Distractions!

I know, I know, it's been a while. I have a tendency to loose interest in creative projects like blogging after a while. I need a push to keep going.


It's been a hectic few weeks, we've looked at some houses, I've kicked my eBaying up a notch, Bamm! :) my college course is coming to a head with my final exam this Friday. So lots of distractions to use as excuses for not doing anything creative. Oh and I also drastically reduced my caffeine intake this month, so napping is my new favorite pass time.


It also doesn't help my procrastination that there is more music, video, blogs, facebook updates, twitter posts, news, games, comedy and movies made every day than it is possible to ever watch! If they ever invent that 'head-jack' thing from the matrix, we won't be learning how to fight or fly helicopters or speak norwegian, we'll use it to catch up on box sets. I long for the day when I can download every episode of the sopranos directly into my brain.


So heres how it goes; I get enthusiasticly into a creative thing, then loose interest once I have solved the 'puzzle' of how it works. It's kinda obsessive compulsive attention deficit disorder. I loathe the kind of 'self-motivation' crap that people buy into to solve this kind of creative procrastination, I think it just needs the right person to tell you to snap out of it, whether a friend or family member, if that person is yourself that's cool too. 


On a side note 'self-help' is the most annoying term in the world to me. If you could help yourself, why would you need a book/dvd/seminar? I'll try to keep at this with some old fashioned other person help. Thanks for the push Laura :) x

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Fantasy Vs Sci-Fi

I'm a sci-fi guy, I've never really gotten the fantasy genre. It all seems too easy. 'Magic' explains everything away. In sci-fi there is of course made up stuff but it's internal logic seems to make sense. In sci-fi if someone has a superpower, it's because of gamma rays or a spider bite, in fantasy they are just 'magic' or 'chosen'. It's really hard to suspend my critical thinking and accept 'curses' and 'energy' or 'spirits'.


Even in my favorite type of movies, zombies, I can only enjoy it if there is either no explanation of the plague or an infection. A voodoo curse or punishment from god and I'm out, can't enjoy it.


So given that, this is a massive leap I'm taking. I have decided to try, try, try to enjoy fantasy. I'm slowly easing my way in to the genre. Ok I have slightly been pulled in to it by a friend, she's bringing me over to the dark side show by show...  :-). 'Dark side' a star wars reference there, what would be the fantasy equivalent? Probably the same now I think about it. So there is some common ground at least, after all in bookshops there is very often only a forward slash separating the two.


I'm into game of thrones which is set in a fantasy world but is largely just people killing and humping each other, but it does have dragons this season. 


Lost girl is amazing, which is very much a fantasy show but it takes place in a modern setting which tempers it a little for me I think. 


Now I've just watched the first few eps of 'Once upon a time'. It's about a town full of people who are really fairytale characters but have forgotten because of an evil witches curse. That's the core premise.... it's testing my resolve slightly.


Oh! and how can I forget that I've been watching 'the guild' for 5 seasons, but that's about gamers, who happen to play a fantasy MMORPG. But this has in turn lead me, via my second favourite redhead geekette (Felicia Day) into the world of fantasy gaming and books and Larp culture (only as an observer though, I have no urge to run around the woods in tights or develop a WoW addiction). 


But the genre is quite addicting, it's like I'm getting into harder and harder drugs. If I end up quoting lord of the rings and harry potter It'll be like I've hit the crack pipe.


Although, Looking at the number of the top 50 movies on IMDB that I have watched, watching the LOTR trilogy would push my score up 3 notches. I already watched 12 angry men to increase my score (great film btw) so I might watch the whole trilogy just once. In fact I might watch it as a marathon with my first favorite redhead geekette, and the person who got me hooked in the first place, Laura. 


*sparks up metaphorical crack pipe*

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I Know Art, I Know What I Like.... Posters

This M. C. Escher inspired limited edition poster for Joss Wheedon's new film 'The Cabin in the Woods' Is such a beautiful image. It's clever and funny and brimming over with nerdyness. All the things I loved about the film when I saw it last night.

This last week I've been trying to think of things to fill the few walls I have that are not covered in DVDs. So far I've got a framed set of firefly posters near my computer and a blown up page from the walking dead comic book on my wardrobe door. I'm finding it hard to decide what to put over my bed though.

