The year has passed swiftly. It is already November!

The Hobbit Trilogy

I watched the three Peter Jackson Hobbit movies in the last few days on Amazon Prime. It is just one unmemorable action sequence after another, chase scene after chase scene. There is no artistry, nor gravitas nor drama. Disappointing.

And he has made the simple tale very bloated, the additions are unnecessary.

His favourite cinematic trick? The panning panorama with the camera. The entire thing is edited like a music video with fast edits, anything beautiful is just lost as one shot after another is piled on the viewer. I guess the commercial success of them means that there will be more of these kind of movies and that most people liked them. The backgrounds, whether painted or computer generated or digitally painted were mostly like that of a computer game though there were a few nice backdrops. A few.

What a mess.

An Unexpected Journey - 5/10
The Desolation of Smaug - 5/10
The Battle of the Five Armies - 5/10

At the Battle of the Five Armies, the ridiculous combat scenes and the toy sets out of a computer game were unconvincing. The fact that Thorin's company of dwarves could now decimate the orcs whereas they spent the first two movies running from a mere orc warband, in other words the lack of consistency. It is entertaining enough to an extent I guess. I watched them like how I would watch a cartoon. There is no magic in the movies. I get a sense of magic and wonder when I read the book.

 I was at UOB bank at Upper Thomson earlier today. It was very hot, the sunshine was glaring. Afterwards, I was at Da Pablo at Cluny Court for a while, talking to Siu Hean. 

 It is almost the weekend. I can read and draw again!

Is the BBC biased?

Does the BBC seem to have institutional bias? I was wondering if the BBC's seeming anti-Israel bias would show in their coverage of the current Israel-Hamas War and I noticed that despite the BBC's attempts to be balanced, the BBC tried by showing only a bit on the Hamas atrocities and hostage taking, the BBC simply cannot shake off what seems to be their institutional anti-semitism. It continues to mainly focus on the Palestinian civilians while giving lip service to the Hamas terror.

This was written in November 2023. I didn't put it up as I wanted to monitor the coverage further. BBC's coverage seems slanted. In any case, most media corporations have institutional bias of their own kind. I think this would be that of the BBC, at least, it seems so.

 I spent a fair amount of time clearing up my study today.

Initial impressions of Diablo IV

This was something I wrote a year ago. I wonder why I didn't publish it.

From 12th June 2023 my initial impressions of Diablo IV:

• Drab drab drab. Everything is decrepit and run down, faded colours. Ugh. Extreme poverty. I am still in Act 1. It will change.
  
  
• Gameplay. I have five characters of all the classes up to level 20. It remains faithful to D3, D2, etc. The Necromancer has many of the same skills. Yet, there are differences. The skill tree is now a matrix.
  
  
• The game seemingly has a very strong Catholic feel about it. Exorcism, reverend mothers, priests, burnings of heretics, penance, confession and more.
  
  
• Monsters. So far, I see the same monsters as in previous instalments.
  
  
• So far so good, I am enjoying it.
  
  
  

My most used vehicles in War Thunder

My top 10 most used: (no. of battles)

1. OF-40 (MTCA)
2. Pvkv m/43 (1946)
3. Pvkv II
4. Leopard 1
5. T-72AV (TURMS)
6. AMX-30
7. JPz 4-5
8. Sho't Kal Dalet
9. ST-A3
10. T95E1

My favourite vehicles in War Thunder

My favourite vehicles, I have multiple favourites for each rank:

Rank 1 - Strv m/31

Rank 2 - M4A3 (105mm), STUG IIIG

Rank 3 - Jagdpanzer 38(t), Avenger, Pvkv II, Pvkv m/43 (1946)

Rank 4 - JPz 4-5, Ferdinand, ST-A3

Rank 5 - T54E1, Leopard 1, OF-40, Somua SM,

Rank 6 - T95E1, Leopard 1A5, Vickers Mk.3, Type 89, OF-40 (MTCA)

Rank 7 - Leopard 2A4, TTD, Type 90, Type 90(B), Ariete (P), Leclerc S2, Leclerc, Ariete

Rank 8 - M1A2 SEP, M1A2 SEP V2, Leopard 2A7V, Leopard 2 PSO, Black Night, Challenger 3TD, Type 10, Ariete AMV, Leclerc AZUR, Strv 122B+, Merkava Mk. 4M, T-80BVM.

I suppose for rank 8, I do like most of them.

Overall favourite? It shifts all the time. No real overall favourite at this moment.