As of today, in no particular order:
Blue Squadron Battlestar Galactica Colonial Viper
Imperial logo watch
Star Wars Monopoly
King Kong Collection
Jonathan Livingstone Seagull
A bottle of Smirnoff Vodka
A huge Hot Rum Yorkie bar
A huge Cadbury's Dairy Milk Bar
A box of really fancy chocolates
Star Wars: Battlefront II for Xbox
The one thing I didn't get that I was hoping I would: SOCKS.
Tuesday, December 27, 2005
Sunday, December 25, 2005
She Liked It!
She liked the gift I got her, which incidentally was a ring (no, not that kind of ring). I also got her an Incredibles storybook because we both adore the film, but what counts is she loves it. Phew.
She happens to be amazing at buying presents, too. Two presents in and I'm wondering how the rest are going to live up to this.
The swag:
She happens to be amazing at buying presents, too. Two presents in and I'm wondering how the rest are going to live up to this.
The swag:
Friday, December 23, 2005
2005: In Review
This year has been strange. It's had the lowest lows imaginable, and yet the highest highs. Some great movies have come this way, as well as a lot of disappointments. I lost one of the most important people in my life, but also gained someone I love dearly, someone that has been and still is so inherently important, that I can say that if she wasn't there, I don't know if I would still be here. Make of that what you will.
I've tried my best, but I'm not looking forward to Christmas. But it doesn't really matter, because after all the pain and the memories and the feelings, I still have people to spend it with that mean something to me, one especially. So for that, I'm thankful.
Take care, folks and have a better one.
I've tried my best, but I'm not looking forward to Christmas. But it doesn't really matter, because after all the pain and the memories and the feelings, I still have people to spend it with that mean something to me, one especially. So for that, I'm thankful.
Take care, folks and have a better one.
It's Alive!
Hooray! My costume is finally finished, so it's on to making Lisa's now. I'm incredibly impressed with the finished product, not just the thing itself but the effort and care that went into making it as close as the movie costume as possible. It's this reason why I want Lisa to do costume work for my movies now.
Tuesday, December 20, 2005
Costuming
I've been so busy lately, mainly with christmas shopping, but more importantly, with making costumes. For New Year's Eve, we'll be going down to the coastal town of Weymouth, where every NYE, the entire town dresses in costumes and gets heavily drunk. I went last year as Aragorn, and had an absolutely amazing time. So we've decided to go this year, and while Aragorn was mostly quickly thrown together, we're spending a lot more time and effort (and money!) on these.
Choosing who to be is always one of the hardest things. You have to consider what materials you have available to you, how difficult it is to make the actual costume, and how much it'll cost, and also how recognizable you'll be. Despite being a pretty convincing Aragorn, I spent much of last year telling people who I was supposed to be. Not happening this year.
So, after a long thought process (including Jason Voorhees and his scantily-clad victim) Lisa and I have decided to be Anakin and Padme (not respectively, obviously). Being that Anakin's was the harder of the two - although Lisa has to make an entire dress, with bump included - we've started on his first. Translation: Lisa did most of the work, I modelled and pranced around with a lightsaber while lighting cigarettes for her.
We're probably about 3/4 of the way through his costume, and she's done a remarkable job. It looks fucking great, and I've provided a visual image, even though photos just don't do any kind of justice to how good the costume looks. All that remains is a few trimmings, plus the boots, and we'll be set to start on Padme. But at the moment, it just looks so fucking cool.
Choosing who to be is always one of the hardest things. You have to consider what materials you have available to you, how difficult it is to make the actual costume, and how much it'll cost, and also how recognizable you'll be. Despite being a pretty convincing Aragorn, I spent much of last year telling people who I was supposed to be. Not happening this year.
So, after a long thought process (including Jason Voorhees and his scantily-clad victim) Lisa and I have decided to be Anakin and Padme (not respectively, obviously). Being that Anakin's was the harder of the two - although Lisa has to make an entire dress, with bump included - we've started on his first. Translation: Lisa did most of the work, I modelled and pranced around with a lightsaber while lighting cigarettes for her.
We're probably about 3/4 of the way through his costume, and she's done a remarkable job. It looks fucking great, and I've provided a visual image, even though photos just don't do any kind of justice to how good the costume looks. All that remains is a few trimmings, plus the boots, and we'll be set to start on Padme. But at the moment, it just looks so fucking cool.
Friday, December 16, 2005
KONG'd Out
I'm really, really tired - or "knackered," as Andy Serkis put it, and far too exhausted to write any kind of real review.
All I'll say that it was a thing of beauty. Loved it to death. God bless you, Peter Jackson.
