Here's Olive, our brand-new family member. She's an eight-week-old female pug. Rob's wanted one forever, and we were missing Coco a lot. She's probably going to be easier going, because she's a much smaller dog than Coco was. Only thing is, we have to house train her, and do obedience training again. She's very well behaved so far, quite an easy-going nature, occasionally playful, but quick to settle. She's wormed her way into everyone's heart's pretty quickly.
Not having a lot of fun at the moment with the property. It's been too much work, and I get the feeling we've bitten off more than we can chew. There's just too much land to maintain without the right equipment. Rob was talking about getting a lawn mower the other day, but I think we need a tractor.
We've been through 4 sprayers so far trying to poison the weeds, 6 scrub cutters - incidentally, don't buy a Ryobi, they're crap! They don't start or run reliably at all. We've just had to spend $700 on an industrial Stihl scrub cutter, which has started first time, every time so far - big plus!. But can't help but wonder how long before we wear this out.
To add insult to injury, Rob got the ute jammed in the gully. I told her not to move it down, but she didn't want to listen to me. So I did it, and it got stuck. Cost us $50 to get it out with a tow truck. I guess the expense wasn't too bad, but frustrated that nobody ever listens to me. Got absolutely cooked too, outside most of the day in 30 degree heat.
Anytime we make any progress cutting down the lantana, grass, and weeds, as we move forward, it's growing back behind us. I'm starting to wonder if we should just sell the land. Also, I bought it thinking this was where we were going to stay, but already Rob's planning to move onto the next place. So I'm thinking what's the point of killing myself for something we may not even stay on anyway?
We've been through 4 sprayers so far trying to poison the weeds, 6 scrub cutters - incidentally, don't buy a Ryobi, they're crap! They don't start or run reliably at all. We've just had to spend $700 on an industrial Stihl scrub cutter, which has started first time, every time so far - big plus!. But can't help but wonder how long before we wear this out.
To add insult to injury, Rob got the ute jammed in the gully. I told her not to move it down, but she didn't want to listen to me. So I did it, and it got stuck. Cost us $50 to get it out with a tow truck. I guess the expense wasn't too bad, but frustrated that nobody ever listens to me. Got absolutely cooked too, outside most of the day in 30 degree heat.
Anytime we make any progress cutting down the lantana, grass, and weeds, as we move forward, it's growing back behind us. I'm starting to wonder if we should just sell the land. Also, I bought it thinking this was where we were going to stay, but already Rob's planning to move onto the next place. So I'm thinking what's the point of killing myself for something we may not even stay on anyway?
Went to Rob's work Xmas party on Friday. It was okay as far as Xmas parties go - some nice people in attendance. But the food at the restaurant itself was horrific - bugger all of anything, not much to choose from, and the chicken looked like it wasn't cooked properly. I've been feeling a bit rough for the last few days, and luckily I didn't eat much of the chicken - realised it was a bit too raw looking, and bleeding pretty quickly. Note to self - avoid all chicken at parties in the future. I'll just stick to my glass of Coke. It's safer.
Highlights of the evening included:
Highlights of the evening included:
- Extremely drunk old people lurching about the dance floor
- Extremely drunk people slurring, eye-rolling, and swaying
- Secret Santa - watch people try to figure out who gave who what...
Funnier than expected, and most of the laughs coming from Will Ferrell's character. When he's switched on he's hilarious, but not always - Stranger Than Fiction being a recent example. The story is a sports-comedy in similar vein to Dodgeball - sports film about a ridiculous sport - and although the ending is pretty predictable, it's more about what happens along the way that makes it funny. The uncomfortable awkwardness of two men skating together, and having to do manuevers that would be sexually threatening was played to good comedic effect. It's light good fun, so I'd recommend it if you need a laugh.Plot Synopsis:
Chazz Michael Michaels and Jimmy MacElroy are rival mens figure skaters. At the Winter Olympics they tie for the gold medal, but after fighting on the podium, are stripped of their medals and banned from ever competing in skating again.
Jimmy is abandoned by his rich adoptive father, who only loved him when he was winning medals. Jimmy works in a skating equipment shop. Chazz hits the bottle, and skates drunk in a children's ice show. Jimmy's stalker find him, and tells him that he's found a loophole that will let Jimmy compete again: if he finds a partner, he can skate in pairs competition.
Jimmy contacts his old coach, and eventually ends up with Chazz. The coach trys to get them to resolve their differences and work as a team, and slowly they do. He tries to teach the boys his custom move - the Iron Lotus; a move so dangerous, that a Korean skater beheaded his partner trying to do the move.
Stranz and Fairchild Van Waldenberg find out they will be competing against them, and plot to undermine them. The manipulate their sister, Katie, into spying on Chazz and Jimmy. Katie and Jimmy develop an attraction and go out. When Fairchild finds out she pressures Katie to break them up by sleeping with Chazz. Katie attends Chazz's sex-addicts meeting, and lures him back to her hotel room. She can't go through with it, and doesn't sleep with Chazz, but not before Jimmy arrives and mistakenly thinks she has.
To ensure that they can't compete, Stranz abducts Chazz on his way to the games, and ties him up. Chazz manages to escape, and Stranz chases him on skates all the way to the Games Arena. Fairchild handcuffs Jimmy to a pipe in the toilets, and he only manages to escape by chewing his way through the contents of the mens-room garbage bin!
Chazz (Will Ferrell) and Jimmy (Jon Heder) make up, and begin their sci-fi themed routine. Fairchild, seeing the two doing extremely well, throws some of the pearls she wore in her routine onto the ice. Chazz shatters his ankle on one, and so cannot perform the Iron Lotus, which requires that one partner throw the other into the air. Jimmy then offers to switch parts with him. Never having practiced the other part, Jimmy runs the risk of killing Chazz. But confident in their new friendship, the two decide to try to perform the Iron Lotus.
As the stadium watches in fascination and fear, Jimmy swings Chazz by the ankle, bouncing Chazz's face close to the ice and then throwing him high into the air after several revolutions. As Chazz does a backflip above, Jimmy begins a "butterfly" move underneath. Jimmy's free leg comes so close to Chazz, Jimmy's blade slices off some of Chazz's neck stubble. The Iron Lotus is a success, and Jimmy and Chazz win the competition, thus reclaiming their gold medals.
