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I watched Cube Zero last night. It's a prequel to the first two Cube flicks which were good, especially the first one. For anyone who is unfamiliar with the series, they involve people who wake up trapped in a square room with hatches in the center of the walls, floor, and ceiling that all lead to similar square rooms. As the folks struggle to escape, they find that some of the rooms are booby-trapped and that the the rooms move periodically. The first flick was good. It was about the relationships and conflicts amongst people stuck in the Cube and portrayed their attempts to escape. Plus the ending was very open. The second film was very similar but had a bigger budget so the booby traps were all funky CGI and the ending a bit more conclusive but not particularly happy. Cube Zero deviates from the formula and had a plotline about some of the people who control the cube. We see two men who sit at computers in a room doing menial jobs to ensure that the people in the Cube are awakened and that the "experiment" goes according to plan. I don't think it unfair to say that the formula had started to get stale so the producers mixed things up by taking the original concept and adding Brazil. The office the two cogs work in is a mix of high and low tech. There are these supercomputers controlling the monolithic piece of technology that is the Cube yet records of people put into it are maintained on paper and stored in filing cabinets. Plus we have the whole office-drone-out-to-find-the-hottie routine from Brazil as well. Thusly, the hook of the first two films is lost - we know why the people are trapped in the Cube and we also get a good idea of who runs the Cube. They traded the McGuffin away for a love story, is what it basically comes down to, and the film is all the worse off for it. It was just blase. With the mystery all but gone and half of it being a cheap Terry Gilliam/Marc Caro-Jean Pierre Jeunet knockoff, there's not really much to recommend it. If you've never seen any of the Cube films, stick with the first one.

Speaking of Marc Caro & Jean Pierre Jeunet, I watched part of Wimbledon this morning. Sorry - the link is that Darius Khondji was the cinematographer for Wimbledon and City of Lost Children by Caro and Jeunet. Anyway, I love Khondji's work but I know he's gotta eat too. Now, I'll grant you I didn't see the whole thing but the cinematography was nothing special. In fact, the movie didn't appear to be anything special. It's a shame because directory Richard Loncraine did Richard III which was awesome. Well, he's gotta put food on the table too, I suppose. And speaking of food, tonight is the night for Polish pot roast. Plus I think that Marv is gonna stop by for chow and to discuss coming along with me and Charles on a roadtrip - to GenCon. Yes, Charles and I decided this morning to just do it. GenCon, for those non-gamers out there, is the super-mega-maxi-ultra gaming convention. There will be oodles and oodles of Dungeons & Dragons-playing, dice-rolling, sci-fi/fantasy-loving, H.P. Lovecraft-raeding dorks, freaks, and geeks having free rein over the city of Indianapolis for 4 days!! Plus there will be hot chicks wearing chain mail skirts and tops! All I really plan on is playing some CoC. I'll figure the rest out when I get there.

Back from lunch...Of course the rain holds off until my lunch hour when I go running about downtown. I got me some scented oil from The Soap Opera and then grabbed a Metro pass on my way back. I'm tired of paying the price of a barrel of crude oil everytime I fill up my car's gas tank. I might as well buy the shit wholesale and refine it myself in my basement. Plus I'll be contributing less air pollution and putting less wear'n'tear on the Cabalmobile. And so I'll be smelling all good as I take advantage of public transportation.

Bloody Lyle! He forgot my canning jars today! Sheesh! I'll have to go grab some after work. I've got a million pounds of Bing cherries in my refrigerator that need to be given the brandy douche and thrown into jars. I wonder if the Co-op has any...? Speaking of which, I've gotta get a hold of Downtown. And I saw Beth, Ronaldo's wife, there a few days ago. I must remember to email his swarvy ass.

Next month the Doctor Who audio drama Terror Firma will be released. It's the first adventure with the 8th Doctor since The Next Life from last December and I'm getting fired up for its release. So I've decided to start listening to all of the 8th Doctor programs again and am in media res of Storm Warning, which was very appropriate last night. The upshot is that I've got that Edwardian clothing bug up my ass again. And so I'm dedicating myself to a frock coat. A co-worker's mother-in-law is a seamstress and he said that she might be able to make it for me, time permitting. I've scanned the Yeller Pages for haberdashers and found a couple joints to approach. Next up are spatterdashes.

I bought some strawberry-jalapeno jam from a guy here at work and it is tasty! I think it's got the maximum amount of jalapeno in it that you can have before it starts taking over from the strawberry. Good stuff that lured Stevie away from his Adkins dieting.

Two hours left.