Interesting links for January 5th through January 6th:

• Big TREK update! Footage seen! Script read! Tidbits galore! — – Rumours about the plot of JJ Abrams’ Star Trek.
• High Heels and the Body – How wearing high heels can damage your body.
• Jack Black Spills Year One Details – First details about Judd Apatow’s religious comedy “Year One”. Sounds like dangerous material to pull off, but I think Apatow (Knocked Up, Superbad) has the skills to handle it well.
• Michel Gondry’s Next Film – Return of the Ice Kings « FirstShowing.net – I loved Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Be Kind Rewind seems pretty awesome too. Quite interested to see where Michel Gondry goes next. If it is this idea “about kids who invent a water that makes you hear music when you drink it.” Wow.
• Kitty Wigs! – Pink is the color of fantasy. Our model, Chicken, looks like her mind is elsewhere when she wears this wig — somewhere in a land of cotton candy and pinwheels where the air smells like sugar kisses. The world we live in is a very weird place indeed: “Pi

Episode 5: “Light up the sky like a flame” 

2 years ago during the 2005 Emmy Awards Kirsten Bell aka Veronica Mars or Elle (Heroes) performed the title song from Fame. She’s actually not that bad. There were rumours of her taking over the role of Elle Woods in the musical version of Legally Blonde on Broadway and now I can see that she would have been perfect for that. I’m glad though that she didn’t take up the offer, otherwise we wouldn’t be seeing her in Heroes. Although, how much bad dialogue can those writers cook up for her?

Interesting links for January 4th:

• 55 Must See Movies of 2008 | /Film – Another preview list of the films coming out in 2008, ordered on release date. Mentions two films I hadn’t heard of before: Nick and Norah?s Infinite Playlist, and Synecdoche, New York.
• Phil Wheeler – Online Gallery – Pretty pictures. Mind Hacks: “They’re psychological in both senses of the word, as some contain images associated with psychology, but also often contain hidden images, visual illusions and distortions.”
• 60 Dumbest Celebrity Quotes – How dumb can some people be? “I get to go to lots of overseas places, like Canada.” – Britney Spears, “I think gay marriage is something that should be between a man and a woman” – Arnold Schwarzenegger,
• Top 87 Bad Predictions about the Future – Great collection of quotes from famous people about wrong predictions. Being a movie fan, I especially love this one: “Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?” H. M. Warner, co-founder of Warner Brothers, 1927.
• School in a cave – Photo shoot of children attending class at the Dongzhong (literally meaning “in cave”) primary school at a Miao village in China. The school is built in a huge, aircraft hangar-sized natural cave, carved out of a mountain over thousands of years by wind,
• Top 60 Japanese buzzwords of 2007 –
• Why 2008 Will Be An Awesome Year For Movies « FirstShowing.net – List of the most interesting movies coming out next year. Besides the obvious ones (The Dark Knight, Indy IV, Star Trek), there are a couple more obscure ones (Blindness, The Box, Repo! The Genetic Opera!, Zack and Miri Make A Porno).
• How to Draw a Face: A Mystery – Story about a guy whose father drew a comic “face” (at least it was a face in his fathers eyes) on his birthday cake every year and who wanted to finally know where the face came from.

Episode 4: “Right or Left Brain?”

Now I know this video isn’t really an optical illusion, but I can’t figure out what to call it then. Something like divergent perception, or so? I’m also not completely buying the whole right side/left side of the brain story (not in this case at least). I’ve seen this video a couple of times and after a while it switches directions. With most of these types of visual tricks, you can figure it out and force your brain to perceive it in another (I love jumping back and forth between the two perceptions of this image). This one though still continues to elude me.

Episode 3: “Meow” 

If you have a cat, I think this will be quite recognizable (except for the end part of course). There have been so many time that my cat has waken me up in a similar manner.