Jimmy makes up with Katie, and Chazz shows Jimmy a tattoo that he had done which symbolizes that he will never again compete alone, for he has a new partner: Jimmy. Stranz is arrested for his shooting of the Mascot while pursuing Chazz, and he fingers Fairchild as the mastermind of the plot. They are both taken into custody. Jimmy and Chazz receive their gold medals, and reveal rockets in their skates that propel them out of the stadium and into the sky, where they create a new constellation that is reminiscent of one of their first awkward moves, a crotch-grab, by shooting fire into the night sky.
Pretty much a remake of Rear Window, it seems to be unable to decide if it's a teen romance comedy or a thriller. Little happening but teen romance, comedy, and boredom intermixed with the occasional is he/isn't he a killer plot, until the latest 30 minutes when it kicks into full-on thriller mode and goes for it. Shia is likeable as always, and his female co-star provides the eye-candy, but overall a fairly pedestrian thriller. I don't think I'd have any problems letting my kids watch it. It's just not that scary.
Plot Synopsis:
Kale and his father are in an accident after a fishing trip. His father is killed, but he survives. Later, after he's recovered, he punches out his Spanish teacher for making an off-hand remark about his father. Kale is placed under house arrest for the summer and has to wear an ankle monitoring bracelet that confines him to a 100 yard radius around his house. He spies on his neighbors with the help of his friend, Ronnie, and new neighbor, Ashley, and uncovers that there are a lot of similarities between his neighbor, Mr. Turner, and an unknown suspect involved in a string of local disappearances of women.
Kale sends Ronnie to investigate Turner’s house with a video camera but he gets trapped inside. When Kale runs out to help him the police are summoned thus making him look mentally instable after the police see there is nothing suspicious to Turner’s story. Kale’s mother, Julie goes over to plead to Turner to not press charges on Kale. However, when Ronnie returns (he had escaped the house and hidden in Kale’s closet) they view the video footage which shows a woman’s corpse behind a grating in the floor.
Mr. Turner is indeed the serial murder; his house had been expanded on wherein he stores their rotting corpses. Turner attacks Julie and ties her up in his basement, he then goes to Kale’s house and knocks out Ronnie. Kale sees him and tries to run out of the house past the perimeter to summon the police but Turner punches him out before he reaches it. Ashley comes over and rescues Kale and they both jump off the roof into her pool which summons the police. Kale searches Turner’s house and finds a dissection room, a lot of corpses, his mom, and then Turner. A fight entails where Julie stabs Turner in the leg and Kale impales him with garden shears. Julie and Kale leave the house where more cops have arrived after there was no response from the first unit sent: Turner killed the cop. As an award, Kale is released from house arrest and they all live happily ever after.
The house is progressing and we've finally got most of the details hammered out. Rob's just got some fine details to sort out this week, septic, air conditioning, and some minor plan changes to do, and we're on our way to a preliminary contract. There's been a few price shocks (just about needed the paramedic's shock paddles when I got the quote for the water tanks, pumps, etc... 11k for two large plastic containers - what a ripoff!) They've already missed adding in a lot of the changes we requested to the plans, so we've had to go through them again and mark them on the plan ourselves.
The company that's building on the site next door is pissing me off too. They keep dumping their stuff all over our land - we've got piles of rock, porta-loo, piles of piping, metal sheeting, guttering, not to mention their rubbish and waste. And to top it off they've cracked and sunken the driveway from having their heavy trucks driving up our accessway. I've been playing phone tag for the last few weeks with these morons - got a human being today who told me they know nothing about the development. I'm going to have to start playing hard-ball with these guys soon...
The company that's building on the site next door is pissing me off too. They keep dumping their stuff all over our land - we've got piles of rock, porta-loo, piles of piping, metal sheeting, guttering, not to mention their rubbish and waste. And to top it off they've cracked and sunken the driveway from having their heavy trucks driving up our accessway. I've been playing phone tag for the last few weeks with these morons - got a human being today who told me they know nothing about the development.
UPDATE: Bad news everyone! Those asinine morons at Box have removed the trailer from You Tube. I guess they don't want publicity to sell their DVD's. Go figure! Till then check it out here.
Ezy have a page up for it here, but no release date yet.
Yay Futurama's back! Can't wait for this to come out. No word yet on when it's released in Oz.
Ezy have a page up for it here, but no release date yet.
Yay Futurama's back! Can't wait for this to come out. No word yet on when it's released in Oz.
* TRAILER DELETED *
Visually it's amazing, story-wise it's a mess. Nothing much happens for awhile, then a series of random events occur causing the heroes to spiral into disaster, and then it ends leaving you going 'meh! - what was the point of that??.' I don't know whether they actually picked up a looney, or whether the crew just went nuts? They make some comments about staring into the sun and having trippy experiences, so who knows? It cribs it's story from other flicks, shades of 2010, Event Horizon, Armageddon and Supernova. It's a shame, because it does look fantastic, and like nothing else. Sometimes it's a little disorientating and hard to understand where events are taking place, particularly with the strange layout of the Icarus, but that could be intentional. The sun effects are beautifully handled. Worth a look if your interested in sci-fi, but as far as replay value, I'll give it a miss. It's going into my so-so file along with Red Planet, Contact, Mission to Mars.Plot Synopsis:
The Icarus II has been sent on a journey to reignite the sun using an immense stellar bomb. The previous ship Icarus I went missing under mysterious circumstances. On the way to the sun, Icarus II discovers the whereabouts of Icarus I. At Capa’s suggestion, they head towards it to retrieve its payload, reasoning that two payloads would give them twice the chance of completing their mission.
In readjusting their course, they inflict damage to their shields, and Captain Kaneda is killed repairing them, but the oxygen garden is destroyed in the process. Unbeknownst to everyone, Pinbacker, the captain of the Icarus I, has gone made and has been living alone on the ship communing with the sun and waiting for it to die. When the Icarus II docks with Icarus I (now also in order to retrieve its supply of oxygen), Pinbacker gets onto the Icarus II and starts to sabotage it like he did his own ship to prevent either from saving the sun.
Pinbacker begins killing the crew of the Icarus I, but Capa and Cassie escape and ride the payload into the sun to ensure the mission succeeds. Everyone dies, but the sun is reignited for the people of Earth.
Check out this cool animated advert featuring a hand drawn characters adventures, and the animator intervening to help the character through his or her day.
