Chris and I are having a lot of fun watching Zorro. I noticed some hidden Mickey's in the show. I didn't think that started until the 80's because of Epcot. In season two there have been a few episodes where people are locked up in irons or in jail. The locks are shaped like Mickey heads with the two ears. I told Chris about it in one ep but it happened so quick. But in another the camera focused on the lock a good while and it was very obvious. We thought that was pretty cool. Somethings that people claim are Mickey's take way too much imagination or you have to be high on something to see them. These were obvious and nice.

And I've been having fun watching Jem. I can tell I already want season 3. But that's going to be a miracle to get because they are so rare now. It was amazing Chris came across these as is. I should try to draw some of the characters. Not for fan art but just to practice the female form which I suck at. The characters look pretty simplistic. So I'll probably just pause certain scenes and try to draw them. But much later. Not right now.

I am still proofing my story and it's not going well. I'm a very slow reader and I'm not as far as I'd like to be. I'm not even at the half way point though I'm close. At least the first two chapters are over with though I still need to rework them. I don't think they can be helped and that's not good. But the story really does get so much better from chapter 3 on. Hopefully once that's over I can get back to working on the drawing of Owen and his sword. I do miss coloring and drawing.

Tesla's nose was hot pink today. So pretty. I hope it never turns blue. The pink looks so good on his yellow and green. Speaking of budgies I can't wait to get my Steiff Parakeets. I know it will probably be two weeks since they're coming from Germany but gosh I can't wait. They're going to be such neat things. I'm so glad I found out about them and they'll be great in my budgie collection. They found a good home with me. Perhaps one day they can meet Lawrence and Giles. *winks to Earthmother*.
Oh and as a Christmas gift Chris got me The Quest on VHS. That's a very rare movie I've been wanting for years. I love how it mixes science with Australian Aboriginal mythology. I watched it as a kid on the Disney channel and it made an impact on me. Definitely will have to transfer it to DVD.
.

Tags: nostalgia
I'm feeling...: nerdy

I actually think that this is something that I should have passed on to captainweasel to post, for this strikes me as being very much up JimBob's street. Nonetheless, I couldn't help myself:



Yes, they are Star Trek wetsuits, modelled on the original series. Maybe you should avoid the red one..?

   So I saw that movie Avatar yesterday with the fim fam.

   Now my first impressions of this movie didn't particularly inspire me to want to see it overly much. First of all the name, "Avatar," smacks so strongly of wretched internet chatrooms that it immediately brings a great deal of negative connotation in my opinion. And then, I'd never seen any trailers on TV, being as I don't watch TV. I had seen clips somewhere or other (on the internet I suppose) and they gave me absolutely no sense of a plot, just fantastic creatures seeming to be doing constant battle, so in my opinion it just looked like World of Warcraft, the movie (and I'm not a WoW fan so..).

   Father-unit however seemed convinced this movie was worth seeing and eventually sold the entire family on going to see it in the giant IMAX 3-D theatre. When we're all back for the holidays we all usually go see a movie together as a once a year kind of thing. Which accounts for half the movies I see in the theatre probably.

   Now, having seen it I must say: whenever a particularly good movie comes out critics like to hail it as "the next generation's Star Wars" they said it about that movie Independance Day (hah!) and about the Matrix (too bad the sequels sucked so hard everyone forgot how good the original was). Well, I think this movie might be it, the sought after "Star Wars of the next generation"
   It has the necessary engrossing new world, ultra-simplified dichotomy between good and evil, and, most importantly, characters and elements which lend themselves to fandom.

   That is to say, it's a really good movie. Really beautiful anyway. I was pleasantly surprised to find it even had a plot! Not exactly full of great subtle allusions and symbolisms (hey they're mining for a rare mineral called Unobtainium) but definitely worth seeing, especially in 3-D.

   My least favourite aspect, however, was how the alien natives (well, the humans are technically the aliens here) looked exactly like ... furries from the internet!!! Except that they weren't furry. But the cat ears, large eyes, general body shape, broad flat nose to give a more cat-like face, TAIL, telepathically communicating with horse-like creatures and dragon-like creatures. It was like someone took all the most base fantasies of the depths of the intertron and decided to splat them into an otherwise beautiful movie.
   But the fans of such things are legion, which is sure to spur the movie's popularity and enduring cult status (and was probably intentionally targeted for this purpose).

Without any signs of industry how do they make all those beads and things?

   But yeah definitely worth a see in 3-D.

Tags: movie reviews

how long do sinus infections generally last for? Cause its been days and I still feel like my sinuses are going to explode from my skull even after being on antibiotics (we are taking probiotics as well which I am calling sea monkeys for your tummy....not sure why I just shared that)

It is a while since I actually came into the office in the gap between Christmas and New Year and I tend to forget just how quiet it can be. If every working day was like this, we would probably get more done, though at the same time the clock seems to be edging forward quite slowly. This is odd, because normally, if you are occupied at work, time passes quickly. For all that it’s not bad.

I had expected our aging IT to cope better with the lower load and perform closer to modern expectations. This has proven to be unrealistic. Despite the fact that probably 70% of staff have taken the full week off, the server seems to have joined them and is having periodic moments when it simply refuses to do anything. Maybe it’s just part of the festive spirit.

This morning’s journey into work was pleasantly uncrowded – reasonably busy but not overly so. A young couple got on the train and I found myself pondering. The young woman was sporting what appeared to my untutored eye, to be tribal marks on her cheeks: a pair of red/pink parallel stripes of what I took to be North American Native derivation¹ on each cheek. I couldn’t tell without staring whether they were painted on or tattooed. Given that she was aged between about 19 and 25, it rather suited her; it was certainly striking. I am not one to ponder another’s fashion choices², given that I make so few of my own and those to poor effect, but I found myself hoping that it was make up. She could really only carry it off because she was very fresh faced. I imagine it would look entirely different in late middle age, should she evolve into a blue-rinsed dowager in twin set and pearls.