I have such roving and varied geek-obsessions It's hard to pin down one thing that I like soooo much that I want to put it so prominently over the place where I sleep. I have a shelf full of robot arms with a space above it in the corner, A Robo-themed image would go there nicely (I'm thinking something 1950s "Robots From Space!!!" -ish), but that space above my slumbering head, I can't decide what I'd like there.

I have the same problem with my desktop wallpaper, I see dozens of cool geeky images a day online, any number of which would make excellent wallpapers or posters for my wall. But I keep the same simple abstract wallpaper I chose when I first installed windows and my bedroom walls remain bare.

I suppose the the difference between 'Art' and a cool image is; Art you can stand to look at every day, whereas you want a NEW cool image every day, finding a cool image that works in the same way as art is tricky. I'm sure I'll know it when I see it. Also it shows your tastes off to people, which as I said for me are varied, so picking just a few is hard work. Maybe I just need more walls.

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Domo Arigato Mr Roboto

I totally want to be a cyborg. Despite watching two series of 'The Sarah Connere Chronicles' this week, I'm still psyched to see the emergence of the augmented human. This week has been a little hectic, but several stories have still caught my attention. I do read several tech and gadget blogs, so I see cool emerging techologies in various stages of development.


It's interesting to see devices go from concept to prototype to kickstarter then to a product announcement at CES or the like. For example the google glasses concept excites me, there is definite potential for that to be the first stage in true augmented reality. Combined with the iOptik contact lenses DARPA has just invested in, the AR device could become almost invisible.

Speaking of DARPA, one of their main contractors Boston Dynamics is totally the REAL Cyberdyne Systems, 'Petman' is a terrifying but also fascinating glimpse at the future, they are building humanoid robots that can climb stairs and walk with such a realistic gate it astounds me. Asimo the Honda robot looks comical in comparison to how this sucker moves, adapts and strongly resembles a skinless T-101 crushing a bleached human skull underfoot. 

I've been an early adopter for as long as I can remember, I was the first person at school with a CD writer, in 1999 everyone at school had MiniDisc players, however having just gotten into napster I saved all summer and spent £200 on a very early portable MP3 player the Diamond Rio, It had a smartmedia card slot with a 32mb card that held about 15-20 songs. I'll queue up to get my neural implant chip installed, pre-order my AR contact lenses and save my wages for weeks to have a chance to get an early model cyborg arm attached. I'm sure the arm will spaz out and try to strangle me, the lenses will probably be low res and impractical at first and that the chip only hold a few phone numbers for me. But that's how new tech always is, and I love it, I want to be part of it, and I want it to be a part of me! :)

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Top Fives

Last night at work, in an effort to stave off the boredom of a Saturday close I looked through the top 50 films on imdb by votes, and counted up how many I'd seen and compared my score (38) to my co-workers. Laura scored a respectable 31, the GM an amazing 39, (if only I'd seen Lord of The Rings I'd have beat him) and Sadie scored 7, I know right :-0 shocking!


But looking at the list there were obvious biases toward recent releases, all of the LOTR films were included, as well as Toy Story 3 and Inception. All good movies but not 'Top 50 films' in my opinion. This is a natural result of the fact that people on imdb vote on new movies more than the classics. Although a few B&W films and even a silent Chaplin picture made it.


This led to a discussion about personal favourites, and the difference between 'best films' and 'favourite movies'. It's the difference between the 'Film' that wins the Oscar and the 'Movie' that you can watch a dozen times or at any time.


That's the trouble with 'best' lists of creative works, there are too many ways to judge, by votes, by how much money it made, critical response, and you'll never please everyone anyway. Something will be left off or included that offends someone. That's why I'm not going to go there. I won't list a 'Definative Top 5' It's so hard to choose just five. Maybe a 'Top 5 by genre', still very hard. What I'll do is give you MY top 5 by genre. It won't please everyone. So please go and write your own.

Action
Speed
Die Hard
Bad Boys
Fightclub
The Dark Knight


Sci-Fi
Back to the Future
The Matrix
Aliens
Star Trek (re-boot)
Mad Max


Horror
Night of the Living Dead
Jaws
Battle Royale
Silence of the Lambs
Psycho


Comedy
Shaun of the Dead
Home Alone
Groundhog Day
50 First Dates
Liar Liar


Drama
The Shawshank Redemption
Trainspotting
Juno
Cast Away
Rain Man


Documentary
Bowling for Columbine
Supersize Me
Life After People
Trekkies
Exit Through the Giftshop




I know there are omissions, even this list was hard to pare down. I even had to leave out High Fidelity (the related thing for today) and several other worthy films. Just to be clear these are my favourite 'Movie' picks not my best 'Film' choices.