I still remember seeing the first part of the trilogy - I missed out on seeing it at the movies with the family, and had to wait for it to come out on VHS. Still it was a fantastic movie, and even today there's never been another film like it. The story line is so cleverly thought out and meticulously constructed, and the effects still hold up well. The DTS soundtrack on the DVD release is also awesome, with some good surround sound. Buy the trilogy set - it's awesome!Plot Synopsis:
Marty McFly is an average teenager living in Hill Valley, California. On the morning of October 25, 1985, his eccentric friend, scientist Dr. Emmett "Doc" Brown, calls him, asking to meet him at 1:15 a.m. After school that day, a woman approaches Marty and his girlfriend Jennifer, asking for donations to save the town's clock tower which has not run since it was struck by lightning thirty years previous. When he gets home Marty sees the family car wrecked in the driveway and his neurotic father George being bullied by his supervisor Biff Tannen. That night at dinner, Marty's mother Lorraine recounts how she and George first met when her father hit George with a car.
That night, Marty meets the Doc as planned in the parking lot of Twin Pines Mall. Doc shows him a Delorean DMC-12 which he has modified into a time machine, explaining that it requires 1.21 gigawatts of power, generated by plutonium, and that the car must be traveling at eighty-eight miles per hour to travel through time. Doc successfully demonstrates the vehicle by transporting his dog Einstein 1 minute intno the future. Doc shows Marty how to operate the vehicle, and enters in November 5, 1955 as the target date, explaining that this was the day he conceived of the flux capacitor, which is "what makes time travel possible."
Before Doc can depart for his planned trip twenty-five years into the future, the Libyan terrorists he stole his plutonium from show up in a Volkswagen van and shoot him dead. Marty jumps in the Delorean and is pursued until he hits eighty-eight miles per hour and is instantanously transported into the year 1955. He destroys a pine tree while escaping from Peabody's pine plantation. (This leads to the mall being renamed Lone Pine Mall when he returns later).
The car runs out of fuel shortly after his arrival, so Marty abandons it and, after pushing the car to a secluded spot, makes his way into town, finding that the town square now reflects the popular culture of the 1950s and that his own parents are teenagers themselves. Biff is also a teenager and acts as a school bully, tyrannizing the young George.
In the critical moment when George was about to be hit by Lorraine's father's car, Marty saves his father by taking the hit himself. Lorraine becomes infatuated with him, but Marty is disturbed by her sexual advances and leaves to track down the Doc. After managing to convince the scientist that he is from the future, Doc tells him that, aside from plutonium, the only possible source of enough power to send Marty back to 1985 is a bolt of lightning. Since Marty knows the lightning strike to the clock tower will happen the following Saturday, Doc concocts a way to harness the bolt's power.
More pressingly, Doc deduces that Marty has prevented his parents from meeting. Since Marty will not exist unless his parents fall in love, he finds that he is in danger of being erased from time. After several failed attempts, Marty eventually works out a plan to have George "rescue" Lorraine from Marty's advances on the night of a school dance. Biff shows up and attacks the couple, but George manages to defend Lorraine, knocking Biff out with a single punch. Lorraine and George return to the dance together where they kiss for the first time, ensuring Marty's existence. Doc, meanwhile, has used cables to connect the clock tower to two lamp posts, which he plans to have Marty drive under in the Delorean, now sporting a lightning rod, at eighty-eight miles per hour the moment the lightning strikes.
Before Marty can leave, Doc finds a letter in his coat pocket that Marty had written, warning him about his future assassination by the Libyans. Doc rips up the letter without reading it, knowing the dangers of learning about the future. Marty adjusts the time machine to take him back ten minutes early so he can warn Doc right before he is killed. Upon his arrival in 1985, Marty sees the Libyans shoot Doc again, but Doc then unzips his radiation suit to reveal a bulletproof vest. He pulls out Marty's letter from 1955, which he had taped back together.
The next morning, Marty finds his family has been changed for the better. Most notably, George has become self-confident and is no longer bullied by Biff. Just as Jennifer and Marty reunite, Doc arrives from the year 2015, appearing frantic about a problem with the couple's future children. Marty and Jennifer climb aboard the Delorean and, aided by the future technology, the car flies away into the sky.
Usually Part 2 isn't a favourite with most people, but I like the complexity of it. Lots more time travel, technology, and general mind-bending-ness appeals to my inner geek. The effects are an impressive leap beyond the previous installment, and the different versions of Hill Valley are very well done. It's interesting to see the town evolve through the different time periods. Also, the actors playing different characters is well done - although Michael J Fox playing his daughter is disturbing. Revisiting 1955 is cleverly done, with previous events shown again from different perspectives, with other versions of characters interacting within it. An excellent installment to the series.Plot Synopsis:
Marty has returned home from 1955 to find his future improved. He meets with Jennifer, but is interrupted when Doc Brown returns from the future in a modified Delorean. It no longer relies on nuclear power, running instead on rubbish and the Mr Fusion power generator. Doc tells Marty he has to come back to the future because somethings wrong with his kids. He tells her to bring Jennifer with them. They leave in the Delorean, and it flies away into the future (Doc has also had the car hover-converted). Biff comes outside and see's the car leave for the future.
Marty, Doc and Jennifer arrive in 2015. Doc tranquilizes Jennifer, who is not necessary for his plan, explaining that he brought her along only because she saw the time machine. Doc explains that Marty's son is about to be approached by Griff Tannen, Biff's grandson, and his gang, who will ask him to take part in a robbery. According to Doc, this event leads to the ruin of the entire McFly family. Marty replaces his son and tells Griff he will not join the robbery, leading to a hoverboard chase that damages the nearby courthouse, and causes Griff and his gang to be arrested. This stops the robbery from ever taking place.
Learning the Cubs have won the World Series, Marty purchases a sports almanac covering all sports statistics from 1950 to 2000, so he can bet on future games with certainty and become wealthy. Doc discovers the almanac and throws it away, telling Marty that he did not invent time travel for financial gain. Old Biff overhears the conversation about the almanac and the time machine, and having seen the Delorean before in 1985 figures out what's going on.
Jennifer, still tranquilized, is found by the police, mistaken for her future self after thumbprint identification, and taken to her future home. Hiding in a closet, she witnesses the Marty of 2015 being fired from his job when his boss catches him in an illegal scheme that a colleague (formerly a schoolmate) goaded him into joining. Doc finds Jennifer sneaking her out of the house after she briefly meets her future self, causing both to faint in shock.
