Well been meaning to write this post for a few days now but been ultra busy and even today has been flat out since 430am till now.

I thought i would give some quick one or two line reviews on some movies I have seen lately. Some will be good, some not so.

Adjustment Bureau saw this in Gold Class for free. Wasn’t bad. The movie definately has merit but it’s been advertised as more of a Action flick. It’s not. It’s more of a love story. I still rate it though. Love the whole premise of the movie.

Black Swan: Saw this one again at the movies, cheap tuesday’s love it! But all I can say is W T F. This movie is seriously trippy. I am still not quite sure to make of it. Definately see it though, well worth the mind fuck.

The Kings Speech: another Academy award winner. Such a good movie. Totally not what I expected and actually enjoyed it. Kept me intrigued.

The Dilemma: This is definately one of those silly romantic comedies (romcom) but really it was just boring and crap….. don’t see it unless you really want to.

Battle of Los Angeles: I thought this was the new Battle: Los Angeles movie, but it’s not. DO NOT SEE IT! It is a low rent stupid version, pretty much the worst thing ever!

Grown Ups: This movie was not bad, it was ok. Wasn’t fantastic either. Ok to see on a quiet afternoon.

The Mechanic: Now we are getting somewhere!!! This is another great Jason Statham movie. Typical style for him though, lots of action. Reminded me of a good assasin flick. Well worth it for just the action scenes and the nice twisty ending.

Drive Angry: Perfect movie for Mal. Lots of Action, a Hot Blonde (who is apparently a Bisexual gun nut) and a stupid unbelievable plot line. O and also stars Nicolas Cage.

Unknown: Still not quite sure what to think of this one. Didn’t make a lot of sense, not the best movie either. Not really worth paying for, but I would definately say its a DVD Rental.

Yogi Bear: Just pathetic. Great for kids to get a good laugh but really, just lame. Why… WHY !!!

Fire Birds I remember seeing this back in the 90s on TV one day. Found it after some googling as there was certain things I had been remembering from it after reading Hellfire pretty lame on the graphics and looks and story line, but its from the 90s so what can you expect these days!

Hall Pass: Pathetic. I can’t believe I watched this, I mean really. It was just stupid. Middle Aged men trying to cheat on their wives. Do not bother.

Food Inc: A documentary about food production in the modern world and big corportism. I had seen a lot of the stuff they try to bring out on tv on other shows so wasn’t as mind blowing for me as other people have said it is. But I saw my first ever Chicken being slaughtered.

That should just about cover the last month or so of movies.

So another book completed… i seem to be destroying them lately! Plenty more where that came from (really thinking i need to get a Kindle or Tablet or similar so that these books don’t take up so much room).

The Book this time is Absurdistan by Eric Campbell. An ABC Foreign Correspondant who has spent most of his career either in China or Eastern Europe (along with a bit of time in Afghanistan & Iraq). O man was this book good. I thoroughly was engrossed in it. The tales of his time in Moscow and around Eastern Europe and Russia just made me want to visit there all the more. Along with just the crazy tales of War from the Media perspective is kinda new to me. It was an amazing book.

Very well written and comes across very light heartedly. Although at times there should be a lot more seriousness in the situations he describes, the way he writes it, gives you a sense that you can keep reading it with out being to distracted by what he is talking about, being to put off.

Considering I picked this up at borders as a free book, I don’t in any way regret it.

Coming up later this week, a whole heap of movie reviews… cause thats all i seem to be doing lately. Watching movies.

Well this one did not take long at all, that is mainly because I flew to Canberra last weekend, so had plenty of time sitting on flights etc to catch up on my reading.

Well This book is called Magnificent Desolation. The title does not really explain much about the book. Written by Buzz Aldrin. Yep, the guy who was 2nd to walk on the moon. It is about his life essentially. Not just about the Moon either, more about his life after the fact. The Ups and downs that come with it. Before reading this, I never really had heard much about Buzz’s life after his moon walk. It was certainly an eye opener.

It shows a life of Depression, Alcoholism and an amazing touching story. How can you think someone that has walked on the moon would be depressed, Hell I know I wouldn’t be, but I can see some of the facets of what brought it on in some of the things I have been through lately. A massively large “where to now” problem, thankfully I had support to help me through that after all of my changes, I am just thankful for that, but if I didn’t I guess it could of gone similar to what I just read.

The book is also a good account into the Future of the Space industry and how we need to look forward to the future and not focus so much on how much things cost now!

I do recommend it as a read, was a fantastic story!

OK so this was a book I alluded to at the end of the last book. It was something I really wanted to start reading, by the middle of it, i wanted to just give up. For day after day my brain felt like it was melting, in the end I just wanted to keep going to say I had finished reading it!

The book, The Fabric of the Cosmos by Brian Greene is a book dedicated to understanding what makes life tic. It looks at what is essentially Particle Physics, String Theory and Quantum Mechanics. I was hoping to get a better understanding of all of these when I first started the book, but my brain just could not comprehend some of these things (heaven forbid I tried to understand this stuff back in high school I would of failed miserably).

It is written really well with a good amount of dumbing down at some points with lots of examples given using every day objects (the Simpsons popped up a lot, along with Star Wars Characters a few times). It goes in good depth a lot of the time regarding some of the more complicated points however warning is given in advance if you want to skip the more complicated parts.

I think i learnt a little bit out of this, especially to do with String Theory (the theory that all molecules in the universe is actually made up of tiny tiny tiny vibrating strings). I just hope it sticks.

Not a bad book, and for $10 as part of the Popular Penguins range, a bargain as well.