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Battle Royale with Cheese

It's been a while since we watched it and I think I've cracked why I had the problem I had with the movie. The truth of the matter is 'The Hunger Games' books are for young adults. The movie is aimed at tweens. I still feel like a young-ish adult even though I'm in my late 20s, but a tween I am certainly not. So sadly it was never a movie meant for me, so no wonder it was a disapointment.


However I've still got Battle Royale if I want to see schoolkids killing one another for sport. It takes crazy Japanese directors like Kinji Fukasaku to do cutting edge horror properly nowadays. Hollywood has lost all originality recently. Brainless torture-porn like Saw for the over 18s,  "found footage" Paranormal Activity clones for teens and those who mistake jumpy for scary. What is worst of all  is the rise of PG-13 "horror". The hunger games could have been an epic dark horror with a strong heart if it hadn't been tailored to tweens and trimmed down for the ratings boards. but that's not profitable, so it'll never happen. So goes the hollywood mantra.


Maybe I am an older young-adult because I am starting to get the urge to say that some things were better in my day. True there was terrible hair and no internet but they sure knew how to make horror in the 80s and 90s. Even the ones that failed to be scary usually did so not by being bland and aiming for safe, but by being insane and laughable (which for me is win/win). Japan seems to have picked up that torch nicely and run with it. they often fall close on either side of a fine 'awesome/insane' line. Some walk that line like a tightrope.




First the insanely awesome. 

Battle Royale

Obviously. 


Japanese schoolkids slicing each other up in a 'last kid standing' fight to the death on a wierd government run island. With buckets of blood, romance and humour. Just epic! avoid the sequel though, it's a let down.


Now for the awesomely insane. 

Machine Girl

This one is truely mental. A girl loses her arm to the Yakuza and has it replaced with a machine gun. Try pitching that plot in holywood. The effects are almost all practical as opposed to CG because of the low budget I assume (I'll save my anti-CG rant for a later date) but it allows for a much more 'messy' tangible, if not at all realistic look to the violence. I love how they clearly had fun making it and passion and fun is what a lot of hollywood lacks now I think. It's silly and funny and gorey as hell. I Love it! The director,
Noboru Iguchi also made "robo-geisha" and has a new movie coming out called "zombie ass" , That's right, and it's not one of those mis-translation things. that's a perfect title for this movie. I put the trailer is below, *Warning* can not  be un-watched. :)

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Fight the power

This image of Anon has been on my phone and wallet for months. Like many people I have become increasingly frustrated with the 1% and the way they treat the other 99%


Whilst not the placard waving, live in a tent type, I do feel the need to point out the shady horribleness that is going on with the powerful elite. The last few weeks have seen all too much of this.


Lets start with the goverment. The are destroying the NHS, messing with education, have plans to privatise the roads, cutting taxes for millionaires, spying on every uk citizen's web activities. Not to mention the plan for secret trials,  selling policy descisions for a few hundred grand, and intentionally causing panic over fuel to screw with the unions. All in the past few weeks. Shocking!


Then there is big media, in particular the Murdoch empire. First the phone hacking at multiple Murdoch papers, now little Jimmy Murdoch is quitting BskyB (i'm geussing because he knew about the NDS competitor sabotage plan). You can't really play clueless when you are the billionaire family at the head of a multinational global empire with an obvious focused agenda across all of it's parts. Money drives Murdochs; from cancelling firefly (F**K YOU FOX) as soon as the ratings dip, to changing the outcome of an election to elect a government who will help the rich and keep the poor in line.


Speaking of the rich, people are hating on the bankers. At least they are honest about thier motivations. Money! Money! Money! They are doing a job and only a few of them are the evil manipulating millionaire bastards that we think of when you say "banker".




Not sure what the solution is, some kind of revolution maybe? Political, financial, social, who knows? I do have hope that the internet is a force for change, with the Arab spring and the occupy movement, there is something brewing. Like I said i just wanted to point out the things I see.

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