While Doc is rescuing Jennifer, the old-aged Biff of 2015 recovers the discarded sports almanac and steals the Delorean. He returns the car to 2015 just as Marty and Doc prepare to leave for their own time. Upon arrival in 1985, Marty and Doc find that Hill Valley has become a crime-ridden slum lorded over by a middle-aged Biff, who is now immeasurably rich and powerful and married to Marty's widowed mother, Lorraine. Doc deduces that the Biff of 2015 must have given the almanac to his younger self sometime in the past. Marty confronts Biff and finds out that he received the almanac on November 12, 1955 from a mysterious old man. Biff then tries to kill Marty, being forewarned by Old Biff that a kid might come looking for the book one day. With the help of Doc, Marty escapes Biff's Pleasure Palace.
Doc later speculates that this date could be a point that has a special significance to the space-time continuum, or that it "might be a huge coincidence." Marty and Doc travel back to 1955 to prevent the corrupted 1985 from happening. Marty eventually manages to steal the almanac from the 1955 Biff, while trying to avoid running into the other versions of himself and Doc in 1955.
When he is no longer in any danger of having it taken by Biff, Marty burns the almanac, restoring history to its proper course. As Doc attempts to land the Delorean, the car is struck by lightning, and it time travels in error. It is sent back to 1885 due to a malfunction in the time circuits.
A few seconds later a Western Union delivery man appears with a letter, which he explains was given to them seventy years ago with the explicit instructions that it be delivered to Marty "at this exact location, at this exact minute, November 12, 1955." Marty tears open the letter, which is from Doc, explaining that he is now trapped in 1885.
Marty locates the Doc of 1955, who is at the clock tower sending Marty back to 1985. After the time machine vanishes, Marty then appears to Doc, who faints when he sees that Marty has come "back from the future". Marty tries to revive Doc as the text TO BE CONCLUDED appears.
This is followed by a teaser to Back to the Future Part 3.
Probably not my absolute favourite of the installments, but it's still a fun installment. I find the love story tends to slow the pace down a bit, especially after the frenetic pace of the previous part. But the continuity is good tying up loose ends while still retaining links to Hill Valley, the McFly's vs Tannen's etc, and the Wild West setting makes for something different. The effects have improved, although I think the effects throughout the trilogy still hold up pretty well. I think the reliance on practical effects at the time really helped with creating effects that look realistic, hence they still look good and not dated. A fitting end to the trilogy - and hey if it still leaves people wanting more, then they must be doing something right.The extras disc is a smattering of different material, some of it already available on the individual movie discs, but it's still good to have it for completeness. Some of the material on the extras does look very dated though - especially some of the tv documentaries. The best material is the making-of documentaries.
Overall, the trilogy boxed set is well worth having, and a must have set of movies for any movie fan.
Plot Synopsis:
At the end of the last installment, the Delorean was struck by lightning in 1955 and vanished, leaving Marty stranded in 1955. He receives a letter from Doc Brown, sent in 1885. With the help of 50's Doc, he retrieves the time machine and its restored to working order. They discover that the Doc was killed in the Old West by Buford 'Mad Dog' Tannen, Biff's ancestor.
Marty travels back to 1885 to rescue Doc Brown. The Delorean is damaged by indians upon arrival, and is left stranded without fuel. Marty encounters his ancestors, and eventually locates the Doc, who has set himself up as a blacksmith in the fledgling town. Buford has a disagreement with Doc, who refuses to pay Tannen his money. Marty aggravates things further by referring to Tannen as 'Mad Dog'. Buford vows revenge on Doc Brown.
The Doc and Marty inadvertently save Clara Clayton from falling into the future Clayton's Gorge, and Doc is immediately smitten with her. They embark on a burgeoning romance, while Marty is trying to get the Doc to focus on returning home before he is killed by Tannen. When 'Mad Dog' and his thugs rough up Clara and the Doc at the town dance, Marty intervenes and winds up challenging Buford to a shootout in front of the saloon the next day.
Marty convinces the Doc that he has to leave Clara and return to the future. Doc breaks off the romance, but ends up in the town saloon. When Marty finds him in the morning, he's drunk after raving about the future to the bar-folk. While trying to sober him up, Buford arrives for his duel. Marty tries to escape, but gets called out. Buford guns him down, but Marty survives, having used the door of the potbelly stove as body-armor. He defeats Buford, and leaves him face down in the dung cart.
Marty and the Doc steal a train, and use it to push the Delorean up the track to 88 mph. Clara finds them, and while rescuing her from the exploding train, Doc Brown is left behind. The Delorean returns to the future, where it is destroyed by an oncoming freight train.
Marty finds Hill Valley restored to it's post Part 2 state, and picks up Jennifer at her house. He's challenged to a drag race with Needles from Part 2, but chooses not to respond to 'chicken', and avoids the car wreck that would have cost him his future music career. Later back at the tracks, sifting through the wreckage of the Delorean, the Doc arrives with Clara in a huge steam train-converted time machine. He came to say goodbye - he takes Einstein, and his children Jules and Verne, back to the past.
We're finally settling into our new digs. One thing's for sure we can't complain about the lack of space anymore. Everyone seems a lot happier and more relaxed - less like caged animals. I think it's going to be good for us being out of the tiny little shed. I don't want to sound ungrateful though, because our inlaws were very generous to let us stay in there for so long, rent free. But the lack of personal space and privacy was starting to cause far too many fights, and moodiness. We were all starting to think we'd made a big mistake moving here, and wanted to go home. It's much better now. I can't wait till we can get our own house built.We're still spending the weekends clearing the gully on the property. Rob reckons we're over the halfway mark finally, which is a huge relief. It's been a massive undertaking, not helped by the excessive heat and swarms of flies. I found a nest with duck eggs in it - Rob had inadvertently cleared the long grass from around it, but somehow missed standing in the nest, so it was sitting on the bare cleared ground. I don't think the parent ducks were too impressed, so we covered it back up with some mounds of grass. Mother duck's been sitting on them, so hopefully we'll get some ducklings soon. They're a lot more welcome than the snakes - Rob found a big length of shed snakeskin in the gully. That was enough to send her packing for the day. I took it home for Bay to have a look it and take to school. I wasn't too happy when he came in, and draped it over my shoulders while i was working. At least it didn't have the snake in it.
The Unix utility dd is a disk copying utility that can be used from the command line to create a disk image. It can make a bit copy of the drive it's copying. If you have a drive that spins up, but does not mount because of damage, you can use the following:
Using the switch noerror allows the copy to ignore the errors, and adding mode sync fills the image with nulls at that point.
