Interesting links for May 14th:

• Ausiello Scoop: Bill Lawrence on Scrubs’ Move to ABC – Interview with Scrub’s Bill Lawrence on their problems with NBC and the new movie to ABC.
• Studios’ viral marketing campaigns are vexing – I couldn’t disagree more with an article. The more times I read it the more irritated I get by it. Somehow this guy doesn’t understand the essence of these campaigns, especially when he compares it to “homework”. Then the line: “When “Cloverfield” played around with viral strategies, it was cool. Now that everyone else is copying — not so cool.” As if Cloverfield was the first one?? Sorry, but this article just rubs me the wrong way.
• Nintendogs: The case of the non-game that barked like a game – Review of Nintendogs from a game design perspective. I had kind of dismissed that game, thinking it was just a Tamagotchi on a DS. Reading this article has me intrigued to how the game actually works.
• Turn On, Tune In, Veg Out – An article by Neal Stephenson on Star Wars and geeking out versus vegging out. Interesting perspective.
• Logo Mash-up – Funny mash-ups of corporate logos. Love the Windows Vista + Volkswagen and Sony + I Heart New York.

Episode 60: “And I’m commando too, they shoot me from here up.”

These videos are almost from a year ago from the SciFi Digital Press Panel with the Battlestar Galactica cast, featuring Aaron Douglas, Michael Hogan, Jamie Bamber, Grace Park, Tahmoh Penikett and executive producer Harvey Frand. It was during the shooting of the episodes we’re watching now, but they’re mainly talking about their experiences with (famous) fans and the evolution of their characters (so no spoilers).

I still am surprised every time I hear Jamie Bamber’s accent, even though I first saw him as Archie in Hornblower. And Aaron Douglas is hilarious! He is so different to his character on the show. It’s a long video (about 46 minutes), but if you’re a fan, it’s worth watching.

I used to love my My Little Pony’s (seriously, what is the correct plural form of ‘My Little Pony’? Pony’s or Ponies?). I had one favorite: a pink pony with blue hair and the most fragile translucent butterfly wings. So fragile they broke within a month and left my pony with stupid little stumps on it’s back. Still even after that it remained my favorite (resulting in many daydreams about the princess pony that sacrificed her wings to save her kingdom).

By now most of you must have seen the My Little Master Chief, when it did the blogosphere rounds a couple of weeks ago. I wasn’t that impressed by it; I’m not a Halo fan and it was just a pony in a green space suit. Only now I’ve discovered though that the creator of that pony AnimeAmy has a whole range of custom My Little Pony’s (a lot of them from Final Fantasy, hence my interest). Here are some of my favorites:

If you want to see all of them, head on over to AnimeAmy’s gallery on deviantArt.

Interesting links for May 11th through May 13th:

• The Theology of Cylons – Interesting interview with Ron Moore, producer on Battlestar Galactica, about religious themes in the original series and the reimagined show.
• Neal Stephenson on Science Fiction | Mssv – Nice write-up of a talk Neal Stephenson recently gave called “The Fork: Science Fiction versus Mundane Culture”. Love the bit about vulcan ears and sci-fi celebrities. And I completely agree with his thoughts on geeks!
• Dave Devries: The Monster Engine – Crazy little pieces of art. Dave Devries takes drawing from monsters and superheroes made by children and bases his own designs on them.

Thanks to Michael, I have a guest blog post up on Apple Gazette. Head on over there to read: The Beginner’s Guide to Apple Spotting.

I’ve been tagged by Cristiano with this green meme. The idea? This:

… to write about the ways (I currently picked 5, but you could pick less or more) you think you purposely handle things “the green way”, and then write about the things you know you should handle better.

Okay, how green am I? First off, my good points (I’m cheating a bit and stealing some of Cristiano’s stuff):

1. I don’t have a car.

I still haven’t been bothered to get a drivers license. Why should I? In the Netherlands I had a student travel card (free public transport throughout the week, major discounts in the weekend) and here in London a car is only more trouble.

2. I try to avoid using a hairdryer.

Since my new haircut 3 months ago, I’ve used my hairdryer once. The reason I stopped isn’t actually because it’s greener, but that is a nice side effect. I’ve noticed it’s healthier for my hair if I let it dry naturally; it doesn’t get that static, dried out and greasy. Plus with the way it’s cut now, I can easily put my wet hair up without it looking too “wet-looky”.