All I'll say that it was a thing of beauty. Loved it to death. God bless you, Peter Jackson.
Wednesday, December 14, 2005
The Legend Of The Blog Lives On...
I haven't posted here for a week, so I'm doing it now. Been busy off doing stuff, mostly seeing my amazing girlfriend. Here's a few reasons why she's great:
- makes me laugh all the time
- stunningly beautiful
- very supportive
- owns the holy trilogy
Speaking of Star Wars, I've also began doing this project, essentially doing a chronological restoration of the soundtrack to REVENGE OF THE SITH. It seems with soundtracks, especially Star Wars, they're put together rather strangely, and you have some bits that are chronologically out, some bits that are edited onto the end of other tracks, and others that feel more part of a track where they should be a track on their own. So I've been editing music - also adding the parts used from the other two prequels - and fixing stuff, just to make it a little truer to the movie. For example, the opening track, where the Main Title segues off and there's a blast of horns before the Force theme comes in, well in the flick, those horns aren't there (instead they're in the scene where the Clones hit Utapau) and instead we get a heavy drum sound before the Force theme kicks in. Unfortunately, I don't have the source music for the drum sound, so I'm just starting off with the Force theme. Stuff like that, really.
I guess some of it is supposedly scored for other bits. I know a lot of people had issues with the use of the trade federation march underscoring the clones in EPISODE II, and although I thought it fit well, it's well known that it originally scored Obi-Wan seeing the federation ships on Geonosis, where I don't think it fit very well. Here, we have a piece of music at the end of "Palpatine's Teachings" (the opera scene) which I remember was supposed to score Yoda going off to help the wookies on Kashyyyk (and is a rephrase of a piece used in EPISODE I to score the queen's ship leaving Coruscant). In the film, it's used for Obi-Wan as he arrives at the Tantive IV, which works pretty well. It follows the music where Anakin is put on the council and they talk about sending someone to Kashyyyk, so it fits there, but the opera scene comes after those scenes, so I don't know if it's weird editing or what. It's like track 13 'Grievous Talks To Sidious' comes in the film right after the opening space battle and subsequent crash, especially since it contains the first notes of the scene with Anakin and Padme on the balcony before he has his nightmare.
It's reasonably hard, especially since I'm using Windows Movie Maker, and it brings forth the reality of how sloppily edited some of the music really is in the flick. The music that scores the space ship crash is a prime example; using music from 'The Tide Turns' from EPISODE I, but edited to hell and it's jarring, so much that when I think I've done a bad job with the track, it's more that it was edited badly in the first place. Oh well.
- makes me laugh all the time
- stunningly beautiful
- very supportive
- owns the holy trilogy
Speaking of Star Wars, I've also began doing this project, essentially doing a chronological restoration of the soundtrack to REVENGE OF THE SITH. It seems with soundtracks, especially Star Wars, they're put together rather strangely, and you have some bits that are chronologically out, some bits that are edited onto the end of other tracks, and others that feel more part of a track where they should be a track on their own. So I've been editing music - also adding the parts used from the other two prequels - and fixing stuff, just to make it a little truer to the movie. For example, the opening track, where the Main Title segues off and there's a blast of horns before the Force theme comes in, well in the flick, those horns aren't there (instead they're in the scene where the Clones hit Utapau) and instead we get a heavy drum sound before the Force theme kicks in. Unfortunately, I don't have the source music for the drum sound, so I'm just starting off with the Force theme. Stuff like that, really.
I guess some of it is supposedly scored for other bits. I know a lot of people had issues with the use of the trade federation march underscoring the clones in EPISODE II, and although I thought it fit well, it's well known that it originally scored Obi-Wan seeing the federation ships on Geonosis, where I don't think it fit very well. Here, we have a piece of music at the end of "Palpatine's Teachings" (the opera scene) which I remember was supposed to score Yoda going off to help the wookies on Kashyyyk (and is a rephrase of a piece used in EPISODE I to score the queen's ship leaving Coruscant). In the film, it's used for Obi-Wan as he arrives at the Tantive IV, which works pretty well. It follows the music where Anakin is put on the council and they talk about sending someone to Kashyyyk, so it fits there, but the opera scene comes after those scenes, so I don't know if it's weird editing or what. It's like track 13 'Grievous Talks To Sidious' comes in the film right after the opening space battle and subsequent crash, especially since it contains the first notes of the scene with Anakin and Padme on the balcony before he has his nightmare.