In other news, there appears to be a London-wide shortage of mascarpone. Furtle looked for some in three supermarkets yesterday and came away empty handed. I looked in the M&S Food Hall at lunchtime and they are similarly mascarpone free. I shall try the Sainsbury’s down Victoria Street on my way home after which I have run out of convenient options. Has there been a concerted and all-out assault on the nation’s cardiovascular system this holiday?


¹As in say, A Man Called Horse

²The technical term for this statement is blatant, bare-faced lie

Will the last one using the song "The Final Countdown" turn out the lights on this year/this decade?

So - what did you think of the Aughts? Highlights? Lowlights? Streetlights? People? Up and Down the Boulevard? Love Bites? Love Stinks? Heart Lights? Did it make a happy glow for all the world to see? Were Sunbeams made like you?

Are you heading out with a free topic in your heart:http://community.livejournal.com/therealljidol/285146.html or just coasting with the free time?

***

Happy Birthday to *3* Idol alumni. Two who showed up this season (as well as others) and 1 who is MIA from LJ in general - but has the best chance of seeing this if she sees anything!)

Happy Birthday abbismom,velveteen_girl and controlld_chaos!!!

Tags: day 3, green room, new years week, season 6

After fixing up the bookshelves Chris went through the Far Side books and found the comic with Ahab. Here it is.



That's halarious. The first time I saw that I was cracking up. Why is Moby Dick Driving? Why is he on land? Why is Ahab driving? Haha, it's funny to think about these things. That's what makes it funny. Looks like Ahab still carries his harpoon everywhere.

Remember the snow globe from last year on Xbox? I was disapointed that they didn't have one this year, but they have a fireworks on the dock thing. I don't know how long this will be up so I recorded it and used up one blank dvd to get these screen caps.



I still like last year's snowglobe better because you could shake them up and make them fall. Plus the Jingle Bells was nice. I like the Saturn style fireworks that come out with the X button. There's also a heart and an atom. At least to me it looked like an atom. I like how serious Owen is.



In this one he looks bored. Chris is in the back left and he looks sleepy. They all looked too silly when they were happy so I didn't get that.
.

Tags: new year, xbox
I'm feeling...: amused

cypherwulf and el_dirty_one you guys were right, that movie was AMAZING!



NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO they want to do an American Remake! And they WANTED to do an Oldboy American remake, staring...WILL SMITH and directed by Speilberg (but that I am reading has been shot down dead)

Bah says I! (PS Lady was like 10000million times better than Oldboy if you ask me ;D)

Despite some ropy scripts courtesy Russell T Davies, there have been some excellent moments for the Tenth Doctor over the past few years - primarily thanks to Steven Moffat. It's a pity we couldn't have had one full season with Tennant under the supervision of Moffat and the new team.

But hey ho.

Anyway, the fanboy in me wouldn't let the impending regeneration go by without me drawing and posting up a portrait of the out-going Doctor, and since today is my last day at home before going back to work (albeit for 2 days):




Image ©2009 Bryan Lea

The picture was sketched in pencil, scanned and then worked on in Paint Shop Pro. I could have carried on fiddling, but I wanted to keep some atmosphere to the picture and I have a tendency to over do it if I don't tell myself to stop and stand back...

Hope you like it.

   Seriously though.

   These new TSA regulations, WTF?

   I mean, they've always been a joke.

The confiscation of "sharp objects" down to and including nail clippers? Useless considering there's restaurants on the far side of the security checkpoint, which presumably have knives. You really think Al-queda can't infiltrate McDonalds and pass a knife off to their man on the plane? Or smuggle explosives in amongst the patties of grade F meat?

And that obnoxious rule about individually packaging your liquids and gels? What the hell does that accomplish? Would that have stopped the shoe bomber and his explosive shoes? Did it stop this fellow from smuggling his explosives in on his body? This rule accomplishes nothing other than getting my toothpaste confiscated when I forget about it. That and I saw a fellow lose a $40 bottle of wine he had bought in the previous airport, not realizing he'd have to go through another security checkpoint.

And now they're banning moving about the cabin in the last hour of flight, as if for a second a terrorist is going to be thwarted by that? Aside from the obvious (so a the terrorist will just strike at any OTHER time), if he really wanted to do his terroristing in the last 20 minutes is the rule going to stop him from jumping up and doing it anyway? It really accomplishes absolutely nothing other than being obnoxious.

And then of course the rules about not having blankets or any other objects on your lap, I'm guessing they'll reverse that pretty fast because that's preposterous. Apparently they even banned the provided in-flight entertainment on some international flights --- WHA? People are going to START committing acts of terrorism OUT OF SHEER BOREDOM! And HOW does watching a movie in the seat in front of you potentially lead to a terrorist threat?!?!?!?!

The Transportation Security Administration did little to explain the rules. And that inconsistency might well have been deliberate: What's confusing to passengers is also confusing to potential terrorists.

"It keeps them guessing," transportation expert Joseph Schwieterman said."

I think that's clearly bullshittery for "we have no idea what we're doing and we're making it up as we go along!"

   Seriously though, how obnoxious are they going to make flying? I think they should have the option of flying on special lower security flights, for those of us who'd rather take our chances with the terr'ists than the psychotic rule of TSA.


Picture of the Day

This seems like the appropriate juncture for a picture of a bald eagle in flight no?
Taken while under sail on the Colombia River last month.

See Also:
Getting Shafted by Airport Security (2004)
Racist TSA Agents (2003)

Tags: air travel
In iTunes: Deer Tick - These Old Shoes