Sunday 25 November 2007

Rodeo

The erotica festival was this weekend. I've never been before, and i guess i had no idea really what to expect. I did however expect to see a lot of fetish clothing and other items... Fetish wear was represented, but strangely only by a few retailers. The majority of stuff on sale was elegant clothing, such as corsets. It was very interesting to see such beautiful clothes and i suppose in the truest sense they are erotic, being clothing not commonly worn in public. I find the whole concept of what we find erotic interesting... Everyone is different... But one universal truth is that something on display that is usually hidden fires passion... Speaking from a purely male perspective, for example an ankle is erotic to a man from a nation where women usually cover up (such as an Arab nation), whereas a woman in underwear is erotic to a westerner. However although sexy a woman in a bikini swimsuit is not erotic, as we expect to see it in public (even though it is as revealing). So at least from my point of view, i find corsets and elegant clothing alluring (which is good because Naomi likes to dress in this fashion :-) ).

Something that struck me was the people walking around, some were obviously deeply in love and very affectionate to one another... more so that would be deemed appropriate in public. Now I'm not a reserved person, and me and Naomi often kiss passionately in public (It's who we are... and I love it), and it was refreshing to see people doing the same.

Along with the retailers there was also a show... The highlight of which was Dita Von Teese. Which i must say was something i looked forward too. However although well performed it seemed lacking in any passion from her part. Which was a shame, as it let her down greatly.

On the top floor of the hall they had in interesting ride (see picture), I've seen Rodeo bulls, and even a Rodeo camel... But never a Rodeo whore.

Monday 19 November 2007

Beowulf

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0442933/

Sadly I've not read the epic poem Beowulf... but it's on my list of things to do (That list is getting too big now!). Me and Nomi went to see the new film adaptation it at the local cinema.


Now I'm a fan for pushing the envelope of cinematography and also animation (Both cell and CGI), but it just didn't seem to sit right in a fantasy story. Now I know they spent a lot of money on LotR, but I'm sure that it would have been cheaper to use CG monstas (More on that later) and "live" action instead of all CG... the reason is that throughout the film the consistency of the quality left a lot to be desired. One minute the CG was perfect, the next... like a dodgy version of Shrek. Sebastian Roché who played Wulfgar ended up looking like the godfather at one point where they cheapened up on the rendering of his mouth.


It just seems a little unnecessary... like it was made in CG because it could... not because it was needed.


The bit that stuck out a mile was Ray Winstone portrayal of Beowulf, now for the uninitiated Beowulf is a Geat which is now modern day Sweden, hence he would have something close to a Swedish accent... instead he has a distinctly cockney accent, see the clip below:




It's most apparent when he tells the guard "I am Beowulf, and I'm here to will your monster". Or rather with the accent... "I am Beowufd and I'm 'ere to kiwl yaw monsta".

This all being said the film was actually really good. And I would recommend going to see it if your a fan of fantasy films. Especially as Beowulf influenced Tolkins Lord of the Rings.

Thursday 15 November 2007

The Universe

A good friend of mine sent me these in an e-mail. When you look at the grand scale of things it shows exactly how insignificant earths place in the universe is.






Wednesday 14 November 2007

Wii Hands

I'm always intrigued by how things work, and being an engineer I usually take them apart to figure it out, However not being electronically minded (IE Understanding how microprocessors work) I usually leave expensive pieces of kit like the Nintendo Wii well alone.

This guy obviously spent a bit of time discovering how the Wii-mote actually senses the position relative to the screen.



Reminds me of the nursery rhyme here comes perter, here comes paul, fly away peter, fly away paul.

Back To The Shop Floor



Being an engineer is a passion for me... I've always been interested in engineering since a young age (Due to my fathers influences), so naturally when it came to choosing a career path when I left school I traveled the oft neglected road of an engineer... now I've yet to meet a super wealthy engineer, as by the nature of the job we tend to do it for the love. But after the first few agonising years as an apprentice living on a pittance it can be such a relief to finally break through into the "big time" as it were, this I did several years ago, and although I'd always welcome more (Who wouldn't) I'd say I've got the balance right with a career that not only interests me, but also leaves me with a comfortable feeling in my wallet.

With my new job I hope I'm going to go far... today, for the first time in nearly 10 years I've been working on the shop floor and learning the processes involved in making the things I design. Now I'm not ignorant to how the various machines work, but it astonished me the advances that have been made in as little as 10 years, this combined with the fact that we use a lot of "fancy machinery" to achieve cuts in 6 axes at once left me looking like a slack jawed newbie (Most common or garden machinery only uses 3 axes). I'm hoping to learn a lot here, as I've always prided myself on the fact that as a designer I know what the machinist is having to do to make the finished item, therefor I can make his life easier :-)

Tuesday 13 November 2007

Critique/Reviews

I'm no journalist, but in writing this blog I hope to become a little more well rounded (Not in an eat more pie way), so I'll be trying to write a critique/review of films and gigs and so on, more for my own benefit, so I can remember why I mentally placed a film in the "don't bother buying it" pile in my head. Hopefully it'll advance my skills in writing. As being an engineer I've not had much call for writing anything other than very boring technical/legal documents/specifications (As you can tell fro my liberal use of the "/" and come to mention it brackets as well :-) ).