It's reasonably hard, especially since I'm using Windows Movie Maker, and it brings forth the reality of how sloppily edited some of the music really is in the flick. The music that scores the space ship crash is a prime example; using music from 'The Tide Turns' from EPISODE I, but edited to hell and it's jarring, so much that when I think I've done a bad job with the track, it's more that it was edited badly in the first place. Oh well.
Friday, December 09, 2005
Revenge of THE LIST
A couple of you folks will know that I used to do a column a while ago on Generallogan.com called THE LIST. It was basically a Friday afternoon rant about things that were pissing me off. Well, I'm kind of in a ranting mood, so I'm bringing it back.
1. FIRSTBUS CORPORATION
Let's see. You are a bus company who runs hundreds of services in a medium-sized city. Your buses are always late. They are always crowded. They are expensive. They are cold. They usually carry chavs. What is the best solution to these problems?
If you guess "raise the fares," you'd be correct! Well done Firstbus, you're a complete and utter fucking cunt. As if it wasn't enough that I always have to wait at least seven minutes for your fucking buses to arrive, only to find that they're scummy hives of villainy that look like the inside of an incontinent granny's underwear, you're hiking up the price I pay for the privilege to travel on your filthmobiles. £3.00 (£3.60 before 9am) is bad enough, but now it's gone straight to £3.50, with the before 9 fare going to a fucking outrageous £4.40. I imagine going to the Firstbus headquarters is like entering some mythical pimp's domain, with bowls of cocaine idly sitting aside for you to try, and legions of scantily-clad harem women humming bus drivers. I can't imagine it'd make the buses any fucking later.
2. SPAM EMAIL OF THE PENIS ENHANCEMENT KIND
This may be a little TMI, but I have no problem getting an erection, and I am perfectly comfortable with the size of my lightsaber. So why oh why do I keep getting millions of emails per day asking me if I want to buy drugs to keep me going or treatments that will make my cock break walls? "Rock Hard in 20 Minutes!" Is this advertising erection pills or the new Darkness album?
3. ANTI-BEING NEGATIVE
I've always been a pretty strong opinionated guy, so I'm usually likely to say something about something, good or bad. This happened this week with the X-MEN 3 trailer and the still of Beast. Guess what? Both were shit. The trailer looks shiny but was dull as dishwater, and Beast looks like an early Beast Man concept from MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE. The picture of Colossus - whether it's real or fan made remains to be scene - looks absolutely retarded and like it came from ReBoot, rather than an expensive Hollywood movie. Yet, if I try and raise this opinion, what happens? I'm being overly negative and I have a grudge against Brett Ratner.
Yes, I have a grudge against Ratner, because he gets tons of money to make ABSOLUTE SHITE. Trailers and official stills are released so people can react to what they've seen and decide whether or not they would like to see the movie. Right now, I'd rather be rectally violated by Bea Arthur's huge flaccid penis.
4. TELEMARKETERS
Telemarketer: I'm ringing to see if you want to get a free T-Mobile mobile phone with the latest features and texts, and 500 texts free every month.
Me: I don't want a contract phone.
Telemarketer: You get 500 free texts every month.
Me: I already have a phone. With Orange. I'm very happy.
Telemarketer: I'm ringing to see if you want to...
Me: I'm very happy with my phone.
Telemarketer: I'm ringing to...
Me: FUCK OFF!
Everything but the last comment happened half an hour or so ago. Mobile phone companies are especially bad for this - when I cancelled my Vodafone contract, I kept getting calls begging me to come back. Are they so desperate for my business? The worst is when you say 'No,' and they seem to interpret that as 'Oh, so you are interested.' I don't want to shout Fuck Off, but I feel I might have to start soon.
5. VICKY POLLARD-A-LIKES
I was sitting on the bus stop today listening to the iPod and smoking, and this girl and her friend were sat next to me. I turned my iPod up to full volume, but all I could hear was 'Yeah, but no, but yeah' and 'Yeah, she's gonna get beatings cause I done Judo' and all this shit. And then she got on the bus and managed to be even louder. Jesus fucking christ, what is this, some genetically-engineered hyper-chav, specially bred by Richard Attenborough to make the general population want to stab our eardrums?
The funny thing is, all of these people love LITTLE BRITAIN, and Vicky Pollard and imitate her infinitely. The irony being that the people imitating her are the people Matt Lucas is ripping in the first place. It's hilarious to see people so dumb that they just don't get that such an obvious satirical show is pointing fun at the fact that they are complete slappers who get daily ASBOs and who'll open their legs for a bag of Milky Way Stars. As Bill Hicks once said, 'they don't need children. That's a judgement call, and I'm making it. It also happens to be completely true.'
