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I got a postcard with this on it in Camden this morning. It had me in stitches, but I think I might just like the word. I also made a actual paella for the first time today, which is something of a breakthrough, given it's a genuine family recipe and it actually came out really nice! Even if it was made in a wok instead of a paella pan. Photos to follow.

In other news, PANIC! At the Disco's album is about the catchiest I've ever heard, with half the songs on there clamouring to be the one I'm humming randomly to myself over the past few weeks. I can't fully recommend it to you people with a straight face, I'm way too mellow and almost a decade too old to do that… But goddam it's just so good. I might be going a bit emo-punk in my old age!

Has anybody been watching big brother? Grace is out! Hurrah! Now it's just Lisa to be kicked out on her arse for being such a hateful twisted wench and justice will be served! And the house will be completely bland and unwatchable… Ah well. Anyways, in case there is anybody else that is curious about the comings and goings of the house-mates but unwilling to devote hours of TV every day to keep up, there's an excellent blog on it here, giving amusing distillations of the various histrionics daily. Except weekends. Due to the unique way it's funded. Or something.

Yeah so I take it back about the spoilers, but this needed a rant. Read on only if you've already seen X3.

Anybody found any web-type parodies of X3 yet? With all its Storm-mooching and superfluous characters it's ripe for some ripping in my opinion. Parts of the "plot" smacked of afterthought, and some were painful to watch. In particular the scene where they're all sat in the mansion brooding on the futility of continuing with the school without it's founder. Yes, that's a good idea! A room of Prof X's closest friends and confidants deciding the best thing would be to throw away his hopes and dreams, his life's work? But fear not, Storm suddenly perks up, stands tall and decides that might not be a good idea. No d'uh!! *gnash*

For various reasons way too many of the characters are so briefly touched on as to be almost not worth it. Most of them are carried over from the previous films, but the only ones done interestingly are Prof X, Magneto, Ice Man, and maybe Wolverine. Vinnie Jones as Juggernaut and Kelsey Grammar as Beast are pleasing additions with a few excellent lines. Angel on the other hand, who was featured very heavily in the all trailers and posters, barely got a look in, with only half a dozen lines of dialogue and a few unexplained actions to his name. Most of the other characters seemed to have only one emotion to carry them through the film (usually angst), in stark comparison Halle Berry as Storm got a hell of a lot of airtime, but used it taking a long time to say nothing of note. She actually manages to make Storm come off as utterly generic, which for a lightning-throwing, hurricane-summoning African goddess-woman is quite impressively bad. It's not like there's not much to work with there.

Will there be a 4th? No, I don't think so. All in all there's still a lot of good in X3, but if the series goes on I fear it'd lose the last threads of the engaging characters and become some self-parodying shambles in the vein of T3 or Batman Returns. X-3 related rant. Some SPOILERS. Read it; it's not very long.