I have no interest. Bring me the story and the action. It's buggy, too. I've had it crash to desktop more than once. It doesn't autosave often enough--Skyrim autosaves every time you enter a new map area, or fast-travel; this is the
right approach. NWN2 doesn't really do first person properly, which means that other aspects of camera-handling suck big time. Sales is too hard (i.e., too many mouse-clicks), and the merchants NEVER have new stuff--always the same stuff. That is totally stupid--it means you are the one and only customer in the game. stupid.
even for $5, it's only worth your time for the purpose of figuring out how seriously flawed it is, and then taking those lessons to heart in making a better game. gah.
During which time Skyrim has come out. I have played it a lot, and I haven't even started the main sequence about the dragons. Just about everything else, tho.
Thoughts: this is not as good as Oblivion, in a variety of aspects.
#1) it's buggy. I don't mean crash buggy, but rather that various tasks break irrecoverably. Example: "buy a house in Markarth" -- if you don't do this the very first time it is offered, it will never be available again, but the quest won't go away.
#2) the color pallette is bland. territory is bland.
#3) it lacks the overall variety of opponents, and map areas.
#4) too much emphasis on "crafting". no offense intended, but BFD. *pointless*
#5) magic is harder. in fact, it's really different. How is it that Morrowind has different magic from Cyrodiil from Skyrim? We're not talking about entire other planets or something.
#6) the "skills tree". BFD. also pointless.
#7) "shouts". pointless. you don't need them for anything. as I have yet to kill a dragon, I can't use them anyway, and that's not any hardship.
#8) no auto-attempt on lockpicking. sorry, just not interested in this little micro-game over and over. this is an FNV-derived thing, and I was tired of it there, too.
things that are good:
#1) total map is huge. this is always good.
#2) plenty to do. except for the bugginess, which means some things can't be done, or can't be completed.
#3) your helper doesn't actually get killed (unless you do it, which I did a few times)
#4) chameleon is gone. just a flying disappeared after morrowind, chameleon is gone now. which means you have to be more careful, even at sneak 100.
#5) it's still possible, for some skills, to find a way to level them really really fast. sneak is one. armor is another (just the same way as in oblivion, too, which was good), summoning a Dremora runs that one up damn fast, even at the top end, although it only seems to count when it attacks something.
but overall, well worth the $50.
unlike NeverWinter Nights 2, which I just got (again). This time it was $5, on my Mac. Still has the same extremely annoying set of UI misfeatures and other failures. This game really is all about whether you like the D&D R3 details. Screw that, I have no interest. Bring me the story and the action. It's buggy, too. I've had it crash to desktop more than once. It doesn't autosave often enough--Skyrim autosaves every time you enter a new map area, or fast-travel; this is the
right approach. NWN2 doesn't really do first person properly, which means that other aspects of camera-handling suck big time. Sales is too hard (i.e., too many mouse-clicks), and the merchants NEVER have new stuff--always the same stuff. That is totally stupid--it means you are the one and only customer in the game. stupid.
even for $5, it's only worth your time for the purpose of figuring out how seriously flawed it is, and then taking those lessons to heart in making a better game. gah.
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