1 Star Wars collectible miniature from eBay, @ £3.65

10 28mm WotC Star Wars metal miniatures, plus 13 25mm WEG Stars Wars metal miniatures from eBay, @ £21.40

1 issue of Miniature Wargames, @ £3.70

1 booster of Star Wars Legacy of the Force collectible miniatures, @ £8.99

Total: £37.74.

Oh, and there was Salute as well but that comes out of a different fund.

Dinosaurs in Miniature has been updated with all the latest releases: Some cavegirls from Reaper, some running dinos from Hasslefree and a Megatherium and Smilodon from Rattrap.

And at long last someone, Amazon Miniatures as it happens, has made the killer pig itself, an Entelodont:

Very True Mood: cheerful

Found this in some third party JavaScript I had to incorporate into a site.

var today = new Date();
today.setTime(today.getTime());

The two lines are exactly as written, one after the other within the same function. Can anyone tell me a situation in which the second line is not completely redundent?

Very True Mood: confused

Via pesky33.

The Music Intelligence Quiz

Your final score was 132/180

Mix-Tape Master (109-144 points)

You are a music evangelist: the person in your network of friends who always has the coolest new song, the one whose iPod gets picked to DJ every party. You understand the art of the segue, how the key to the best mix-tape isn’t just the songs you pick, but how they interlock with each other. You also know who the up-and-coming acts are and are quick to recognise where their influences lie and whether they will make it big. You work hard at the pursuit of this knowledge, scouring music blogs, magazines and record stores. Most importantly, you are generous with your passion – and your friends should be very, very grateful. Still, it’s always good to get new inspiration for your latest mix

Or… I’m just good at trivia.

Very True Mood: mellow

I’ve upgraded to the latest version of WordPress and started updating the theme (it was so old it pre-dated widgets and so kludged together that it has three different ways of producing the same rendering). Things may be a little rough around the edges for a while.

I’ve also defined the first post on the homepage (actually, come to think of it, on any page) as an IE8-ready Web Slice - I’m not sure that this is really a good idea and I have some misgivings about Web Slices in general.

Venice was simply amazing. Lovely weather, great food (especially the seafood), amazing sights.

We stayed at the Hotel Rivamare on the Lido, which meant we took a boat across the lagoon into Venice proper everyday. In the city itself we saw all the big names: the Palazzo Ducale or Doge’s Palace, the Basilica di San Marco, the Piazza, the Bridge of Sighs, Rialto Bridge, the Grand Canal.

Things that appealed more directly to me included the Museum of Natural History was only partially open but we did get to see the excellent Ouranosaurus and Sarchosuchus; The Museo Storico Navale or Naval History Museum which only costs €1.55 and is packed full of relics from Venice’s and Italy’s seafaring history; The Rome and the Barbarians exhibition in the Palazzo Grassi was a ten times more expensive (and I really wanted the exhibition book but at €48 it was too much) but much more extensive than I’d expect for a temporary exhibit.

We also visited some of the other lagoon islands: Murano for the glassmaking; Burano for the lace making and painted houses; and Torcello for the eleventh century cathedral.

For one day we got the train to Verona, passing castles and vineyards on the way. There we visited the Arena and the Castle and had another fantastic lunch. One day wasn’t enough and we plan to go back sometime.

Venice photos and Verona photos.

Very True Mood: cheerful

You can probably guess where we went.

Knackered now.

Very True Mood: tired

1 pack of Doctor Who micro-universe figures from Woolies, @ £9.99.

1 pack of Doctor Who micro-universe figures and 1 starship pack from the Doctor Who Exhibition, £18.98 total.

1 pack of Copplestone Castings Cavemen and 1 Walrus, @ £10.00

2 issues of Miniature Wargames, 1 @ £3.50 and 1 @ £3.70

Total: £46.17

Total for the quarter: £31.02 + £22.25 + £46.17 = £99.44 (Bang on budget - £100)

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.

Very True Mood: sleepy