the_vulture | Entries tagged with zombies!

I don't think this is quite what they meant...

Current Mood: amused

Link provided courtesy of

thekit in

zombie_survival :

"Because fatties die first..."

Current Mood: amused

Sadly, I haven't really had much of a chance to spend much of the bonus I just got for the quality of my work. It seems I've been a little too over-enthusiastic with some aspect of my physical routine and have put my back out since last Wednesday, ironically the day before I was to attend a trial class at a local Aikido club I had recently discovered. Argh!!! Of course, having very fews options during which to spend my free time save re-enact my former life as a couch potato, I've been watching a fair number of films. Some are hidden gems; others maybe should have remained hidden.

Here's a quick run down:

( Here's a quick run down: )

Current Mood: owwie!

Courtesy o'

ain9el ...

Don't worry, this one's, um, office safe. :-)

Current Mood: amused

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

Current Mood: amused

Yep, this is going to be another one of those odds-and-sods posts.

I'll begin with the ring tone poll I posted some time earlier (http://www.livejournal.com/poll/?id=1267844&mode=close). I hafta say, I kind of expected it to produce a wee bit more discussion than it did, but alas. So which one was the actual second ring tone I had selected. Let's go through the nominees:

Kung Fu Fighting, by Carl Douglas, is a really fun song that appeals to an innate appreciation of both martial arts an silliness. Certain parts of the song could be cut and repeated to make a reasonable ring tone without too much difficulty and it certainly would be distinctive, if perhaps revealing more of my inner geek than perhaps I should.

The Imperial March, by John Williams, was guessed by two of you. Whilst the ominous overtones may not seem in keeping with my character, it does reflect my elevated annorak factor. It is also very distinctive and cuts perfectly for a loopable ring tone.

The Highwayman, by The Highwaymen, is, as has been recently revealed, a very spiritual song of deep meaning for me. Unfortunately, it doesn't really have much in the way of a repeatable segment.

Big Bad John, by Johnny Cash, has some easily repeatable segments that could be made into ring tones. Why would I select it? Well, I have a closet appreciation of Johnny Cash ballads and I worked with this song extensively as part of an introduction to poetry analysis I ran for some some year 8s (grade 7s) that we all had a lot of fun with.

Red Sun Rising by Lost Witness, Saltwater by Chicane, and Forca by Nelly Furtado are all power songs for me. These are the kind of tunes that keep the feet racing along the ground. All have repeatable segments that would make great ring tones. The latter has special meaning for me as Nelly is from my hometown and her music served as a connection to home during my stay in the UK. It was also one of your guesses.

What really needs to be said about The Muppet Show theme song? As two you have guessed, it strongly appeals to both my inner child and my sense of quirky fun. It also has repeatable segments that could be made into ring tones.

So which one was it?

alias_chick and

queen_dream both take this competition by correctly guessing that The Imperial March makes a damn freakin' awesome ring tone, especially given that it's exceptionally distinctive repeatable segment is just the right length. Goodonya both!

Meanwhile, I was finally able to sampe one of the bottles of 'cider' that I picked up earlier today. In reality, it was crab-apple wine and bore little resemblance to the scrumpy jack that it was touted as being close to. Whoever told these guys it was were completely off their heads. It tasted more like home made wine with some fruity overtones than a cider. Ah well, at least it had an alcohol content. And I suppose it did bear a closer resemblance to a true cider than that Okanagan brand that I used to think was a cider. I've still the other two bottles to try, as well.