The bs=512 selects the block size (in this case 512), and if=/dev/disk1 is the Unix path to the actual disk device. Make sure the chosen directory (some_dir) has enough space free to take the entire disk image. You will end up with a disk image the size of the source drive's maximum capacity.
dd bs=512 if=/dev/disk1 of=/some_dir/image.dmg conv=noerror,sync
Using the switch noerror allows the copy to ignore the errors, and adding mode sync fills the image with nulls at that point.
The bs=512 selects the block size (in this case 512), and if=/dev/disk1 is the Unix path to the actual disk device. Make sure the chosen directory (some_dir) has enough space free to take the entire disk image. You will end up with a disk image the size of the source drive's maximum capacity.
Here's a sketch I was asked to draw. It's finally finished and is going in the post today. Took a bit longer than some of the others, because I put a lot of effort doing some gray toning (the scan doesn't show the true awesomeness of the final sketch). Now I've finished this, I'll be able to get back to Rally Mark, although I do love me some Invader Zim.
Well we're on the move again. Ros offered us her rental property because it's empty at the moment. Big downside though is we won't be living rent free anymore, which is a pain because we're trying to save for a house. But Rob can't take living in the two room shed for another 6 months, so we're moving again. I really hate moving - technology is great, but having to unplug and move it, then set it all up again is a massive hassle. I wish someone would invent real cordless appliances - no power cord or connecting cables at all! I suppose it's good that we'll have some more space, and we'll finally be able to unpack stuff we bought from NZ with us - mostly theres just a lot of boxes cluttering up the space we're in now. But having to move it all, then possibly re-move it again in July if the new house goes to schedule is a big pain in the ass.
This command line tool is included with all versions of Mac OS X, and is also available on many other Unix platforms. To get started, try the following command.
The sudo command causes tcpdump to run with privileges, which is necessary to access promiscuous mode.
The -i en0 option tells tcpdump to capture packets on the first Ethernet interface. You need to select an interface; there is no default. For a list of interfaces, type ifconfig -a. Mac OS X 10.1 and later provide packet capture support on PPP, so you can also specify a PPP interface here (for example, -i ppp0).
The -s 0 option requests the full packet rather than just the first 68 bytes.
The -w DumpFile.dmp parameter tells tcpdump to dump the packets to a file called DumpFile.dmp.
In response to this command, tcpdump will begin to capture packets and put them in the DumpFile.dmp file. When you want to stop capturing, interrupt tcpdump by typing ^C. You can then display the contents of the packets as text using the following command.
The -n option means that addresses are not converted to domain names, which speeds things up considerably.
The -e option causes tcpdump to display the link-level header for each packet.
The -x option causes the contents of the packet to also be displayed in hex.
The -vvv option makes tcpdump's output as verbose as possible.
By specifying -r DumpFile.dmp option you tell tcpdump to read packets from the file DumpFile.dmp rather than from a network interface. Note that you don't need privileges to do this, so running tcpdump using sudo is not required.
You can also combine these steps, as shown below, but if you do this you don't get a high-fidelity record of the packets that you captured.
sudo tcpdump -i en0 -s 0 -w DumpFile.dmp
The sudo command causes tcpdump to run with privileges, which is necessary to access promiscuous mode.
The -i en0 option tells tcpdump to capture packets on the first Ethernet interface. You need to select an interface; there is no default. For a list of interfaces, type ifconfig -a. Mac OS X 10.1 and later provide packet capture support on PPP, so you can also specify a PPP interface here (for example, -i ppp0).
The -s 0 option requests the full packet rather than just the first 68 bytes.
The -w DumpFile.dmp parameter tells tcpdump to dump the packets to a file called DumpFile.dmp.
In response to this command, tcpdump will begin to capture packets and put them in the DumpFile.dmp file. When you want to stop capturing, interrupt tcpdump by typing ^C. You can then display the contents of the packets as text using the following command.
tcpdump -s 0 -n -e -x -vvv -r DumpFile.dmp
The -n option means that addresses are not converted to domain names, which speeds things up considerably.
The -e option causes tcpdump to display the link-level header for each packet.
The -x option causes the contents of the packet to also be displayed in hex.
The -vvv option makes tcpdump's output as verbose as possible.
By specifying -r DumpFile.dmp option you tell tcpdump to read packets from the file DumpFile.dmp rather than from a network interface. Note that you don't need privileges to do this, so running tcpdump using sudo is not required.
You can also combine these steps, as shown below, but if you do this you don't get a high-fidelity record of the packets that you captured.
sudo tcpdump -i en0 -s 0 -n -e -x -vvv
Well after a week of insane running around we've finally made it the main event - Armageddon 2007. Just quietly I was crapping my pants because I've never gone to an event as an artist before and had to produce art with people hovering over me. I suffer from performance anxiety when people are watching, mostly because I don't feel my stuff is ever good enough for human consumption (I had a teacher in high school that told me my art was so bad, I should never bother doing anything artistic), and a lot of people tend to look down on comic art. So we anxiously set up the booth, and about 15 minutes later I sold a sketch. You could have knocked me over - I couldn't frickin believe it. By the time I sold the second, I was off and running. I drew my ass off for the next two days and sold a few sketches - by Sunday I was taking requests. I'm so glad I did it now, because it was a huge confidence booster. I'm feeling much better within myself now about my art - of course, that's not to say I couldn't improve still, and there's still lots of things to learn - but at least I don't feel crippled by anxiety anymore. I've come back awhirl with ideas for stories and original material. Heh don't panic Rob - I will finish my Rally Mark installment before I start drawing anything else.The con was really good though, and the guests were really nice and interesting people. I had Nicola Scott draw me a fantastic Catwoman sketch, that's definitely going in a frame and on my office wall once we have a house to live in again. Also, Amanda Conner's most excellent Power Girl is going up there too. I got Billy West (Futurama) and Richard Horvitz (Invader Zim) to sign sketches I'd drawn of their characters for my kids. I was gutted that Adam West couldn't make it in the end (as were a lot of people I spoke too) - hopefully next time we'll get some 100% pure West.
Color me excited though - we got offered a free booth at Supernova to sell drawings and New Ground. I'm working on getting Robin over for it, and hopefully we'll be able to loosen Jeremy's grip on his wallet so he can come over and help publicize New Ground here. The latest book looks really awesome (although Dylan Horrock's cover could be a little more action packed), the contents are consistent and of a higher quality. The book just keeps improving. I really hope it'll get to the point that the creators will be able to start to see some reward for all their hard work. Check out Dealer Man Comics if you want to support some great New Zealand artists. Thanks to Robin, Neala, Tuku, Michel, Jeremy (and his army of munchkins) for making it an awesome time.
