Toren Atkinson’s Absolute Blog

Clerks II was entertaining, but a little clumsy, like all of Kevin Smith’s films. You know when the only clue that you’re supposed to feel sadness or angst or sympathy is because a song is starting, you’re in trouble. Also, what is it with Smith characters stating their diehard convictions and then bailing on them at the drop of a hat? In Chasing Amy it was lesbianism, and in Clerks II it’s anti-marriage. Seems weird to me. Smith is good at snappy dialogue. Really good. I think everyone knows that. (Also Stephane makes a good point that all of the characters are speaking with Kevin Smith’s voice - this is something I notice with Joss Whedon too.) But I wish the actors were given a chance to act. The only breaks in dialogue occured when it was time to feature a song. Film is a visual medium too! There was one really powerful moment in the middle of the film, which unfortunately occured during a MONTAGE. Randall wasn’t saying anything. He was just staring quietly, thinking. That was an amazing bit because normally his character never shuts up, but it seemed almost accidental, like Smith didn’t mean for it to be profound because it was during a MONTAGE. But I’ll take it. And there were a few good belly laughs so it’s worth seeing if you like Kevin Smith movies. And props to my homeboy Chris Woods.
Other movies I want to see: Little Miss Sunshine (yay Alan Arkin!) and The Illusionist. Anyone? Tinseltown.

I like science. I read various scientists blogs and try to follow as best I can but quite often the jargon is beyond me. This post by Carl Zimmer about the puzzle of loyal amoeba is a good one, and I didn’t get lost. I recommend you read it if you’re interested in slime mold and/or evolution (and you’d be crazy not to). It’s a little long and not enough references to D&D, but still interesting. Incidentally the image of the slime mold stalks doesn’t do justice to the time lapse photography of the mold moving around which you can see on the documentary about cell death called Death by Design which I had the good fortune of seeing when Rogers still stocked VHS.

An isolate is what it sounds like: a person, thing, or group that is set apart or isolated, as for purposes of study.

The D&D campaign I’ve been playing in recently is now over! It was a short campaign run by Paul and it was a lot of fun. I played Zabsurast Hoohoo the Barbarian/fighter/ranger with a rogue cohort named Hives (pronounced HEE-vays like you would pronounce Chaves, but Zaburast always pronounced it like the skin condition). In a nutshell, we were sent on a ship to an island where a modern stoner from California had been imprisoned by wizards because his ‘invention’ of gunpowder would tip the balance of power. This last session could well have been a total party kill (TPK) as Paul had no compunction about sending numerous deadly foes at us since we all knew it would be the last night for the campaign, but we pulled through with flying colours (though it was harrowing for a couple of us for a while there). The Mutants & Masterminds game I’m in should wrap up next week, right after H.P. Lovecraft’s Birthday Party, which gives me no regular gaming outlets until Caleb starts up his Masks of Nyarlathotep campaign. I’ve been waiting to play that for years. In the meantime I’m desperately trying to figure out what I’m going to do for Spaceship Zero at HPL’s BDP!

Did I mention that I played World Wildlife Federation of Justice last week and it went really well? I’m looking forward to running it again on the weekend.