Don't expect any massive transformations tho, as this is still a bit of a general dumping area for my brain. So cut me some slack with grammar and spelling. Hopefully I'll get better soon and be able to pour my thoughts in well constructed sentences without much effort.

Monday 12 November 2007

Weblinks - Powered by Del.icio.us

I've added a new block on the right hand of the screen which shows the most recent 15 links I've added to my Del.icio.us account. It'll be a general dumping ground for links to news articles and other things of note that I haven't specifically mentioned in my blog.

If anyone's interested you can also add it as another RSS feed.

If you new to RSS I'd recommend either the inbuilt reader in IE 7 or Feedreader

DIY Tardis



My sisters performance for Woodshed this year was based upon A Christmas Carol, but with a modern Dr Who twist. As the resident engineer and all round gopher it fell to me to make it.

Sadly I didn't nearly have enough input into making this as I'd have liked (Due to ill health), but I had a hand in designing the way we were to construct it, and acted as general gaffer to it's construction and assembly on stage.

Made from a cardboard box for a 3 seater sofa (Yes they come in boxes these days!) an old drinks bottle for the light. combined with an industrial strobe, lots of poster paint and a sticky label for the finer details I think it did the trick perfectly. We also plugged a smoke machine into the back of it to add that eerie Tardis effect when the doors opened. Thankfully we didn't gas the occupants :-)

Sunday 11 November 2007

BSOD - Windows Has Caused a General Fuel Pumping Fault



It scares me that so much stuff is controlled by Windows these days... even our petrol pumps have computers running XP in them these days... if only it crashed and dispensed free petrol :-)

MTV - Don't Do Drugs People

My sister had the MTV music awards on thins morning... i don't normally watch MTV as it's not really my type of music... but I was intrigued at Amy Winehouses performance. She looked so hammered... clutching the mic stand like a drunk clutches a lamp post as if it's his only friend in the world. She had this curious little shuffle going on to try and "dance", but every step she took took her further away from the mic stand, so she tottered unsteadily back to it.

I hope when she comes down that someone shows her that video so she can see exactly how wasted she looked.

Saturday 10 November 2007

Fireworks Display AKA WMD




My dads flying club is next door toy a gun club, so the ability to come by some rather "large" fireworks is quite easy this time of year. With enough rockets to start a small war, and some boxes that looked like bunker busters. So a good show was expected by all.
Unfortunately the wind was a little against us, but we managed to compensate... not before nearly shelling some of our neighbours. Hopefully no lean too was broken :-)
When my dad set off the second (But not the largest) boxed firework a gust of wind combined with a rocket firing knocked it over, this sent one of the rockets between me and Naomi (We were totally oblivious as we were looking up at the other fireworks) which exploded on the windowsill. If it'd been just 6 left or right it would have hit one of us, 6" higher and it would've gone through the kitchen window. Luckily it righted itself on the next shot.
The final and largest firework naturally we pegged into the ground.
Afterwards we all stuck around and played a good few rounds of poker... it was good as we had a couple of learners at the table. I so need to resurrect poker night, it was always a really good laugh.

iPhony

Saw the iPhone for the first time today... now I'm a total gadget geek... I have a PDA, Satnav, DS, PSP, PS3, Wii and a whole host of other stuff. So this is gonna sound weird. i think the iPhone is rubbish.

Now it's not without its merits... its stylish, has a superb capacity for MP3s and does everything else you could want out of a phone... but at that price (When most handsets are now free on contract) I think it's a total rip off. If you can't find a phone with the same MP3 capacity, but a real iPOD at a fraction of the cost... that being said you can... only simple fact is it does everything the iPOD does but it's 3G to boot and that's the Sony Ericsson W960. I am slightly biased, as I've always had SE phones... but it does everything and more... plus it's free. So why buy a iPhone... tell me that? And if you dont like SE phones... what about the LG Prada just as nice... with even more style.

Thursday 8 November 2007

Louise Ventures Into Narnia



As I've said before I'm a hoarder, but so is my sister... so she's got more clothes than you can shake a stick at (Not to mention old Cosplay costumes).

In her bedroom there's a cupboard that fits over the staircase, but it's a nightmare to get anything in there as you have to climb over her desk to get. So in an effort to clear some wardrobe space Louise is cramming as much as she can in there with a little help from me (I was handing the stuff to her). Let's hope she doesn't get lost in Narnia.

Wednesday 7 November 2007

A New Start... Hope It Lasts

Well here I am again starting at a new job... lets hope this one last as I'm fed up with moving about. *shakes fist at sky* Come on I deserve a break!