3. I buy long-lasting milk.

Again the main reason is not because it’s greener. Normal milk tends to go bad quicker than we can finish a pack, especially the milk sold downstairs here. By the way, long lasting milk tastes just like normal milk nowadays.

4. I use candles and water bottles.

I’m not sure if this is actually “greener”, but during the early stages winter I try not to turn the central heating on that often, instead using candles and water bottles. Mainly the latter is quite useful, because typically I’m cold and shivering, but Cristiano isn’t. Using a water bottle keeps me nice and warm, while not unnecessarily turning up the heater.

5. I don’t overuse plastic grocery bags.

In the Netherlands you have to pay for every plastic grocery bag, so almost everybody brings their own bags or crates with them (I don’t see anybody here in the UK with folding crates in their car; is that something Dutch?). So even here in the UK, I still bring my own bags with me and try to fit as much in them as possible.

My bad points?

1. I leave chargers in the wall.

I’m really bad with this. I almost always leave my phone and laptop charger plugged in, even if those gadgets aren’t connected. I know I shouldn’t, but sometimes I’m plain lazy. Shouldn’t chargers though be more smartly designed to realize when there’s no gadget hanging on them? The technology should be far enough to do something like that, right?

2. I throw batteries away in the normal trash.

Like Cristiano, I have no idea here where I should throw my batteries away. Back in Holland every supermarket has a special separated chemical waste bin; you just bring your batteries in a small plstic bag and throw it there away. Here, though? No idea.

3. I take long showers.

I think this may be my major transgression: my showers are way too long. Even if I try to hurry up, I’m still in there for at least 10 minutes. Shampoo, conditioner, scrub, soap, (etc) it all takes up more time than I want (but I do need it, otherwise my hair becomes a bat nest, Amy Winehouse, anyone?).

4. I don’t use a bike.

While I don’t have a car, I do use public transport a lot. Not that much of a bad thing, but for some distances using a bike would be easier and greener. I’m thinking of bringing my old bike over from the Netherlands. It’s already 8 years old, but still looks better than most bikes here.

5. I don’t reuse the water from my water bottle.

Pretty obvious, but I still don’t do it. Every time I want to fill up my water bottle, I fill the kettle with water from the tap and turn it on. Then when that’s hot, I realize I have to empty the water bottle and “throw away” the water. I’m at least thinking about it, but I know I should change this.

So those are my good and bad green issues. I’m tagging Too Sexy For My Books, Geek Chic, Geek Girl Friday, Geeks Are Sexy and A Consuming Experience.

Episode 59: “But I can’t relax”

Just because I can, here’s a cute video of kittens playing with a tissue box:

It makes me want to have cats again, but I’ll have to wait till I have a larger apartment. Two cats preferably; one for me and for Cristiano (he’s already decided he wants to name his cat Stark).

Quarantine
There haven’t been that many good horror movies lately, but Quarantine might turn that tide. It’s an American remake of the Spanish movie [Rec] and stars Jennifer Carpenter (Debra Morgan on Dexter) and Jay Hernandez (Six Degrees, Hostel). The movie’s about a hazmat team investigating a quarantined apartment complex and find there a camera depicting why and what happened during the quarantine. [Trailer]

American Teen
I’ve heard a lot of good things about this little documentary; some even claiming it might be one of the best movies this year. It follows 5 high school seniors as they finish their last year: the Jock, the Geek, the Rebel, the Princess and the Heartthrob. The film shows these kids being more than just the stereotypes they’ve been labeled with. [Trailer]

Lakeview Terrace
I love Samuel L. Jackson, but I’m not sure even he can save this movie. In Lakeview Terrace he plays a cop harassing his new neighbors (Patrick Wilson and Kerry Washington). Although there might be some unexpected cool plot twist, the trailer seems pretty straightforward and pretty boring. [Trailer]

The Children of Huang Shi
Not my type of movie, but for an indie film it does got an impressive cast: Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Radha Mitchell, Chow Yun Fat, Michelle Yeoh. It’s about a British journalist and an American nurse, who rescue a group of orphans during the Japanese occupation of China in 1937. [Trailer]