Finally finished running around the place dropping stuff off. Only one more person left to visit now, so it's time for some play. Micky's gone out for a girly day with Beagle - apparently they're having pedicures. Meanwhile the boys are going to Snow Planet for an all-day snow-ganza of fun! The prices have really improved since I was last here and I can now get an all day pass (12pm till 10pm) and gear hire for $52 which is damned good (it costs as least $70 just for the pass on Whakapapa, and that's without driving all the way to Taupo, finding accomodation, petrol, food, gear hire!). The only minor hiccup in the plan was they'd changed the opening time from 10am to 12pm and we didn't realise. So we had to sit in the carpark for awhile. But once we got going it was awesome, and being middle of the week, it was pretty well deserted - there was maybe 20 people there the whole time we were there. I haven't been skiing in nearly a year, but it all came back pretty quickly. I only had one bad accident on the large ski jump - I stupidly took on the jump at full speed, then had a major panic attack when I got more air than expected. I came down quite badly on my arm, but luckily I only bruised the inside of my arm and elbow. I mastered the jumps by the end of the day, albeit a lower speed. Bev was taking on some of the easier rails, and we did the slalom once it was setup. After 5 and a half hours, we were pretty knackered. I paid the price for the next few days, rediscovering muscles I haven't seen in a long time - damn I was sore.
Okay so we've done 650 kilometers in 4 days. We did the mad drive up to Coopers Beach to visit Rob's Nan - it should have taken 4 hours, it took more like 5 hours by the time we followed the Twin Coast Discovery route that everyone told us to follow. Problem was it went off the main highway, took you out to coastal towns then looped back again. It was the most indirect route I think you could possibly follow. Coming back was much quicker for sure. We just followed Highway 10 and 1 and got back much quicker. Sure the scenery is very pretty, but 5 hours in a tiny little roller-skate of a car is not a funny joke by any means. (I'll post photos later - I'm on a friend's dial-up connection and its slower than a snail on ritalin).
Nan was going well which was good. I'm frightened that she's going to die up there alone though and not be found by anyone. It's the back of beyond, and when your advancing in years with a number of medical complaints, and the nearest hospital is at least an hour away, its scary stuff. I think she appreciated the visit, and it was worth the effort of going up there. We went down the beach for a look, and it was blowing a frickin gale - sand was swirling down the beach in cloudy waves. I had considered driving to Cape Reinga for a look since I've never been there, but when we were told it was another 4 hours, we quickly squashed that idea. I didn't fancy an 8 hour return trip.
Rob wasn't able to extend our tickets any longer, so we're coming up with a Plan B. I'm giving up racing around town trying to chase people up - now I'm just going to organise to meet at the pub on Friday and they can come to me (or not, there choice!). I've got too much to do and too little time, and I don't want to spend my holiday chasing after people anymore. I'm definitely not going to spend all of tomorrow in the car.
Nan was going well which was good. I'm frightened that she's going to die up there alone though and not be found by anyone. It's the back of beyond, and when your advancing in years with a number of medical complaints, and the nearest hospital is at least an hour away, its scary stuff. I think she appreciated the visit, and it was worth the effort of going up there. We went down the beach for a look, and it was blowing a frickin gale - sand was swirling down the beach in cloudy waves. I had considered driving to Cape Reinga for a look since I've never been there, but when we were told it was another 4 hours, we quickly squashed that idea. I didn't fancy an 8 hour return trip.
Rob wasn't able to extend our tickets any longer, so we're coming up with a Plan B. I'm giving up racing around town trying to chase people up - now I'm just going to organise to meet at the pub on Friday and they can come to me (or not, there choice!). I've got too much to do and too little time, and I don't want to spend my holiday chasing after people anymore. I'm definitely not going to spend all of tomorrow in the car.
No travelling today - spent the day helping our good friends move furniture and tidy their house. The weather was pretty grotty anyway, with freezing cold winds and rain showers, so there wasn't a hell of a lot you could do anyway. We're heading up to Mangonui tomorrow to visit Rob's Nan, which should be nice, although we'll be in a technology-vacuum for a couple of days and I won't be able to update my blog. I'm not even sure if they know what a blog is up there, it's pretty primitive. Still it does have stunning beaches and scenery so it should be a nice trip. I've only been up once, so I'm hoping I can find the place. I don't want a big drama, cos Rob already thinks i'm a big retard and can't cope with travelling.
Well we're back in NZ visiting friends. Not much has changed, sure there's the occasional new building on the skyline, but the traffic is still absolutely horrendous (2 hours from the airport mid-afternoon), and there's so much wind and rain it's been constantly cold and damp since we got here. Okay sometimes I complain about the heat in Brisbane, but I'm kinda wishing it was a few degrees warmer now. Micky's already got the sniffles (she just sneezed and blew snot everywhere! gross!).
We did some catching up with friends yesterday which was good. Got some of the mundanities we'd been craving out of the way, like going to the local shops, having a walk on the beach, that kind of thing. It was nice to just turn up and visit people, and have them be pleased to see you. Absence does make the heart grow fonder! I dropped Micky at the other branch of the family for a visit, which I was kinda loathe to do - I don't like to see them hurt her. But it went well for her, and she stood up to them and did herself proud. Good to catch up with Bron and her brood. It's amazing how much kids grow and develop in 10 months. Unfortunately missed out on catching up with Sim, so we'll have to try to see him again later in the week. Apparently his blood pressure is pretty elevated at the moment because he left reapplying for his work visa a bit late. Hope it all works out for them.
We did some catching up with friends yesterday which was good. Got some of the mundanities we'd been craving out of the way, like going to the local shops, having a walk on the beach, that kind of thing. It was nice to just turn up and visit people, and have them be pleased to see you. Absence does make the heart grow fonder! I dropped Micky at the other branch of the family for a visit, which I was kinda loathe to do - I don't like to see them hurt her. But it went well for her, and she stood up to them and did herself proud. Good to catch up with Bron and her brood. It's amazing how much kids grow and develop in 10 months. Unfortunately missed out on catching up with Sim, so we'll have to try to see him again later in the week. Apparently his blood pressure is pretty elevated at the moment because he left reapplying for his work visa a bit late. Hope it all works out for them.
