Boy, the Regal 17 in Auburn is an awesome theater… huge screens, lots of parking, impressive entrance. It surprised me since I’d always thought of Auburn as rather podunk relative to Federal Way. After all, they have less than half the population Fed Way does (40K to our 83K). I got lost on the way home from the movie and ended up in Milton. What a depressing dogpatch that place is… it made me think of the little town in Texas Chainsaw Massacre 4, but with more trees.

Anyway, The Illusionist (what I saw in Auburn) was a thoroughly average movie IMO. I don’t have any complaints, and I don’t regret going, but in the end I found it difficult to muster any real enthusiasm for the film. Giamatti (as Inspector Uhl) and Sewell (as Prince Leopold) played their parts very aptly. On a scale of 1 to 10, I think I’d give this, like, a 5.2.

Okay, here’s a big image dump. Some of these are really cool. Mouse-over for a tool-tip description.

Aside from Nerdcore Night at the Shark Club in Kirkland, not a whole lot happened this week. GURPS was called off on account of a player schedule conflict (shouldn’t be a problem in the future if we can recruit some more). And there was no D&D, as our GM was off in London (enjoying the vacation he won in a radio contest). But Ian and I met up at Game-A-Lot and played a rousing game of Settlers of Catan with Anthony.

Nerdcore Night was fun. Beefy’s performance went over really well. Some guy even bought me a drink just because I knew him! We talked about it a lot on Beefy’s podcast, so I won’t rehash the various anecdotes from that evening here.

My grandparents sent me a Barnes & Noble gift card as a belated birthday present this week (thanks!), so this morning I made use of it. I got some 1970s sci fi classics (The Mote in God’s Eye, Crashlander, and The Gods Themselves), Lords and Ladies (a discworld book), and Epic Legends of the Magic Sword Kings (the second Penny Arcade collection).

I discovered Shin-Chan on Adult Swim last week. Definitely the funniest Japanese animation I’ve ever seen. Much funnier than Azumanga Daioh. And the ending theme song is really good — here’s a YouTube video of it. It’s a little ohrwurm-y, like the “Doncha Wanta Fanta” jingle.

I’m going to try to see The Illusionist in Auburn tonight. It’s got a really good rating on Rotten Tomatoes (75% ATM, 96% amongst users only).