1. FIRSTBUS CORPORATION
Let's see. You are a bus company who runs hundreds of services in a medium-sized city. Your buses are always late. They are always crowded. They are expensive. They are cold. They usually carry chavs. What is the best solution to these problems?
If you guess "raise the fares," you'd be correct! Well done Firstbus, you're a complete and utter fucking cunt. As if it wasn't enough that I always have to wait at least seven minutes for your fucking buses to arrive, only to find that they're scummy hives of villainy that look like the inside of an incontinent granny's underwear, you're hiking up the price I pay for the privilege to travel on your filthmobiles. £3.00 (£3.60 before 9am) is bad enough, but now it's gone straight to £3.50, with the before 9 fare going to a fucking outrageous £4.40. I imagine going to the Firstbus headquarters is like entering some mythical pimp's domain, with bowls of cocaine idly sitting aside for you to try, and legions of scantily-clad harem women humming bus drivers. I can't imagine it'd make the buses any fucking later.
2. SPAM EMAIL OF THE PENIS ENHANCEMENT KIND
This may be a little TMI, but I have no problem getting an erection, and I am perfectly comfortable with the size of my lightsaber. So why oh why do I keep getting millions of emails per day asking me if I want to buy drugs to keep me going or treatments that will make my cock break walls? "Rock Hard in 20 Minutes!" Is this advertising erection pills or the new Darkness album?
3. ANTI-BEING NEGATIVE
I've always been a pretty strong opinionated guy, so I'm usually likely to say something about something, good or bad. This happened this week with the X-MEN 3 trailer and the still of Beast. Guess what? Both were shit. The trailer looks shiny but was dull as dishwater, and Beast looks like an early Beast Man concept from MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE. The picture of Colossus - whether it's real or fan made remains to be scene - looks absolutely retarded and like it came from ReBoot, rather than an expensive Hollywood movie. Yet, if I try and raise this opinion, what happens? I'm being overly negative and I have a grudge against Brett Ratner.
Yes, I have a grudge against Ratner, because he gets tons of money to make ABSOLUTE SHITE. Trailers and official stills are released so people can react to what they've seen and decide whether or not they would like to see the movie. Right now, I'd rather be rectally violated by Bea Arthur's huge flaccid penis.
4. TELEMARKETERS
Telemarketer: I'm ringing to see if you want to get a free T-Mobile mobile phone with the latest features and texts, and 500 texts free every month.
Me: I don't want a contract phone.
Telemarketer: You get 500 free texts every month.
Me: I already have a phone. With Orange. I'm very happy.
Telemarketer: I'm ringing to see if you want to...
Me: I'm very happy with my phone.
Telemarketer: I'm ringing to...
Me: FUCK OFF!
Everything but the last comment happened half an hour or so ago. Mobile phone companies are especially bad for this - when I cancelled my Vodafone contract, I kept getting calls begging me to come back. Are they so desperate for my business? The worst is when you say 'No,' and they seem to interpret that as 'Oh, so you are interested.' I don't want to shout Fuck Off, but I feel I might have to start soon.
5. VICKY POLLARD-A-LIKES
I was sitting on the bus stop today listening to the iPod and smoking, and this girl and her friend were sat next to me. I turned my iPod up to full volume, but all I could hear was 'Yeah, but no, but yeah' and 'Yeah, she's gonna get beatings cause I done Judo' and all this shit. And then she got on the bus and managed to be even louder. Jesus fucking christ, what is this, some genetically-engineered hyper-chav, specially bred by Richard Attenborough to make the general population want to stab our eardrums?
The funny thing is, all of these people love LITTLE BRITAIN, and Vicky Pollard and imitate her infinitely. The irony being that the people imitating her are the people Matt Lucas is ripping in the first place. It's hilarious to see people so dumb that they just don't get that such an obvious satirical show is pointing fun at the fact that they are complete slappers who get daily ASBOs and who'll open their legs for a bag of Milky Way Stars. As Bill Hicks once said, 'they don't need children. That's a judgement call, and I'm making it. It also happens to be completely true.'
Wednesday, December 07, 2005
More Things Britain Is Crap At
The NHS. Fuck them. I could be lying in a ditch with no arms and legs and they'd still say 'we don't have any appointments until April or May.'
Thursday, December 01, 2005
Things I've Learned Today
If you're a twelve year old single mother with thirty kids running around, you can live off the government forever without any need for a job or any kind of education, but if you're a hardworking person with real problems that weren't caused by being too stupid to go on the pill and opening your legs to every man you see, talk to the hand cause the face isn't interested.
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