It's been totally bizarre here the last few days. One minute it's stinking hot, then it's raining full on with thunder, lightning, the total package. Driving home yesterday, pleasant one minute, then got dark, started raining with seriously large drops. Mass flooding, rivers sprang up from nowhere, then the hail started. Huge chunks of frozen ice started slamming down on the car, thick fog sprang up. Cars were stopping dead in the road (when they weren't slamming into each other). Suddenly the roads started to look like the Desert Road in NZ at the peak of ski season - large piles of ice covered the roads, tire tracks occasionally cutting through it. Torrents of mud and debris washing down the road, pieces of tree flying through the air. The hail smashed the outdoor security lights on the house, but luckily the cars held up okay. I was dreading getting out and finding the roof covered in dents. Some people in Brisbane weren't so lucky - pictures on the news of people's homes filled with ice after tennis ball-sized lumps of hail smashed through their ceiling and into their homes. We've got another 3 days of this. I'm dreading having to fly on Friday if the weather is like this - last time I flew from Sydney to Brisbane in a thunderstorm it was pretty scary.
Micky found this monitor outside the other day. Pretty big lizard, it wasn't too keen on being near us, so it shot up the tree. We'd circle around the tree to get a look at it, and it would move around the other side away from us. We watched it for awhile, then let it go about it's business. Looks like it's lost the end of its tail before, and regrown it - you can see some banding across its long tail.
Wow impressive stylized animation, a great story, and a helluva lot more fun than Cars. A great little animated film. It is a shame that not all the turtles are given equal screen time or character development (I'm particularly fond of Donatello, who doesn't do much in this film). Perhaps in subsequent sequels that will be addressed. It was nice that there were little time ins to the previous films, particularly the trophy room in the turtle's lair containing artifacts from previous films. The humor is present as usual, but the designs look more like there original comic origins, darker and grittier, which is a welcome improvement. There's a couple of scenes that are particularly stand out for the quality of animation - check out the fight in the rain scene. Good family film so give it a rent for the kids (or yourself).Plot Synopsis:
An ancient warrior unleashes a power that grants him immortality, but turns his cohorts to stone. He wanders the ages, until present day when he has adopted the identity of Max Winters - billionaire industrialist. With the eclipse approaching again, he tries to recapture the 13 monsters he released in the initial ceremony years ago. With the aid of his restored comrades, and the Foot Clan, they gather 12 monsters. Leonardo returns from his self-imposed exile to find problems within their familly - Donatello is doing tech support, Michaelangelo is working children's parties, and Raphael has become a masked avenger. While they try to reforge their family, the Turtles, who initially believe they are fighting to stop an evil plot, cross paths with the stone warriors. The warriors are causing destruction around the city, as they try to recover the monsters. The stone warriors eventually discover they will be rendered mortal and powerless if the ritual is reversed, so they kidnap Leonardo as a substitute for the 13 warrior. The turtles intervene in the ritual, and with the help of Max Winters and the Foot Clan, capture the 13th monster, and reverse the ritual. Max Winters is freed of the curse of immortality. The turtles are warned by the Foot Clan that an old enemy may return.
McFarland's have posted up pictures of their new Halo 3 figures all finished, sculpted and painted to perfection. Check them out.
Just been too busy lately - too much to do at work, too much to do at home. No time for anything. Everytime I clear my workload, our client ships over another huge pile for me to work on. At home, we're busy clearing lantana and nightshade on the property still, and I've had wisdom teeth out, lots of dental fillings, and drawing/painting to do for various projects. I'm looking forward to a break soon. I'm hoping to get back over to NZ next month for Armageddon, and time to visit Robin, and other assorted peoples too numerous to mention. Rob was marvelling the other day how we never seem to do much, but we're always busy. Sometimes though you need to take a breather, and I'm really feeling that right now. Still I'll soldier on for a few more weeks, and hopefully the break will come round real fast. I'll try to post up some pics of our various activities when I have 5 to spare.
Took our friend's to Dracula's on the Gold Coast as a special treat the other night. They thought we were going to Outback Spectacular, but were pleasantly surprised when we arrived there. Outback next time! The venue was a lot of fun, and the performers went out of their way to entertain, and be really helpful and pleasant. The atmosphere was great, and we really enjoyed the show. The food, nothing special to write about. Desert was pretty good, but the mains were just the generic Sunday-night roast and mash, with mixed vegies that you get a granny's. But I didn't really go for the food, and everything else exceeded expectations. Highly recommended if your looking for a night out with something that's a bit different.
Highlights included, wife screaming on ghost train, friend's pregnancy referred to "legs in air" during show, matrix ping pong, retro porn star with horrendous pole dancing, rock show, and bizarre Spitting Image-esque puppet show.
If your interested check their site.
Highlights included, wife screaming on ghost train, friend's pregnancy referred to "legs in air" during show, matrix ping pong, retro porn star with horrendous pole dancing, rock show, and bizarre Spitting Image-esque puppet show.
If your interested check their site.
Now this looks more like it. If they'd made the first one R rated instead of that PG-13 abomination it would have been much better. This one looks awesome! They've actually given us blood this time, and kick-ass combat scenes. Finally an actual movie for adults! Now as long as the studios don't screw it up, it should be great.Check out the trailer at www.avp-r.com
Had a go photographing the Lunar Eclipse last night. It was a bit tricky, because it was overcast and the clouds were forever drifting in front of the moon - particularly challenging when you have to hold the shutter open to get enough light to photograph the event in the first place. Luckily I got some good shots, and it was a chance to experiment with some of the settings I haven't used before. I set a low speed film, with low shutter speed, and a high aperture stop - I've since found out I probably should have set it higher, but you live and you learn. I'm still pretty happy with the results. I think I'll try taking the camera to River Fire this weekend. Oh and I really want a bigger telephoto lense now!Please make this movie someone? If it looks this good now, imagine what it could be with some serious time, money and effort behind it. View it before its gone!
And here's the first one in case you missed that before.
The Halo movie had better get made, because if the stuff Weta keeps showing off is any indication, it would be freaking awesome! Check out this amazing Warthog they've put together, along with the authentic looking Marine guy. This looks just like the game, only better! I can't understand why Microsoft wouldn't just pony up the cash to get this film made. If it was done right, and done well (not like Doom!), it would be a license to print cash. Check out the original link here.
I've never used the video plugin before, so here's a short video of our current office space, so I can test it out. Note the supremely cool Death Jr on my desk, behind the disgusting amount of paperwork to process. I took this with my new w850i - pretty good phone, but a bit disappointed with the minimal amount of memory it came with. My 2Gb memory stick arrives this week, and it should make it a bit more useful.