Finally, just to appeal to my sense of weird (and inspired by a recent viewing of I Am Legend), I've assessed my current apartment's ability to resist invasion by a horde of zombies. Now while it does have three large windows in separate rooms, they're double glazed and, more importantly, about six feet off the ground, making them very difficult for the average Romero style zombie to storm (though the more agile and aggressive zombies from the Resident Evil series would still prove a serious threat). I would also be able to escape from just about any room in the apartment save the bathroom. Moving one floor up would bring an even greater measure of security, minus the easy escape routes. The outer walls of the buidling and apartments, being brick, are very solid, as are both inner and, surprisingly, inner doors. Sadly, the inner corridor doors, though stout with reinforced glass (it's a converted school building afterall), would not be readily securable unless one happened to have keys for them. Still, this flat, overall, would prove to be far more resistant to zombie invasion than the last three places I have resided.

Now, whilst I no longer have access to the mighty arsenal I had back at the ranch (com'on, how can you beat a gas fueled power scythe?!?), I do have at least one large kitchen knife and a sturdy wooden practice sword with which to inflict some serious structural damage upon the metabolically challenged.

So, yeah, I'm in a reasonable position to at least temporarily avoid having my brains eaten. *silly grin*

Current Mood: silly

*chuckle* I saw this in another part of the 'Web: http://www.zombieharmony.com/

Current Mood: amused

To me, few songs speak more of love and devotion that this wonderful piece by the late, great Australian musician, Baterz:

http://survivors.groups.vox.com/library/ audio/6a00c2251d31da604a00d09e670d95be2b .html

(Sorry, no lyrics on hand; you'll just have to listen to the song.)

Current Mood: touched

The other night, as I lay me down to sleep, I was looking at the rather large picture window that takes up most of my outside wall and realized that, in the event of a zombie holocaust, I'd be zombie bait. (Don't ask me why I think about such things; maybe it's just the gamer in me trying to find a way to express itself now that I'm no longer playing D&D.)

Essentially, not only is my room fairly indefensible against zombies (or anyone armed with a brick, for that matter), the entire house, as beautiful as it is, would have as much resistance to invasion as a greenhouse in a field of rocks. My former single room flat has more defensibility.

Granted, the property has one thing that my flat does not - the garage. Now much of the garage, too, has far too many windows to even keep a rabid gang of hoodies at bay for long, but the middle bay can actually be closed off from the front and provides far more defensive value. Furthermore, it's got a few things I wouldn't have access to in my former flat, like the spade, the machete, the chainsaw, the gas powered scythe, the axes, the pitchfork, the TRACTOR (with enclosed cabin), the other chainsaw, the pick axe, and other goodies (did I mention the machete?). Yep, a veritable arsenal of zombie destruction... if I could make it to it after the house got overrun. *chuckle*

In other news, I completed another 3.5 mile run. The thighs were a bit unhappy about that to begin with, but shut up soon after the run began. The nipples, sadly, took up the cry of complaint as they got chaffed. Yerg! Add in a bit of surveying that involved climbing over windfalls and you've got a fairly physically active day.

Final musing: camouflage is not always such a good thing. After spending an hour or so riding around on the lawnmower, I commenced with trimming the odd bits of uncut lawn with the battery powered strimmer (also from the arsen... err... garage). At one point I looked down as I saw what I initially believed to be water running along a bit of concrete. A second glance revealed the movement to actually be a baby garter snake that just narrowly avoided getting snicker sneed by the weed wacker. The wee thing made good its narrow escape and fled into what remained of the grass, disappearing from view within moments.

Yep, that's the salient bits that have run through my mind today, only to continue without stopping...

Current Mood: weird

Ugh. I'm still switching back and forth between prolonged periods of nigh comatose interspersed with frequent moments filled with the intense desire to just eat someone's face off. YARGH!!! These kids are playing it up big time and I have nearly ZERO regrets about leaving these pondscum to fester in the shallow end of the gene pool.

Nearly zero regrets...

A couple days ago, I asked one of my colleagues in the English department if my position had been advertised for yet, only to discover, to my shock and horror, that the head teacher, in a display of complete stupidity, has decided AGAINST replacing me and, instead, has decided that my horridly wretched timetable will be foisted off on the remaining members of my department, as if they weren't over worked and stressed as it is.

