The best laid plans of mice and men

I got a rather distressing email today. It was from the ferry I had booked to go to Vladivostok. Apparently due to bad weather an inspection was delayed, which means the ferry I was going to catch has been canceled. This is pretty shit, since that was to be the start of my long, and cheap, travels. Fortunately I was to pay when I got to the ferry terminal, so I'm not out of pocket yet.

My boss has been really helpful, and has organised a flight for me getting into Vladivostok the day the ferry was due to arrive. It is unfortunately three hundred dollars more expensive than the ferry and gets in about seven at night rather than one in the afternoon, which gives me less time in Vladivostok (well, my plan for Friday afternoon was to check into the hostel and buy my train ticket west, so probably not that huge a loss).

This does mean I'll get an extra day in Chilgok to sort stuff out, like buying a money belt, figuring a way to post my wooden katana home, packing all my boxes, and more I'll think of when I realize "Oh crap, I haven't done this yet.

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Writing time: 25 minutes
Time since last post: a few days (the preplanned stuff ran out before I wrote more)
Current media: The Office (US version)

Scraping the Barrel (of Monkeys)

I have for some time now been lamenting the lack of quality original work in the cinematic arts. Nearly every movie that has been made, and most of those I've seen in the last few years has been a derivative of some other work (for example the Harry Potter movies, Serenity, Transformers, Stardust, Pirates of the Caribbean, X-Men, Ocean's 11-13, 300, Die Hard 4.0, Sweeney Todd, Doom, Sin City the list goes on and on). Long have I waited for an original work, not derived from a book, comic, tv show, another movie, or history.

Unfortunately it looks like I shall have to wait a while longer. For Hollywood has found another mine from which to dig up derivative works. Board games. Universal pictures has signed a deal with Hasbro to make movies based on board games. On the list are Monopoly, Battleship, Candyland and Ouija.

Just how useful is a board game as a base idea for a movie. I mean really, Battleships? Fine, a nautical action/battle movie. That would be fine. Will there be giant red cylinders falling out of the sky taking out ships? Will aircraft carriers unrealistically take 5 hits in different parts of the hull before sinking? Will ships stay in place while barraging each other with gunfire? Will the action take place on a square ocean? I think (and hope) the answer to all of these will be no. So why try and link it to a board game. Let's just make a naval action movie.

Same with Monopoly. There have been a number of finance, wheeler dealer type movies, and there are more to come. A hotel mogul is definitely an idea for a story, but does he really need to be building his hotels on the Boardwalk and the Strand to keep the vibrancy of the idea?

I guess this is just one more case of life imitating art.

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Writing time: 38 minutes (it took a while to find a working link to the right Robot Chicken episode)
Time since last post: an hour or so
Current media: Pleasantville

God damn

So on Tuesday I booked my trip to Okinawa. Bought the tickets, booked a hostel, found out how to get to Kobe airport, all that shit. Yesterday I mentioned my plans at my Japanese lesson, and was informed that there is a typhoon currently heading towards Okinawa.

God damn.

It looks like the typhoon will hit tomorrow morning, and by Monday will have weakened and be passing over the main island of Japan, so hopefully I can still go.

In any case, if the planes are still flying, I'm going to go. I may however have to alter my plan of sitting on the beach and reading. Worst case scenario I sit in my hostel and read.

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Writing time: 4 minutes
Time since last post: 2 days
Current media: none