I'm having some issues with my job: they don't pay me on time, I'm eight months behind on my superannuation because they haven't sorted it out, and promises in general have so far failed to materialise. I don't blame them, most of the problems are caused by clients not paying on time, although I think they need someone to manage the administration. And as someone who's had their own business I can understand where they're coming from. I like the job, I like the people, so I don't particularly want to abandon them. But Rob's getting upset with things, and I can understand where she's coming from too. So I spoke with the boss about it, and he agrees it's slack, but surprisingly he's happy for me to go if I want too. I kinda figured they might give a damn and want to help by resolving the issues? So now I'm unsure, do I stay or do I go? I can still see potential in things, and I know if we could resolve the issues, I'd be happy in this job, but there's always the nagging, what if? What if it doesn't resolve or improve? What if they pull the pin?
Went to see Die Hard 4.0 last night. I was surprised it wasn't a complete abomination, as some of the reviews had suggested as much. I'm still disappointed though that they shot for a PG-13 (bizarrely it was rated M here though). It's a Die Hard movie, so you expect buckets of blood, and swearing, and violence. Bloodless violence seems a bit pointless, and John McClane is supposed to swear like a sailor, so the character didn't seem the same - more sorta generic cop. Otherwise, the film was fine. The story wasn't as bad as everyone made out, although I think it lost a lot of tension by having the characters roaming about over such a large area - it wasn't as intimate as having McClane in a building with terrorists, or the airport even. There's a lot of travelling from A to B to C, something happens, move to E. Still the action sequences are pretty amazing, although they skirt the line of believability a few times. Overall, I could recommend it. It's entertaining enough, but I'll be waiting and hoping that the DVD comes out with an R-rated adult cut containing the swearing and blood that it so rightly deserves to be included in this series.Plot Synopsis:
A diverse group of hackers are employed by a group to run "testing" on the national infrastructure. After there work is completed they are eliminated by their employers. John McClane is asked to pick up a hacker who is wanted for questioning by the FBI. He arrives to find Mathew Farrell, but comes under fire from the hit squad sent to eliminate Farrell. They escape after a short fight.
The next day, America comes under attack by the employers of the hacker team. The cause city wide traffic problems, disrupt the infrastructure and cause terror across the country. McClane makes contact with the FBI, but by this point, they're too busy to deal with Farrell. They ask him to transport him to the FBI building for interrogation. McClane comes under attack again by the terrorists who have been monitoring communications looking for Farrell. The terrorists chase them into a city tunnel, then they cause traffic chaos by diverting traffic into the tunnel and directly in McClane's path. John destroys the hit squads helicopter with his police car.
They go on the run, then McClane and Farrell start to screw up the terrorists plans, confronting them at a power station. They figure out the terrorists plans, and after a visit to Warlock's command center (another hacker), they capture a video link image of the mastermind behind the plot; Thomas Gabriel, who was an ex-hacker who worked for the US Government. He told the officials that the system was vulnerable to interference, but they wouldn't listen and destroyed his reputation. He plans to rob the US Data Repository of all financial data, so he can hold the city to ransom.
Gabriel kidnaps McClane's daughter Lucy, after John kills his girlfriend at the power station. McClane confronts the terrorists and interferes at the data store, but Gabriel escapes with the data and Lucy. John pursues them in the terrorists truck, but they divert an F-35 and use it to attack the truck. McClane manages to destroy the plane, and catches up with Gabriel. During a confrontation McClane is shot but kills Gabriel, and Farrell heroically helps save the day too.
Beeb is driving me mad at the moment. He's being bullied so badly at school, that he's off until they fix up the bully problem. Which means I've drawn the short straw, and I'm taking him to work with me. Ordinarily that would be fine, but since all the bullying started up, he's being quite difficult to deal with. I can't get him to do his schoolwork, and today I've been nagging, whining, cajoling, bribing, harassing, and trying to reason with him to do his writing. In 5 hours I've manage to coax 4 lines of text out of him. His reading has been phenomenal, there was even a good effort with his maths, but trying to get him to write is driving me over the edge. I can fully appreciate why his teacher is becoming frustrated with his difficult and stubborn behavior at the moment. I realise he's unhappy going to school, but making everyone else around him unhappy is worse. My wife might have to quit her job to stay home and teach him if he doesn't settle down, and that probably won't be a lot of fun, because she'll be a screaming basketcase by the time I get home from work. Fun times! ... not...
Wow what an awesome movie! Visually its very impressive. It's certainly very stylized, and I like that it adhered to the look of the graphic novel. The CG effects are seamless, and it's quite impressive that it was shot on green screen, since a lot of the environments look so realistic. The story is well written, and well acted. It is quite graphically violent though, so I wouldn't recommend small children watching it. I highly recommend this film, and I'll be adding it to my purchase list.Plot Synopsis:
The story follows King Leonidas of the Spartans in Ancient Greece. The Spartans are approached by the Persian Empire who ask them to join them, or risk being destroyed in a bloody battle. Leonidas refuses and despite the wishes of the Oracle takes 300 men to battle against the Persians. The Oracles have been bribed by a corrupt Spartan politician who is in league with an emissary from the Persians.
Leonidas uses his men, and some additional forces from other parts of Greece to create a wall at the end of the access way through the cliffs. The Persian troops superior numbers matter not when they are fighting in a combined space. The Spartans start a war of attrition against the Persians, and they are winning until a deformed Spartan, who has been refused by Leonidas sides with the Persians, and shows them another path into Greece.
Leonida's wife tries to get additional troops sent to support him, but cannot as the senate is controlled by the corrupt politician. She sleeps with him to assure that he will send troops, but he betrays her at the senate meeting. She kills him with a sword. The other council members find the Persian gold pieces on the politicians body, and realise he has betrayed them.
Leonida's additional troops decide to flee once they realise the Persian's will flank them and they cannot win. Leonida's is left with his original 300 troops, and moves out to meet the Persian god. He sends one of his soldiers back to Sparta to tell them what has happened. He meets the god, and appears to surrender. At the last moment, he launches a defiant attack, attempting to kill the Persian god with a spear. He fails, inflicting a wound to the god's face. He and his men die defiant to the last.
Back at Sparta, the soldier tells the tale of Leonida's bravery and sacrifice, and amasses a massive army that heads out, and beats the Persians.