Interesting links for January 3rd:

• Jazz Up Your WordPress Admin – A list of themes for your WordPress Admin. Sadly there aren’t that many out there and the default theme is ugly. I’m using the Tiger style now, but have the feeling there should be even better ones out there.
• Benoit Mandelbrot Fractal Art Contest 2007 – Beautiful fractal images. I wish I could have posters of some of these. I especially like Stardust, Air, Dreamtime Persistence and Mono Mania. What are your favorites?
• Law & Order: London in Development – ComingSoon.net – I never got into watching Law & Order, but some people might like the idea that ITV is negotiating a 13-episode order with NBC.

Interesting links for January 2nd:

• Raiders of the Lost Backyard: Entertainment & Culture: vanityfair.com – Wow, great story of three boys in 1982 who made a scene-by-scene adaptation of Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark
• The Strangetastic Photo Galleries: The Winchester Mystery House – A collection of photos of a creepy mansion (with 160 rooms).
• Keys to the Kingdom: Making Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of The Crystal Skull – A great insight into the minds behind Indy IV, Steven Spielberg and George Lucas. Plus photos from the set by Annie Leibovitz.

Episode 2: “Roman Epic Movie”

I never realised how often Trajan is actually used, but after watching this video I keep seeing it everywhere.

Episode 1: “Silence! I kill you!”

To introduce this new daily recurring post, I thought I’d start with an old favorite: Achmed The Dead Terrorist. This made quite a splash at BarcampLondon3 a couple of weeks ago, with a lot people just yelling “I keel you!” at each other. Of course, all the people that hadn’t seen it were left completely bewildered.

I wasn’t planning to write down all my New Years resolutions in a post; why should I bother other people with what I’m trying to do better this year? The answer (of course): commitment. By having it in black on white on this blog where people can hold me accountable for my actions, I’m committing myself strongly to actually upholding my resolutions. Let’s see how that works, hey? I’ll first get all the boring, normal, unoriginal stuff out of the way.

1. Work out more, be healthier. It’s not that I want to loose weight, feel too fat or anything like that, but I feel as if I’m not at my healthiest at the moment. I think I’ve been more times sick last year than ever before and don’t want to have that same feeling this year. So more healthy food and cut back on the ice cream and chocolate.
2. Work more organized and more regularly. I’m going to try and get up everyday at the same time and to actually try and keep a detailed plan.
3. Stress less. I tend to over-think things way too much and always come up with all possible worst-case scenarios. Okay, not too bad, but then I start worrying and believing in those worst-case scenarios. I hate it that I can completely get stressed out by the simplest thing. So, I’m going to take a step back and think things calmly and logically through.

Okay, now some blog related resolutions I want to keep.

1. A Video A Day: This might be a tad ambitious, but I want to see if I can post and write about one video every day. It might be movie or Tv or geek related, but could also be just funny stuff I’ve stumbled upon. I’ll post 2 today, cause I already missed yesterday.
2. Rewind: I started this a time back as a recurring topic about old obscure Tv shows. I’ve got a list of more than 40 shows I can write about, so it’s about time I actually start doing it. I’m going to try to post at least once a week.
3. Trailerrific: A weekly recurring post about all the movie trailers that have come out that week.
4. Pageturner: A recurring (maybe eventually weekly, but not yet) post about interesting books I’ve read. Mostly fantasy with a touch of romance.

Finally, there are a couple of other stuff I want to do:

1. Start organizing events. I’ve said it before, but never have written it here yet. I want to get more involved in helping with the organization of events, like Geek Dinners and maybe even eventually a BarCamp (let’s start out small first, right?). For starters, I’m hoping I have time to organize a London Werewolf night this month and will let you all know how that works out.
2. Finish my degree and get a job. Sounds easier than it is :D.
3. Get a “real” camera and learn more about photography. I sold my camera to my father last week, mainly because he dropped his and needed a new one. Plus I was only getting frustrated with it anyway. This year I want to get a digital SLR and really learn how to shoot great photos.

So, that’s about it, I guess. Most probably within the next hour I’ll come up with all other stuff that I’m completely forgetting now, but these will just have to do.