Day 1

It looks like Telecom NZ has cut me off for not paying my exhorbitant bill (and for having the gall to expect them to reply to my queries regarding the invoice in question).

A short review of Telecom NZ’s wireless broadband service: Apart from the shockingly inept billing system it’s great! If you don’t mind getting vague statements and substantial overcharges it’s fantastic! etc etc

Day 2

I spent a while talking to several Telecom people on the phone today and via email, hopefully this will be sorted out by tomorrow. This is my second night without internet, and as silly as it sounds (I have access at work after all) it feels so damn strange. It’s almost like a miniature holiday– I should be enjoying myself, having long baths and catching up on my reading. But just like a holiday, it’s rarely so easy to let go of one’s routine, and part of my routine is clearly to spend almost all my freaking time absorbing information via email and RSS feeds. With that supply cut off I suddenly find myself at a loose end.

At least I have managed to do some reading; I’m halfway through Alain de Botton’s latest, and even managed to read another chapter of Neal Stephenson’s System of the World.

Also I watched Heat tonight on DVD, something I’ve also been meaning to do for a while… but I’m getting ahead of myself, because first I wanted to mention that I saw Michael Mann’s Miami Vice last week, and boy was it ordinary. And long. Boring one might say, and perhaps even a little bit stupid. Colin Farrell was almost amusing, but the movie was so earnest that it felt like he wasn’t supposed to be. It’s also way too long (the last half hour is quite good if you can make it that far). I went to see it mainly on the strength of the stylish previews, as well as Michael Mann’s previous films, Heat and Collateral.

I loved Heat, which is strange because I’ve seen it before, years ago, and although I liked it it didn’t leave such a strong impression on me. This time around it seemed so much more significant. Robert de Niro actually bothers to give a decent performance, Al Pacino’s edginess has a point, and even minor characters are loaded with back-story. Natalie Portman, the troubled step-daughter, appears in just a few scenes, and yet she still gets to attempt suicide! And just when it looks like you’re supposed to be rooting for the bad guys, they remind you that they are bad guys by behaving like really bad guys. The score is quite something too, so simple but powerful, like a whole orchestra just belting out a progression of major and minor chords, and it doesn’t actually hit the crescendo until the closing credits roll, which makes me dearly wish I had seen it at the cinema when it was first released– I would have stayed for those credits.

Day 3

Wow, I’m back online already– After several more emails and phone calls, Telecom finally agreed to reconnect me and credit me the amount I was disputing. Woo!