the tinkerer

As a kid I've been fascinated by pocket knives. I had one I used to fiddle around with sticks and to carve my name in trees and such. I still have it. It's old and needed resharpening a few times, but it's still there, in a box somewhere.

Today I got that which I wanted for a long time, a Victorinox Swiss Army Knife, the Tinker model.
I feel like saying more about this whole obsession, but I'll just post some funky pictures instead. :P

 

 

snail

It rained today, slightly more than one might have expected for this time of the year.
And yes, that's a snail.

mqotd.com

My most recent project. :)

the elf's self is watching himself doing the same thing

If you look in the mirror you see yourself. Does yourself see it's self? Does yourself's self see it's self, or an elf? Or was that you?

Is the world we live in real or just a reflection of one of it's many selfs? And where is the mirror?
I know, the elf must have it! Or was it himself who had it all along?
Hidden in plain sight, under our very noses, shiny noses. So shiny that one may see the elf behind him holding the very glass object in which he resides. A shiny object so clean and without flaw that one may mistake himself with another, due to the perfection of his very own reflection.

Am I on a horse?

cookie chaos

"Most people like cookies, with milk." That apparently is not the same as saying "People associate cookies and ominously arranged paper clips with chaos."
Ah well, I tried. :)

80s burglar mopping

Listen to song, relax in home. Calm dusk. Blue-ish light fills the
room. Red-to-orange sunset window view.
Cue burglar entrance scene.
Camera panning by: bad guy's head as head looks behind corner. The
same bad guy's head at end of shotgun barrel.
Foot tapping on song rhythm; guitar solo starts. [bass boom]
Mopping up on the beat of remaining song.
Precious moment. :)

Adam's apple

Adam's apple

From the tree
to the woman
to the man
to the bitter knife,
it was bitten.

Cue in humanity,
stuck with heavenly glue to it's mortality.

model

Or how a small car can make a big difference.
From someone who apparently cares and listens.
Thanks, D. ;)

cvartet

The sun was up, the day was hot;
All the lilies were in the pot, baking
golden threads of joy and happiness.
Ah, humbug...

As I looked up, into the great blue yonder,
I took a moment and began to wonder:
Truly magnificent things
these... bridges over water.

Walk across the wall guided by the light,
See the pretty pictures, glowing oh so bright.
They'd be really neat, if not in black and white.

Carved in wood... engraved in stone...
It will chill you to the bone
And your soul will shape and turn,
As you both by then have learned
to love.

Humbug?!

servers crashing

I was walking home one evening.
And it was quiet; there were not many people around.
As I passed a coffee shop I overheard 2 guys talking about computers.
One of them was apparently very upset because "le-o cazut astora niste servere" [translation: some of their servers crashed]. The other guy was laughing.
I also find this kind of situation funny, since my imagination [being very active by nature] tends to take things literally. So that brief moment was the inspiration for the following doodle.
More to come. :)

avatar aftermath

My 2 cents:
This is not a review of the movie. There are plenty of those out there, lots of which are more in-depth than I could ever write. Still, if you just landed on Earth [Welcome!] or if you simply do not follow any of the media phenomenons and you wish to know a pertinent opinion regarding the movie, here's one: The movie sucks!
Note that I said that the "movie" sucks; I haven't seen it in 3D, since I consider all of that stuff to be just a silly and distracting nuisance.
So, this article is going to try and explain why the movie sucks, not by detailing the scenes or anything closely related to the movie itself.
Since I first heard about the movie and that it was going to be made using "revolutionary" 3D technology, I had a bad feeling that it was going to suck, from an artistic point of view. And, of course, I was right.

Now, I am quite a fan of James Cameron and of his early sci-fi movies like: Terminator 2, The abyss and Aliens. Heck, I even liked Titanic.
But, and this is a big "but", when those were made, the sci-fi cinema industry was still in it's experimental phase; computer generated images were rarely used, and they had to improvise a lot in order to create the envisioned concept. So the concept was very important, and it was reiterated until it looked good.
Also, I cannot explain why this is so, but back then [the pre '00-ish era], the plots had a habit of being good. They addressed a "mature" public; and by mature I don't mean p0rn.
Avatar not only sucks story wise [true, the story is ok-ish, but not even close to the alien encounter of Aliens or from that of the Abyss] but it also sucks because it comes out as a kids movie. That would have been ok, if they would have stuck with this idea, but they mixed in some would-be "mature" scenes; and yes, this time I do mean p0rn, and other things that are the main ingredients in almost all Hollywood productions today.
The movie also has striking resemblance to some other flicks you may have seen. Again, there are a lot of articles out there detailing this idea; I found the movie almost identical to Terra, story-wise. One would think: has JC spent all those years to write a simple oppressor-vs-oppressed struggle, with some inter-species romance? Aren't we sick of that from watching Star Trek?! I mean, you get all the drama and action from Avatar in one episode from the above mentioned franchise.
Now, my opinion is that James Cameron gave the public what it wanted. Much as Caesar did when he gave bread and blood to the roman people. That didn't make him a lesser military genius, nor a lesser leader.
So, should we blame it on the public? Yes, mostly.
For some years now standard movie quality has decreased at a frighting rate. Sure, there were always bad movies. But now-a-days, the so called "good ones" are beginning to get bad, or... not so good. Or am I getting to be a tough critic?!
Anyway, I feel we shouldn't blame James for what he did. Maybe he wanted Avatar to be just a money making kids movie.