Everyone's so nice... especially by boss and the MD (Probably helps that they're father and son) . I really think I can go far with this place... I get a good vibe from them :-)

Categories

Been adding categories to all my blog entries (I must be really bored :-) ). Hopefully make it easier for people to look around my old entries.

It's not quite done yet, as there's nealy 170 posts to go thru, so please be patient :-)

Tuesday 6 November 2007

30 Days of Night



I don't pretend to be a critique, but I know what I like, so I'm going to try and write a few words about all the things I go see... so here goes my review of 30 Days of Night:

A classic horror film is one way to describe this, but it doesn't really have a classic feel about it. It's got an interesting plot (I love vampire films), and if I'd read the comics I'm sure I would have got more from it. But it doesn't really have a storyline, the vampires have almost no background (Apart from the fact they're brought there by a vagrant, who in turn is promised immortality as a fellow vampire). It has plenty of blood and gore, and makes you jump a few times. But it feels like a remake of "The Thing"with vampires, but even then it dirtys the name of "The Thing" to say such a thing (Hmm lots of things in that sentence, sure that's bad grammar), I guess on it's own it's a ok vampire film, with ok plot... but it made me walk out going meh. I always see it as a bad sign that I can't recall a memorable moment of a film.

Shandy Float



Off to the cinema tonight to see 30 Days of Night, I messed up the time so we ended up in a bar. I don't normally order a shandy, but I fancied something refreshing.

I don't think the barmaid has ever poured one before, as somehow she managed to perfectly float the bitter on top of the lemonade... not something that's easy to do... especially by accident!

Monday 5 November 2007

Aliens Vs Predator 2 - Not For Kiddies



Now I've not heard a lot about this film yet, but I've seen the first trailer... and from that I can gather that 20th Century Fox have got their head screwed on again with the Aliens Vs Predator franchise, as it's actually got a 18 rating (Well a US R rating which means it'll be a UK 18) which means it'll actually contain blood and gore. It looks quite a good premise with Aliens and Predators running amock in a remote hick american town. I can only hope that this means a return to the roots of the franchise and it'll be a horror movie rather than an excuse to cash in on merchandising with the kiddies.

Hell I watched Aliens when I was 12, and it did me no harm *twitch* and I went out and bought the merchandise (Which was airfix kits of the vehicles).

Halloween Bioshock Cosplay

Thought this was a really cool costume:



Originally posted at a webcomic I usually read http://www.rpg-tv.com/

Saturday 3 November 2007

Stardust

Me Naomi and Natalie went to see Stardust last night, I've not read the novel by Neil Gaiman, but after seeing the film adaptation I'll definitely be adding it to my Christmas list.

A typical children's fantasy story but adult enough to be suitable for most ages. Throughout the film a few characters are killed (Mostly by assassination... you'll have to watch it... i don't want to spoil it), but blood is never shown and in the one instance it's necessary it's shown as a vivid blue (Being a prince he has blue blood), which i think is a nice touch to make this more accessible to younger viewers.

The storyline is touching... at the start you dislike the lead character for his somewhat spineless groveling to his "beloved"... but by the end you love him for his character growth. It pulls at the heart strings.

That as side you have to watch it for De Niros performance... whoever cast him was a pure genius. I'm glad he accepted the role as it's a wild detraction from his usual roles.

In the trailers before the film we saw the trailer for "The Golden Compass", based on a series of novels called "His Dark Materials" by Philip Pullman. I'm planning on reading the book before i see the film (Naomi's kindly lent it to me), hopefully they'll release all 3 as separate films, as I've not seen a good trilogy since LotR.

Thursday 1 November 2007

Halloween Cursed as Angels Gig

I love dressing up for Halloween, but this is the first time I've ever been to a gig at the same time. Paul insisted that we all dressed up (As he and the band were dressing up), suffice to say we didn't need persuading... me Lou and Nomi all being cosplay fans we decided to pull out all the stops. We managed a pretty damn good set of costumes given the limited time (And Funds).



Naomis costume was fantastic... especially the make up. I was really impressed how well it held up... in fact when she got back it took her ages to scrub it off. Lou pulled off a good all red devil. I dressed as an elegant vampire (All i needed was glasses, which i couldn't find). The fangs impressed Naomi :-) but not her neck ;-)



The guys all dressed up really well... difficult to know what to do that won't restrict playing an instrument.








The set was cool, with a rendition of the Ghostbusters theme going down a storm. Shame the set had to be rushed for the headline act Paralax to come on.


After the gig Paul was "dead" tired, so Louise decided to revive him




Paul then demonstrated that the only reliable way to stop Lou from nibbling your ear was to cut off an arm... kids never upset a man with a meat clever!




Me being the Gentleman Vampire was content to kiss my fair Lady's hand...



Well I had to try the fangs out didn't I :-)