2018, dir. James Franco/Bruce Thierry Cheung, Jeff Wahlberg, Suki Waterhouse: IMDb / allmovie. After the androids were used to fight the Last War and civilisation fell, all is sand and motorcycles, and hawt babes are a far more jealously-guarded resource than leather or petrol.
I’ve been doing the Perl Weekly Challenges. The latest involved colinear points and binary tree sums. (Note that this is open until 3 January 2021.)
2020 fantasy. In Gilded Age America, there's no such thing as witches: they were burned, and all that sort of thing was stamped out. But there will be witches again.
2019, dir. Mike Mitchell/Trisha Gum, Chris Pratt, Elizabeth Banks: IMDb / allmovie
The peace of Brickville is shattered by invaders from Duplo.
This Meetup-based boardgames group remains on-line for the moment; as usual we got together on Jitsi and then played some games online.
2012 fantasy, second of a tetralogy. Princess Katya and her consort Starbride must deal with opposition on several fronts, even if it does lead back to the same source.
I’ve been doing the Perl Weekly Challenges. The latest involved string isomorphism and interval merging. (Note that this is open until 27 December 2020.)
2016 action comedy, dir. Paul Feig, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon: IMDb / allmovie.
Two paranormal enthusiasts, a nuclear engineer and a subway worker band together to save New York from paranormal threat.
More boardgames played from home.
2013 humorous science fiction, fourth in the Isambard Smith series. Smith and his crew take on an unbeatable prototype warship, protect a peace conference, invade a planet of religious fanatics, and visit Europe.
Buying drugs is more difficult than it used to be. I don't do it very often…
As National restrictions apply from 16 December, we want to assure customers that we are continuing to deliver the range of services to serial, spree and cult killers across the country while the majority of our people work from home.
1923 historical thriller, set in the rebellion of 1745. Alastair Maclean is carrying messages to England and getting promises of support for his Prince. But it seems that one of his fellow couriers may be a traitor to the Cause.
I’ve been doing the Perl Weekly Challenges. The latest involved breaking down numbers and following sequences. (Note that this is open until 20 December 2020.)
2018 action comedy, dir. Susanna Fogel, Mila Kunis, Kate McKinnon: IMDb / allmovie.
Drew dumped Audrey by text message a few days ago… then two men claiming to be from the CIA interrogate her… then Drew comes in suddenly through her window. Then he gets shot by someone her roommate Morgan picked up the night before…
2020 historical mystery with fantastic elements. In 1634, the Indiaman Saardam sets sail from Batavia on the eight-month journey to Amsterdam. Sammy Pipps, the world's greatest detective, is being transported to Amsterdam to answer for a crime that nobody seems to be able to name. His bodyguard, Arent Hayes, is determined to prove his innocence. And there are signs of a demon on board…
(Guest post from Chris.)
Shortly before I moved into this house, I decided that my pint Pyrex measuring jug was so constantly in use that I might as well have another for when the first was in the Sisyphean washing-up pile, and went out to the nearest kitchens shop (it was called Kitchens) and bought myself a second pint jug. I assumed, in my folly, that since it had the same function and was made by the same company it would be the same.
2019 documentary, dir. Jack Bennett: IMDb / AllMovie.
The surviving cast and crew of Galaxy Quest discuss, twenty years later, the making and reception of the film.
2000 military SF, second of this ongoing series. With a heroic reputation from the previous book, which can be both good and bad depending on who has power over him, Leary waits to learn his next assignment… then gets sent to a volatile allied world where political games are rapidly becoming deadly.
In the spirit of the King William's College General Knowledge Paper, released each December for completion over the Christmas break, I offer my own quiz for the holidays.
I’ve been doing the Perl Weekly Challenges. The latest involved base sequences and a binary multiplication system. (Note that this is open until 13 December 2020.)
1906 SF. Professor Marmion has, by an excess of abstract thought, accidentally conquered the Fourth Dimension. And the tragedies of ancient Egypt shall be tragedies again.
2020 documentary, dir. Kate Stirr: IMDb.
The Makani project tried to solve a simple problem: wind turbines are already big and expensive, but there's more wind at higher altitudes. So why not put a wind turbine on a kite rather than on a pole?
1998 alternate-history war story, second of six books. Belisarius is a guest of the Malwa empire in India, as they try to bribe him to turn against Justinian's Constantinople; meanwhile his wife Antonina works on developing a military force to use crude gunpowder weapons, which will be tested sooner than they expect.
I’ve been doing the Perl Weekly Challenges. The latest involved GCDs and magic squares. (Note that this is open until 6 December 2020.)
On the last day of the most recent isolation period, I went shopping. It turns out there were two separate panics on at the same time.
This Meetup-based boardgames group remains on-line for the moment; as usual we got together on Jitsi and then played some games on BoardGameArena. (I missed the mid-month meeting, but we had an intercalary one on the fifth Monday.)
2018 American Regency-ish romance, part of a loosely linked series. Cassandra has been married for two years, and has only met her husband once; it was arranged by her father and neither partner wanted anything more than the legalities. But now she has her sisters to launch into society, and she'll have to use his London house to do it…
Some trailers I've seen recently, and my thoughts on them. (Links are to youtube. Opinions are thoroughly personal.)