Timmy: Maybe he's getting old?!
Mr. Reviewer: Who, Cameron?
Timmy: Yup.
Mr. Reviewer: Well, Timmy, you might be right. Just like George Lucas, right?
Timmy: Yup. Or... or, maybe he'll pull a rabbit out of the hat in his next movie?
Mr. Reviewer: You mean Avatar 2, Timmy?
Timmy: Oh...

regarding Easter eggs

from the series: grab an egg and eat it while it's still unaware of it's fate :P

portal

the passage between two worlds
[mall opening day]

ants

day 5
They sent me out again.
For food.
More food.
They said they need it
for the new arrivals.
I do not believe them.
I went out to gather food.

day 6
I brought back extra food yesterday.
I got to keep some.
"For meritory achievements" they said.
I was just hungry.

day 9
ergo day 5

day 10
It is hot today.
We have lost some of us out there today.
They were looking for more food.
I'm not hungry anymore.

day 11
The new arrivals are here.
We are all tired.
They are not happy.
They told us to leave.
there was not enough food

day 300
They sent me out again.
For food.
More food.
She said that we need it.
I believe her.
I went out to gather food. :)

end of log.

descent to madness

Random stuff, really!

Holy Blog Of Doom, Batman! I just got slapped with a wet salmon - really - I have not updated this since they let me out!... You would not believe the amount of people that are totally stalking me. Apologies to my regular readers! Even the little blue ones!.

I am lost in a sea of pseudo-olde-english with work, a ticking crocodile, just generally being a nuisance to society in general, my day drifts aimlessly from dawn to whenever. I am convinced that I absolutely deserve this after all my hard work. maybe tomorrow.

I won't promise anything to you but that when the weather turns bad, I will blog more often. No, really! What do you mean you don't believe me?

http://www.aussiebloggers.com.au/blogpost.html

batman

I'm Batman!

regarding fear

Brave men fear all, and conquer all fear; for one cannot conquer that which he does not fear, and cannot fear that which he cannot conquer.
Pretty nifty. 2 at the price of 1. Weekday sale!

Inspired by the ponderings of a friend.

The Omega Man, movie review

Short version: It sucked!
In the long version I'm going to emphasize why it sucked, tough after watching it, you don't really feel like it. I'm just bored and I like post-apocalyptic movies, so I guess I had high hopes for it.
Here we go.
************** Spoilers!
The movie starts out quite promising, with our main character driving in a convertible in a supposedly abandoned town. Though this impression isn't very well shown, we do need to keep in mind that it's a 1971 movie.
But, that nice calm picture is suddenly f****d up when the actor gets up and fires his tiny SMG at a shadowy figure which quickly disappears.
Ok, so that's a minor thing you would say, but the whole movie, as you watch it, starts to bear resemblance with The Last Man on Earth. When the weird "family" members first appear, all vampiric in their ways, and also not very bright, the coin really drops down the shaft, with that oh-so familiar ca-ching sound.
The story is also told very badly, using flashbacks. Very badly done flashbacks. There was one scene, a helicopter scene, in which the damn thing was supposed to be crashing, and you can clearly see the reflection of immobile trees in the window. It was quite funny actually, as the actor was trying to be as dramatic as he could about it.
Then the movie goes about the characters' daily routines, as he would change clothes in abandoned shops, as he would swap cars like old newspapers, etc.. Now this part of the movie if quite nice, but it ends too quickly with a pew-pew scene in which 3 of the "family" vampiric guys get shot trying to kill our hero. Of course, they fail by a few wooden-bat swings, because they did not believe in technology. At one point they resume to a flaming-ball throwing catapult, and again fail and get scarred off by a few sniper rifle shots.
Then, in a true non-liniar fashion, a vampire dude tries to kill the character, interupting him just before he could kiss the woman of the movie, and thus having him rush down to deal with the problem, and leaving her with the tiny SMG. Of course, the vampire dude cheats and has a pistol, but misses after firing about 3 shots. The falling scene and pale red fake blood was pretty nice though.
Nothing really bad until this point. Sure, the movie is more like a remake after the above mentioned 1964 motion picture, sure, it has lots only cliche moments in it, and a few inexplicable situations regarding how and why did that virus spread worldwide, but it didn't affect a group of kids [they said it didn't affect younger people, and I doubt there were only under 20 kids in the whole city].

And now, about the ending. Also, by this point you should know that the hero dies in one way or another, because that's what happened in the old 1964 movie. And, surprise! He does die, after dodging dozens of angry vampiric guys and their oh-so middle-aged weapons. He dies after a "Heads up!" warning from the main bad guy, impaled by a thrown spear from about 3 stories high.
We again see the fake pale blood, and one of the worst dying scenes in Hollywood history. He manages to pull the spear just after getting hit. Amazingly it got only an inch or so in, but it stood in there like it pierced to the other side. "Ah well, he might be okay afterall." - you think, and he is. The bad vampiric-guys leave him there, as if they knew he would eventually die.
Then, the next morning (because all of the impaling took place just before dawn), the band of kids find him, and manage to get the oh-so famous final words from him before he bit the dust. They also got a chunky vial of serum. Now at this point I'm thinking that those kids will grow up and f**k like crazy to repopulate the Earth, but that's just me. Most of you were just impressed by how translucent the red serum was, and how translucent the red water was. [the hero died in a water fountain, waist deep in pale-red bloody water]
Then the movie ends.
Did I say that it sucked? Oh wait, I did. :)
Oh, and what's up with the big round thingy on top of the sniper rifle? [we're supposed to think it's for night vision, but c'mon, you could eat soup from that thing]

cursors

I've been postponing this for a while now. Finally today I got the time, and courage, to create and upload my first video to YouTube. Yay!

V-Day

Vader Day tomorrow!

up close

What people really need in a time of crisis.

Lego toys! :)

Mass Effect

I like good games, especially RPGs. Few caught my eye lately, and even fewer my attention.
Mass Effect caught both.

snow

On a comet, one can always make snowmen.