Not so much a movie as a catalogue of past Lucas and Spielberg productions. You can have fun with a catalogue though, known territory and all that.

Spoiler follows in white text:

I was sitting there towards the end thinking, but what about Close Encounters? And there was the frickin' space ship! Why would inter-dimensional creatures need a flying ship?

Thanks, Cam!

The first of many, many reviews that I will be writing for the foreseeable future has gone up today over at the Shiny blog. Yes, I have volunteered to join the team expressly and solely for the excuse to rewatch Buffy the Vampire Slayer* and Angel from the very beginning. To start off I've done an overview of Season One and later this week Alisa Krasnostein and I will begin tackling each episode individually starting with "When She Was Bad".

*I totally wrote Vampire Layer then, but that's a bit later on.

I just saw an ad for a BBC production of Philip Pullman's Ruby in the Smoke that will air this Sunday on ABC1 at 8.30pm. How did I not know this had even been made? It stars Billie Piper (from Doctor Who) and Julie Walters (Educating Rita, Billy Elliot) and has been adapted by Adrian Hodges (Rome). Looks like more of the Sally Lockhart Mysteries will follow. I've only read one of the books - and not one where she plays a major role - but we all love Pullman, right? and Sally's a great character.

Anyway, could be good, could be bad. Only one way to find out.

Took 36 hours off-line over the weekend, which is the first time I can remember doing so while remaining at home. Nasty habit the ol' checking email, updating RSS feeds thing. Not that I achieved anything spectacular with all the added time, but that will come. I plan on doing this regularly now.

So, I read a little, ate a lot (was fed a lot - Mother's Day!), had some friends over, and watched Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Mostly, I cultivated a sore throat. Yay.

As a counter:

1. I won a free facial today!
2. Tomorrow's Friday.
3. Braised celery for dinner - love it, but rarely cook it.
4. More House of Eliott to watch tonight.
5. May have solved a novel problem.
6. Rediscovered a box of old cassettes. Including the theme from Twin Peaks and Do the Bartman.
7. Brian Wildsmith's ABC

Things that are cheesing me off today:

1. People who do not include their name on a file when they know that 15 other identical files will be perused at the same time.
2. People who send three times as much data as requested. Yes, you're special. We'll make an exception for you.
3. Websites that highlight text using blue. And underlining. And it's not a link.
4. Small talk.
5. People who commit to projects then remain conspicuously silent and absent. (This may include me, I'm afraid.)
6. The fact that I only just remembered to boil water for the pasta when the rest of dinner is almost ready.
7. I could really use a drink, but I have a headache.

Don't know why I'm complaining. I won a free $100 facial today. I'm not really a day spa/facial/massage kind of person, but I'll make an effort to enjoy it.

Watching The Doctor Dances. Having a small voice behind you say, "Mummy. Mummy!"

'Scuse me while I climb down from the light fitting.

These huggable headless sheep seats come from Sam Brown. Now that I think about it, I have a four legged stool that needs recovering. Hmmm.