Went to see 10,000 BC this afternoon. Oh boy, history, biology, geography, astronomy - they all get a hammering in this film. I can't be bothered to even start listing everything that was goofy here.

It was one of the most by-the-numbers renditions of (the easy to understand bits of) Joseph Campbell's monomyth that I'd seen in a while. I smiled at the bemusement when hunter-gatherers first came across the evidence of agriculture, but of course in Campbell's scheme there has to be a 'boon' to take back home at the end (sorry, that was a spoiler). There were also bits lifted from the Bible, Stargate, Conan and 300, just in case the mention of Campbell misled you into thinking there were highbrow sources being used.

The action and CGI were very good, the actors managed to keep straight face. It's not a bad movie in the sense that it's exciting and visual, but it's certainly one to watch with the brain switched off.

Oh, by the way, the Doctor Who and Star Trek trailers look amazing on the big screen.

About half the moon is in shadow now. South London isn't the best place for sky watching, especially with the moon right over the floodlights of the bus garage, (so no chance of photos from here) but at least the sky is clear so I'm getting the best view I can.

[Update 22:47] - Nearly totally in shadow now, I can see the the reddish hue on the shadowed parts quite clearly. I tried to take some pictures anyway but the camera just whirred as if to say "there's nothing there mate" and refused to do anything.

Quick post before I dash off the work Christmas party.

Today there's a blogathon marking the tenth anniversary of the death of Carl Sagan.

My parents had the large colourful hadcover of Cosmos and it was one of those books that I was always taking off the shelf and reading, understanding more and more of it as I got older. Probably one of the formative influences that led me to read physics at university. Very simply, he was one of the greatest communicators and popularizer of science that there has ever been.

Went drinking after work with pink_weasel, miss_newham, hoshuteki and elrestodemivida, whom I met for the first time this evening. Yes, it was 100% Live Journal pub meet.

I learnt that the moon is called Cynthia.

hoshuteki and I discussed setting up a LJ community for Croydon High School widowers, and widows of course. That's widowers in the sense Golf Widows, not in the sense of bumping off our wives/girlfriends. Interested gleet?

The poster ads in the gents' loos in gay bars are more amusing than those in straight bars. Though maybe only because one of the men in the "feeling ready to move on to a relationship?" poster looked like Apothis Baal from Stargate SG1.

[Update 21 July 2005 08:12 am] Whoops wrong Goa’uld.