Monthly Archives: April 2010

28/04/2010
16:20
by: Cristi

S is for Space

I ran into some money, also five coupons arrived, so I had plenty o’cash to order what I wished for earlier and some other goodies. As follows:

–Sfarsitul Pamantului
–Adancurile Cerului
–Axa

–Anima Templi
–Mostenirea Heorot
–Sfarsitul lumii in alb si negru

–Codex Siracuza
–Graalul masluit
–Ultimul templier

–Sandra Belloni
–Jonathan Wild
–Faunul de Marmura

–Mobilul

And that’s my wishlist for 2009 and 2010 completed. 117 books in romanian (plus 4 books and 4 magazines to appear this year from the Galileo subscription), 65 in english. 190 books, my library in total, only 7 of which I had at January 1st 2009. Reading and reselling has been at an all-time high, thank Odin. I only hope I can keep up the pace – 5-10 books read/sold/exchanged per month. Thank you everyone, it’s been a terrific ride so far. From now on, however, exams (May 25th – June 18th) and summer vacation, which means no more obsessive compulsive shopping (not that there’s anything left to buy), and just enjoying the hell out of my collection – you know, the good old retirement plan – sitting in a breazy flat in a hot summer’s day devouring a post-apocalyptic tale with a cold mug of mint tea.

Posted in posted Tagged , ,

25/04/2010
18:22
by: Cristi

Dailies #52

– Eli Stone (S1-2) – smart, funny, adorable. A less crazy and more sympathetic version of Boston Legal, minus the fantastic stunt casting. The show averages a terrific cast, interesting characters, great stories, witty dialogue and some out of this world good hallucinations. It has its share of cliches and predictability at the start of the series, but it just gets better and better with time. The entire 26 episodes were a thrilling ride these past 26 hours. A must see.

Posted in posted Tagged , ,

20/04/2010
19:11
by: Cristi

The Day It Rained Forever

Well, it happened. As always, things came to a halt. As I’m trying not to drink myself into another ulcer, I’ve been working with a friend in construction for the past few days – i had no idea breaking your hands could be so much fun – so I’ve been able to afford a few things. As stuff always seems to pop up at the right wrong whatever moment, here’s some more:

Christine, Cimitirul animalelor, Orasul bantuIT and Povestea lui Lisey.
Cercul crucii and Misterul mortii din strada Jubilee.
Viteza întunericului.

Posted in posted Tagged , , ,

18/04/2010
18:48
by: Cristi

Dailies #51

– Revelations (S1) - Bill Pullman and Natascha McElhone lured me in, the plot and the dialogue lured me out after two episodes. To be avoided.

– Parenthood (S1) — with a cast comprised of Lauren Graham, Peter Krause, Craig T. Nelson, Monica Potter and Erika Christensen, the show was the star-studded hope-filled debut of the new season. Too bad the writing was hilariously awful. Ran out after three episodes. To be avoided.

– Life Unexpected (S1) – described as Gilmore Girls meets Everwood and featuring Shiri Appleby, the show was not be missed. While the dialogue has its decent moments, although it’s no E/GG, not even by far, the twist and turns were laughably obvious. Abandoned all hope after four episodes. To be avoided.

– Southland (S1) – the cop version of ER, or at least that’s what they were hoping for. Unfortunately, it’s nothing like ER, not by any standard. Bad acting, writing and direction send this mess straight into nowhere. I don’t know how I managed to finish the entire season cause this surely isn’t so bad that it’s good. Just bad enough. To be avoided.

– Human Target (S1) – a bad translation of a great comic-book series. Mark Valley finally got his opening, although, at 45, he is pushing it a bit close, and he sizzles every step of the way. Chi McBride and Jackie Earle Haley act as the lovable bickering sidekick couple America always falls in love with. The problem is the writing – the show tries to much to be a ’80′s series – combining Magnum, MacGyver and The A-Team into a modern Robin Hood meets 007.  It ignores the essence of Human Target – there is no human target, he’s just an insane bodyguard in a extremely vanilla, thus boring, adamantly uninspired caper show with strictly stand-alone stories. Monster-of-the-week themes, as with almost everybody else, bore me to tears. The single redeeming quality of the show is the presence of Amy Acker in an episode, but that’s about it. To be avoided.

– Wow, now this weekend sucked big time. And with just seven days of freedom left. The 25th of May brings on the first exam, therefore the 25th of April is the day I begin the awesome task of reading, re-reading, analyzing, disecting, understanding and memorising of 2000+ pages of law annals. Good times all around. The only decent thing this week? I ran into some spare change (54ron) so I’m treating myself with used copies of:

Cities In Flight
Chasm City
The Prefect

Posted in posted Tagged , ,

16/04/2010
12:10
by: Cristi

Field Mice (Lab Rats No More)

…sometimes dreams do come true.

It’s been a long time since I’ve said my goodbyes to the CSI gang so imagine my shock when, 15 months later, I see a long-lost-love appear in a tv commercial for the next episode. Me being me, my curiosity gets the better of the situation and I end up watching all 32 new episodes since the departure of Grissom in less than 32 hours. Sara did return to the show, but the balance isn’t as it was – without Grissom and Warrick. It was a fun, albeit emotionless rocking good time, but this truly is the end of the line – even if good old Gil comes back. Goodbye, guys, it’s been a pleasure.

Posted in posted Tagged , ,

12/04/2010
18:20
by: Cristi

Haunted

The fun continues as A Game of Thrones and The Big Sleep and Other Novels have left me. Me being me, not ten minutes after the money was received, I spent it all on the following:

– Imajica;
– Ash: A Secret History;
– Orthe: Chronicles of Carrick V;
– Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell;
– The Collected Stories Of Arthur C. Clarke.

All, used but in great condition, for just 105ron. Now i just have to wait a month for the package with the magical 13/20cm tomes that amount to 5250 pages to arrive. As if that wasn’t enough, Nemira released three sequels that I’m dying to get my hands on:

– Sfarsitul Pamantului, another fantastic short-story collection from Lucius Shepard, this time in dystopian flavoring;
– Adancurile cerului, the long awaited prequel to that great space opera by Vernor Vinge;
– Axa, the second of the yet to be finished, critically acclaimed, hard sci-fi trilogy by Robert Charles Wilson.

I think by the time final(exam)s are over I’ll be ready to treat myself with them. Fun times ahoy.

Posted in posted Tagged

10/04/2010
11:52
by: Cristi

Vacation

These past few days I’ve been watching the reimagined version of The Outer Limits and it put me in the mood for new stuff. Thankfully the DVD gods have been kind to me because recently the following goodies have been released and thus added to my collection:

Kolchak: The Night Stalker, the original series, the two movies, plus the new series, Night Stalker.
Rod Serling’s terrific Night Gallery, a worthy follow-up to The Twilight Zone.
Spielberg’s Amazing Stories, another great long-lost f&sf/horror anthology.
Tremors, a daft and hilarious follow-up to the Tremors quadrology.

I would, in fact, watch all of them in a typical week-long inhuman marathon, but these days I’m busy with Alex’s Xbox360 trying to finish Dante’s Inferno, Darksiders & The Saboteur. I’m between half and the last third of the game on each of them, but the action is repetitive as hell, the gameplay is annoying at times, the save game systems are lousy and there are some truly idiotic structures, in Saboteur especially. And this is after dropping Assassin’s Creed II and Final Fantasy XIII right off the bat. Oh, well, they can’t all be Gears of War or Dead Space.

Posted in posted Tagged ,