Coen Brothers: Fargo– I’m seeing a pattern now, the landscape is different in this film, but its role is the same. This one is funnier than the last one (No country for Old men).
I’m tired and don’t really know why; well, I do but can’t confide. There is someone out there.
The iPod collection is growing rapidly with generous loans from Peter. The gadget has developed a dominantly melancholic mood; that’s my iPod!
Somebody Loves You

New film to add to the top ten: The Reader: based on the Bernard Schlink book. I’m left so stunned that I can’t really make much of a post here. With a background of Germany dealing with it’s recent history, the relationship is however, inseparable from that background so it is not really a background at all. Their story looks at an impossible relationship that spans a whole lifetime.
In fact I have just deleted most of this post because it is best to meet this film with no fore-knowledge. Go and see it, just as an incentive– there are no car chases, no shooting so special effects.

20°C, light clouds

The map is from Microsoft, it is capable of showing more detail, but you have ot follow the link to see it. It appears that the recent maps are more detailed than the flight sim; both owned by Microsoft.
Eastern Siberia, just so you know. Though in the middle of the world’s largest continent, there is water everywhere.

Firefox: get version 3.5+ if you use this and a multicore processor- it now seems to multithread evenly on all four here. That is good, it means that the browser is nearly as fast as Google Chrome.
FSX-scenery: as long as they are relatively simple, making airstrips for this flight simulator doesn’t take long. I got six started or done yesterday. Okay, I admit, it was a monster session on a day of pouring rain.

• UESS_Cherskiy
• UEBB Batagay
• UHMK_Keperveyem
• UEBW_Verhojansk
• UHMI Mys Schmidta (aka Moyale on Nth coast of E Siberia)
• UEST_Tiksi (finished a while ago, but includes detailed replacement for the River Lena delta)

Most of these strips are next to rivers, some are old cold-war bomber bases with very long runways, most are semi-derelict. Some are closed.
Siberians don’t usually live far from a river (it’s transport, food and somewhere to drive in the long winter months). These landacapes are obviously remote, barren and frighteningly beautiful- to use an old-fashioined word- ‘sublime’.
AVsim’s library is back online so there will be available there soon. I may as well use Live’s Skydrive here to host them too.
Weird lands; have a look in Google-Earth.

There is no bridge connecting Pevek to the island; okay so what?
But how do you remove the erroneous bridge in FSX flight sim?

Any suggestions?

Delta done (just about): You get to know how these oxbow lakes form around kettle-holes after doing this kind of drawing. the KML file is getting too heavy to manage now, so I need to call a halt soon- there are 190 ponds & lakes drawn in to add onto the ones already present.

This printscreen was taken at the current time & weather, the melt is underway leading to the very short summer, but 24hr daylight.
I will probably make this file available on this site until AvSim is recovered.

Journey home was hard today; that wind.
Delta building: About 75% complete I’d say, the town of Tiksi is misplaced and has the wrong shoreline- I will fix that soon.

There Will be Blood: on a roll now; two great films in a week. This one was very long, again it’s set in the deserts of the US, but the dark tension came from a different direction. This time there was focus on a character Daniel Plainvew, clues were revealed when the lead wanted to expose them. They were not nice things to see, some were only hints but still ugliness was there in a way that created a a heavy, tense and sinister feel. As dark as the crude oil that he was obsessed with. Stupid me, didn’t realise that the lead was played by Daniel Day-Lewis. Perhaps that is the mark of a great actor, or a viewer who doesn’t have a care about celebrity.
This film is worth watching again.

Film: No Country For Old Men: now here is a film full of space, time to breathe and heart-thumping tension. Given, the characters were not really explored in depth, it’s not a film about that. There was so much to explore otherwise that I didn’t miss it anyway. The story was centred about a psychopath, casual murder and some gore, blood, dust and desert. It was however, quiet; quiet enough to hear your heartbeat. It beat out because of the plot which didn’t give away too many secrets in advance. The theme of ageing was never far away, timeless characters were set against a guy who was so conscious of his own. I liked this film, the space, the long scenes and the smallness of the players in that vast desert.

The clouds are taunting us- the patch of blue sky to the west has stayed there all morning, clouds are travelling northwards and could stay like this all day.
In Bruges: What a very sweary film. A brutal and funny gangster film set in a relatively little known Belgian city. What a beautiful place; a medieval city with much of the charm and atmosphere of Prague, but as the opening line in the film states: "Bruges is a shithole".  Clearly that character is less than happy: later you find out why. Warning: after watching this film, you may find yourself swearing more than usual.This effect dies down after a day or so.