X-Men: Days Of Future Past

"X-Men: First Class" was a great prequel, but just as much a great film. The well-cast actors gave fantastic performances, and minor flaws aside, it's easily my favourite so far of the films with "X-Men" in the title. Next year its sequel will hit our screens: "Days Of Future Past", with a time travel plot enabling the use of both the original cast and the young prequel cast. I just came across teaser posters for its sequel, which I've got to say are pretty damn cool.

Jean-Luc Picard vs Tumnus. 

Gandalf vs Lt Hicox.

How far away is 2014?

Lego Storage

I have (sort of) new Lego storage!

Now that I'm on holidays from work for a couple weeks, I've got time to do a few things around the house that I have either had little time for, or been downright putting off. One of those things is clearing out the garage, and assembling some furniture that's been sitting around in boxes.

The "Effektiv" range of modular office cabinets have nice deep adjustable shelves, making them great for displaying Lego models and setting up action scenes. I picked a few up when they were discontinued, and being sold extremely cheap.

Minifig Rapper. So of course he's on a boat.

Open mic night 25/10

Last Friday, after my last day of work before a couple weeks on holiday, I headed in to the city. I had put my name down to take part in the QMuSo (QUT Music Society) Open Mic Nigbt, something they put on at a uni bar once a month.

After finding the bar (not difficult, but it is over ten years since I was a student there), I put my guitar in the backstage store room and settled in to listen to the acts before me.

Board of artist times.

October Board Games (Tsuro / Puerto Rico / Carcassonne)

Once again it was that time of the month, and we gathered at Dave's house for more board game fun.

This time, all three games played involved tiles.

My island, filled with crops (tiles) and busy workers (the brown markers).

Metallica: Through The Never

This film wasn't even on my radar until fairly recently, when the trailer popped up as one of the three at the top of the IMDb homepage. It's only showing for a limited season - at our closest cinemas it was on once a night for one week only, which finished on Wednesday. It's still showing (but still only once a night) at a different (and more expensive) cinema chain, so I headed off to Garden City on Friday afternoon to do some shopping and see that evening's session.

Theatrical poster.

Directed by Nimród Antal (who also co-wrote the film with the band), it's meant to be part concert film, part narrative.

Another backyard guest

I heard loud scratching noises out the back this afternoon and looked out to find we had a visitor admiring its reflection on our back sliding doors.

Taking a leisurely stroll over the outdoor table.

Light Reading

Digging around through old files, I came across another short piece of fiction.

Dinner & Arj

Father's Day was back in September, but Kara decided that she'd take me to dinner and a show as a present. At the time, first choice was the Abridged Works of Shakespeare (3 comedy actors performing the key parts of all 37 plays in a couple hours), but work schedules got in the way. A little later, we found out that one of the stops on Arj Barker's next national standup tour would be at the Logan Entertainment Centre, just down the road from us. So Kara decided we'd have dinner at the RSL first, followed by comedy.

I went straight from work to the club... a nice cold beer to start the post-work afternoon.

BrisBricks (Part 3)

My last post of pictures from BrisBricks 2013.

Doomben Racetrack in LEGO form. Note the corporate boxes in the stands. (And the unfortunate skeleton on the tracks.)

On the far right you can see the thin grey wheels which spooled the thread pulling each horse along the smooth race track. With the help of motors, the builder could run this race again and again, hundreds of times a day, for the enjoyment of visitors. Check out a video here.

BrisBricks (Part 2)

More pictures from Saturday's afternoon out at the Lego fan expo.

Railway station and replica Danish railcar.

2013 Grand Final

Today was the last day of the 2013 NRL season, with the Grand Final being played between two Sydney area teams, the Sydney Roosters and Manly Sea Eagles. To wrap up the season, and the footy tipping competition that he'd been running, Craig hosted a barbecue out at his place.

What's an Aussie gathering without a barbie?

BrisBricks 2013 (Part 1)

On Saturday I headed across town for BrisBricks, a Lego exhibition put on by fans for fans. It's running all this long weekend.

I got to the Chandler Arena (the sports hall where the event is held) before 3pm, so I had 2 hours to wander, and geek out over Lego.

The sign at the front fence.

Vigilant (3 of 3)

The conclusion of my ten-year-old science fiction story. If you missed Parts 1 or 2, it started here.

Everyone else, read on...