The Wackness
I’m not sure what to think of this trailer; so far it didn’t really convince me to go see the movie. Set in the 1990s, its about Luke Shapiro (Josh Peck), a teenage pot dealer, trying to make the most of his summer. I’ve read good reviews though, so I’ll keep an open mind until I’ve actually seen it. [Trailer]

Space Chimps
This is the type of movie that gives animations a bad name. Thank God for Wall-E and even Kung Fu Panda for this summer! If you hadn’t gathered it from the title, Space Chimps is about a group of chimps going into space. The only fact about this movie that has got me a tad interested is that Andy Samberg (SNL) is doing one of the monkey voices. [Trailer]

Hamlet 2
How could there be a sequel to Hamlet if everybody dies at the end? Why, by using a time machine of course! This movie is actually about an actor-turned-high-school-drama-teacher (Steve Coogan) who together with his students tries to stage a politically incorrect musical sequel to Hamlet. [Trailer]

The Pixar Story
Don’t you just love Pixar’s movies? This documentary is a behind the scenes look of the company and it’s employees and associates. I don’t exactly know what the deal is though with the release date; it came out in America back in August 2007 and has even been there on TV. So far though I haven’t found anything about an international release. Till we do, this trailer will have to be enough. [Trailer]

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
Still four more days till this movie hits the cinema. I liked the first movie, mainly because I had read the book and watched the very crappy TV series as a kid (compared to that everything looks good). I think Prince Caspian will continue in the same vein: a good entertaining kids movie, but nothing more. [Trailer]

College
It’s not the worst trailer around, but I don’t think this movie will be that much of a hit. But then what do you expect from a movie about three high school kids visiting a university and pretending to be freshman, just to get girls and get drunk? [Trailer]

Hancock
The previous trailer of this “Will Smith as a superhero/tramp” movie looked so horrible, I lost all faith in it. Now a bit of that faith is coming back, after having seen this extended trailer. Beware though: I think it gives too much of the plot away. [Trailer]

The Spirit
I love the look and feel of this trailer. I’m only scared people are going to think it’s a Sin City rip-off, which it isn’t. It is from the same comic book artist Frank Miller, so of course they’re going to look similar. In this case though, Miller is also actually directing the entire movie. [Trailer]

Young People Fucking
Again a movie that has had a lot of buzz and good reviews at festivals. It’s a comedy that intertwines the stories of 5 couples over the course of one sexual encounter. [Trailer]

You Don’t Mess With The Zohan
I actually enjoy Adam Sandler‘s movies most of the time. True, they’re not the funniest films, but it’s not the worst out there. Here Sandler plays an Israeli agent who wants to give up his super spy life to become a hairdresser. [Trailer]

The Babysitters
The first thing that crossed my mind when hearing the title of the movie was: “Oh no not another Babysitters Club movie”. I couldn’t be more mistaken; these babysitters are from a very different caliber. After fooling around with one of her customers, a 16 year old teenager realizes she can make money by turning her babysitting service into a call-girl service for married man. [Trailer]

Episode 58: “If you like explosions. Or guns. Or cops. Or swans”

Hot Fuzz is only now being released in cinemas in Japan, after fans demanded and petitioned for an actual theatrical release. This video clip comes from Simon Pegg’s and Edgar Wright’s blog and shows them recording a promotional clip for the Japanese Hot Fuzz release. Both blogs are worth checking out; there are some great, funny stories on them.

Interesting links for May 4th through May 8th:

• Wired’s Geekster Handbook, a Field Guide to the Nerd Underground – Cubicgarden sums up my thoughts on this exactly: “But what I wonder is where is the Dj geek? Designer geek? Movie geek? Mobile phone geek? (which I would argue, isn’t the same as gadget guy). Anyway, its all stereotypes and not real. We’re all a combination and we all wear better clothes and don’t look like we just left college.
• UnderGear: No Boxers, No Briefs – Remember the padded underwear from the International Male catalogue? Well, here’s more from their latest magazine UnderGear (borderline NSFW).
• Portfolio – Jennifer Maestre – These “pencil-sculptures” from Maestre; they are just gorgeous. They don’t always represent an actual animal/object and I love that they’re open for your own interpretation.