Well it was only just about a week ago i posted another book review. This one i smashed through pretty quickly (its not that thick) because of late shifts and also getting totally engrossed in it.

The book is Mission: Blacklist #1 by Eric Maddox. To give a bit of explanation before i go into the review a bit, Blacklist #1 is Saddam Hussein. During the 2003 Iraq Invasion the “Blacklist” was set up with a list of people who the Allies (US, UK & Aus) wanted to capture. On top of that list was obviously going to be Saddam himself. It also included other family members etc.

This book covers the story of how Saddam was found just prior to his capture in Tikrit. It follows along with the 6 month deployment of Eric Maddox the US Army Interragator as he slowly but surely plotted his way through the town of Tikrit with how each person seemed to be involved with Saddam in some form or fashion. It looked at who were his body guards etc and slowly but surely looked into this picture as they formed a nice big flow chart essentially of who was in charge of who etc.

After 6 months of interrogating etc it was as though they were never going to find him, but in the off chance they actually seemed to catch him. He was hidden in a “spider hole” under the ground near a house in a town just outside Tikrit. Totally crazy. The book was just totally engrossing, following the process of going through all the people, following the body guard links.

I highly recommend it and it is a good insight into something that wasn’t to widely put out about the Iraq War (at least that i remember). This is the last of my Ekka books essentially and im stepping away from the War for the moment and going into something totally different, but that book will remain a mystery till the next review.

So finished off the latest book last night and in the new fashion, here is my 2nd review.

The book, Extreme Risk is written by Major Chris Hunter. An Ex British Army ATO (Ammunition Technical Officer), essentially what in other Countries is called an EOD technician or Explosive Ordinance Disposal or a crazy bastard who diffuses bombs for a living. This was a really interesting book to me. After hearing so much over the last few years about “IED this, IED that” (Improvised Explosive Device), it was good to read about some real life experiences with it. But the bit that really was interesting to me was Northern Ireland. I had really actually forgotten about that conflict and it was good to actually read some stuff and bring back some memories of when it wasn’t all about Al Queda but what you heard on the news was more about the IRA etc.

A very interesting read, each chapter started with a quote about life and this really had me wanting to scribble some down. Here are a few of my favourites:

“Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined” – Henry David Thoreau
“He who sedulously attends, pointedly asks, calmly speaks, coolly answers and ceseas when he has no more to say is in possession of some of the best requisites of man” – Johann Casper Lavater
“Patience is the companion of wisdom” – St Augustine
“The first step to knowledge is to know that we are ignorant” – Lord David Cecil
“Have a heart that never hardens, a temper that never tires, and a touch that never hurts” – Charles Dickens
“Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood” – Marie Curie

I really liked this book and was captivated by it. Totally don’t regret this purchase at all, another one of those $5 books i came across. Turns out that he also wrote another book on his time in Iraq so that one goes into the Amazon wishlist, for future purchases. Definately recommend this book if you are after a bit of perspective on a different kind of aspect of some of the conflicts around the world. A look at the world of someone who spends his time being methodical and also very very logical. Who looks at problems and tries to work out what is wrong.

Something that is quoted a number of times in this book always seems to stick in my head. “Absence of the normal & presence of the abnormal.” If something doesn’t look right, it most likely isnt! Good words to live by.

So i thought since I am reading so much, I might as well do some book reviews. So each time I finish a book now. I am going to share my thoughts on it to the world.

First up is the book i finished Thursday night. It is “Spoken from the Front” It is a collection of letters, diary entries, emails and interviews from British Soldiers stationed in the Helmand Province of Afghanistan. It has been edited by Andy McNab but its written pretty much by the Soldiers themselves. It is a very wide range of soldiers, including medics, doctors, pilots, military police and of course general infantry soldiers.

It was a good collection of really heartfelt stories in my opinion. some good laughs as well with some very twisted emails from a Defence Press agent sending emails home. I really did like it as it gave a good insight into the way the soldiers etc really think in the war zone. The book is more about the people than about the war itself and that to me is a good way of looking at things. Reading about the people who make the sacrifices to go over there and do it, rather than about the war itself and have the book become and almost political nature as some of them do these days.

I picked this one up at the Ekka on the cheap so it only cost me $5 but i think it was good value. Not sure what else to say about this one, a good read if you want a more light hearted, personal read about the war in Afghanistan from a very varied perspective.

Epic… Its a word I use quite often, frankly to much really. But it has been a good week to use the word epic. I saw Dark Knight on Wednesday night, and that my friends is a movie that deserves the word. But what was also Epic was the race last week on Top Gear. Wait im using it to much again…

Anyway back to Dark Knight. Such a brilliant movie. Now I was not expecting much going in. I mean look at Batman Returns or Spiderman 2 or any other Sequel to a big movie. Usually pretty lame. But this was great. The acting was brilliant, the suspense was continuous, many a time during the movie was I thinking, wow what an ending, for it to continue… fantastic!

I have to admit with all the media attention coming up to the release about Heath Ledger this and Heath Ledger that, he did well. His take on the Joker was pretty good to me. His laugh reminded me so much of Jack Nicholson BUT his potrayal was nothing like it. It was like the comics, dark, sinister and very very evil. Loved IT!

anyway some big weekends coming up, Not long till my birthday (like 10 days i think) but I have a weekend down the coast first which should give me some enjoyment for what is usually one of the crappiest days of the year for me (i never have a good birthday). Also have the Ekka a short while away and I still wanna know how my photos went!

anyway Game is starting. Might throw some funny pics up here tomoz after tommorrow nights stupidity 😀