WHAT THE FUCK!?!?!?!?

My colleagues have been really good about trying to make sure I don't feel guilty about my decision to resign (for example, by laying full blame on the head), but I think that just makes it worse. Still, I know I couldn't have continued to take much more and I'm pretty sure they know it, too.

*sigh*

The head's leadership has been somewhat less than stellar. There's a LOT of discontent going around. Not only are many staff talking about leaving, some of 'em have already found positions elsewhere.

The school is sliding into hell and that's a shame...

Meanwhile, in an attempt to forget some of the grief of the week, I indulged in, amongst cider and chocolate, a rather entertaining film last night. In keeping with the zombie theme, I watched Planet Terror, by Robert Rodriguez, of Grindhouse. Whereas the last two zombie flicks I've seen have taken a high concept approach to the genre, Rodriguez has taken the decidedly opposite approach, attempting to emulate the style of 'grindhouse' action films (low budget B-grades, exploiting sex and violence, cranked out as rapidly as possible).

THIS was CHEESE at it's finest, including vast quantities of gratuitious gore, a heroine who is an ex-gogo dancer with a machine gun as a prosthetic for her LEG, some very slick action sequences, a 'prevue' for a machete wielding Mexican assassin on a mission of vengeance, Bruce Willis as the leader of a rogue millitary outfit, a really hot motor cycle, simulated film wear marks and scratches, more gratuitious gore, a collection of testicles, seriously bad jokes, an obsession with BBQ sauce, nasty things done with helicoper blades, and Quentin Tarantino as a would-be rapist. What Dusk Till Dawn did for (to?) vampire films, Planet Terror does for zombie films, and then some... and then some more!

It was damn good fun!

Planet Terror preview: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=nBi00ZiqIv 4

Current Mood: mixed emotions

This week, most of my feelings and other higher brain functions seem to have been replaced by a homocidal urge to rend my pupils limb from bloody limb. Yep, I must be infected with the T-Virus from Resident Evil; it's the only rational explanation... aside from my pupils being total bastitches. So if you've missed me this week, I do apologize; I was spending a lot of my mental energy resisting the urge to bite the heads off of my 'little darlings.'

Speaking of Resident Evil, I got to see RE: Extinction last night. For those unfamiliar with this film series, based on the popular video game of the same name, the premise is based on the escape of a highly contageous mutagenic agent, the T-Virus, from a bio-weapons research division of the shadowy Umbrella Corporation. This virus, despite desperate (and exceptionally violent) attempts to contain it, renders the planet into a barren wasteland where the last remnants of humanity battle for survival against hordes of mutagenically created 'zombies'. This film takes some of the best elements of films like Romero's Day of the Dead and post-apocalyptic classics like Mad Max and The Road Warrior and fuses them into a vivid, gritty, tension filled and action packed nightmare. The film is further enhanced by brilliant cinematography as well as good acting and a complex narrative. The creators of the film set out to generate serious innovations for this film genre and, IMHO, they've succeeded brilliantly! If you're a fan of zombie, horror, and/or post-apocalyptic films, you will thoroughly enjoy this one. Quite simply, IT ROCKS!!!

Resident Evil: Extinction Trailer: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=fkaAi2yQou 0

The creators of the film The Zombie Diaries also set out to revolutionize the genre by utilizing a cinema verite approach in telling a series of interconnected short stories about small groups of people attempting to cope with a world in which a rampant virus has transformed most of the human population into blood thirsty zombies. The cinema verite approach, like The Blaire Witch Project, assumes a documentary style in which video cameras carried by the characters record their actions and dialogue.

Unfortunately, the film simply lacks energy and pace and is only really watchable as a curiosity at best. In fact, I was quite zombified by the end of it. If you're looking for an entertaining zombie flick (either for chills or laughs), give this one a miss.

The Zombie Diaries Trailer: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=0Fx3sfLhXo w